a worker's views
bolshievik The murder of Boris Nemtsov was Vladimir Putin’s fault. There is absolutely no doubt about that, at least not in the minds of the editors of the mainstream media. The first reports I heard on the shooting were on Radio 4, and they were repeated evry half hour or hour through the day. They unfailingly … Read more
Last week I drove to Glasgow. There were two of us in the car. I used a tank full of petrol to get there, and a tank full of petrol to get back. The petrol alone cost me about £150. I did not need the car when I got there. We were staying for the … Read more
Workers’ democracy differs from capitalist democracy in one major way. It enables the working class to control the people it selects to run the country on their behalf. If you think that the present systems of democracy achieve that, you are clrearly a simpleton. There are many ways in which the “will of the people” … Read more
What is the definition of an opportunist? Someone who has no fixed principles but jumps at every opportunity to make themselves look good. This is a week of opportunism in politics, and it is still only Tuesday. On Sunday Danny Alexander went on the Andrew Marr Show to announce his new principled opposition to tax … Read more
When the Tories and Lib-Dems say “difficult decisions” they mean cuts. Cuts. They would rather use six syllables because cuts is the C-word in politics. So when they use the euphemism we should call them (the politicians) “difficult deNcisions” – its like Cuts, but with an extra N.
Irony is not Danny Alexander’s strong point. The Treasury Minister who has diligently carried George Osborne’s bag for him over the last 4 years or so, and happily popped up on screen to present the ‘human face’ of the cuts imposed by the Coalition, sprang to the defence of his Lib-Dem leader yesterday. Mr Clegg … Read more
Vicky Pryce has written an article for The Evening Standard setting out what she thinks will decide the forthcoming election. She is an economist. And she argues that “It’s still the economy, stupid”. She makes a good point in her opening paragraph: “in reality voters are not stupid. What matters to them is the … Read more
The victory of Syriza in the Greek elections on 25 January show the willingness of the working class to stand up to vicious attacks by the ruling class on their living standards and hard-won rights. Syriza is vaunted as “radical leftics”, “communist” or even “Marxist” in the right-wing press. They are none of the above. … Read more
I was looking up some facts and figures about our thin blue line “heroes” when I cam across this article from the Telgraph, which is almost 3 years old now. But I could not have put it any better myself. The facts speak for themselves: Forces across England and Wales employ policemen and women with … Read more
When I read accounts of mass killings, like the attack on the military school in Peshwar on 16 December, I experience horror and disgust. The accounts remind me of watching documentaries about England in the 17th century. I remember recently watching one of those dramatised documentaries in which a royal female (I forget who) had … Read more