Ed Miliband has done the second smart thing in less than a week by explicitly not backing the impending public service strikes on his personal blog yesterday, as we suggested might be a good course of action here last week. Hell, if we keep this up, who knows what could happen. We might get elected.
Author: robert.marchant
NHS reforms: a pyrrhic victory?
So, government reform plans stymied. The smile wiped off Cameron’s face. Lansley humiliated. Been rather a good few weeks, hasn’t it? Not so fast. A few thoughts, before we raise our glasses in unrestrained Schadenfreude, might give us pause. What has certainly happened, over and above any disagreements we might have with them on policy,… Continue reading NHS reforms: a pyrrhic victory?
Credit where credit is due
Regular readers may be shocked at this, but I just want to register my approval – no, my delight – at reports that Ed Miliband wants to dump the odd tradition of Shadow Cabinet elections, which allow MPs to vote for who they want to see at the top table. For years they have been a… Continue reading Credit where credit is due
Cuts, pensions and the wrong side of the argument
As you read this, union leaders are meeting and discussing, moving seemingly inexorably towards industrial action over the summer. And you know what? It’s entirely understandable. After all, as Dan Hodges points out, what on earth do we expect them to do? If organisations largely representing public sector workers did not take some retaliatory action,… Continue reading Cuts, pensions and the wrong side of the argument
The normblog profile
normblog The weblog of Norman Geras Norman Geras is Professor Emeritus in Politics, University of Manchester, founder signatory of the fine Euston Manifesto, jazz fan, author of the excellent, forensically-argued normblog and general all-round good guy. For the last eight years he has been running series of profiles on bloggers – particularly political bloggers – about… Continue reading The normblog profile
Labour’s faerie weekend
It was a strange Midsummer Night’s Dream weekend. There seemed to be dark shadows of plots in every corner. The “Balls papers” of leaked memos reminded us that no-one plots quite like the Brownites; the ghost of David Miliband’s never-uttered leadership acceptance speech was rather unhelpfully leaked to the press, neatly exhuming the Miliband-fratricide stories. And the Labour body… Continue reading Labour’s faerie weekend
An end to banker-bashing, please
Ok, I am going to make a confession now which will probably damn me forever. In my foolish youth, I once used to work for a bank. There, I’ve done it. I’ve come out. I hear a faint chorus of “aha”s and knowing looks being exchanged. On the Labour Party’s own internal Axis of Evil,… Continue reading An end to banker-bashing, please
Much obliged, m’lord Ashcroft
On discovering, via Tim Montgomerie’s Saturday piece, that Michael Ashcroft (former Tory Deputy Chairman has commissioned a report into the future of the Labour Party, one’s immediate reaction is that it was exceptionally kind of him. After all, as Montgomerie points out, the party is not exactly awash with cash at the moment to do… Continue reading Much obliged, m’lord Ashcroft
May roundup – in case you missed them
Just to say thank you to all our followers for a fantastic May: traffic was doubled from the previous month. Labour had a fairly ugly election result, Brendan Barber wrote back about Chávez and we had a laugh at Nick Clegg’s expense. We rewrote political strategy to the music of New Order. Oh, and the… Continue reading May roundup – in case you missed them
UCU and the siren call of “my enemy’s enemy”
Hate figures and bogeymen are convenient for everyone. Up to a point, they can be harmless. I’m not averse to a bit of knockabout with the Tories or the Lib Dems: that’s the rough and tumble of tribal politics. But, in some less-travelled corners of party and movement, we have developed some hate figures over… Continue reading UCU and the siren call of “my enemy’s enemy”