Within 72 hours of the Tories forming a majority in Parliament it became crystal clear they were salivating at the opportunity to further impose their political austerity agenda for another five…Read more…
Down a dark path
Politics is a battle of ideas and if the voters don’t agree with yours they can let you know in no uncertain terms. We should all be thankful for that, even if as a Labour MP that message hurts right…Read more…
Scotland: Setting the record straight
In a few weeks’ time, Jim Murphy will submit his ideas on how to revive Labour’s fortunes in Scotland. He will then leave the office of leader of the party in Scotland and a debate on his…Read more…
Labour needs trade union allies
Over my long life I have been many things: As a lad I was a child labourer who lived in cheap doss houses with my parents who had been made destitute by the Great Depression. As a young man, I…Read more…
EU: why Labour has to say yes
With a majority Conservative government that is slim and therefore vulnerable, and a government programme that a Guardian editorial this week described as ‘rag bag’, members in both Houses will be…Read more…
Fighting the battle of ideas
Richard Angell recalls the moves a couple of years ago to have Progress, the organisation he directs, excluded from the Labour Party. Ungenerously, he omits to record that Len McCluskey spoke…Read more…
Unite will not choose next Labour leader
Labour’s election loss was not one defeat but several. Votes that should have been Labour’s went to the Tories , UKIP , the SNP and the Greens. Not to mention the millions of natural Labour…Read more…
Blame game does not help Labour
Surveying the general election’s political rubble the airwaves are already thick with Labour grandees sharing out the blame. Blame Ed’s lack of appeal on the doorstep, blame the unions who put…Read more…
Labour can’t survive without the unions
Back to the future seems to be the pre-cooked consensus response to Labour’s dramatic defeat last week. To hear many party grandees tell it, all we have to do is party like it’s 1997 again. I…Read more…
Incalculable human cost
On Workers Memorial Day we remember the dead and fight for the living. With only days to go for the most important general election in a generation today’s (April 28) Workers Memorial Day has…Read more…
The fight of our lives
As Unite announces a further £1m donation to the Labour Party, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey explains why this is the right thing to do. Unite said that it would not stand by and see a one-side election fight against a Tory party made fat on the gifts from the shady and the […]
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Kitchen sink soap opera
How many column inches, hours of air time and rage in one hundred and forty five characters have we had this last week over a kitchenette? Too many to mention, and I know I’m adding to it all. I do so because the kitchenette saga is symptomatic of what passes for political discussion. Tune […]
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We will fight for workers
Unite’s rule book sounds just the sort of dusty tome to give employment lawyers headaches. Last week our governing body, Unite’s executive, unanimously agreed to make it shorter. It recommended the deletion from our rules of six little words that have governed our union’s actions: “so far as may be lawful”. So far, so […]
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No one deserves sanctions
Unite activist and former Teeside charity boss, Jessie Jacobs speaks out against benefits sanctions Today at 12.30pm I was stood outside Middlesbrough job centre, speaking to a crowd of people about the benefit sanctions regime. I have been taking part in Unite’s national day of action #no2sanctions. Up until recently I was leading […]
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Pushed to the wire
Unite’s public sector workers in Northern Ireland have had enough, writes Unite Ireland region secretary, Jimmy Kelly Unite is joining forces with other unions to take mass strike action today (March 13) in defence of Northern Irish public services. Workers across the health, education, public transport, housing and wider public sector will be taking part in […]
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Songs of power
I left home aged 18 to go to polytechnic in London and never moved back to live at home with my parents yet every general election time my mum would always call me and remind me to vote and rightly castigate me if I ever tried to say it’s not worth it. I grew […]
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End this courting of the powerful
David Cameron won the leadership of his party telling activists to “let sunshine win the day”. Into the 2010 General Election he went, promising to clean up a political system discredited by MPs’ expenses. Here was the man to bring about transparency in the lobbying industry and even end “crony capitalism”, to heal Britain’s sickly politics. […]
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The ‘un-statued’ women
Female figures from history are virtually invisible. Think of the statues in London alone — where are the women? Not in Trafalgar Square, nor in Parliament Square. In fact, of the 640 listed statues in Britain, only 15 per cent are of women. In London it’s a measly 7 per cent. One such “un-statued” […]
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