Category archive for ‘Labourlist’ 
-
A coup will not help the party
The plotters may succeed in getting rid of Gordon Brown – though by precipitating such a meltdown in the week of an election they have taken a calculated risk that may backfire, at a time when party and trade union activists are trying to focus on shoring up the Labour vote and stopping the BNP.
The explosion of stories of plots and preparations to oust Gordon Brown was timed to inflict massive damage on the eve of an election.
One “rebel” is [...] -
Don’t blame the media for telling the truth, Boris
Boris Johnson yesterday criticised the media coverage of the G20 demonstrations. According to the Guardian online he told Sun radio’s Jon Gaunt “I worry that there are large sections of the media that are currently engaged in a very unbalanced orgy of cop bashing. I think it is wrong, it is wildly overdone … everybody understands that there are serious questions to answer about what happened to some of the protestors at the G20, and particularly Ian Tomlinson, and thoughts [...]
-
Hague’s fond memories of Major shows how little the Tories have changed
If there is one strategy you would think the Tories would want to avoid like the plague right now it would be to invoke memories of the Major years. Yet that’s exactly what William Hague did yesterday on the Andrew Marr programme.
Ken Clarke have may been causing the Tories headaches with his line on inheritance tax but his record as Chancellor appears unassailed in Tory circles. When asked by Andrew Marr about public spending under a Tory government William Hague’s [...] -
Losing Tim O’Toole shows things are going badly wrong
Losing Tim O’Toole, the highly respected Managing Director of the London Underground, is the most serious disintegration of the top management of London to date.
There are now some difficult questions for the mayor to answer about the circumstances that led him to lose such a well-liked and effective senior figure. Tim O’Toole’s departure in April will be little more than a month after the announcement of his resignation, yet contracts on this level specify a minimum three months’ notice. This [...] -
Tory London – defending bankers and attacking pensions
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer lorem turpis, lobortis quis, adipiscing vel, aliquet aliquet, enim. Cras gravida, lorem nec sodales tempor, orci mi iaculis ipsum, eget iaculis nisi purus eget eros. Fusce commodo nulla non tellus. In egestas pede quis tellus. Cras turpis libero, pharetra ut, lacinia sit amet, ornare in, augue. Vestibulum diam. Aenean metus diam, semper fermentum, scelerisque sed, accumsan quis, ipsum. Duis pretium pretium urna. Nullam varius nisi eget justo. In hac habitasse platea [...]
-
Tory London – defending bankers, attacking pensions
What do you do if you are a powerful Tory politician and your friends in the City, whom you’ve resolutely defended throughout the whole period of the financial crisis, are still the subject of trenchant criticism? Answer: try to change the subject and have a go at public sector employees instead.
That’s what Boris Johnson was up to yesterday.
In his Daily Telegraph column the Mayor of London lays into public spending under Labour and complains that public sector pensions are “unsustainable” [...] -
Snow chaos – but where is the mayor?
The complete absence of a London bus service this morning – combined with cancellations and delays on rail and tube – meant thousands of Londoners have had an enforced day off or an arduous journey into work.
No one can doubt the extremely hard work of the transport authorities today in trying to resolve these problems and seeking to provide a service in difficult weather conditions, nor underestimate the contribution of transport workers who made it to their workplaces in order [...] -
We don’t have to imagine what the Tories would be like – just look at Boris
It is not a foregone conclusion – in fact it’s going to be very tough indeed – but the Tories are now beatable after enjoying twelve months from the 2007 conference season being feted as the government in waiting. The reason is clear: because the underlying ideology of free market capitalism that guides them has been ripped up by the economic crisis. To stop them winning we have to build up real alliances across political divides in order to maximize [...]