Category: Articles

Labour is a government in waiting and is ready to properly fund Britain’s health, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE.

IN THE same week that it was revealed that the Tories are planning more sell-offs of our NHS, new research published by the Labour Party showed that nearly half of England’s maternity units closed to new mothers at some point in 2016.

With these revelations coming months after the winter crisis the Red Cross termed a “humanitarian crisis,” it seems that under Tory austerity, we now have a permanent crisis in the NHS.
Read the full article

Don’t believe the media lies, it is Corbyn’s Labour that cares about obscene levels of student debt, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE.

DESPITE a media frenzy of misrepresentation fuelled by the Tories, polling this week confirmed that only 17 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds interpreted Jeremy Corbyn’s comments to “deal with” historic student debt as promising a full write-off.

Do the tabloid journalists and Tory MPs who over the last few weeks have been again and again stoking an argument about student debt — and are desperately, even now, trying to keep the row going — care in the slightest about student debt and spiralling tuition fees?
Read the full article

KEN LIVINGSTONE pays tribute to the radical policies and achievements of former president Rafael Correa.

RAFAEL CORREA recently ended his time as president of Ecuador; his 10 years as leader have been marked by some outstanding achievements, which should be noted internationally by all progressives.

In a break from the neoliberal policies of the past, in the last decade Ecuador invested massively in free healthcare and free university education.

Programmes were developed to reduce poverty and measures were taken to combat tax evasion, reduce capital flight and protect the environment from plundering by multinational corporations.
Read the full article

Corbyn, by contrast, leads a Labour Party that is ready to govern in the interests of the many, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE.

THE success of Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn-led general election campaign in defying the odds and denying Theresa May a majority continues to transform the political scene in Britain, and nothing illustrated this more than the Queen’s Speech this week.

Key plans of the Tory manifesto were nowhere to be seen.

From scrapping free school lunch meals, to the hated “dementia tax” — which has been replaced by a review — to scrapping the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners through means-testing, to the proposed return of the barbaric practice of fox hunting, Theresa May simply can’t be confident of getting most of their manifesto through Parliament.
Read the full article

Theresa May entered the general election promising to be a strong and stable leader but is now reliant on the deeply reactionary DUP to govern, after one of the biggest own goals in British political history. Her government will be deeply unstable and can be defeated.

One reason why she can be defeated is that the scale of enthusiasm generated for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour message during the General Election campaign – especially amongst younger voters – was stunning and can provide a base to build on and change the direction of British politics for years to come.
Read the full article

THERESA MAY entered the general election promising to be a strong and stable leader but is now reliant on the DUP to govern, after one of the biggest own goals in British political history. Her government will be deeply unstable and can be defeated.

The Tories expected to write a script for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour during this election campaign: incompetence and weakness. Yet as they review the wreckage of this week, it’s clear that it didn’t go to plan.
Read the full article

The Tories’ general election manifesto is the most hard-right in living memory, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE.

ONE of the most ridiculous pieces of spin from Theresa May’s media mogul mates in this general election campaign has been the sustained attempt to present May and the Tory Party as a moderate or centre ground party, with one national paper terming their manifesto as “blue Labour” and another even trying to argue that the Tories are now a party of workers.
Read the full article

This General Election campaign so far, with three weeks to go, has been marked by Theresa May refusing to take part in TV debates with Labour’s leader to defend the Tory record, and being generally elusive in terms of economic policy commitments, including in the area of taxation.

We all know that Chancellor Philip Hammond wanted to put up National Insurance Contributions to the tune of £2 billion in the last budget, but was forced into a U-turn.
Read the full article

The Tories have rushed into this election because of economic difficulties and are offering no hope for a better future, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE.

IF YOU want to know why Theresa May rushed into calling a general election, despite repeatedly saying she wouldn’t do so, then the much quoted phrase “it’s the economy, stupid” sums it up neatly.

The Tories would like us to believe that the economy has recovered and that Tory austerity over the last seven years has made the economy strong.
Read the full article

With the publication of the ‘Rich List’ this week we learnt that the wealth of the top ten richest couples in the country has gone up by £3.4bn.

The 20 richest Britons alone are now worth £192bn – this is more than will be spent on health and education combined this year.

This isn’t a new development. It’s a long term trend, where their total wealth from 2005 to 2015 has more than doubled.
Read the full article