Opinion

I have a pen-pal in the Shadow Cabinet, a bond having been forged during the upheavals of the PLP's failed rising against Jeremy Corbyn. Ever since, on a irregular basis I have shared observations drawn from the experience of years spent fighting elections as a Liberal Party apparatchik in Canada. Please do not try playing 'guess the pol.' I am calling my friend Jane, but that is neither a hint as to name or gender. The following began as an...

I can recall that when I was about five years of age I would be taken door to door by my Grandmother, clasping her petition clip board, fired up with the latest outrage that had got her off the sofa and on to the streets. She had found brief distraction from wrestling on the telly and was attired in her activism outfit, which included a beret made out of, what looked like, the body of Spit the dog (a hugely popular...

They haven’t been too accurate in recent times, but if the latest polls are to be believed, Jeremy Corbyn’s ratings are on the up. Growing significantly day by day. For a politician that is routinely ridiculed in the mainstream press, it seemed almost unconceivable three weeks ago that the UK would witness anything other than a Conservative whitewash in the forthcoming snap general election. That may still happen. However, there appears to be a groundswell of support building for Labour, and...

Earlier this year Starbucks made a pledge to hire 10,000 refugees globally over the next five years in a publicity-fuelled stunt that hit all the right notes following Donald Trump's inauguration and amidst all the dark clouds hanging over the toxic geopolitical environment. The warm gesture provided a much-needed PR boost for the often beleaguered coffee house chain, but sentiment has little to do with it, the truth is that it makes good business sense. Over the next decade Starbucks is planning to have another 12,000 new stores...

By Mark Brill, senior lecturer in Digital Communication and Future Media at Birmingham City University Social Media has become a key battleground for political campaigning. Ahead of the upcoming UK election the main parties are putting social media at the core of their campaigns. The question is, how will all that activity impact on the final vote on June 8th? The first significant use of social media in elections was Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008. Hiring a team...

Though many of the main elements of Labour's 2017 election manifesto and its 'For The Many Not The Few' pitch were leaked last week, the full manifesto is well worth a read as it offers a very different vision for Britain than the Conservatives have given us so far. Some policies here really designed to spread the wealth and happiness while reinvesting in the institutions that make Britain great. Theresa May is expected to publish her manifesto on Thursday -...

By James Clark Despite the hysteric ramblings of the established British press, Jeremy Corbyn is no revolutionary socialist. It takes little consideration to realise that the policies which Corbyn’s Labour propose do not intend to threaten the existence of the capitalist system. The state, money and the wage system still have a role in Corbyn and his follower’s vision for British society. Indeed, Labour’s objective appears to be to manage capitalism in a way that suits the interests of business,...

By Mohamed Abdirahaman Saman, International Medical Corps, Somalia emergency response team When I met Nalow Hassan two weeks ago, the 30-year-old wife and mother had already lost two children. Aged six and four, the two youngsters had succumbed to acute watery diarrhoea. Now she is on the brink of losing a third - her youngest, 15-month-old Ahmed Abdi, who is seriously ill and Nalow and her husband Abdi have no money to pay for medical care. Tears streaming down her face,...

It was Richard Nixon who got me into politics, and now that he's gone, I feel lonely. He was a giant in his way. As long as Nixon was politically alive -- and he was, all the way to the end -- we could always be sure of finding the enemy on the Low Road. There was no need to look anywhere else for the evil bastard. He had the fighting instincts of a badger trapped by hounds. The badger...