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There’s a funny little Panglossian piece by Tory peer and former minister Michael Bates on ConservativeHome. As an indication of the thinking going on among ministers at present, however, it’s deeply worrying, the ex-Paymaster General…
The first instalment of Lord Leveson’s inquiry report into the Culture, Practice and Ethics of the Press is due in the autumn. It’s vital that Labour are ready to argue for a truly free press. We should be well aware that the political…
The charge sheet against Messrs Cameron and Osborne as the architects of the coalition’s economic strategy is growing, and it may not be long before they, like their buddies Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, find themselves in the dock. Not…
‘We need to be clear how equality, and what kind of equality (including of what), services our notion of the good society.’ To give David Miliband some credit, he is asking the right question. It’s not clear from his New Statesman sally…
I’ve read with interest the recent LabourList posts by Owen Jones and Emma Burnell. I think on the politics Emma is right, but on the economics Owen is right to call for a fresh plan of action. Politics these days is a performance, and it’s…
That there is ‘no money left’ is presented to us as an economic fact of life. The Conservatives have embraced it and the Liberal Democrats accepted it. Led by the authors of ‘In the black Labour’ we are at risk of falling in with the…
By Diarmid Weir In his thoughtful analysis on LabourList of our current economic predicament, Anthony Painter quoted Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman's view of the eclipse of Keynesian economics. I think Anthony is slightly off…
By Diarmid Weir Immigration, by being freighted with so many unsaid and often unconsidered subtexts, is a toxic subject. As both Marc Stears and Anthony Painter have suggested on LabourList recently, it certainly seems to have poisoned the…
By Diarmid Weir The lesson of the New Labour years that ended in the biggest global economic crisis since the 1930s is a simple one. 'Shareholder value' capitalism is a beast that cannot be made to serve social democratic purposes. By…
By Diarmid Weir The TUC conference starts today, and union leaders are declaring war on the coalition's deficit-reduction strategy. Although some union leaders are talking about 'civil disobedience' campaigns and co-ordinated strikes, TUC…
By Diarmid Weir There can be only one rational reason to vote against AV in next May's referendum, and that is to undermine democratic government in Britain. This explains why ludicrous right-wingers such as Matthew Elliot and Lord Leach…
By Diarmid Weir The formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has now made Labour the last standard-bearer for practical left politics in Britain. If we can get clear in our collective head what distinctively left wing…
