Batley and Spen Is Not a Victory for Keir Starmer
Labour’s razor-thin victory in Batley and Spen owes to Kim Leadbeater’s popular local candidacy – not to a party leadership that continues to alienate its own core voters.
4350 Articles by:
Rae Hart
Rae Deer is an economist and freelance writer.
The Fallout from Climate Change Isn’t Coming – It’s Already Here
As one historic heatwave tears through the Pacific Northwest, another is causing temperatures ‘too hot for humanity’ in Pakistan – the consequences of climate change are no longer a threat, they’re already here.
Fighting the Privatisation of Channel 4
The Tories are once again threatening to privatise Channel 4, the latest in a string of attacks on public broadcasting – to only way to fight back is to build a campaign for a truly democratic media.
Food Banks Shouldn’t Exist
Last year, the Trussell Trust distributed a record-breaking 2.5 million emergency food parcels. That charitable giving isn’t cause for celebration – it’s proof of the total abdication of responsibility by our politicians.
How the Fall of Mining Unions Eroded the Foundations of the ‘Red Wall’
Since the 2019 election, commentators have focused on the demise of Labour heartlands in the ‘red wall’ – but few have focused on the central role once played by trade unions in sustaining a sense of community.
Remembering David R Edwards
David R Edwards, vocalist from experimental Welsh-language group Datblygu, has died aged 56. His work was pivotal in the Welsh musical underground – and in the revival of a radical Welsh culture.
Why Sajid Javid Will Be a Disaster for the NHS
‘Hopeless’ Hancock is out, but his successor Sajid Javid is ideologically committed to privatisation and an investor in private healthcare – the perfect candidate to accelerate the sell-off of our NHS.
Labour’s Backtrack on Free Social Care Is Abandoning Disabled People
The Labour Party’s backpedalling on a National Independent Living Support Service shows the party isn’t serious about fighting for disabled people – or about investment in the public services we need.
Coming Out Against Imperialism
In the 1970s, pioneering gay activists in the US and Britain saw the fight against homophobia as part of a much broader struggle – one which linked Pride to the cause of liberating the world’s oppressed peoples.
Debunking the Myths of Liberalism
Liberalism is often framed as the politics of human rights and individual freedom, but its origins lie just as much in a fear of the masses – and only understanding that anti-democratic impulse can clarify its purpose.
The Two Englands
The Tories portray themselves as the natural party of a conservative England, but there is another England – one with a centuries-old tradition of radicalism and dissent against the established order.
The Socialist Architecture of Svetlana Kana Radević
Svetlana Kana Radević was one of the great architects of socialist Yugoslavia – her emphasis on public space showed what architecture can achieve when liberated from the constraints of the property market.
Starmer’s Blairite Bunch
Keir Starmer’s reshuffle of his top staff is an attempt to shift the blame for the party’s ongoing poor performance – but bringing in more Blair-era right-wingers will only make Labour’s problems worse.
How Cricket Became a Symbol of West Indian Pride
In the post-war era, Caribbean independence coincided with the rise of the West Indies cricket team – making matches against England political affairs which pitted former coloniser against the colonised.
How the Clarion Cycling Club Put the Brakes on Socialism
After more than a century of tradition, the Clarion Cycling Club severed its historic link to socialism earlier this month at a contentious AGM – breaking ties to the workers’ movement which brought the club into existence.
Building Urban Myths
Jimmy Cauty’s exhibition ESTATE makes model villages out of some of Scotland’s best known housing projects – raising questions about working-class housing and the mythologies it inspires.
Liveable Sick Pay Saves Lives – But the Tories Don’t Want You to Have It
This week we discovered that the Treasury suppressed information about access to sick pay – just the latest scandal from a government which has refused to make liveable sick pay available throughout Covid-19.
After the Office
Despite the pleas of commercial landlords, working from home is here to stay in many cases – it’s time to use the opportunity to refocus our public space on community, rather than the needs of corporations.
New Zealand’s Forgotten Socialist Modernism
In the 1940s, New Zealand’s Labour government employed architects who fled Nazi Germany to design working-class housing in Auckland – and inspire a vision of what a socialist city of the future might look like.
We Still Need to Kill the Bill
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is due to finish its current stage today, returning to Parliament in early July. We can and must kill it – but we should also be asking how our ‘democratic’ system produced it in the first place.