The Labour leadership’s narrow definition of ‘working people’ leads to distorted and unjust Budget calculations, where the unearned income of the super-wealthy doesn’t factor in at all, argues JON TRICKETT MP
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Labour’s missed opportunity on Lords reform
It is impossible to ignore the huge flaws in our unelected second chamber — yet despite Labour’s promises of consultation, PAULINE BRYAN argues that it is falling short of doing what’s needed to safeguard democracy
Members of the House of Lords seated ahead of the State Opening of Parliament in chamber of the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster, London, July 17, 2024
Brazilian workers are calling for internationalist brigades to defend Venezuela from US attack, reports WT WHITNEY JR
KEITH FLETT recalls ‘the most advanced political programme to appear on the left until the time of the Bolsheviks’
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY ask how an 80-tonne whale that lives 200 years is so resistant to cancer
Sixty years of blockade have not made Cuba collapse, but they have devastated it. While Washington stands isolated at the United Nations, the Cuban people are paying the price, writes KATRIEN DEMUYNCK
As Armistice Day approaches, with the far right hoping to use it to promote their own form of ‘patriotism,’ NICK WRIGHT considers the nature of conflicts in the 20th and 21st centuries and the different ways they should be remembered
THERE does seem to be an English exceptionalism that allows commentators to sing the praises of our democratic structures while failing to see its flaws that would be considered unacceptable if they were present in another country.
I say “English” as I think the populations of the other nations in the UK tend to have a less rosy view.
Imagine the critical comments that would rightly be made of a wealthy influential country that had an unelected second legislative chamber with some members there on a hereditary basis; that had reserved places for members of the established religion; that is one of the largest legislative bodies in the world; that doesn’t have fair representation from the nation’s regions; that has less than 30 per cent women members and favours ex-MPs and members from selected well-paid professions. We would probably question the country’s democratic credentials.
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Labour must not allow unelected members of the upper house to erode a single provision of the Employment Rights Bill, argues ANDY MCDONALD MP
