Left Foot Forward
SDLP rules out mergers with parties in the Republic
SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie has ruled out any merger with parties south of the border under her watch, reports Ed Jacobs.
Political Innovation – coming soon to Edinburgh and Belfast
A quick note to thank Left Foot Forward for helping us with the Political Innovation essays; see here for more about the project and a list of all the essays so far, with a few more to come in the next few weeks. We would like to invite LFF readers to a couple of events that we’re doing in Edinburgh (13th November) and Belfast (20th November) - both are Saturday get-togethers – details can be found here.
View from the States: Shellacked in South Florida
Tuesday was a good day to be on a Republican ticket and a bad day to be running as a Democrat, but the results are not catastrophic for Obama. In South Florida there is no long term appetite for extremes, but this week’s results demonstrate that the American people don’t like their leaders very much and have relished giving this one a good “shellacking”.
Look Left – Browne Review begins to bite
More details of the impact of the Browne Review emerged this week. Twenty four universities look set to see their entire teaching grants scrapped, including LSE and SOAS, with 73 universities seeing their teaching budgets slashed by more than 75 per cent.
Lib Dem foreign minister’s French slur
Foreign office minister Jeremy Browne was accused of racism by a heckler on Question Time last night after remarks about the French. Talking about the Anglo-French defence treaty signed by the prime minister and President Sarkozy this week, he said: "We're not merging our Army with France. Our soldiers won't be required to speak French or wear onions round their necks or stripey t-shirts, or ride bicycles."
Fighting the cuts and working for women in the days ahead
The Women’s Income Network (WIN) is a network of charities, MPs and individuals who have come together in order to construct an informed and unified response to each and every cut which will disproportionately affect women in the coming months and years. From the Fawcett Society to The Child Poverty Action Group, each participating organisation is working independently to protect those who will be disadvantaged by the coalition’s cuts.