PAUL SALVESON brings his celebration of the 120-year-old Colne Valley Labour Party up to date with a look at its present predicaments and future prospects In the aftermath of the May 2010 election defeat there has been a re-evaluation of where the Labour Party was going, at local and national level. Despite being defeated,...
Fighting Cuts To Legal Aid
As the controversial Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill moved into committee stage this week, HARRY BARNES called for campaigners to defend current legal provisions. “Because the proposed legislation covers a wide area, the issue of the massive cuts in legal aid is in danger of failing to get a full and fair...
A New School for Democratic Socialism
KEN CURRAN introduces a new political education initiative set to launch in Sheffield this autumn Socialism as an idea and as a movement has a long history. But as a consequence of Thatcher’s election in 1979, the triumph of neo-liberalism and the collapse of Communism after 1989, socialism became unpopular. Key figures in Labour...
Socialism in the Valley
To mark its 120th anniversary this July, local member PAUL SALVESON celebrates the roots, birth and history of the Colne Valley Labour Party and examines its impact on the distinctive culture of the area The Colne Valley CLP was formed on 21 July 1891 and put down deep roots in the Pennine communities of...
The Road from Ruin?
PAUL SALTONSTALL reports from a recent seminar on how to reform capitalism from the inside The talk was given by Michael Green, one of the authors of The Road from Ruin: A new capitalism for the Big Society, and the host was the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). This was one of their...
NHS Reforms: An insider’s view
Health care professional NELLI FINN provides an inside account of years of NHS reform, a tale of competing trusts, contracting out, cost-cutting and chronically low morale. I have been working for the NHS as an occupational therapist since 1995 and, apart from a couple of brief sojourns abroad and in the private sector, have...