Today, Alex Smith and Luke Bozier launch Labour’s Business, their excellent work on how we need to engage with business (rather than alienate it). I’ve done Chapter 3, Reaching Out: engagingwith business at every level of the party and there are other chapters by Anthony Painter, Hazel Blears and Kitty Usher among others, and Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna has… Continue reading Labour’s business: out today
Month: November 2011
How we all look from the other side of the world
We are all taught at school about the five, or even the seven, continents. But in business and elsewhere many still think of the world in three groupings, matching the three broad time-zones, or the three big financial centres, of the developed world: Europe, America and Asia. In each there exists an informal hub for… Continue reading How we all look from the other side of the world
The Centre Left goes to…Australia!
The Centre Left is, as they say in all the best rock bands, “on hiatus” (usually, apparently, around the time they start “not feeling it”) for a couple of weeks. On the minus side, the last major left-wing government in Europe, Spain, will probably fall while I’m away (although a last-minute rush for Rubalcaba is… Continue reading The Centre Left goes to…Australia!
The world still doesn’t know about the PSC
Well, from my New Statesman article last Friday about anti-semitism, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and their fellow-travellers, I learned a couple of things: that there are an awful lot of crazy people in the world, most of whom, it seemed, wanted to comment on my piece; and that there are also sensible, decent people on the left… Continue reading The world still doesn’t know about the PSC
Labour vindicated on the economy? Not so fast
Polly Toynbee On Monday Alastair Campbell ran a positive blog piece which points out that a billion pounds worth of infrastructure projects signals a change in the Tories’ previous policy of “no plan B”: “It is not exactly plan B. But it is an admission of sorts that plan A isn’t working, that their hope… Continue reading Labour vindicated on the economy? Not so fast
Cameron’s history notes 1: Achilles, revisited
Last week, David Cameron had a bad week. But it’s important to understand what kind of a bad week. He’s had not a defeat, but a sour victory in the Commons against his own rebels; but so did Tony Blair on two memorable occasions – Iraq and tuition fees – when he feared he might… Continue reading Cameron’s history notes 1: Achilles, revisited