Articles
Friday, March 16, 2018
An appeal has been established to honour the life and achievements of Nelson Mandela in the 100th anniversary year of his birth. It will be erected in Glasgow the first city to make him a Freeman while he was still imprisoned and sparking a worldwide campaign by Mayors to support his release. The appeal is supported by prominent Freemen, such as Kenny Dalglish and Sir Billy Connolly and was launched by fellow Freeman, Sir Alex Ferguson, along with Brian Filling, honorary consul for South Africa and Eva Bolander, Lord Provost of Glasgow. Other Patrons are Professor Denis Goldberg and Andrew Mlangeni both Rivonia trialists along with Mandela and both serving lengthy sentences.
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Saturday 11th November 2017.Hear top speakers Councillor Noah Tucker (personal capacity) on Brexit, the crisis in the Tory Party and the prospects for Labour and socialist advance. Pablo Navarrete, just returned from Venezuela, Salim Alam on the Middle East and Palestine. Frieda Park and Simon Korner will open discussion on the threat of war, particularly in Korea and the divisions which are making our world a dangerous place.
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Theresa May and the Tories made drastic errors in both calling the General Election and in how they ran their campaign. By contrast Jeremy Corbyn was able to get across his policies and successfully challenge the negative media assaults that he had faced up till then. May and the Tories came out very much weakened and Corbyn and Labour stronger.
Friday, September 15, 2017
The tragedy at Grenfell Tower was no simple accident. It was the result of the willful actions of local and national government who got rid of fire safety requirements, hived off management of housing, cut public services and failed to listen to residents and take action on the lessons of a previous tower block fire. What is the real value of human life in capitalist Britain today?
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
First published in The Conversation UK. Labour's election strategy involved taking advantage of the requirement on broadcasters to give fair and equal coverage to Jeremy Corbyn, to make extensive use of social media to counter the right wing print media and to to turn perceived weaknesses into strengths. This involved taking risks such as Corbyn's speech after the Manchester terror attack where he questioned whether the "war on terror" was actually keeping us safe.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
The SNP lost far more seats than it expected to in the General Election and it now has major problems. Largely due to Corbyn's positive national campaign and despite a negative campaign by Scottish Labour the Party won an additional 6 seats. Though the Tories were the main beneficiaries of the SNP's decline if Scottish Labour learns the lessons of Corbyn's campaign then it could again be the biggest party in Scotland.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
There was an increase of 5% in the number of people voting in London in the General Election. The swing to Labour, however, was more than twice that demonstrating that it is winning over voters across the board and in the process gaining 4 more seats. It now holds 49 of the capital's 73 seats.
Monday, September 11, 2017
Despite Labour's much improved performance across Britain it still lost 5 seats in the north of England. Even though these were lost vote share for Labour improved and the losses were largely due to UKIP voter going to the Tories.