Anti anti-growth and the fallacy of economics
As our current economic model continues to drive us relentlessly towards the precipice of cataclysmic environmental destruction. While simultaneously forcing us to contemplate a 'lost decade' of stagnate high unemployment,…
Machiavelli: power, transition and institutional change
In 1513 Machiavelli provided a seminal analysis of the flow of power in Europe. The ideas defined in "The Prince" have inspired political thinkers ever since. At the time his…
Would a new Scottish Tory party succeed? Not under Murdo Fraser
Murdo Fraser, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has made headlines by proposing that his party split from the Tories in England. Like Bavaria's CSU, they would support the Tory…
The alienated ‘Multitude’: ‘the Class’ of the 21st century
Throughout the 20th century development amongst workers of 'class consciousness', the subjective awareness of ones objective class interests, was seen as central to the hopes of achieving a transition away…
Labour, loveable institutions, elections and the real big picture: a scattershot attempt to start a painful discussion
02:59 in a bedroom in Belfast is the wrong time and place to get deeply restless and fired up for a new, robust, proud and striving social democracy. And, as…
Murdoch and the European collapse: the chance for the left?
Is the Italian economy about to collapse? Is the Eurozone going to fall apart? I don't know. But it is certainly creaking wildly. If it does, it will surely make…
Class still counts
The past year has witnessed an unprecedented level of class struggle, never before have the various mechanisms for mobilising class interests been so perfectly enacted. Sadly, I am not referring…
Murdoch, New Labour, Credit Crunch, Expenses: collapses of concentrated power
Four years, and four great institutions of British capitalist hegemony have been shaken by crisis. In 2008, the banks collapsed. In 2009, it was expenses and 'trust in MPs'. In…
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…
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…