Author: robert.marchant

This post was written prior to last night’s votes Today, Parliament will have arguably its most important day of votes in decades. There are three particular ones which matter: on the EEA, on the Customs Union and on a “meaningful vote” for the Commons on the final deal. The Customs Union one Labour will vote… Continue reading Country before party, reprise

While one can guarantee that on the streets of British provincial towns, it is not exactly an issue high on most people’s agenda, it is clear that, on Twitter and in the political bubble that is Westminster politics, the tricky area of trans politics has in recent months taken a huge step into the limelight.… Continue reading The madness of self-identification in a political party

My new piece for Progress is about the sharp decline of Turkey as a functioning democracy (okay, it’s never been perfect, but it’s really headed down the wrong road now). Most interestingly, at least one journalist has recently been noting the marked similarity between President Erdogan’s populist positioning and that of a certain party leader… Continue reading Turkey’s democracy is crumbling

The general consensus of the UK media is that Labour did not achieve the result it needed to in the local elections last Thursday. As largely expected, it had lukewarm results in London overall and disappointing results outside. But the most significant result of the night was surely that in Barnet, where the Tories in… Continue reading The shame of Barnet – losing a council because the voters think you’re racist

Wes Streeting (left), one of the five MPs attacked by McCluskey, among the group who escorted Ruth Smeeth MP to the hearing of Marc Wadsworth, who left her in tears at the launch of the Chakrabarti Report A week ago, the leader of Britain’s largest union, Unite, decided to wade into the anti-Semitism debate with… Continue reading Why McCluskey tried to bully moderates last week and why it didn’t work

Let’s try an experiment. Since anti-Semitism is a form of racism, let’s simply use the word “racism” as we outline the following facts. In the last four weeks, a British mainstream political party has: Received a letter, addressed to its leader by two well-respected national community groups, protesting perceived institutional racism within it; Been demonstrated… Continue reading Labour’s current situation with anti-Semitism is unsustainable

An update on the many things I have written on Labour, Momentum, the left in general and anti-Semitism over the last seven years: I and others have wondered in recent months whether or not Labour is actually close to a “tipping point” on the issue, where its failure to deal with the issue can no… Continue reading Labour’s anti-Semitism tipping point – or not?

If there were a week for Labour MPs to question their continued acceptance of the party whip, it was surely the last one. Should we cite the lack of apparent sanction on Chris Williamson MP, who appeared onstage with Jackie Walker, suspended from the party for anti-Semitism along with Tony Greenstein, and then proposed their… Continue reading The Labour MP’s dilemma: when does this become party before country?

Putin’s passion for rearmament is well-known (he currently spends around double the proportion of GDP on defence that NATO members do). But so far, his targets have all been able to be dismissed, in Chamberlain’s awful words of appeasement, as “faraway countries”.However, today there is a piece of news it could be easy to lose… Continue reading Not just Skripal: we should all care about what Putin’s up to elsewhere in Europe

By Rwendland (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons Following the abrupt resignation of Iain McNicol – apparently not fallen on his sword but pushed under a bus by the party leadership (£) – there are currently two candidates to be Labour’s General Secretary: Unite’s Jennie Formby and Momentum’s Jon Lansman. While this might be reasonably likened… Continue reading Three reasons why Jennie Formby should not become General Secretary of the Labour Party