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

In this year of change another authoritarian, nepotistic, oppressive regime is on the rocks. MPs have taken up the fight for a genuinely free press with a systematic forensic attack on News International’s misdemeanours.

Not surprisingly, in his rather good speech at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Ed Miliband reflected at some length and with some emotion on the riots that scarred Britain in August.

The banking crisis has been making headlines for the past three years. Bankers indulged in an orgy of irresponsibility, gambled other people’s money, lied about the quality of their products, published opaque and misleading accounts and collected telephone number salaries.

A year ago, Ed Miliband confounded pundits and emerged triumphant as the new Labour leader. At the 2011 Labour conference, he faces challenges of public perception, party and policies.

Although it has become fashionable to offer apologies for whatever was done by the last Labour Government, the current financial crisis should provoke some reconsideration of that strategy.

Ed Miliband says same-sex couples should have the legal right to get married; that civil partnerships are not sufficient. Great. But it is a huge disappointment that the Labour Party conference has not voted for marriage equality.

Here we go again. Over the past 12 months or so, a little-noticed committee has been engaged in a little noticed inquiry. The committee is the Kelly Committee, which looks at standards in public life.

In his Budget speech, George Osborne boldly declared: “We want the words made in Britain, created in Britain, designed in Britain, invented in Britain to drive our nation forward.”

What explains the British Government’s inertia over very recent wartime atrocities? asks Fred Carver

The collapse of the single currency would be disastrous for the whole EU – including Britain, argues Julian Priestley