Democracy, monarchy, republicanism

Tory retreats on Elections Bill

The Tories have stepped back on two clauses in the Elections Bill, due to start “report stage” in the Lords on 6 April. Powers remove the right of categories of organisation (maybe including unions) to campaign in elections will nows be effective only on the recommendation of the Electoral Commission. New rules that could have made Labour’s affiliated unions liable for Labour campaign expenditure will be deleted. The Bill still includes a rule requiring photo ID to vote, and more. But this shows again that this government is one with many u-turns, unconfident with its strategy, and can be...

Corbynism, pacts and left parties

Over the last few months we’ve carried reviews , critical to one degree or another, of my booklet Corbynism: What Went Wrong? , and a response by me to some of the reviews. Unrepresented so far are the criticisms voiced by Michael Chessum in two debates with me on the booklet, at our Ideas for Freedom weekend event in July 2021 and at the Sun and Socialism event in August 2021. Michael’s views will be published in his own book on Corbynism, This Is Only The Beginning , but are not available in writing yet. Here, from the in-person debates, I offer a first sketch of his criticisms (as I...

Kino Eye: The Lost Prince

Most “royal” films are dross, but an exception is Stephen Poliakoff’s The Lost Prince (BBC, 2003), which recounts the short life of John, the youngest son of George V and Mary of Teck (the present Queen’s grandparents). John was discovered to be epileptic. He may also have been autistic. Regarded as an embarrassment, he was hidden from public view in a corner of the Sandringham Estate. In the last two years of life he was visited only twice by his mother. His elder brother, later Edward VIII (the one who abdicated), once described him as “more of an animal than anything else”. John was deleted...

Tories push on Elections Bill

On 17 January the House of Commons passed the Elections Bill – another front, alongside the Police Bill, Borders Bill and others, in the Tories’ push to narrow democracy. It now goes to the House of Lords. The Bill introduces a requirement for photo ID in order to vote, a change the Electoral Reform Society says could disenfranchise two million people; gives ministers more power over the Electoral Commission; and in a more minor but unbelievably blatant attempt to gain a Tory advantage, abolishes preferential voting for elected mayors in favour of first-past-the-post. In a specific attack on...

Scare Starmer more than the ghosts do

Ten Downing Street, when asked whether Tony Blair “deserves” the knighthood recently granted him, replied that it had no part in the decision. It belonged only to the Queen. Yet Keir Starmer eagerly smarmed for Blair: he had “vastly improved the country”. He didn’t even skirt the question in the obvious way, by pointing out that such medieval “honours” are always in due course given to former prime ministers, so merit has nothing to do with it. In a December interview Starmer was asked: is he a socialist? Even Tony Blair used to say he was a “democratic socialist”. Starmer evaded: “What does...

Congratulations, Sir Tony

In about a week over a million people have signed a petition to rescind Tony Blair’s knighthood. (According to Private Eye , the reason Blair has got a knighthood rather than a peerage is that he doesn’t want his financial dealings subject to the minimal scrutiny parliamentarians must submit to.) Some on the organised left are pushing the petition. It is being pushed hard by the Stop the War coalition and by self-described revolutionary socialists within it (notably Counterfire). Of course Blair should be condemned . The sentiments motivating many or most of those signing the petition are...

Hundreds of thousands defy Sudanese junta

On 30 December Sudan will see the eleventh round of protests since the military coup on 25 October. 19 and 25 December saw huge turnouts, and in between the official dates for demonstrations protests of various sorts seem to be continuing pretty much non-stop. In the last week many hundreds have been arrested, and hundreds injured including in some cases through direct hits with tear gas canisters and stun grenades. On 25 December a 12 year old boy was flogged. On 19 December at least 13 women and girls were raped, sparking protests specifically against sexual violence. Since 25 October the...

Borders Bill puts 40% of ethnic minority UK citizens at risk

The protest-criminalising Police Bill is just one element of the Tories' push towards a vicious authoritarian state. Just behind it in the parliamentary queue of measures to assault the rights of people living in, working in or trying to come to the United Kingdom, the Nationality and Borders Borders Bill passed the House of Commons on 8 December and is now on its second reading in the House of Lords. The Bill now attacks the rights not just of the small numbers of refugees the Tories are trying to present as some kind of overwhelming tide , but of vast numbers of UK citizens – mainly with...

The Police Bill is a dire threat to the right to protest. Protest now!

Hong Kong activists join London demonstration against the Police Bill, December 2021 Environmental and social justice campaigners in the UK must be alert to the existential threat posed by the current Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill - with recent amendments making the proposed new law even worse than we'd all feared. The Bill is supposed to be draconian - but the most recent House of Lords amendments are so badly drafted that they will allow for oppressive policing of protests far beyond anything admitted by Priti Patel, the home secretary. As a practicing barrister I have been...

Stop the expanded Police Bill!

Earlier this year, during sizeable demonstrations against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, there was talk of the law at least being stripped down, removing its most egregious aspects. In fact, after demonstrations died away, the Tories have gone in exactly the opposite direction. As the bill has moved through the House of Lords, the government has proposed a raft of amendments which dramatically expand its oppressive features. Jun Pang of human rights organisation Liberty, which has been campaigning consistently against the Bill (though not mobilising people on the streets), has...

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