My friend John Kampfner ( I want to vote for a progressive Labour platform. So I’m backing the Lib Dems , 9 March) is amnesic and myopic. His memory of Labour “changes for the better” omits the highest level of employment in UK history, the massive increases in NHS, education, science and overseas development investment, child and pension tax credits, and several other large contributions to social justice. He evades the current reality of a government fighting against recession...
After the UUP spurned Cameron’s advice not to vote against the devolution of policing, unease about the pact was expressed on both sides of the Atlantic David Cameron was facing pressure last night over his alliance with the Ulster Unionists after a senior Tory warned that voters will face an “inconsistent” choice and a leading US congressman challenged the Conservative leader to act as an honest broker. As the Tories pledged to press ahead with their alliance, after the UUP spurned...
Party’s revised constitution would require all applicants to submit to a two-hour home visit, court is told The British National party plans to send officials to vet all would-be members in their homes, a court heard today. A clause in the far right group’s revised constitution would require all applicants to submit to a two-hour home visit by two party officials, Central London county court was told. That could operate as a form of indirect discrimination against non-whites, said Robin...
• Waterboarding of 9/11 suspect was ‘concealed’ • Manningham-Buller criticises Bush staff The government protested to the US over the torture of terror suspects, the former head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller revealed last night. She also said the Americans concealed from Britain the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 2001 attacks. “The Americans were very keen that people like us did not discover what they were doing,”...
Intervention by the former US president in the Northern Ireland peace process receives a mixed reception Steve Bell
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Labour is repositioning itself as the hanging and flogging party, whereas the Tories are a bunch of bleeding-heart, Guardian-reading milquetoasts It’s going to be an awful campaign, awful. Yesterday we were at Labour HQ (they still have a smart new building in Westminster, but after the election they may move to a scout hut in Streatham) to see the video. It was introduced by the home secretary and by Harriet Harman, glossier than ever. Her eyes were like French-polished lentils. I spoke to...
With general election looming, questionnaire seeks views on how Labour party should renew itself The first signs of Labour looking beyond the general election have emerged as the pressure group Compass launches a vast canvassing exercise to solicit ideas on how to rebuild the party. Compass will today dispatch a questionnaire to 40,000 email addresses kept on its own database, and also to a much wider network, including Facebook, as the group attempts to reach out for views on how the party should...
A nearly $140 billion bill to extend unemployment benefits and a host of expiring tax cuts cleared a procedural hurdle Tuesday in the Senate on a vote of 66-34, setting up passage of the bill possibly later in the day. Eight Republicans joined with all Democratic senators except for Ben Nelson of Nebraska on the vote to end debate on the bill, which still must be merged with a companion bill in the House. One Republican senator, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, said he voted yes to "keep the process...
David Miliband issues plea as diplomats fear Afghanistan peace conference headed for failure Britain will tomorrow urge the Afghan government to put more effort into the pursuit of peace talks amid fears that the war could be prolonged – and more British lives lost – as a result of incompetence and lack of political will in Kabul. A speech to be delivered in the US by the foreign secretary, David Miliband, will reflect growing anxiety in London that President Hamid Karzai’s professed desire...
Corporate governance in both public and private sectors will benefit from raising minimum pay Sympathetic obituarists of New Labour will struggle to identify in its legacy a true step forward for social justice: it has certainly put this concept back on the political agenda, yet social inequalities remain as great in many respects as those inherited in 1997. Yet one of the most striking developments of the past 10 years has been the emergence of a concept resonant of old Labour and the cause of the...
