[…] a selection from the Socialist Workers’ Party’s publications. The subject matter ranges from major pieces about Lockerbie and Colin Wallace, a collection of savage attacks on the Blair crew, through individual scandals (notably his brilliant assault on Jeffrey Archer in the Evening Standard and his account of the destruction of the Daily Mirror) to […]
[…] the Western Sahara, Vanunu etc. Among the authors of these pieces are Anita Roddick and George Galloway MP. I suppose it represents the internationalism of the pre- Blair Labour party, and though its subject matter didn’t ring any bells for me, its appearance is welcome. £12 for 12 issues, cheques made payable to TUCND, […]
[…] listing Mo Mowlam, Chris Smith, Peter Mandelson, Liz Symons, George Robertson and Jonathan Powell as important BAP members appointed to high office under new Prime Minister Tony Blair. After listing a small number of non-Labour BAP candidates in the election the newsletter added: ‘Meanwhile James Naughtie (’89) and Jeremy Paxman (’90) gave them all […]
[…] fact, as a great wasted talent. This man, we are routinely assured, could have led either the Conservative or the Labour party; but then so could Tony Blair, so this hardly amounts to a great endorsement, even assuming its validity. But what does this biography contribute to the debate? Beckett was never one of […]
[…] cover-up inquiry in the Profumo case. In Thatcher & Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts (2006) Simon Jenkins comments that one effect of the Thatcher, Major and Blair years has been the running down of local and regional democracy and the enormous growth in the unelected power of the Treasury. The Conservatives had a […]
[…] Highly enjoyable and entertaining, anyway. There is one conspicuous absentee here. The major British millennial cult is the New Labour group currently fronting the Labour Party. Tony Blair gives every indication to me of being about to drift away on a pillow of guff from his moorings among the rest of us.(1) Notes Preparing […]
[…] Politics: Security Intelligence and the Liberal Democratic State, was reviewed in Lobster 27. This may reflect one of the core, unstated beliefs at the heart of the Blair ‘modernisation’ of the Labour Party. Modernisation equals pre-emptive capitulation. I seem to remember that the Canadian model was cited as an exemplar in a resolution on […]
[…] two and a half years later, with a new identity. Davies’s book raises very important issues at the centre of British operations in Ireland. Just as the Blair government has conceded a fresh inquiry into Bloody Sunday so we must demand an inquiry into official collusion with the loyalist murder squads. Of course, when […]
[…] John Major knew better (with his rushed through privatisation) and New Labour, despite pre-election undertakings to re-nationalise the industry, just went belly-up on the proposal. Remember Tony Blair in opposition saying he wanted to see ‘a publicly accountable, publicly owned railway’? Christian Wolmar is a canny and perceptive writer on the politics and economy […]
[…] of the Gang of Four, the strength of the traditional two-party system and the subsequent changes in the Labour Party under Neil Kinnock, John Smith and Tony Blair, the ‘mould breakers’ were doomed from the outset. Yet while all these domestic factors may have some merit we cannot ignore the strategic context in which […]
