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A common refrain in Britain among journalists, bloggers, tweeters and the general public is that politicians are a weak-minded, venal breed. I sometimes wonder whether they realise that they live in one of the least corrupt and best-tended of all Western democracies. We needn’t look very far to see why – a two-hour flight is… Continue reading Politicians – they’re all the same. They’re not

We can – and should – criticise Israel’s government for its policy on settlements. We can criticise it for some of its policies towards, and sometimes its statements about, Palestinians. And as with any disputed territory, we can and should debate how that territory should be distributed between its claimants. Even if we might think… Continue reading This time, Roger picked the wrong Wall. We should avoid the same mistake

All hail @GeneralBoles for the oustanding Mr Ed picture It is difficult to be anything less than delighted at Ed Miliband’s announcement on Monday that he will call a special conference next Spring to consider the findings of the Collins Review.With this move, he has simultaneously done several things: he has, critically, kept the political… Continue reading The gift horse

In “Voodoo Histories”, David Aaronovitch’s superb book on the tendency of our age towards conspiracy theories, he asserts that “conspiracy theorists fail to apply the principle of Occam’s razor to their arguments”. In other words, that they opt for a complex and convoluted explanation over a simpler, more obvious (and therefore more likely) one. During… Continue reading The “Blairite conspiracy” narrative has not disappeared: it has just taken a breather

The following piece was published on Wednesday at Labour Uncut, following surely the most important event of Ed Miliband’s leadership to date, the proposal of radical changes to Labour’s relationship with unions. The last week or so has undoubtedly set the biggest challenge of Miliband’s leadership, in the aftermath of the Falkirk selection fiasco. It… Continue reading SPECIAL EDITION: Miliband’s moment of truth

Since my last piece on the matter, it is clear that the Falkirk selection fiasco has just blown up into what looks to be the biggest crisis of Miliband’s leadership to date, with no easy-to-predict solution on the cards.For the record, this does not make me feel good, it makes me feel angry and frustrated,… Continue reading We were not blind-sided. We were not

A few days ago a piece on LabourList asked us to support a campaign to end Page Three of the Sun. I must admit, I’d be happy to see the back of the paper, let alone the page. A bit of background: since the 1980s, I haven’t bought a Murdoch paper (although, full disclosure: I… Continue reading Why we should stop trying to stop Page Three

On Wednesday I posted a piece at Labour Uncut (later posted here at the Centre Left), summarising both developments in the Falkirk selection, where Unite stands accused by the Labour Party of interfering in the selection process, and the involvement of Unite in the People’s Asseembly. Yesterday the New Statesman printed this piece containing a… Continue reading Len, honestly, what do you take us for?

Yesterday morning, Uncut reported developments in the Falkirk selection fiasco; Labour’s investigation confirmed that there was an attempt by Unite to recruit additional members in order to fix the selection. For a major union to intervene behind the scenes in the running of a selection may not be unheard of, but the careless and obvious… Continue reading Labour and Unite: a little time-bomb

The Independent’s poll of polls announced last week showed two things: the first is that Labour’s poll lead is slipping (to five points, its lowest level in a year, a year which has been abysmal for the Tories). This is exactly what we would expect, it is doing what pretty much every mid-term lead has… Continue reading Labour’s lead is slipping and its main rivals are still the Tories (remember them?)