Tag Archives: socialism

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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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 →

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Key Words from Raymond Williams

Posted on 21 April, 2014 by

“I cannot accept that education is a training for jobs, or for making useful citizens….. I ask for a common education that will give our society cohesion, and prevent it disintegrating into a series of specialist departments, the nation become … Continue reading →

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The disappointing Left

Posted on 16 April, 2014 by

Today I received an election address from the No to EU party, a left trade union inspired initiative that aims to be an alternative to the neoliberal consensus that is now weaker in Labour, but sadly still there. Here is … Continue reading →

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The National Health Service, and Ken Loach, in the UK and Latin America

Posted on 30 March, 2013 by

Strange to think that 12 months ago I was in San Salvador, having just travelled overland through Nicaragua and Honduras from Costa Rica.  I wouldn’t mind some of that hot weather here now  this winter is interminable, but at least … Continue reading →

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