A law against Boycotting Israel (The map shows the Golan Heights, taken from Syria in 1967). Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories are to be made illegal by a new bill going through Parliament, led by Michael Gove. According to the proposed law, public bodies are forbidden to disapprove … Continue reading Anti BDS Bill
Great news for the RMT and other campaigners: Plans to close rail ticket offices in England scrapped The BBC article belowsquotes the Labour Shadow Transport Secretary saying Labour will nationalise the railways and have a unified system, but the programme does not specify how they will do that. The piece also keeps silent the RMT … Continue reading Ticket Offices—A Victory
Putin’s speech at the Valdai discussion club—Extracts Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, made a significant speech at the Valdai Discussion Club. We reprint extracts of particular interest to our readers, although the whole, including the question and answer session is of great interest.[1] In these extracts it is possible to see Putin’s no-nonsense approach … Continue reading Putin Speech at Valdai
How dissent is managed in a ‘liberal democracy’. Much is made by politicians and political theorists of the need for ‘active citizens’ in a liberal democracy. The education system is supposed to prepare citizens to scrutinise claims, analyse arguments and check sources of information. We can all then ‘hold to account’ those who aspire to … Continue reading Passive Democracy—Editorial
In the context of a debate on the situation in the NHS, we publish an article by Phil Bevin to open the discussion. Why the NHS is dead: our health service was Killed by Labour and the Tories and it’s too late to save it By Phil Bevin The NHS is dead and this is something … Continue reading Debate : the NHS
Phil Bevin begins his article as follows: "The NHS, once a single organisation that provided comprehensive healthcare free to all, at the point of need, is dead, and the Labour Party is an accomplice to its murder." The Kings Fund says that in England "there were an estimated 570 million patient contacts with GP, community, mental health, … Continue reading The NHS is not dead
Brendan Clifford (The image above shows Ernest Bevin to the right of Churchill, 8th May 1945) The NHS was established as a Communist service for a capitalist economy, made possible by the proceeds of Empire. It was a realisation of the safety net envisaged by the manufacturing capitalist, Joseph Chamberlain, in the 1880s. Chamberlain was convinced that … Continue reading The NHS—socialist order and capitalist freedom
Labour Affairs (The image above shows an ad for the privatisation of British Gas in 1986) We can look at the question of the NHS through historical trends. Since Thatcher, trends have taken three directions. One towards a small state and a greater part played by the private sector. The second is the principle that … Continue reading Historical trends and the NHS
(The image above comes from the International Development Committee) Michael Murray Introduction The UN requires that countriesallocate 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the purposes of the economic development and welfareof developing countries. TheInternational Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act 2015 lays down how the UK will meet this requirement … Continue reading Tory and Labour U-turns on Aid to Developing Countries
The funding of social housing provision (cont.): Neville Chamberlain and John Wheatley (The image above shows John Wheatley) By Eamon Dyas In parts 11 and 12 we examined the issue of the funding of social housing provision from 1851 to Chamberlain’s Housing Act of 1923 just before the advent of the first Labour Government. The … Continue reading LABOUR AND HOUSING – Part 13
By Gwydion M. Williams Global Liberalism – its Second Massive Failure Broad Liberalism Isn’t Working Democracy – the Sinatra Principle China and its Pen-Foes Unhappy Britons Snippets India Very Foreign Nuclear the Least Dangerous? Ukraine – A Collapsing Crusade Global Liberalism – its Second Massive Failure The true history of the 20th century is how Europe’s … Continue reading Notes on the News
The attack on Russell Brand We have collected some quotes from Russell Brand where for the past year of so he has been telling the truth about the Ukraine war, on video, to an audience of millions, either directly or by interviewing journalists like Aron Maté. He had to be stopped somehow. It was out of the … Continue reading Branded
Saudis putting aside Arab Peace Initiative amid Israel normalization talks – officials (Jacob Magid, Times of Israel, 28 September 2023) Saudi-Israel normalisation: The grand illusion (David Heart, Middle East Eye, 28 September 2023) Canada hails Nazi SS veteran from Ukraine as “hero” (Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, 24 September 2023) ‘I told Arafat: Israel will promise … Continue reading Palestine Links
Statement by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez on behalf of the G77 at the Summit on the Sustainable Development Goals (New York, 18 September 2023) Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez calls in particular for an end to sanctions and a change to the way debt is managed: “Today, 25 nations of the … Continue reading Cuba at the G77
Central Bank Independence Readers will be familiar with the term ‘independence of the central bank’. Of late, it has been much referred to in the media. The tone is always that this independence is a good thing. And Labour proudly remind us that the Bank of England (BoE) was made independent by Gordon Brown in 1998 when he … Continue reading The Independence of the Bank of England—Editorial
Dave Gardner In the July/August editorial of Labour Affairs, we drew attention to the British trade unions at their most influential period between the Second World War and the late 1970s. It is worth asking ‘What is a trade union?’ before going on to the question of the role that they may or may not play … Continue reading Party Politics, Trade Unions and the Scope of Collective Action.
Michael Murray Contents: (1) Not just another BRIC in the Wall (2) Why the interest in BRICS by developing countries? (3) The founding document of BRICS: 2009 (4) The New Development Bank of BRICS - High S&P Ratings (5) The Chinks in the BRICS Not just another BRIC in the Wall This week, at its … Continue reading BRICS 15th Summit Conference 22-24 August 2023
An imaginary interview between the BBC and a progressive Labour Party by Michal Lerner BBC: Labour says that it will eliminate the cap on child benefit. That will cost some £1.3 billion. How will Labour pay for it? LP: A Labour government will pay for it the way British governments pay for everything that has been approved by … Continue reading How to pay for it. The case for the elimination of the cap on child benefit.
Labour Affairs 