Category Archives: politics

The new municipalists defeated in several Spanish cities.

Posted on 27 May, 2019 by

Updated re Barcelona, Sept 2019. Here is a summary of the major results for the “Cities of Change” (or Fearless Cities / Ciudades sin Miedo), where the insurgent, new municipalist, left gained power, in 2014. Most of these innovative coalitions … Continue reading →

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Brief notes on Catalonia

Posted on 26 October, 2017 by

Having friends in Barcelona and liking the city and region, as well as Spain in general, the situation in Catalonia causes me a lot of concern.  A lot of the commentary here oversimplifies the situation with some on the left, … Continue reading →

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Jeremy Corbyn, Prime Minister. What could go wrong?

Posted on 16 June, 2017 by

How things change! Within the space of a few weeks, there is now a real possibility of a Labour government with a left wing leadership. That is the result of the snap UK General Election that resulted, not in the … Continue reading →

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The General Election in Greater Manchester: what do the results mean?

Posted on 11 June, 2017 by

What happened in Greater Manchester on June 8th? Here is a map showing the swings in Greater Manchester’s parliamentary seats. Red figures indicate a Labour victory while Blue figures indicate a Conservative was elected. Positive figures mean a swing from … Continue reading →

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Fixing the roof when the sun shines

Posted on 2 May, 2017 by

Hello is that Mr Osborne? Well, you know that roof you fixed the other summer?  It’s begun to leak again.  Could you come round to sort it out? You don’t work there any more? Firm taken over? Oh.  Could you … Continue reading →

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Platitudes, positions, policies and principles.

Posted on 27 March, 2017 by

Platitudes, positions, policies and principles: what can we learn from Gorton’s selection meeting? I attended the selection meeting for the Labour Party’s Gorton by-election last week. There were five candidates, a short-list selected by a 5-person national Labour party panel. … Continue reading →

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Labour again: Corbyn’s victory and the growth narrative

Posted on 2 October, 2016 by

This is a short post to note Corbyn’s victory in the Labour leadership re-election and ask some fundamental questions.  Despite some misgivings in the last post, I’m delighted.  This is all about rejecting the politics and economics of the last … Continue reading →

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Labour’s post-Brexit woes and a possible solution

Posted on 29 June, 2016 by

Updated, 30 June, 2016 It turns out that the party’s rules make my suggestion unfeasible in its present form: the leader of the party is ex officio the leader of the PLP (Chapter 1 clause vii).  However, there appears to … Continue reading →

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Corbynomics: let’s be sceptical about the growth rhetoric.

Posted on 11 January, 2016 by

“So all our emphasis and work and campaigning is about an expanding economy and investing in an expanding economy” Jeremy Corbyn, quoted by The Independent, 29 February 2016 “El socialismo puede llegar sólo en bicicleta.” Socialism can only arrive by … Continue reading →

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Policy as contestation

Posted on 7 November, 2015 by

Every year the University of Manchester puts on a week of lectures, symposia and other events concerned with the relationship between research and policy: “Policy Week”. Generally there is plenty to interest. I was lucky enough to be asked to … Continue reading →

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