DAVID CONNOLLY wonders what happened to Tony Blair’s once passionate support for one member one vote. In his book, The Unfinished Revolution, the new Labour strategist Philip Gould comments on the rivalry between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown at the time of John Smith’s death in 1994. Of Blair he says that “it was...
Articles
Winter 2005/06
Compass points north Will Brown reports from the Compass regional roadshows Forward, not back Peter Hunt says Labour needs a new co-operative socialism Where do we go from here? Greg Power pays tribute to his former boss, Robin Cook Why is France burning? Doug Ireland traces the roots of the violent youth rebellion You...
Autumn 2006
Marketisation and its effects Will Brown reports on the ILP’s weekend school What’s the alternative? Dexter Whitfield on resisting the market in public services Trouble on the buses? Bernard Hughes on the privatisation of transport No direction honed Matthew Brown on this year’s Compass conference A football revolution Adam Brown on the country’s newest...
Winter 2006/07
Reclaiming the territory An interview with deputy leadership hopeful, Jon Cruddas MP A suitable case for treatment Barry Winter welcomes a call for Labour Party renewal In search of the good society Jonathan Timbers hears contrasting versions of the way forward Return to Euston Bernard Hughes on political blogs and the Euston Manifesto Iraq’s...
Summer 2007
Leaders into the future Hazel Head assesses Labour’s leadership ‘elections’ Thirteen wasted years Harry Barnes reflects on Blair’s failures (and successes) A time of peace? Paul Dixon wonders how long Northern Ireland’s political truce will last The right to the city David Harvey calls for a re-imagined city to meet our urban dreams Shaking...
It’s the end of the world as we know it
The British National Party won its fifth local council seat in a matter of months in Halifax in January, attracting a brief flurry of national media comment and political hand wringing. BEN TURLEY looks at what happened. “Halifax is a wonderful place and its people are not racist,” Alice Mahon MP said the day...
The Travellers’ tales
Gypsies have become the object of increasingly racist, anti-immigration demonology over the last few years. As MATTHEW BROWN reports, they have been the one of the most victimised groups in society for centuries. It could be any day in modern London. A tube pulls into King’s Cross underground station. The doors slide open and...
Zimbabwe in crisis
WILLIAM BROWN unpicks the rhetoric and looks beyond the headlines to examine the origins and assess the likely outcomes of the recent unrest in Zimbabwe. Not since independence was granted in 1980 has Zimbabwe accounted for so many minutes of TV news and so many column inches in the broadsheets in Britain. However, the...
For Queen and country … and socialism
When BARRY WINTER went to Belfast to meet the movers and shakers of the new politics, it was the working class unionists who made the strongest impression. Traditionally, the left has shown great sympathy for the nationalist/Catholic, working-class population of Northern Ireland, and with good reason. Their history of poverty, poor housing, unemployment and...
Republicans and the choreography of peace
The Good Friday Agreement has been described as “Sunningdale for slow learners”, reports PAUL DIXON. So how have the Republican leaders managed to sell it to their supporters? The peace process is back on track but still precariously balanced. The Good Friday Agreement is far from safe and probably won’t be for the next...
From third way to one way
DAVID CONNOLLY ponders the latest examples of new Labour style democracy. With the best will in the world it is difficult to take Philip Gould seriously. Anyone who has read his book The Unfinished Revolution will know that his political starting point is a deeply felt hostility to the Tories. He is genuinely desperate...
Theatres of conflict
JONATHAN TIMBERS rallies to remember the October revolution and spends a day at Millbank and Number 10 – all in one very bizarre week in November. When Harold Wilson said ‘a week is a long time in politics’, perhaps he should have added that sometimes an hour can seem even longer when you’re stuck...