Lenin's Tomb (Free subscription) | 3 hours ago
This is interesting. After ten years in office, during which inequality has consistently risen, New Labour now proposes to do something about it. Higher taxes on the rich are among the measures mooted, but this is unlikely to be accepted by Brown, Mandelson et al. If this sudden concern with income and wealth inequality looks like a desperate attempt to guard Labour's left-flank in anticipation of...
EU Referendum (Free subscription) | 12 hours ago
Twenty eight years and 91 days, the Berlin Wall lasted. But today, on the 20th anniversary of its fall, we are but days away from the erection of a new wall, with the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December. The most difficult thing we confront is the fact that the wall is invisible – it exists in the "hearts and minds" of our rulers, who have erected near-impenetrable...
EU Referendum (Free subscription) | yesterday
A partial explanation for the light blogging. The Defence Debate over in Jersey. From the left, General Sir John Wilsey, President of the Royal British Legion – Jersey Overseas Branch, Air Marshal Philip Sturley, President of The Royal Air Forces Association, Peter Troy, chairman, yours truly, and Canon Dr Peter Williams, Vicar of Gouray. Interestingly, I met an Army Captain today, who had been...
EU Referendum (Free subscription) | yesterday
The Independent on Sunday records a senior Tory MP saying yesterday that Mr Cameron would have to move quickly in the first year and a half of his premiership and had to show "real progress" on his promises. The MP said: "I don't think a promise of a referendum on Britain's relationship with the EU in more than five years will sit very well. He [Cameron] needs to make progress, within...
EU Referendum (Free subscription) | yesterday
The Sunday Telegraph is amongst several newspapers who link the erosion of democracy with Remembrance Day, and thence to the point we made recently about the paradox of fighting for "democracy" in Afghanistan, when we have given away our own. Our ancestors fought for our freedom, and the current generation is fighting and dying in Afghanistan for the same cause. Yet it is indisputable that...
EU Referendum (Free subscription) | yesterday
"Amid all the detailed argument about the Lisbon Treaty and referendums, it is easy to ignore a basic truth about Cameron's EU strategy and the trajectory upon which he is now set. This will be the first unequivocally Eurosceptic government of modern times." So says Matthew d'Ancona in The Sunday Telegraph . Thus, following in the footsteps of Daniel Finkelstein and Benedict Brogan , he is...
EU Referendum (Free subscription) | yesterday
With Tom Wise awaiting sentencing for fraud, after changing his plea to guilty last week, Daniel Foggo in The Sunday Times gives the background to the case. Neither Wise nor UKIP come out well. Not least, as Daniel is now able to record, UKIP – contrary to its claims – went to great lengths in an attempt to cover-up Wise's criminal activities. This segment from his article makes particularly...
EU Referendum (Free subscription) | yesterday
The EU has achieved the goal it has worked stealthily towards for so long - a supra-national government which is now beyond our recall, writes Booker in his column today. He finds it appropriate that, as the trap has snapped shut, he politician who finally let the EU get its constitution should have been Klaus, the veteran anti-Communist. It was he that predicted, just before the Czech Republic joined...
EU Referendum (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
Although blogging is somewhat difficult at the moment, I really cannot resist a belated comment on the EU presidency charade, and in particular the Guardian report . It notes that, while the "ideal appointment" has been suggested as "someone who could stop the traffic in Beijing", with the emergence of the Belgian prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy, as frontrunner, "Europe"...
Lenin's Tomb (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
I am saddened to hear the news that Chris Harman , revolutionary socialist and leading theoretician of the International Socialist tradition, died of a cardiac arrest in Cairo last night. Before his death, he edited the International Socialism journal, and had written an accessible critique of mainstream economic theory, Zombie Capitalism . I personally owe a considerable portion of my Bildung to the...
EU Referendum (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
This is the the Daily Mail's "take" on the continuing fall-out from the Tory non-policy on "Europe". It has a lot of the faithful "spitting blood" at Cameron's refusal to offer a referendum, threatening to vote UKIP. I'll do a proper review of this and other coverage later today. Yesterday, apart from a very successful defence debate in Jersey, I spent some time sitting...
Lenin's Tomb (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
What lies behind the postal workers' union's decision to call off the strikes that were planned for tomorrow and Monday and begin a 'period of calm'? Well judging from the CWU website and what Dave Ward has to say about the 'interim' agreement it seems like another shoddy deal . What do Royal Mail get out of the deal? A guarantee of no strikes until after Christmas. What do postal workers get? A promise...
Informed Comment Global Affairs (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
A new piece on Swat/Waziristan/Baluchistan and the current Pakistani military operation is up at The Review . The true crisis facing Pakistan is not the Taliban: it is the rupture between the federal state and its constituent parts, and Islamabad’s refusal to accede to the legitimate needs and demands of its citizens in places like Swat and Baluchistan. It is a rupture, indeed, that is written...
EU Referendum (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
The Tory leadership, we are told is "delighted" at the smooth reception of "Do-nothing" Dave's non-policy on "Europe". Looking at the Politics Home snap poll on the issue, however, it can be seen that support is polarised, following orthodox political groupings. Amazingly, Conservative supporters support, er ... Dave. Labour supporters, er ... don't. Thus, Tim Montgomerie...
Lenin's Tomb (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
Guest post by redbedhead : BY NOW EVERYBODY ON THE PLANET KNOWS about the killing of 12 people and wounding of 31 others at Fort Hood in Texas. There's no doubt that this is a tragedy for the families and friends of the slain. But from a tragedy like this there will inevitably issue forth a second tragedy - the racist, anti-Muslim hysteria that will follow because the man - Major Nidal Malik Hasan...
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