The childcare crisis: a problem made in Downing Street
The childcare problem that David Cameron is trying to solve is one of his own making.
Guest
We must resist the privatisation of aid
The evidence for privatising aid is thin. So let’s at least have the debate before subjecting millions of people in the global south to free market experiments.
Responsible Capitalism: a European wave is building that Labour should ride
A year ago, Ed Miliband set out his vision of Responsible Capitalism, saying Labour was “determined to stand up against the vested interests that are imposing a surcharge culture on people”. In the past few weeks in Germany, the German trade union movement (DGB) has developed the idea of a new Marshall Plan for Europe. It is this kind of joined up thinking that we urgently need to build a credible alternative to austerity.
The web of political influence that is fueling climate change
When one third of government ministers have links to either the fossil fuel industry itself or to financial sector firms dependent on high carbon investments, the likelihood of meaningful government regulation of the City’s fossil fuel funding shenanigans look slim.
Apprenticeships must benefit the North as well as the South
National Apprenticeship week is a great opportunity to celebrate all that is good about our apprenticeships. It is imperative that the government ensure that apprenticeships are not only targeted to work for our young people, but that they provide decent, sustainable routes into employment across the UK, ensuring that our economy as a whole benefits just as much in the North as in the South.
Prescription charges for long-term conditions are unfair and out-of-date
Thanks to ever-increasing prescription costs for the essential medication people with long-term conditions need to keep them well, or even alive, many are facing the stark choice between food, clothing, bills or their prescriptions.
The case for Scottish independence is based on a short-term, simplistic analysis
The Scottish nationalists pick the best years for North Sea oil receipts and extrapolate into the future. The pro-UK voices point out that the decision to leave the UK is a long-term one and so we must look beyond short-term and simplistic analysis.
The Left and Israel: Ed Miliband just pressed reset
In an event organised last night by the Board of Deputies, Labour leader Ed Miliband was asked by a member of the audience whether he is a Zionist. He replied, “Yes, I consider myself a supporter of Israel.” Ed Miliband wants to make the progressive case for Israel in the spirit of the late David Cairns. The Left should welcome that.
Vince Cable’s New Statesman article makes plain the need for a new economic strategy
Against the backdrop of the loss of the triple-A rating much coveted by Conservative Ministers – and trivialised by others – Cable is right again. Wednesday’s remarkable New Statesman article makes plain the case for a new economic strategy, and the need for as elegant as possible a reversal of Osbornomics that was itself eclipsed by Cable in the economic debates of 2010.
How the Left learnt to stop worrying and love Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Zizek is accepted as left-wing, even a kind of Marxism, because most Marxists long ago abandoned the rational and material values of the social democratic Second International.