Peter Watt is wrong: Labour needs its members
Peter Watt’s insistence that Labour should stop attempting to recruit members is wrong. The success of local models of party organisation, in Birmingham, Oxford and Gedling is proof of this.
Monthly Archives: September 2010
Healey lambasts ‘New Homes Bonus’ scheme
In a speech today to the Labour Party conference, John Healey set out a detailed critique of the Coalition’s ‘New Homes Bonus’ scheme. He argued it will “blow out of the water” George Osbourne’s promise of a council tax freeze in many areas.
Dorries: “I totally admire Sarah Palin”
Tory backbencher Nadine ‘Mad Nad’ Dorries thinks Sarah Palin is “amazing” and “totally” admires her.
Community campaigning is Labour’s messy future
Our guest writer is Dr Jon Wilson, senior lecturer in British Imperial and South Asian history at King’s College, London. Local community campaigning is messy; there is no right or wrong way to do it. It forces us to fundamentallytest
Evan Harris: Progressive coalition in 2015 “if the arithmetic is there”
Former Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris has said his party and Labour need to be in a postion to form a progressive coalition after the next election.
Ethnic minority candidates still suffering at the polls
Perhaps because the general election saw an increase in the overall number of MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds, little attention has been paid to patterns in the constituency results that suggest white voters are still somewhat reluctant to support minority candidates.
David quits – leaving 49 to fight for 19 places
Left Foot Forward is coordinating a poll for readers of left wing blogs to find out who they’d like in the shadow cabinet – vote by reading this blog.
The Taxpayers’ Alliance declares war on the Carbon Trust
The Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) has today taken the extraordinary step of writing an open letter to the Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, calling for the abolition of the Carbon Trust. This is in direct contravention of the truth – that climate change is, in the words of Lord Stern, “the greatest market failure the world has seen.”
Red, Dead and Scarlet: right-wing press struggle to define Ed
The Red Ed myth refuses to die. In spite of Mr Miliband’s direct rebuttal of it during his speech yesterday, the right-wing press are not relenting in their attempts – reported by Left Foot Forward earlier this week – to portray Labour’s new leader as the puppet of the trade unions.
IMF assessment out of date: weakening service sector highlights growth risks
On Monday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the UK economy was improving steadily from recession and that it was strong enough to cope with the cuts in public spending and tax increases proposed by George Osborne. But their assessment is out-of-date. The economy was recovering prior to Osborne’s June budget, but growth has clearly weakened since then