The Labour Party wholeheartedly supports the war on Russia in Ukraine and sanctions against the import of cheap energy from Russia. UK support for sanctions is the main driver of domestic inflation in Britain as energy is an input into all products and services. Labour is not committed to any significant revenue raising measures by … Continue reading What You Should Know about Labour’s Economic Policy.
Eamon Dyas The New Imperialism is adding the exploitation of Third World Human Resources to the traditional exploitation of Material Resources. The Labour Minister says that Germany is looking to African countries to fill its skills shortage. Just like the 19th century rush to Africa, Germany has been late to this particular imperialism. Modern imperial exploitation … Continue reading Germany to further liberalize immigration
Jack Jones explains his role in the Labour movement in the 1970s, and how the battle to bring in Industrial Democracy was fought and lost, making something like Thatcherism almost inevitable. An interview with Jack Jones, conducted by Labour and Trade Union Review magazine L&TUR We’d like to begin with the experience of the seventies. As … Continue reading Jack Jones speaks
By Gwydion M. Williams Smith as Enemy of the New USA Wedderburn, Smith’s Overlooked Friend Pins and Watches Post-Leninism Smith’s False Hopes A Nation Not Ruled by Shopkeepers Back in the year 2000, I wrote a book called Adam Smith: Wealth Without Nations. Athol Books published it, and we launched it at the Labour Party conference and … Continue reading Adam Smith the Mythmaker
British politics is in a strange state. Since winning the 2019 general election with a substantial overall majority of some 80 seats, the Conservative Party has been tearing itself apart. It has already disposed of two Prime Ministers, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. It is now being managed by the richest Prime Minister in history, Rishi Sunak. His main … Continue reading Budgets and Wars—Editorial 2
Eamon Dyas [Eamon Dyas comments on Lucinda Creighton’s article “Ireland is asleep at the wheel as the EU single market is being undone.” (Business Post, 17/12/22)] Lucinda Creighton refuses to acknowledge the biggest elephant in the room here - EU’s sanctions on Russia. The Green Agenda may have been the slow-burner on this and is … Continue reading The end of the EU ban on State subsidy
Children’s school meals Debate in the House of Lords 27/03/23 https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2023-03-27/debates/EAB74562-AB3E-4799-95CE-49E7A40FAD65/Children’s SchoolMeals Question Asked by Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review and revise the children’s school meal regulations to reduce the levels of processed sugar and to provide incentives to encourage the use of alternatives such as stevia. … Continue reading School Meals in the Lords
Public Sector Wage Increases and Inflation British society as a whole is poorer because of the war it is waging against Russia. The sanctions that it has imposed on Russia have resulted in dramatically higher energy prices. Britain must give up a much larger share of its income to consume the same amount of energy. How is … Continue reading Public Sector Wage Increases and Inflation—Editorial
Sale of the Supermarket Morrisons By Feargus ORaghallaigh Feargus was a regular contributor to this magazine who died recently and we are publishing the article by him which, although published elsewhere, has not been published before in Labour Affairs. We are doing this as a reminder of his deep knowledge and analytical powers which this journal … Continue reading In remembrance of Feargus ORaghallaigh
Speech to Trade Union Rally, Guildhall, 21st February 2023, Derry, Northern Ireland Mark Langhammer The rally was organised by the NI Teachers Council made up of unions as follows: NASUWT, INTO, UTU and NEU (my union). One NITC affiliate, the NAHT (the Principals union) was not on strike. The meeting was hosted by the Derry Trades … Continue reading Speech to Derry Meeting
BLUE LABOUR - STRONG ON THEORY, WEAK IN PRACTICE REVIEW: Maurice Glasman: Blue Labour - the Politics of the Common Good, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2022. Peter Brooke HOPEFUL BEGINNINGS Back in 2011 it looked as if Maurice Glasman could become highly influential in the Labour Party. Ed Miliband had become leader in 2010 and, casting around … Continue reading Blue Labour
Early in his Autumn Statement to Parliament on 17th November, the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced two new fiscal rules: “…I also confirm two new fiscal rules. The first is that underlying debt must fall as a percentage of GDP by the fifth year of a rolling five-year period. The second is that public sector borrowing over … Continue reading Fiscal Rules – A Scam To Justify Austerity — Editorial
The story we are being told about UK government finances by virtually every main stream media (MSM) commentator goes something like this. The government wants to spend more than it is raising in taxes. This means that it will have to borrow from the private sector. The private sector may choose not to lend to the government. In … Continue reading The Non-Existent UK Fiscal Black Hole— Editorial 2
Eamon Dyas The issue preventing the employment of new train drivers isn't the absence of rest-day rosters (as implied in a BBC report*) but the insistence by the rail operators (and the government) that the existing rest-day rosters be thrown out and the unions accept new ones that are detrimental to the interests of the existing … Continue reading The Northern Powerhouse
A New Beginning? Dave Gardner This journal has for some time bemoaned the Labour Party’s lack of interest in a matter of the first concern to working people, vocational education and training (VET). In Robert Halfon MP on the other hand, the Tories have a Minister of State responsible for VET who is exceptionally knowledgeable … Continue reading Labour’s Vocational Education Policy
Discussion of the Budget in Parliament https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-11-17/debates/97DB3122-0068-46CD-B026-F757C8DF39AF/details#contribution-7F63EF1C-81E2-485B-8F3E-D9C47C284CB5 The main issue arising from the budget is the one outlined in the editorial: the anti-working class new fiscal rules that limit public spending and favour the private sector. Only one MP refers to this (see below) and he’s not Labour. The other worrying factor is Hunt’s professed admiration for … Continue reading The Budget Debate
Mick Lynch in His Own Words Politics Joe interview with Mick Lynch Politics Joe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPSez6Yz6iw Sunday 27 November 2022 Q. Why do you think the tabloids have taken the government side rather than your side? ML: The Tabloids are on the side of the ruling class, (people don’t like this terminology), Murdoch and all the … Continue reading Mick Lynch in his Own Words
UK Low Wages The first chart shows the unique position of the UK in the rich world in having a growing GDP together with falling wages, see fourth quadrant: On the right of the vertical line: growth 2007-2015, below the main horizontal line: wages 2007-2015 . the UK is alone is that quadrant. From the … Continue reading Wage Growth in the UK
