Category archive for ‘Articles’ 
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International action needed as Honduras coup rips up power-sharing agreement
Last week it seemed that a victory had been secured in Honduras over the military coup that had removed the President, Manuel Zelaya. The coup leaders had agreed a deal for power-sharing that would take the country forward to elections.
The Tegucigalpa-San Jose agreement set out the priority of returning to constitutional order, and requires the need to “return the holder of executive power to its pre-June 28 state through to January 27, 2010, which marks the end of the term [...] -
Honduras needs our support
“We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there,” President Obama said after the coup took place. “It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition, rather than democratic elections.”
Yet the government under Roberto Micheletti installed by the coup leaders remains in place, however unpopular it may be. Democratic [...] -
Cronyism and fraud: how reality under Boris Johnson has pushed fiction aside in the end
A deputy mayor given suspended prison sentence and community service for fraud…Another appointee resigns from his Olympics post after breaching Financial Services Authority regulations over shareholdings…A deputy mayor forced out after allegations of impropriety and for lying about being a magistrate…The mayor embroiled in a row after seeking to appoint a personal political ally to the Arts Council, reportedly against the Nolan rules for appointments in public life…
Just imagine the fury-filled pages that [...] -
Pickles over-eggs the pudding with his latest defector
I see the Tories are grandly parading the defection of a Brent Labour councillor today. ConservativeHome’s local government blog declares:
“Gordon Brown’s fightback falls flat in Brent as Labour councillor defects to the Conservatives.”
Eric Pickles cannot contain himself:
“It seems like Gordon’s great fightback has already crumbled at its first hurdle. People are deserting Labour in droves as they realise the only real way of achieving positive change for the country is through a Conservative government. The Prime Minister should do everyone [...] -
Boris’s transport policy breaks down
One minute it’s off, then it’s on, then … well, what exactly? Boris Johnson’s administration was rocked by the Evening Standard’s report – based on comments from the mayor’s own transport adviser – that Johnson may abandon his plan to axe the western extension of the congestion charge zone.
Rumours have been circulating for days that the mayor’s team was being forced to think the unthinkable: to abandon its policy of getting rid of the western extension.
Then the Standard’s Katharine Barney [...] -
Fares too low to be “reasonable” says Mayor Boris
London transport fares are not “reasonable” says Boris Johnson – but before anyone leaps to agree, he means they are not high enough. “There are real pressures on our finances,” thelondonpaper reported him as saying at yesterday’s Mayors Question Time. “These are largely chronic and historic, built up by repeated failures to deal with the necessity to charge a reasonable price for services.” [My emphasis].
So Boris Johnson’s view is that London’s transport budget is underfunded because fares don’t represent a [...] -
Barnet’s “easyCouncil” plan is at one with the principles and practice of Tory government
The Guardian has exposed to a national audience the radical right wing plans of the Conservative London borough of Barnet, now nicknamed “easyCouncil” for its adoption of a budget airline approach to public services.
“Barnet wants householders to pay extra to jump the queue for planning consents, in the way budget airlines charge extra for priority boarding,” reports the Guardian. “And as budget airline passengers choose to spend their budget on either flying at peaktime or having an in-flight meal, [...] -
The legacy of the londonpaper
So the London Paper is to close, ending Rupert Murdoch’s intervention in the London evening newspaper market, which, until the paper’s first edition hit the streets, was completely dominated by the Daily Mail group.
Broadsheet readers and news junkies will not mourn the passing of the one-edition-a-day London freesheet distributed at tube stations and on the streets. Its mix of news and lighter material always leaned towards the latter. But it was only able to launch in the first place because [...] -
Hannan’s rhetoric feeds a dangerous US right wing beast
By Simon Fletcher
One of the most objectionable features of Daniel Hannan’s intervention in the US healthcare debate – aside from his actual attacks on the NHS itself – is how his comments feed the rhetoric and prejudices of very right wing strands of US opinion.
Hannan’s rhetoric that the NHS is “Marxist” and his claims that America risks becoming less American play straight into the notion of Obama importing what are seen as un-American ideas. The US right’s assertion of Obama [...] -
Time to end the privatisation of profit and the nationalisation of loss
The temporary nationalisation of the east coast mainline rail service, following confirmation that National Express is walking away from the £1.4billion contract, is a further indication of just how much sections of the private sector are currently ripping off the taxpayer. Labour needs to act to prevent this continuous effort by the private sector to privatise profits and nationalise losses.
The London-to-Edinburgh route will be taken into public ownership at the end of this year. But the contract will be put [...]