Jamie Driscoll banned from standing for re-election as Mayor. The Labour Party has refused to allow the highly popular Jamie Driscoll mayor for North of Tyne to be on the longlist for the new north-east region mayoralty. No reason was given as Labour’s bureaucracy continues to axe candidates with a smidgeon of socialism. It transpired … Continue reading Jamie Driscoll banned
The Labour Party is the official opposition to the government. What exactly does this mean? How should socialists regard the Labour Party? Finding a satisfactory answer to these questions is not easy. To answer them we need to look at the kind of system (representative party-political democracy) that the party system is embedded in. The … Continue reading Party Politics and the Labour Party – Editorial
Eamon Dyas I remember when I worked at the British Library at Colindale discovering how most English towns, and even quite small towns, usually had two newspapers covering national and local events from either the Tory or Liberal perspective. The heyday of this was in the 1880s. It went into decline when Gladstone’s Irish policy … Continue reading The Press and the Labour Party
From the Workers Party of Britain, with permission by Phil Bevin Celebrating failure Despite whatever Keir Starmer says, the local election results were a crushing disappointment for Labour, grinding any hopes of their forming a majority after the next election into dust. As I have argued previously, Labour’s own working-out suggests that they need a … Continue reading Analysis: local elections 2023
On 4th May local elections take place in England. These local elections should give some feel for how Labour under the leadership of Keir Starmer is perceived in the country. Of particular interest is the fact that several of these elections are taking place in areas in which many Labour voters abstained in 2019. They abstained because … Continue reading Starmer’s Strategy—Editorial
By Catherine Dunlop Abbott in her letter was responding to an article in the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/15/racism-in-britain-is-not-a-black-and-white-issue-it-is-far-more-complicated), by Tomiwa Owolade, a contributing writer at the New Statesman. This article commented on a report just published about racism in Britain, Evidence for Equality National Survey (EVENS). That report says that more whites than blacks say they have experienced racism. … Continue reading Diane Abbott’s Letter to the Observer
Starmer Changes Labour’s Constituency The National Executive Committee (NEC) passed a motion on28th March which barred Jeremy Corbyn, the previous leader of the Labour Party, from standing as a candidate in the constituency in which he had been MP for the last 40 years. It’s a remarkable motion because it is fundamentally false. Clause 5 of … Continue reading Starmer Changes Labour’s Electoral Base
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 The action by the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee, acting on Starmer’s instructions, to deny Jeremy Corbyn the right to represent Labour at the next general election stands in marked contrast to the way in which he has welcomed back into the fold the likes of Mike Gapes. In February 2019 Gapes resigned … Continue reading Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
Starmer’s NEC Motion For completeness we give below the full text of Starmer’s NEC motion to block Corbyn being a Labour Party candidate and how the NEC voted on the motion: This meeting of the NEC notes: the Labour Party’s purpose is to organise and maintain in parliament and in the country a political Labour … Continue reading NEC Motion re Corbyn
By Gwydion M. Williams The following article appeared in February 2020 Labour Affairs, and remains relevant. But some digressions and out-of-date comments have been removed. Corbyn is being blamed for “the worst result since 1935”. 1935 wasn’t that bad, if you think about political outcomes. If you don’t see Labour existing just to give nice jobs to ambitious … Continue reading Labour Voters – the Lost and the Found
Starmer’s Labour Party Keir Starmer was first elected as an MP in 2015. He rose to prominence when he led the opposition to various attempts to implement Brexit while the party was under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. In 2019 he convinced the Labour Party conference to support a 2nd referendum over Brexit. There are strong reasons to believe … Continue reading Starmer’s Labour Party — Editorial 2
Corbyn not allowed to stand as Labour MP; Jewish Voice for Labour no longer allowed to affiliate to the Labour Party. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/uproar-as-starmer-bans-corbyn-from-standing-as-labour-candidate [Since this article was written in the Morning Star, 15/2/23, JVL and other organisations have been removed from the list of organisations allowed to affiliate to the Labour Party]. “LABOUR “does not belong … Continue reading Corbyn banned
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
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
Labour Affairs 