Tag Archives: politics

Could Labour implement a post-growth economy?

Posted on 28 November, 2017 by

Here is the full version of the article published, in rather truncated form today, on Left Foot Forward. I will be posting a fully referenced extended version in the near future. pdf version of the full text Could Labour implement … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, ecology, economics, ideology | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

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 →

Posted in Manchester, politics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

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’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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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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The critical voter’s dilemma

Posted on 14 April, 2015 by

Further to my recent post on the forthcoming elections, here is my algorithm (flow chart, decision tool) to help red-green voters make their decision at the UK General Election this May. click here for the pdf version of the voting … Continue reading →

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Democracy, planning and a socialist health service.

Posted on 6 March, 2015 by

Further to my piece on Manchester’s “Health Devolution”, I thought it worth returning to something I wrote over 4 years ago, in rather different times.  The question that I didn’t try to answer in last week’s piece was “what’s the … Continue reading →

Posted in NHS, politics, social policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment