HARRY BARNES finds Nick Cohen’s book, What’s Left?, a stimulating yet flawed polemic. Love it or hate it, this is a readable and serious political romp. In What’s Left? How liberals lost their way, Nick Cohen wishes to shake up wide elements of left and liberal opinion which he feels ignore some clear home...
The right to the city
If our urban world has been imagined and made then it can be re-imagined and re-made, says DAVID HARVEY. The city, the noted urban sociologist Robert Park wrote, is: Man’s most consistent and on the whole, his most successful attempt to remake the world he lives in more after his heart’s desire. But, if...
A time of peace?
As power-sharing devolution emerges in Northern Ireland, PAUL DIXON wonders how long the political peace will last. On 8 May 2007 devolution was restored to Northern Ireland as Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein were sworn in as First and Deputy First Minister. The lion has lain...
Thirteen wasted years
Former MP HARRY BARNES offers his own take on Tony Blair’s time in office, and his thoughts on Labour’s future. Few of those who voted for Tony Blair in the Labour leadership contest of 1994 knew or cared about his new Labour project. It was sufficient for the centre and right-wing of the party...
Leaders not into the future
Does Labour’s change of leadership reflect anything more politically profound than a change of personnel? HAZEL HAED asseses the evidence. Gordon Brown’s long and painful wait to assume the top spot in British politics is now coming to an end. After enduring Tony Blair’s farcically long goodbye, Brown was shorn of the need actually...
The temptation of honest mutuality
DAVID BYRNE examines the recommodification of the welfare state, and says mutuals must decide which side they are for – corporate capital or socialism. “He who sups with the devil had best use a long spoon.” (Traditional) We are at a crisis point in the trajectory of welfare capitalism. It is worth dwelling for...
A task of two halves
ADAM BROWN reports on an acrimonious end to the government’s Football Task Force, and analyses its failings. The Football Task Force was set up in July 1997 by the incoming Labour government and concluded its business in December 1999. Its remit covered seven specific areas: racism; disabled access to grounds; football’s role in the...