Monday's link share

• Excellent interview with Ken Livingstone covering Frank Dobson, the Greens and much more. Part one and part two.
  
  
• An article in the Independent on Gail Cartman who's running for the leadership of UNITE.
  
  
• Hate to see blog articles full of links? Perhaps you're not the only one, Nicholas Carr speaks.
  
  
• Luna17 has some excellent footage of John Rees speaking at today's flotilla protest in London.
  
  
• The void reports on a very unchristian eviction.
  
  
• Lay scientist has some hints and tips on lobbying Parliament.
  

Freedom Flottilla Attacked

The attack on the freedom flotilla delivering aid to Gaza is completely unwarranted and disgraceful. Reports of the number of dead and wounded vary but we're talking about at least a dozen killed and thirty seriously wounded by the Isreali Navy.

Israel made the ludicrous claim that the peaceniks opened fire on them and attacked them with baseball bats, which is why so many of them had to been killed. This is not credible. These murders, in international waters, are all in aid of ensuring that Gaza remains impoverished and denied medical equipment and other aid.

Words fail me. International protests and condemnation has already begun, but nothing yet from the UK government.



There will be protests today in;

London, Downing Street, 2pm

Aberdeen - St Nicholas Square, 5pm
Banff - Low Street, Council Buildings, 5pm
Brighton, Churchill Square, 6pm
Bristol, Centre (opposite the Hippodrome) starting at 3pm
Birmingham City Centre Waterstones 4pm
Cambridge, outside Guildhall, 2pm
Cardiff - Queen Street at Nye Bevan statue 3pm
Dundee - City Square, 5pm
Edinburgh - Foot of the Mound, 5pm
Glasgow - George Square, 5pm
Inverness - Townhouse, 5pm
Manchester outside the BBC on Oxford Rd, 5pm
Moffat - 2 Holm Street, 5pm
York St Sampsons Square, 2pm

Please do let me know of any I've missed.

Sunday Reading: anti-racist edition

A few handy links, today's theme is disapproving of the whole racism business.

• I see that the UAF (Unite Against Fascism) have a new website. Pretty.
  
  
• Conversely Lancaster Unity reports on the BNP's troubles with their website.
  
  
• The Morning Star reviews an anti-fascist exhibition that's coming to Newcastle, Manchester and Nottingham.
  
  
• Croydon Today reports that BNP candidate David Clarke has been convicted of assault.
  
  
• Fresh politics reports on the anti-fascist protests in Newcastle.
  
  
• The Centre for a Stateless Society says that when it comes to immigration - anarchy works.
  

A surprise Eurovision post

I take little interest in the Eurovision song contest so it's a tiny bit surprising to find myself writing a quick piece on the thing. Apparently the UK came last, for the third time in a decade, with some dismal sub-pop tripe. It constantly bemuses me why we enter tunes that patently have no artistic merit.

I suppose it's worth noting that the UK have only started coming last after we began deciding our entries on a public vote. If you're going to let the public decide I suppose you will get Stock, Aitkin and Waterman - without the Aitkin even.

Of course the nay sayers have two essential arguments about why the world is so unfair. Firstly that, yes, our song was shit - but it's Eurovision for heavens sake - it's meant to be shit. Au contraire mon frere, it's music and therefore meant to be tolerable at the very least. It's a general rule that the winners of the contest tend to be better than the losers. Next year why not maximise the UK's chances of wining by entering a song that it's possible to listen to without retching.

The second point they make is that all the voting is political so we just don't have a chance. Well, it's nice that these people admit that a decade of international belligerence has made us a pariah state, but sadly it's just not true. Last year we came in the top five by using the sneaky technique of getting people who know what they're doing to put our entry together. It's possible to do well, but not if we enter the musical equivalent of scabies, but without the glamour.

This year we had possibly the classyest entry from Armenia, if by classy you mean cheap where the camera wuld literally have had to climb into the lead singers cleavage to get a more obvious breast shot at the beginning of the piece and there was also a well meaning stage invasion during the Spanish entry which I found rather charming.

Anyway, this is the second time that Germany have won the competition, the first time being in sunny Harrogate in 1982, a Eurovision that was wracked with controversy as the French refused to enter saying that "The absence of talent and the mediocrity of the songs were where annoyance set in. [Eurovision is] a monument to inanity."

How things have changed.

Anyway, 1982 was the year that my very favourite Eurovision song was entered, by Finland it was entitled "Bomb out" a piece dedicated to international brotherhood and the simple plea that nobody was to drop a nuclear weapon on the band, a Eurovision practice that has certainly had it's worthy advocates over the years.

Kojo's cold war anthem Nuku Pomiin had a great deal to merit it, even if it were not exactly a cultural masterpiece. You can find the lyrics here, but I think if I tell you that the opening lines pose the rarely asked question "If someone soon throws some nuclear poo here on our Europe, What will you say when we get all the filth on our faces?"

Enjoy.



Who could believe that it received just nul points? A scandal Eurovision has yet to recover from.

A little bit of party business

You can probably ignore this if you're not a member of the Green Party, but feel free to be nosy if you must.

It's that time again where deadlines approach for the September national conference. For example Tuesday at 9am is the deadline for motions to conference (for the first agenda).

I'm only submitting the one this time, my ill fated joint lists motion that has been having difficulties getting heard, mainly through a lack of plenary time - so I've got my fingers crossed that I can get it to conference floor this time as it always gets good support in the workshops.

This is how I described it last time, and as it is exactly the same motion so I may as well repeat myself "Currently the Party constitution forbids joint election lists with other parties or independents at proportional representation elections. This motion removes that bar whilst putting in place safeguards against 'unwise' decisions and ensuring the final decision is always with the members of the region concerned."

If you want to support this motion, and are a member, send me an email straight away. Ta.

Internal elections

That's not all though, if you can possibly contain your excitement, because nominations for the national executive open on Monday week. We have a whole host of positions that members might like to apply for, well eleven of them anyway (publications, equalities, external communications, policy and chair for example).

You need to have been a member for two years and get ten party members to nominated you for the post. My ideal is that every post is contested and that there's at least one candidate for each post who actually wants to do it! One day, perhaps, one day.

If you are thinking of putting yourself forward - please do, even for the posts where I'll be supporting someone else! Even if you don't think you'll win it's a good chance to make a point and good practice for later elections that you might win. There's nothing worse than a ballot paper where half the posts only have one candidate on them.

This year we also have leader and deputy leader posts up for grabs.

I'll be honest with you unless you are either Caroline Lucas or Adrian Ramsay you wont win if you put yourself up... however I can't be the only person who hopes that both roles are contested and the opportunity for a debate about the direction of the party is seized with both hands at this interesting time. I'll even nominate you if you like - although be prepared for the fact that I might not vote for you.

Today's Miscellany

• Peter Serafinowicz is an excellent comic actor (you may know him from Shaun of the Dead) and a stupendous, prolific tweeter. He's also written a very cogent argument for internet theft.
  
  
• Weggis looks at the BA dispute and the perils of facebook privacy settings, which is the second disgraceful BA strike / facebook story I've heard in a matter of days.
  
  
• AVPS examines crop trashing and social movement theory.
  
  
• Green Christian asks how should politicians relate to faith groups.
  
  
• Natalie Bennett, the Green Party's commissar for information, reviews Raising My Voice: The Extraordinary Story of the Afghan Woman Who Dares to Speak Out by Afghan MP Malalai Joya
  
  
• Left Foot Forward asks whether the Lib Dems have gone AWOL on international development.
  

Miscellany

Today's miscellany comes sponsored by the letters E, J and the number 4.

• The Morning Star puts out an appeal for support.
• Liam has a shocking story about ipad workers being asked to sign an anti-suicide contract.
• In a story that sent me ballistic with rage Madame Miaow compares the treatment given to Baroness Scotland with her cleaner.
• If you missed Caroline Lucas' maiden speech in parliament you can find it here and also check out the extraordinary front page of the Independent today.
• Do you need an armoured car? One careful owner who only used it to drive to church on a Sunday.
• Mark Steel relates what it's like being rung up by the Daily Mail.
  

News flash: "mephedrone deaths" not drugs related

Yes. You heard that right.

Those two poor lads whose deaths caused the almighty drugs panic around mephedrone had not even taken the drug (what I said at the time was wait for the scientific analysis before jumping to conclusions here).

The BBC reports;

Toxicology tests have shown that two teenagers whose deaths were linked to mephedrone had not taken the drug.

The deaths of Louis Wainwright, 18, and Nicholas Smith, 19, in March 2010 sparked concern about the synthetic stimulant, which was then legal.

The Labour government banned the so-called "legal high" in April, making it a Class B drug alongside amphetamines and cannabis.

But tests have revealed there were no traces of mephedrone in their blood.

It is thought further tests are being conducted to try to establish what, if any, substances the pair had taken.

Mephedrone - also known as Meow, Bubbles and M-CAT - is derived from cathinone, a compound found in a plant called Khat.

Humberside Police, which carried out the initial investigation into the teenagers' deaths, said in March it had "information to suggest these deaths are linked to M-CAT".

Its statement went on to say: "We would encourage anyone who may have taken the drug to attend a local hospital as a matter of urgency."

At the time, police believed the pair had been drinking and had also taken methadone - a similar-sounding but completely different drug to mephedrone.

On Friday, a spokeswoman said the force could not confirm or deny the results of the toxicology tests.

She said: "The pathology report, which includes toxicology findings, is prepared on behalf of the coroner and is not yet complete.

"The findings of the report, once completed, will be forwarded to the coroner and may be discussed at any inquest and will not be disclosed without the authority of HM Coroner."

North East Lincolnshire Coroners Court has refused to comment ahead of the inquest.

Mephedrone has been implicated in the deaths of 34 people in the UK - 26 in England and eight in Scotland.

But so far, the drug has been established as a cause of death in only one case in England, that of John Stirling Smith.

I expect you'll see a load of MPs (and ex-MPs) retracting their ill thought out drugs nonsense any day now....

What's left and right?

Simon requests that I say something about "right-wing Greens" no doubt to help people come to terms with the fact that the Green Party here-abouts stands on a clearly left-wing manifesto yet we hear about greens in foreign lands, and sadly sometimes closer to home, who're not exactly over burdened with socialist credentials.

I think this is a useful and interesting topic, so useful and interesting in fact that I'm going to take a little bit of a run up to it, so this is going to be the prequel to the readers request post itself.

The reason for this is not just that I'm an insufferable windbag who can't stop blathering on, it's also because I'd like to quickly grapple with a couple of points that would only clutter up the Green Right post.

The first is on the left-right spectrum and the second is the nature of parties.

I'm not one of those people who think that it's possible to step outside of the left-right axis. Loosely defined the left are people who want to see society become more egalitarian and are willing to challenge existing social structures to do so, and the right are those who hope to preserve the current way of doing things, or even move things backwards so that capitalism can function free and unhindered.

Whatever your politics you are somewhere on this scale. Objectively you will be either reinforcing inequality or challenging it no matter how slick your "new politics" PR machine may be.

However, this axis has never been an adequate way of describing someone's politics meaningfully. Simply saying that someone is more left or right wing than someone else is unlikely to tell you much about their politics unless you're hindered by a truly ultra-orthodox dogma.

For instance, there are people on the right who want a small state, low taxes, and think that the law should regulate the absolute minimum amount. There are others on the right who believe in a strong, authoritarian state with rock hard legislation to prevent anyone messing with an employer's right to make money - by joining a union or being unwell. Neither side of the big/small state argument is more or less right wing by default - they just disagree.

Add to this the complication that whilst political philosophies may be ideal types human beings rarely are. You can have those who do a bang up job challenging sexism but who despise immigrants. There are those who want to see radical progressive taxation create real redistribution of welath and who think the Queen is goodness personified. People are lovely and messy like that.

Then add on top of all this that sometimes political questions can be pretty tricky. For years even the most hardened socialists debated whether 'revolutionaries' should be members of the Labour Party. Whatever nuance you put on it you either end up with a party card or you don't and it's pretty hard to co-exist in the same organisation when glaring differences in strategy flow from that decision.

That's why I think it's fair to say that the thing that most divided the politics of the SWP and Militant in the eighties was not a competition about who was the most left wing but rather how they went about trying to achieve very similar programs for change.

Then you have emphasis. At anyone time a concentration on abortion laws, strike action, anti-war activity, building a rally, standing for Parliament or whatever may or may not be the right thing to do - but none of them are inherently more left or right wing than each other, but rather they are tactical considerations albeit ones that may have unintended political consequences.

All in all you have this complex mallange of strategy, tactics, personal history and tastes, errors of judgment, ways of working, accidents of philosophy, style and specific approaches to specific issues and the whole left/right thing starts to look less and less adequate as anything but a loose explanation.

Then we come to the second part of what I wanted to say - that all real parties, which have an actual internal life, are alliances of different political tendencies. Sometimes this is formal with specific in-party organisations (like the Fabians or Christian Socialists) and sometimes it's looser but no less real (like Blairites and Brownies).

Some people talk about Green Parties being divided between 'realos' and 'fundies' (or suits and tunics as I call them) but there are few Parties, if any, that actually have party groupings along those lines.

This means in general that parties can have both racists and anti-racists as members, pro-union and anti-union members, those who see elections as the be all and end all and those who come out in a rash at the very thought of canvassing the neighbourhood and asking for a vote or two. And, weirdly, that works.

There can be tensions or bouts of civil war but generally these alliances, of often very different kinds of politician, are stable, at least in established parties. That's stable and dynamic simultaneously, because of that very fact that we disagree and yet still come together.

When trying to capture the dynamic of any party we need to keep in mind that a) key fissures may not be left/right or revolutionary/reformist but over other kinds of disagreement, b) that parties are always in a process of change and development, c) that parties are also part of and influenced by more general social shifts and d) that decisions those parties take impact on how they behave in the future.

When I take a look at the 'Green Right' next time I'll try to keep things a little more concrete and practical, but I thought this might be a useful discussion to have first just to provide a kind of framework for debate.

Can't pay. Wont pay.

I went to the excellent 'Can't Pay. Wont Pay' meeting last night with a constellation of lefty speakers including BA workers. You can read reports from Liam, and Brendan, you can also see Caroline Lucas's speech here and read the text of one of the Greek speakers.

As a solidarity meeting with Greek workers and those resisting cuts across Europe, including in the UK, it was really useful. In particular I found the speaker from Unite when she was talking about the BA dispute enlightening and inspiring - which is what you want from an evening like this really.

What's clear is that while we face our own government's slash and burn approach to public spending here this is part of a global picture where the conditions of the poorest are under threat and jobs and services are in the firing line.

I thought I'd look up a few examples from Europe over the last couple of days, and I'm not even including Greece.

In France they are striking to protect retirement rights, including a protest of a million people.

Italy, they face wage freezes and public sector cuts, all to save the Euro. The unions say this could spark a national strike.

The German government, which is coordinating the Euro bailout packages is looking to ways of regulating the banking sector and are banning short selling, which is good... but of course the bail out packages they are arranging are the ones that come with strings attached to attack workers conditions. At least they are blowing up banks in retaliation.

In Spain it's likely there will be a general strike as the austerity package squeaks through Parliament.

Belgium may be the favourites to win Eurovision but they face higher education cuts, and private sector one day strikes and wildcat actions.

Denmark is seeing protests about aid cuts, and welfare cuts. in Ireland, which is still officially in recession, the spending cuts have begun to bite.

in the Czech Republic, they are trying to piece together some sort of political consensus in order to initiate economic 'reforms'.

There are mass protests in Romania. Albania is in political turmoil. Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reports that the US is ticking us off for not having a stern enough response to the crisis.

Of course in the United Kingdom we're squealing as we get hit with a fraction of the cuts to come.

I think I see which way the wind is blowing right now. I guess we have two choices. We can suck up the job cuts and withdrawal of public services or... we can pose and alternative while throwing a spanner in the works.

Green Reading Request

Prior to the election I had been reading up on how the hard left had grappled with getting elected to local councils in the past - which led me to some very interesting places that I may write up at some point - however, that all seems a bit pointless now so I'm going to focus on a different set of reading.

What I think I really need to do is brush up on my green politics. I know it's probably an odd thing to say but it's completely true - I've got no real grounding in green political thought.

Well, on second thoughts perhaps this doesn't surprise you.

While I've read a few things to be honest I'm just a reasonably straight forward socialist and find the Green Party a comfortable home for now, so I've never really made any attempt to come to terms with what, if anything, would constitute a specifically green politics.

Perhaps you could help me out?

My request is this - do you have any recommendations for me? What should I be reading in order to bolster my eco-credentials? I'm looking for politics and philosophy rather than science and issue based reading, which I'm probably stronger/less weak on. All help gratefully received.

Internet bashing

Just listening to the radio wheel out old, lazy cliches about the internet making people more isolated and lonely. Personally I think this is rubbish, people have never communicated with each other more, just because we do it in new ways does not make it a social problem.

I'd like to remind these people that isolation and loneliness is not new. Exhibit one, The Members wrote and performed this song long before anyone knew they'd be such a thing as the world wide web.



The idea that making it easier to keep in touch with those you know and create social networks of people you'd never normally get to meet is an isolating experience just seems strange to me.

It's far too easy to look at the past through rose tinted glasses and underplay the impact of poverty, rural isolation or what people with sociology degrees call 'social deviation' (not as fun as it sounds) could have upon people. All problems that are mitigated through the rise of social media, although obviously not eradicated.

I think it's true that today we have communities with little sense of community, but this is a process that began long before the internet came about and while there were lots of upsides to strogner community cohesion this came at a price where people were expected to conform to social standards far more tightly than they are today.

I suspect being trapped in a marriage because it's the thing you are meant to do was a far more depressing experience than anything Bebo has managed to conjure up.

The Oona file

So Oona King has put her media friendly hat into the London Mayoral ring as a potential challenger to Ken Livingstone for the Labour ticket. Her candidacy has been welcomed by quite a few Labour leaning folk who want to see a proper selection contest and have been concerned about the lack of diversity among the political class.

I share those concerns but, in the absence of Ms King putting forward any vision as to *why* she wants to be London's Mayor, I thought I might take a little look at her track record to see what we might glean from her past behaviour.

King was an MP from 1997 to 2005 in Bethnal Green and Bow, a reign that was cruelly cut off by 823 votes when she was beaten by George Galloway at the height of his powers. When she was first elected she was just the second black woman to be elected to Parliament, the first one being current Labour leadership challenger Diane Abbott.

I took a look at her voting record in the House for this period to see what kind of policies we might expect from her majesty.

• She voted strongly for student fees.
• Very strongly for ID cards.
• Very strongly for foundation hospitals.
• Very strongly for the Iraq War, and very strongly against an investigation into that war once it went balls up in a plastic handcart.
• She voted against measures to prevent climate change.
• Very strongly for a stricter asylum system (you know the one where we deport gay people to their deaths and lock up children - she wanted that toughened up).

In fact the only measures she voted for that can be regarded as progressive (fox hunting ban, gay rights, hereditary peers) were all the party line, a line from which she very rarely strayed. In fact politically she was possibly the most loyal minor bag carriers of the Blair years.

If there's one thing history has shown us it's that London likes their politicians on message and loyal to the party, so a DNA New Labourite should be just the ticket, no?

A few more links

Don't normally give two helpings of these a day but we've had some very special ones come in.

• Oona King is running for Mayor of London. I believe the expression is "facepalm". The article is doubly worth reading because it lists how many MPs each Labour leadership candidate has so far and how McDonnell supporters are bullying Abbott supporting MPs.
  
  
• A good link I've seen today is Brutish Airways.
  
  
• Following up from the BA direct action fuss yesterday I thought I'd post Martin Smith, SWP national organiser, on C4 news justifying the actions of his organisation. Other commentators that have discussed this are Lenin, HarpyMarx, AVPS, Air Strikes, Socialist Unity 1, Socialist Unity 2, People's Republic of Hove, Morning Star, Aled Fisher, Luna 17 the list goes on... More interestingly still it seems that the theory that this was youthful exuberance has rather gone out the window because exactly the same thing happened in Ireland the week before, so it now looks like a new model of protest for the SWP.
  
  
• In the Guardian a worrying, if expected, piece on how people are less concered about climate change. Meanwhile Lake Tanganeyka is hotter than it has been in 1,500 years.
  
  
• The journal Revolutionary History has an Iran issue out... looking forward to it.
  
  
• Last of all the Bolivian general in charge of rounding up Che Guevara has been arrested, for plotting against President Evo Morales.
  

Events coming up

Feel free to let me know of any events I've missed. I tend to go for national or London because that's where I live...

• DEFEND WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL COALITION MEETING

Monday 24 May 7pm, Whittington Community Centre, Yerbury Rd, N19. Nr Archway Tube

• Solidarity with the Greek Protests
  

Wednesday 26th May 7pm, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, WC1. Speakers.

• Camden Green Fair
  

Sunday 6th June from Midday until 7pm; Details

• Dreamers of a New Day – Women Who Invented the Twentieth Century

Thu 10 Jun, 6.30pm Bookmarks talk,with author Sheila Rowbotham WC1B 3QE link

• Keep Our NHS Public AGM

Saturday 12th June 10 for 11am, Somers Town Community Centre, Ossulston St, NW1; Link

• COMPASS "A New Hope" Annual conference
  

Saturday 12th June, Institute of Education, lots of speakers including Caroline Lucas, Hilary Wainwright, Paul Mason, loads more Link

• Morning Star Conference
  

Saturday 19th June from 10am Bob Crow, George Galloway and co. Congress House link

• Lewisham People's Day
  

Saturday 10th July Mountsfield Park, Catford music, cool things, stalls link

• Green Party Conference
  

Friday 10th September to Monday 13th in Birmingham; Details

Readers requests: No shock doctrine for the UK

Adam requests that I explain to everyone why they should visit www.noshockdoctrine.org.uk which is slightly cheeky bit of self advertisement as I might not think people should. But I do. So I shall.

In the next few years the political landscape is going to be dominated by how we deal with the economic crisis. While we may be officially out of recession history tells us that unemployment is likely to continue to grow and we are yet to feel what the results of the deficit reduction plans. There's also the outside chance that we may plunge back into recession for another taste, but let's leave the predictions on that one to the astrologers.

The government has made it clear that its response to the gap between the revenue it receives from taxation and the amount of money it spends will be to make some cuts in taxation and immediate and savage cuts in public services. Both Lib Dems and Tories were clear before the election that this was the plan and they are cracking on by outlining the areas where the axe will fall first.

They may promise us that 'front-line' services will not be effected but the scale of the cuts to come in the next few years will certainly hurt services, throw public sector workers onto a growing dole queue and leave us all worse off. As this video from public sector union UNISON explains the cuts will directly effect everyone.



It is my view that investing in job creation would pay for itself long term while stabilising the jobs market. When we are feeling the effects of the recession it is the very worst time to cut back public services that protect the most vulnerable.

It seems to me that there are a number of tasks that we need to get on with in response to approaching cuts. First we need to get specific. Across the country there will be a rash of campaigns to save specific NHS wards, nurseries, and other services - we need to make sure we are part of those campaigns and help to ensure the attempts to cut back are met with real resistance.

This can't be centrally driven but a national movement can support those local campaigns in much the way that the highly successful Defend Council Housing campaign has been able to do.

The government's plans must come at a political price to ensure that these parties are no longer electable, credible as a political force. Each ward, each job loss, each service withdrawn has to hurt the government whether or not we are able to save them.

That also means that once the government have made it clear what their exact plans are we need to scour them with a fine tooth comb and come up with a strong, critical and detailed response that is difficult to refute without appearing to be like Ghengis Khan.

I do think we need to firm up a more accessible version of the alternative economic vision embodied in the Green New Deal and turn it into something like a fighting document whose various demands can be fought for and won. My concern is that getting the balance right between the 'high politics' of the economic strategy and the 'community politics' of the local campaigns is a difficult trick to pull off without becoming either a nimby or indulging in dry political philosophy.

Popularising concrete alternatives to the government's approach is going to be vital so that we can build up a large movement of meaningful resistance rather than a clique of self-appointed radicals on a mission.

That's why sites like www.noshockdoctrine.org.uk are going to be so important in reaching out and building confidence that just because there is a political consensus in the Westminster bubble there is a people's alternative.

---

Can't Pay Won't Pay: Solidarity with the Greek protests

Date: Wednesday, May 26
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, WC1
Speakers: Caroline Lucas MP, Tony Benn and a host of others

A few links

• Oi! Pebble thief! Put that back you 'orrible little Member of Parliament!
  
  
• Labour and immigration. John Harris tuts very loudly.
  
  
• Talking of immigration I thought Cruella did a very good breakdown of what it actually is.
  
  
• Jane Watkinson looks at the public spending cuts to come.
  
  
• Harpy Marx asks us to support a Marie Stopes advert.
  
  
• also just wanted to point to two blogs I've not mentioned before People's Republic of Hove and Bristol Red.
  

BA-union negotiations disrupted by direct action

The BBC and the Telegraph report that the union negotiations between the UNITE union and BA management have been disrupted by protesters coming from the Right to Work conference. The BBC have particularly exciting footage which shows quite a few people I recognise from the SWP and at least three of them are employees of that organisation.

Now, I might be taking a wild stab in the dark here but there didn't seem to be a single BA worker among the protesters who'd decided to break up the union's negotiations. If anyone is going to make the decision to occupy their union's negotiations with management it should be the BA workers themselves, and not just one of them but collectively making that decision.

I have absolutely no idea what this is meant to achieve apart from making the strike more complicated for those workers who are already on the receiving end of abuse from media and management alike.

Derek Simpson, one of the union's negotiators tweeted that "Unite totally and absolutely condems [sic] the demonstrators who disrupted the talks at ACAS no member of cabin crew were involved". Now, whatever you think of him that seems to be a perfectly justified position to me.

Unsurprisingly Socialist Worker have a report up already where they unintentionally make clear that no BA worker asked them to disrupt their negotiations and that their key (or should that be only) purpose was in "demanding that activists build solidarity for the BA workers and hold collections to support the strikes."

So that's all about activists demanding things of other activists then without any involvement from the workers who are actually on strike and whose livelihoods are concerned. I don't think this is very cool, in fact I'd say it was the wrong way to help cabin crew win their dispute.

Readers Requests: My Desert Island Discs

Neil asks what my Desert Island Disc choices would be. For those unfamiliar DID is a very long running radio programme where guests are asked to imagine they have been marooned on a desert island and can rescue eight music tracks of their choice, one book and a luxury from their ship before it sinks.

This is damn hard you know! I'd find it much easier to choose eight books - but not much. I'll just bite the bullet and ignore all those great tunes I'm just going to have to miss out, although Natalie Portman rapping or the funky gibbon didn't make the short list..

As it Morrissey's birthday I think we should start with one of his later works which contains the immortal and brilliant line; "You have never been in love before you've seen the dawn rise behind the home for the blind". It contains that Bragg/Pogues romanticism of the urban environment mixed with the miserablism of the Cure. Splendid.



There was always something about Germ Free Adolescent that captured my attention. Constrained and restrained I think the way the sentiment of the music works with the lyrics is slightly hypnotic.



When I first heard Bill Haley singing Rocket 88 on John Peel sometime in the eighties it absolutely blew me away. It hadn't even occurred to me that it might be 'Rock and Roll' which would have instantly consigned it to the dustbin. Once again my stupidity gave me the edge and allowed me to enjoy this glorious song about his lovely car.



Well, we can't have all this jollity so let's switch to Pulp's 97 Lovers, from before they sold out by selling actual records and being able to pay the rent and that. This song is the eighties for me.



Joan Baez was someone I only came to in later life and it was her Diamonds and Rust that first sent shivers up my spine. It still does.



And if we're speaking of spines shivering then we have to include Lennon's working class hero. There are few greater songs that have been made in the last one hundred years than this.



Where would any selection of music be without Kate Bush. I've selected Breathing out of a number of possible tracks simply because it seems to epitomise the ferociously tangental approach that Bush always brought to music.



Lastly I'll go with Tracy Chapman's I'm Ready partly because it's the tune I'd like played at my funeral and partly because it's such an entrancing song.



Feel free to play along at home.

Oh, but before I forget I get to take a book and a luxury too. Well, the luxury has got to be a freezer full of bacon. I could be out there a long time you know!

The book? I think I'll go for the Three Musketeers simply because it's so full of life and fire. It would be a good way to remind myself of the pleasure that other people can bring as I sit in the delicious peace of the lapping waves and bright stars of my little island.

Readers requests

It's been sometime since I've done this but I thought I'd throw open the blog content to readers' requests again. What would you like me to blog on?

Whatever you suggest I'll do my best to fulfill your request with as good a post as I can muster.

This has gone surprisingly well in the past and I've probably blogged a proper post on 80% of the requests that were made previously so fire away!

Labour Leadership race

In the space of such a short time we've gone from the leadership race being characterised as a Miliband family operation to being swamped by a host of would be leaders of the opposition. This is, of course, a good thing. For Labour to have a proper discussion about the direction it wants to go would mark a great improvement on the last time they selected their leader, from a list of one.

Generally I'll keep my nose out of it, I'm not emotionally involved enough to distinguish between David and Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham et al. They all pretty much look like caretaker leaders to me anyway.

What does interest me is that there are currently two lefties with their hats in the ring, although we'll have to see which, if either, actually gets on the ballot paper.

The left hopefuls are Diane Abbott and John McDonnell who are two London MPs who have long political histories and who are both members of the Campaign Group. Either one of these candidates would be a real contribution to the political breadth of the leadership debate and would provide an opportunity for left-field ideas to get a wider airing.

McDonnell comes in a straight clear red, softened by his personable and thoughtful style while Abbott is more of a free thinking leftist who often does not conform to type. In other words she's not as left-wing as McDonnell, but then again it would be hard to live up to his impeccable, mace wielding, credentials.

Well, I say impeccable, he's been consistently opposed to electoral reform on the basis that Labour might seats and he's also supported odd EDMs on homeopathy and voted for the Digital Economy Bill but these aside he's as sound as a pound. Not the pound obviously - but a pound.

The objections most often aired about Abbott tend to revolve around two things. First that she's on TV a lot and second that she sent her kid to a private school. Having heard Ed Balls on Radio Four yesterday I'd say that someone who is capable of being in the glare of the media without collapsing into a blubbering ridiculous heap is probably an advantage.

The school thing is less fortunate although quite why this as been elevated to the status it has been as opposed to the way, for example, Jon Cruddas voted for the launching of an illegal war that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands is quite beyond me. I'm pretty relaxed about candidates that are not 100% on message, and I'm certainly repulsed by the idea that to be on the left you have to be a moral paragon.

If we compare the left's challenge this time to last time's dress rehearsal we see differences and similarities. We're obviously seeing a more open field rather than the coronation of Brown. We're not seeing an associated deputy election, at least I hope not. However the attitude of McDonnell's supporters is surprisingly similar.

Last time McDonnell's allies chose belligerence as their coalition building tool of choice. They poured poison over both Michael Meacher, who they described as fake left, and bile over deputy leadership challenger Jon Cruddas who they simultaneously insisted had to back McDonnell. This time it's Abbott who is being accused of being fake left, despite the fact that she backed McDonnell's campaign last time around. I don't think this sort of heat will do anything except make it impossible for McDonnell to get onto the ballot paper - and he deserves to be there.

Whatever the outcome I hope that one of them is on the ballot paper, although I suspect it is extremely unlikely that either of them will be able to make a truly significant challenge for the top post simply because they represent a Labour Party that does not exist - and maybe never did.

Six blogs

A few blogs I'd like to link to;

• Capitalism creates poverty. A Weaver Vale Green. I wonder where Weaver Vale is?
• Congratulations to Winston Smith who has just won the Orwell Prize for blogging.
• Then there is the blog of Operation Black Vote which is very interesting.
• People may not know that Caroline Lucas is blogging here, and tweets here.
• I've got a feeling I've never linked to Dr Petra. Very remiss of me.
• The British Ecological Society is blogging too.
  

The silver lining round this government

Now the fact is the three largest Parliamentary parties are not identical. There are shades and nuances of difference and, in a small number of certain areas, there are actual, real disagreements. One of the most painful things about this is that actually this government might actually be better in certain areas than the Labour government that preceded it.

That's partly because it's hard to be as obsessed by passing authoritarian legislation as New Labour, nor are the two new coalition parties obliged to save face by defending policies that the public hated simply in order not to U-turn.

Before I get really stuck into how awful this government is going to be, and Vince Cable's Royal Mail privatisation plans are in my sights, I thought I'd take a little look at some of the areas where Labour was so poor that the new government can seem like a welcome breath of air.

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ID cards. Gone. Both Tories and Lib Dems were opposed to these and as long as Labour hadn't won they would be abolished. There are still questions to be asked about whether they will be withdrawn for immigrants or not, but we will see the back of the National Identity register which is very welcome.

Bank charges: While I'm skeptical about the noises being made about banking regulation I was pleased to hear that there will be action taken on "unfair" bank charges made against account holders. The banks really do rake it in from over-charging account holders for all sorts of rubbish that costs the banks very little, and it causes real hardship. Any action taken on this would be fine by me.

No third runway: This was always on the cards. Sadly not a commitment to cheap and reliable public transport to provide alternatives to aviation, nor a commitment to restrict the growth of aviation as an industry - however, the battle to prevent Heathrow's third runway has won, and it would be churlish not to smile at that thought.

Asylum: No, really. The jury is still out on how this government treats asylum seekers overall, although we know they'll be terrible on immigration more generally, but they have committed to prevent asylum seekers being deported where they face threats due to their sexual orientation. This will save people's lives. They say they are looking at not locking up kids anymore, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Gay rights: Historical convictions for consensual homosexual sex over 16 are to be treated as spent and removed from the criminal records. There are still people around today who have convictions from the days when homosexuality was illegal altogether (and must declare them in job interviews, etc.) it's a very good thing that the slate is going to wiped clean.

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There are some other areas which *might* turn out to be a good thing, and feel free to suggest some I may have missed.

For instance they promise to end the centrally dictated policy of closing A&E units, high speed rail, action on dangerous dogs, ban on alcohol sales below cost, restricting interest rates on credit and store cards and the regulation of CCTV, and intriguing maximum wage proposals in the public sector - I'm reserving judgement on these which may be surprisingly progressive, although my inbuilt cynicism is shaking its head sadly and tutting rather loudly.

I'm braced for the fact that the government will occasionally do things I'm happy with, although, frankly, the defining feature of the next few years is likely to be economic austerity measures so I'm unlikely to be going soft on them any time soon.

Court's outrageous decision against UNITE

UNITE union members working at British Airways were due to go on strike from midnight tonight but a court has just ruled that the ballot was illegal and therefore the strike could not take place.

What grievous crime had they committed? Ballot stuffing perhaps? Or had they refused to allow a number of no votes because of ticks rather than crosses? No.

The Sun tells us that "BA had argued a technicality that Unite had not "properly complied" with the requirement to "send everyone eligible to vote details of the exact breakdown of the ballot result". The judge said: "I am unable to say it is sufficiently clear that the union took the steps required by law at the time they were required.""

The "exact breakdown" is code for the fact that they had not told their members of the eleven spoiled ballots of the thousands that were cast. Everyone knew the result, these spoiled ballots had no impact on the outcome nor, in fact, did they have any significant interest to members.

Yet this was enough to call off a democratically decided strike action and cost the union thousands correcting the 'error'. On top of the court ruling against the RMT it's quickly becoming clear that the courts are becoming increasingly willing to prevent workers taking strike action even when they have taken a proper ballot to do so.

And now for some 'what the hell?' news

1. In Texas they've decided to rewrite the school curriculum to end this terrible lefty bias. First to go? Renaming the slave trade the "Atlantic triangular trade"... it's political incorrectness gone mad I tell you! More here...

2. There's a whole bunch of new species have been found in Indonesia that we haven't even started wiping out yet, tut. These include the pictured frog who has an inflatable nose.

Apparently the nose expands when the male is feeling friendly and deflates when he wants some me time. He also likes rice.

3. Finland is a funny place, not only do you have Greens in government there holding the Justice Ministry and Labour Ministry you also have other strange and seldom seen attitudes.

Like Teddy Bear holidays. You heard me. An enterprising company will send your bear on holiday where they will "receive a gift, send a postcard to its owner and be sent home with holiday photos." How useful.

4. According to news sources a Japanese couple have been married by a robot. Sadly the occasion was marred when the cyber-vicar was caught doing unmentionable things to a young toaster after the reception...

5. You have to admit no matter what else they were the Labour government were a bunch of jokers. Well, the hilarity continues as Minister Liam Byrne left a jocular note for his Tory replacement claiming there was no money left in the till.

It's these kinds of lovable high jinx that made Labour the media savey organisation we all came to know and love.

That is all.

Are we going back to the eighties?

Before the election a number of people I knew would shudder and say of a potential Tory government that they "they remembered Thatcher" and didn't want to go back to those days. Never that they remembered Major or Heath or MacMillian (although actually very few would remember MacMillian, he was certainly in power before I was born).

Somehow Thatcher had become the representative of what Tories are like through the ages, regardless of the political and economic circumstances and regardless of the ideological nuances and gulfs that exist between different strands of Conservatism.



It could get a bit wearing sometimes if, like me, you don't accept that all bad things are the same despite all being bad.

Thatcher came to power with a plan, a large majority and a clear determination to take on a powerful trade union movement. So there's three differences straight off with Cameron's government that hasn't really decided what it's for, has been forced to deal with the Liberals and whose main priority is to attack a budget deficit in times when the trade union movement is a shadow of its former self.

It seems to me that the challenges we face in the next five years will not be the same as those we faced in the early eighties - but they could well be harder not softer days.

With no mass membership left of center party to draw on and a far left that is sadly far more confused and pessimistic than that of 1979 the austerity measures may not be met with Greek fire at all, although we can certainly hope.

What's clear is that trying to rehash the struggles of the eighties (struggles that we, cough, lost) is not going to be up to the job. Over the coming months we'll see a good number of trade unionists and leftists trying to come to terms with the new period, that's going to be important work in my view.

If our resistance is going to be both active and effective a solid appraisal of where we are and what the government is concretely going to do is going to be essential. What's clear is that it wont be a historical re-enactment of the battle of Orgreave.

Events coming up (mainly London)

I'm going to try to get back into a weekly events round-up as currently my previous regular features have gone completely out the window.

• RIGHT TO WORK EMERGENCY CONFERENCE

Saturday 22 May 11am Friends Meeting House Euston Road NW1. Further info

• DEFEND WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL COALITION MEETING

Monday 24 May 7pm, Whittington Community Centre, Yerbury Rd, N19. Nr Archway Tube

• SOLIDARITY WITH THE GREEK PROTESTS

Wednesday 26th May 7pm, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, WC1. Speakers.

• CAMDEN GREEN FAIR

Sunday 6th June from Midday until 7pm; Details

• KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC AGM

Saturday 12 June 10 for 11am, Somers Town Community Centre, Ossulston St, NW1; Link

• GREEN PARTY CONFERENCE

Friday 10th September to Monday 13th in Birmingham; Details

Feel free to let me know about things I've missed, I'm sure there's plenty more going on out there.

Election quotes

• In the Guardian on Esther Rantzen; When she spoke of her vision for Luton she liked to drop a few famous names into her comments. "Imagine a town centre with a Jamie Oliver restaurant," she told me. "Imagine Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is a friend, bringing his latest musical to Luton! Imagine the Anton Du Beke dance studio! I have spoken to Anton and he is very keen to do it." (JJ - she didn't win)
  
  
• Charles Kennedy reveals why he did vote for the coalition; "It is hardly surprising that, for some of us at least, our political compass currently feels confused. And that really encapsulates the reasons why I felt personally unable to vote for this outcome when it was presented to Liberal Democrat parliamentarians."
  
  
• Norfolk blogger attended a Lib Dem conflab on the coalition, he was not best pleased; "I was appalled at the way some in our party will resort to personal attacks, blatant lies and selective use of quotes in order to justify their side of the argument, and all those people were on the "We love the coalition" side of the debate." (JJ - who'd have thought?)
  
  
• Sticking with the Lib Dems I was intrigued to read this speech by Nick Clegg made in 2008; "So I want to make something very clear today.Will I ever join a Conservative government? No. Will I ever join a Labour government? No. I will never allow the Liberal Democrats to be a mere annex to another party's agenda."
  
  
• Former Labour Education Minister Kim Howells extends his warmest congratulations to the new government; "There's visceral loathing between the parties in constituencies, no question about it, you know - and the Lib Dems especially. I tell you why it's been rejected by most Labour MPs. Because they know that they're [the Lib Dems] a bunch of opportunistic toe-rags, who'll say anything to anybody in order to get power. And they've done it this time, they've got power. Good luck to them."

How did the far right do?

One good thing about the squeeze on the minor parties was the way the far right found themselves out in the cold on election night. I took at look at UKIP's election in the Morning Star this week so wont dwell on that here but all in all it was good news for us.

The media's celebrity bugbear and all round oaf Nick Griffin blew his big change in Barking being knocked into third place a long, long way from winning the seat.

This result was followed by a wipe out of BNP councillors on Barking and Dagenham council. This includes high profile fascist Richard Barnbrook whose time on the London Assembly has been marked by... well, not very much frankly.

In Stoke Central their leading member Simon Darby could not capitalise on Labour's dramatic decline in support and found himself facing a number of other hard right factions - a phenomenon that was repeated across the country with the English Democrats fielding large numbers of candidates the National Front popping up here and there as well as a good number of ex-BNP members standing as nationalist independents against their former party.

It's the one time I'm glad to see a number of fascists clustered together - when they're competing for the same small circle of racist voters. Although sadly across the whole of Stoke the far right vote was still far, far too high.

Overall, in fact, the BNP poor performance for their lead candidates masks the fact that they polled over half a million votes, well up from their 192,746 in 2005 which is only partially explained by the fact they fielded more candidates on a higher turnout. This was a defeat for the far-right, but not one based on a collapsing vote.

It's worth remembering this for elections when the turnout returns to normal because, as Londonist says "the reasons they're picking up support haven't gone away."

One large part of the reason that BNP ended up losers despite an increased vote is a more intelligently targeted strategy by the anti-fascist movement and, it must be said, the Labour Party. One of the healthy signs of that movement was the fact that diverse organisations worked in parallel with one another rather than feeling the need to all come under one heading.

I know unity is strength is a great slogan but sometimes you get the best out of people by letting them do what they do best and getting on with your own work separately - as long as you aren't pulling each other down, a plural movement is often better than a monolithic one where some activists find it difficult to fit.

One lesson from this is that you can beat a rising fascist vote if you get your strategy right. This meant concentrating on mobilising the anti-fascist vote in those areas where the far right was a real and genuine threat and bussing people away from those areas where they were less needed.

So in Lewisham where the obnoxious Mayoral candidate Tess Culnane stood anti-fascists did precious little locally, because they didn't have to - her vote was derisory, because she was a paper candidate. However that's not to say Lewisham anti-fascists did nothing - they went to Barking, where they were most effective.

The BNP in fact saved something like 70 deposits across the country, which means in a significant amount of the country the fascist are able to get more than one in twenty of the votes. That's very worrying.

Anyway, what does this mean for the future? In my view two things.

Firstly the anti-fascist model of targeting our strength where it is needed most and allowing for a plurality of anti-fascist organisations and strategies worked and is worth repeating. Life's too short to make lefties who hate each other work on the same team, and it usually ends in tears anyway.

Secondly, we need to tackle why the BNP get their vote - and that isn't tactical brilliance of their leadership or the delightful design of their leaflets. That means, I think, tackling racist ideas in society generally and making real inroads into the disenfranchisement that millions of people feel.

Right now I'm a pessimist on the second point, but on the first there is plenty to be getting on with. The fascist threat is not just about goons tramping up and down the high street, it feeds off the day to day racism in the press, from the government and down the pub - that's where much of the work has to happen over the next five years, addressing the sewer of filth the BNP feed from.

What sort of election did the left have?

How well did the left do at this election? 'Not brilliantly' is the quick answer, and depending upon your party loyalties that could be upgraded to 'disastrous' or even 'abysmal'.

I've already mentioned that the Labour Party did far better than we might have expected and left-wing Labour MPs actually performed very strongly within that doing very well in mobilising their support.

Green victory

The headline for the left is, of course, that anti-capitalist leftoid Caroline Lucas has been elected to the House of Commons making her the first Green MP in British history - but this result does conceal disappointments elsewhere.

Adrian Ramsay performed well in Norwich South almost doubling his vote to 14.9% (up 7.5%) taking almost all of Labour's hemorrhaging vote in the constituency. Tony Juniper also polled well in Cambridge at 7.6% but largely the vote was heavily squeezed in the course of such a momentous election.

This is, of course, partly down to the heavily targeted strategy the Greens pursued as well as the electoral circumstances, but it's disappointing none-the-less despite the great achievement in Brighton Pavillion.

Respect did quite well

Outside of the Green and Labour Parties there were three left results of any note what-so-ever - all from Respect. While Respect may have taken a pasting in Poplar and Bethnal Green they still polled very well with 16.8% in Bethnal Green and Bow (down a massive 19.8%) and 17.5% for George Galloway in Poplar and Limehouse (with the far smaller reduction of 0.7%). These areas also saw a near wipe out of Respect from Tower Hamlets council.

On the other hand Salma Yaqoob performed extremely well in a hard fought election in Birmingham Hall Green more than doubling Respect's vote to 25.1% (up 13.9%). Other results for Respect were not as cheering but should not be allowed to cloud their well deserved results in these three strongholds.

McCann: the boy done good

In Foyle Eammon McCann (who I mentioned previously) polled extremely well in a very polarised environment.

He managed to receive 7.7% of the vote as a 'People Before Profit' candidate up from his 2005 performance of 3.6% when he stood as the Socialist and Environmental Alliance backed, if I recall correctly, by the local Green Party.

This is stirring stuff, particularly when we've seen that the voters in the North of Ireland are beginning to loosen up in their political affiliations and consider alternatives, albeit ones with a solid history - which McCann has.

TUSC et al - poor to piss poor

The Morning Star has printed a little guide to how the left did here which shows that generally we are talking about 1%ers in decline. However Tommy Sheridan provided the Scottish left with their best result in Glasgow South West at 2.9% and Jenny Sutton provided the best London result for TUSC with 2.6% in Tottenham.

If we take a look at the left's electoral trajectory it makes for depressing reading. I was sent an email from the 'Cambridge Socialists' saying what 'a great start' they had made having just received 0.7% of the vote, which did make me feel a little bit like I was being expected to have a five second memory.

Cambridge: Martin Booth who is an excellent, open minded socialist and stood for TUSC got 0.7% of the vote. In 2005 Tom Woodcock (part of TUSC) stood for Respect and got 1.1% of the vote and in 2001 Howard Senter (who is now a Green) stood for the Socialist Alliance and got 1.7% of the result. Over nearly ten years the left vote has declined by more than half in Cambridge.

Coventry: This mirrors a similar picture elsewhere. Dave Nellist, for example, who got one of the best TUSC results of the night in Coventry North East with 3.7% of the vote, received 5.04% in 2005, getting his deposit back and 7.1% in 2001. Again, Nellist's vote has almost halved since 2001.

Lewisham: Ian Page in Lewisham Deptford is often held up as one of the Socialist Party's great white hopes but his result of 1.6% this time was down on his 2.4% in 2005 which itself was down on his 4.6% in 2001. Page polled a third of his 2001 result in 2010.

These are not campaigns which are building up the socialist vote but are demonstrations of the hard left's (temporary?) decline. Feel free to give me examples of a left vote that went up from 2001 to 2005 to 2010 - I need cheering up!

This should make sobering reading for the non-Labour left and, I hope, sparks some sort of calm reflection on where to go from here. These are people who contribute far, far more to their communities and to the left than these small votes reflect and it will no doubt be hard to pick themselves up and keep at it.

Obviously I joined the Greens sometime ago and found it an interesting home for a socialist, although for those who like their socialism full of quotes and by the book I suspect the Green Party would be a hard terrain to negotiate. Others will reassess whether they want to be involved in electoral work altogether, which may well be the right decision for them. Party loyalties aside though I really do hope we haven't seen the last of the likes of Sutton and Nellist whose contributions are much appreciated by me - if not necessarily the electorate!

How will history judge Gordon Brown?

This was one of the questions on Radio Four's Any Questions last night and one that's impossible to speculate on sensibly. I only do so now with that caveat.

I suspect that history will mainly forget Gordon. Just as John Major has slipped into the underworld of dead memories people will start to say things like "First you had Thatcher, then Blair and now David Cameron."

For Mr Brown this is a double edged sword. Few people consciously associate him with New Labour's wars despite the fact that he was second in command throughout every invasion, bombing and child murder that the government oversaw. For the British electorate it doesn't really matter how high the stack of foreign dead babies are as long as you don't call them bigots.

They'll also forget the fact that he was widely seen as one of the most competent Chancellors of the Exchequer we've ever had - until the world wide financial collapse that is, when he suddenly got the blame for the lot.

I know I'm in a minority here but I rather warmed to him as a person, if not politically, partly because, as Roy Hatersley said last night, he was "contemptuous of the triviality of politics." This was his strength and one of his weaknesses.

It seems to me that the Brown years were hard ones for Labour Party members as the media accentuated every cock up and the grovelling apologies became ever more obsequious. It looks as if they're going to enjoy opposition a whole lot more than they ever enjoyed their final years in power. If that makes them a more effective opposition then that's all to the good.

Of course the current jockeying for position among his potential replacements looks a little bit like a race between mediocrities at the moment but even so I would not be surprised if in five years time Brown is all but forgotten.