A civil war has erupted inside the Labour Party, initiated by the party’s minority right wing with the backing of the media. It is a battle between the ordinary labour party members and the anti-democrats in the Parliamentary Labour Party [...]
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Hillsborough, justice and the state
Just over three years after the Hillsborough Disaster the reigning champions met in the cup semi-final against a smaller team in a stadium which was disastrously unfit for the crowds expected on the day. The teams on this occasion were [...]
Read moreOn punishment and prison
The government’s prison reform programme has been gathering pace since Parliament returned in autumn 2015. In speeches to the Conservative party conference in October 2015, both David Cameron and Michael Gove called for a shift in thinking and policy to [...]
Read moreThe Corporate Criminal
The Corporation as a Fact of Life The dominant role that corporations play in our lives makes them appear to us as a fact of life. Corporations now profit from providing most of the food that we eat, the clothes we [...]
Read moreReflections of a Left Unity candidate
One percent of the vote is hardly something to write home about – but this is the reality of the situation facing the majority of the left of Labour candidates across the country. It is not easy to accept - [...]
Read moreReview: Light shining in Buckinghamshire
Light shining in Buckinghamshire, a play by Caryl Churchill is set at the time of the Civil War in 17th century England, when the world was turned upside down as people fought for a different way to live and to put [...]
Read moreScotland after the referendum: Nationalism or socialism?
‘Yorkshire First and movements like it aim to create a more participatory and inclusive political culture. They are, in essence, about social justice.’ Reuben Ross, Scottish Left Project: The People Demand Class has all but disappeared from the Left’s vocabulary in Scotland. [...]
Read moreCharlie Hebdo – Unity in condemnation and solidarity
All socialists should join in the condemnation of the murderous attack on the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hedbo and the linked shootings that followed. Our condemnation should be unequivocal. Nothing can justify them. The attacks were carried [...]
Read moreThe working class as the desperate class?
Review of "Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain" by Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin. 2014. Abingdon: Routledge. This meticulous study of UKIP’s rise provides something that until now has been lacking: an academic yet accessible [...]
Read moreThinking the unthinkable: the coming revolution in local government
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste...Things that we had postponed for too long, that were long-term, are now immediate and must be dealt with. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you [...]
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