Politics
Socialism is Not a Dirty Word
By Harry Bedford Bernie Sanders, one of the candidates for the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential nomination, is already making great waves - gaining huge amounts of public and financial support for his left-wing policies. As well as connecting with his ideals, people find him engaging and inspiring - two essential qualities of a president. But he will never be handed the keys to the White House because he is a self-confessed socialist in a country where socialism is seen as the work...
Animal Agriculture off the Agenda Again
Opinion from Jimmy Pierce Experts will soon gather in Paris for the annual UN Climate Change Conference to discuss how to cut carbon emissions and halt temperature rises, but the principal contributor is likely to be left off the agenda. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, water consumption, species extinction, habitat loss, ocean dead zones and pollution, responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all transport in the world combined. Its impact is persistently ignored, wilfully neglected in...
The Century Of The Self – If Curtis Covered The Cameron Years
By Callum Towler I recently re-watched Adam Curtis' seminal BBC documentary series 'The Century Of The Self' - a provocative analysis of how Sigmund Freud's ideas about our irrational desires first spawned the PR industry in the 1920s, through his calculating nephew Edward Bernays, and later seeped into politics as a potent method of attaining power. If you haven't seen it, you can view the episode in question below. It is a fascinating insight into the volatile relationship between the state...
Parliamentary Sketch 21st Oct – Going out steeling with the Chinese
By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Today’s PMQs began with a quick guide to consumerism, Susan Elan Jones, Lab, asked why Sunday trading hours shouldn’t be extended: “What about families?” she asked despairingly. The PM robustly replied: “This is about families.” Eh, no Dave, this is about consumer capitalism. He nearly wept when he discussed families who conduct the long march around department stores “for hours,” before they can pay for goods, bivouacking next to the Baskin Robbins concession and swapping...
Parliamentary Sketch 14th October – Can u-turn me into a star Jeremy?
By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor I guess if you failed to get on X factor, Britain’s Got Talent and that naked TV game show with Keith Chegwin, you can always e-mail Jeremy Corbyn for your fifteen minutes of fame, and hope he asks your question out. The lady who was used to present Corbyn’s first question at his maiden PMQs was on Radio 5 live by mid-afternoon the very same day. A moment with Richard Bacon, is never a moment...
We must challenge Austerity and the Deficit Lies
By Professor Mary Mellor The Labour U-turn to vote against Osborne’s fiscal charter ‘trap’ is welcome, but it cannot stop there – Labour needs to open up a real debate about public access to money in a modern economy. Osborne’s aim to enshrine in law that States must not run deficits is profoundly undemocratic. It reflects the demand of neoliberal ‘handbag economics’ that the public sector cannot and should not ‘create money’ by running a deficit. This denial of the right...
Calling Tories Evil Scum is Getting the Left Nowhere
By Callum Towler At rallies, protests, even among friends, I hear two phrases frequently levelled at Conservatives: the ‘Evil Tories!’ or those ‘Tory Scum!’ Such mud-slinging has long been attached to a faction of left-wing activism bitterly opposed to Conservatism. Unbridled from the restraints of coalition, we now see our government’s true ambition unfold. And the degree of malevolence - in policies like the scrapping of tax credits - is striking. Put it this way: if The Sun, Britain’s most...
Junior Doctors Contracts – Why are we fighting?
By, Anonymous I am incredibly lucky. Because I have a career that I am passionate about. Because I have had fantastic training. Because after three years of undergraduate study, five years at medical school, two years as a foundation doctor and three years as a hospital doctor training to be a GP, as of two months ago I am no longer a Junior Doctor. Following the collapse of negotiations between NHS employers and the BMA Junior Doctors representatives in October...
VIDEO – Tory Conference Delegate Allegedly Assaults Camerawoman at Disabled Protest
By Ben Gelblum The TLE have obtained footage of a delegate to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester man-handling a woman filming the Disabled People Against the Cuts protest (DPAC) outside the conference yesterday lunchtime. The TLE spoke today to the camera woman who was filming protests on Monday for live streaming website Independence Live. The 54-year-old who had traveled from Scotland to film thousands take to the streets of Manchester this week to protest against the Conservative austerity programme, said:...