Left voices, unfiltered, unedited, Ungagged.
It is difficult to work out what the next steps will be in Parliament and what the Tories and the Labour party will propose in the inexorable countdown to Brexit. What we do know is what has happened up to this point. The Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK and the EU has been voted […]
I’ll start with a confession. I am a big fan of British state occasions – openings of parliament, royal weddings, state funerals and sundry solemn occasions. I love them. The British Establishment does them incredibly well, from the hushed tones of the reverential commentators to the throngs lining London’s beautiful streets, to the Red Arrow […]
Why Brexit cannot and must not take place on the 29th of March, 2019 Breaking News – Theresa May’s ‘deal’ has just been defeated in the House of Commons by 432 votes to 202!!! However you voted in the referendum, whatever you think about the merits or failings of the EU, everyone please just stop and think. […]
Originally published in International Green Socialist The Insanity of Brexit debates. Forward The Marxist method of rising from the abstract to the concrete, concerns the construction of conceptual models (theory) which correspond to things which have material existence. In the political sphere of course, we are concerned with human social practices. Practices of course are […]
Happy Christmas all. I hope all of your seasonal wishes come true. The best, most festive wish for me, would be for the left in Scotland to update and announce again to the world its demand for a secular, fair and independent Scotland, fighting for and within a fair, equitable Europe. I know this isn’t […]
Ungagged asked me to write something about the current UK political rollercoaster so here goes. Though where do you even begin? For me it actually feels more like being trapped in a giant kaleidoscope with a new political pattern emerging almost every day. Yet nothing really changes.In a way UK politics has been held […]
As I flick from watching Liverpool handle a European competition in a far finer manner than Theresa May and the Tory Party to comments on social media, I am shocked, befuddled and amazed at the lack of any political insight by Members of Parliament of opposition parties. The call by the likes of Ian […]
John McDonnell MP sparked a political row when he said he would find it hard to be friends with a Tory because of the impact of Tory policies on his constituents. I completely understand why he said it and I agree with him. This something we aren’t really supposed to say, so let me explain […]
On Saturday 20th October, an estimated 700 thousand people marched in what may have been the biggest demonstration since the Iraq war. The official title of the march was ‘The March for a People’s Vote’ referring to the demand made by the organisers for a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal, which would include […]
Last week Tory MSP Michelle Ballantyne sparked a furore – and a rather magnificent speech from Tom Arthur MSP – by expressing support in the Scottish Parliament for the two child benefit cap, saying that “It is fair that people on benefit cannot have as many children as they like while people who work and […]