Will increased media scrutiny make politicians less like machines, or more?
A few years ago, I remember watching a documentary about the rise of Tony Blair. One journalist who had been a lobby correspondent when he first became an MP said…
Architecture of the left: our generation must build to win
I was asked to speak in the youth plenary at Compass conference this weekend. This is roughly what I said. From the Russian border to the French Atlantic, the historic…
Is there a political solution to halt genocide in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan?
Guest post by Tim Flatman, who has recently returned from South Sudan. Is genocide always an irrational action carried out by a despot who has lost his grasp on reality, or…
Happy Armed Forces Day
UK fatalities Iraq: 179 UK fatalities Afghanistan: 374 US fatalities Iraq: 4463 US fatalities Afghanistan: 1663 Iraqi fatalities: 100,000+ (perhaps as high as a million) Afghan fatalities: 10,000+ (No…
A tribute to Brian Haw 1949-2011
Brian Haw, who has died aged 62, had the distinction of being one of the few people with a law dedicated to stopping his activities. His protest in Parliament Square…
A dog’s dinner?
In publishing his proposals for Lords Reform, our Deputy PM invited constructive criticism of the proposals. He didn’t get it. Rather, he got a chorus of abuse from both the…
Aid commitments – NGOs biggest success, and their biggest failure.
Twice in recent weeks, question time audiences have asked why the government is ring fencing aid budgets whilst cutting the NHS. This at once shows the monumental effectiveness of development…
A 5 Year Plan for the Left in the NUS
In April 2016, the NUS elects a progressive left-wing President and two or three VPs. This is no surprise: there have been a couple of lefty officers for a few…
Tory triangulation: their great weakness?
Labour was always accused of spinning. In a sense, this seems to ultimately have contributed much to their downfall - but not in the ways we would expect. The usual…
Tartan Trechery: Radio Caledonia and Scotland’s Lord Haw Haw
by Gavin Bowd. This article first appeared in issue 26 of Democratic Left Scotland's magazine, Perspectives. The radical right has been a noisy and sometimes menacing part of the British…