The die seems cast: Labour either gets rid of Jeremy Corbyn and causes the hard-left to split from the Party, or it allows him to stay and eventually the Labour moderates will have to leave.

The PLP seems to have made the cardinal error of launching a coup – by its mass resignations from Shadow jobs and then a vote of no confidence and now Angela Eagles leadership challenge – without a really clear idea about how to politically finish off Corbyn and who to replace him with? Even Eagle’s bid doesn’t seem to have unanimous support amongst the insurgents. Continue reading “Split now or Split later: Labour’s unenviable choice?” →

Let’s be very clear – many on the British far-left (and far too many Muslims unfortunately) don’t believe the state of Israel should exist. (See this on the ‘Stop the War’ website as an example.)

They think it is a racist state akin to apartheid South Africa and it needs to be destroyed. They believe the displacement of Palestinians as the state was created is an historic injustice that can only be righted by – one way or another – abolishing the Jewish state.

(The picture is me [left] as part of an NUS Executive delegation that visited Israel/Palestine in 1977 – also in the picture are Trevor Phillips and David Aaronovitch)

Continue reading “The Left’s problem with Anti-Semitism” →

The amount of flim-flam and chaff being thrown about by both supporters and critics of David Cameron over his possible involvements with off-shore tax avoidance activity is quite staggering. Some of the journalists covering it have displayed appalling ignorance. So it might be useful to try and cut through the spin and establish what we do, and don’t, know.

There at least three possible ways Mr. Cameron might have benefitted from tax avoidance that we know of – two indirectly via his father and one directly through his own investment in his father’s off-shore trust. Continue reading “Did David Cameron Benefit from Tax Avoidance?” →

The comedian Jeremy Hardy has been making jokes about the mental health of Kevan Jones, the Labour MP who Ken Livingstone also famously made disparaging comments about in the same vein. Jones has committed the ‘crime’ in their eyes of supporting renewal of Trident. He has also, and very publicly and bravely, said he has had mental health problems.

Livingstone eventually, grudgingly apologized. Hardy on the other hand has refused.

What made Jeremy Hardy’s “jokes” into more of an issue was because they were made as part of his set in the so-called “JC4PM” tour, organized to support Jeremy Corbyn (although apparently without any involvement by the other Jeremy).

When I tweeted about this – and demands Jeremy C disown Jeremy H – a colleague emailed me to ask why I was so down on Corbyn when Cameron regularly says vile things and gets away with it. This did make me think – so here’s an [slightly edited] version of what I wrote back: Continue reading “The Two Jeremy’s: Hardy, Corbyn and jokes about mental health – why does it matter?” →

Jeremy Corbyn’s latest suggestion is that, perhaps, we could retain Trident submarines (and the jobs that go with them) but have them without the warheads? This would satisfy both his Trade Union allies and his CND chums.

Like most people my initial reaction was – “what?”

But then I started thinking about it and the following story came to mind, which might help explain this bizarre (by normal standards) idea….. Continue reading “Trident without the Warheads? Not as daft as it sounds, at least in the weird world of ‘resolutionary socialism’” →

And what, exactly, is “democratic centralism” I hear you ask?

It is the form of organization pioneered by Lenin and the Bolsheviks and adopted by all communist and Trotskyist organizations ever since.

In this model the political party is not about elections or representation in parliament, although they do that, but about creating a vanguard elite ready to seize power on behalf of the “the masses” when “the time comes”.

Typically a ‘democratic centralist’ party selects its members, who have to go through some sort of probationary period during which they are indoctrinated with the party’s values, ideology and methods before becoming full members.

Once members, individuals get to vote either directly or through delegates on party policy and direction. Often communist and Trotskyist parties have been divided internally into ‘factions’ supporting a particular platform or direction which is presented to the membership. A supposedly free discussion follows before a decision is reached – usually at some sort of congress. That’s the ‘democratic’ bit. Continue reading “Is Corbyn turning Labour into a ‘Democratic Centralist’ Party?” →

The Labour Party is headed for an all out civil war between its social democrats on the one side and its reformist and revolutionary socialist wings on the other. This is inevitable, although at the moment both sides are trying to wait for the opportunity to say “you started it” (a bit like Ken Livingstone recently).

[Labour MPs and front-benchers vote with their feet and leave Corbyn to face Cameron almost alone?]

In the 1972 post-script to his 1961 book on the Labour party, Parliamentary Socialism, Ralph Miliband finally comes out clearly and says what he has clearly thought all the way through his history of the party:

“[The] Labour remains, in practice, what it has always been – a party of modest social reform in a capitalist system within whose confines it is ever more firmly and by now irrevocably rooted.” (1972, p376).

In today’s language, Labour has always been predominantly a social democratic rather than a socialist party.

Continue reading “Whither Labour?” →

[Disclaimer: I am not a criminologist. But I have worked on and with prison services in several countries, including as an external member of the review commission of HM Prison Service in 1996/7.]

The government has announced it wants to close some old city centre prisons, re-build them in cheaper areas (presumably away for high value city centres) and use the sale of the valuable sites to pay for the rebuild. Sounds like a “no-brainer”? Maybe. There is a very big BUT however…… Continue reading “Prisoners are people with real lives (why closing city centre prisons may be a big mistake)” →

[amended to add ‘Tolkein’ 27 Nov 2015]

“One Vote to rule them all, One Vote to find them,
One Vote to bring them all and in the darkness bind them”?

(with apologies to JRR Tolkein)

According to this Thursday’s edition of The Times (17/9/15), Jeremy Corby has “warned his shadow cabinet to recognise his mandate amid growing divisions over welfare, economic policy, Britain’s nuclear deterrent and Europe”.

This got me thinking about the whole issue of “mandates”. Mr Corbyn has been in Parliament for 32 years and served under 8 Labour leaders*, six of whom were elected with a clear mandate of their own – all of which Mr Corbyn cheerfully ignored whenever it suited him. He rebelled against previous leaders more than 500 times – despite their mandates. Continue reading “Jeremy Corbyn’s “Mandate” ‘One Vote to Rule them all, One Vote to find them…’” →