Politics
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:...
TLE/Al Jazeera visits…The DSEI arms fair
By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Before I start, I’ll level with you, I’m a pacifist. In a perfect world we would be able to end conflict with dialogue and restraint rather than bombs and bullets. However, I know that this isn’t the world we live in, and states need weaponry to defend themselves, and they have to get them from somewhere. With that in mind I did some filming for Al Jazeera at the DESI 2015 Defence and Security Equipment...
Edward Snowden: Spies and the Law
By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent Edward Snowden, the man responsible for the biggest leak of top secret intelligence files the world has ever seen, lives in James Bond-esque secrecy in Russia. Ahead of tonight’s BBC Panorama documentary Peter Taylor has had no direct communication with the man responsible for rising the debate over privacy and national security to a new level – framing the agenda for this autumn’s parliamentary debate over controversial new legislation previously criticised as “the snoopers’ charter”....