Tribune – Comment, news and reviews from Britain's democratic left

Yvette Cooper got a standing ovation for her conference speech on the economy. It was deserved – it was a meaty address, long on substance as well as style – but, as ever, it’s best not to leave too much to chance. Which is why her hubby, Ed Balls, sitting attentitively front row stage left, [...]

The question on everybody’s minds this morning is: can Gordon pull off the speech of his life? And I think I’ve seen a clue. Leaving questions over content aside, the key question is surely whether he will display some of the fire, flair and style that Lord Mandelson so effectively flaunted in his widely acclaimed [...]

Over the years I’ve written a lot about EQUALITY. Some critics might say too much. Well why wouldn’t I? Like every single person living in the UK I’ve a vested interest in how the government treats me, and how the law protects me. Actually I’ve not been a ‘single person’ for some time, and am [...]

Talk over the best fish and chips lunch in town (at the Fishbowl) was about the ‘court’ of Peter Mandelson and the fear he still manages to instill into the furtherst reaches of the party. Before turning to the possibly imminent return of that other architect of New Labour, Alistair Campbell. Word on the seafront [...]

Totally wrong. I said Caroline Lucas wouldn’t be addressing our rally last night, and she did. Compass chair Neal Lawson welcomed her in a spirit of “pluralism”. But he was on dangerous ground. Lucas is standing as Green Party parliamentary candidate in Brighton  Pavilion, where the Greens have a big following. George Mudie, a local [...]

Labour conference has long been less of a political party event and more just an endless stream of corporate parties. No wonder cash-strapped consituency parties don’t bother sending delegates to a politically meaningless mediafest. MPs just groan at the prospect of being there, so largely they aren’t. This year it is estimated that as few [...]

Nothing new there then. But this is a real battle worth fighting. It’s all very internally complicated but basically comes down to whether or not grassroots members are allowed to elect directly their own members onto the National Policy Forum, the body which decides policy. Currently the 55 members are “elected” at conference where the [...]

Remember the shennanigans in Erith and Thamesmead when local party members rose up against an attempt by Blairite dinosaurs to  parachute a 23-year-old ingenue into one of Labour’s “safest” seats in the south east? Well now they’re at it in the north. Hackles are rising over the arrogant ambitions of former Number 10 aide Jonathan Woodcock who appears [...]