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

Prime Minister David Cameron’s personal authority over his Conservative Party backbenchers took a battering when more than half of them defied his personal appeals – and heavy-handed parliamentary whipping – to support a non-binding, symbolic vote for a referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the European Union. Unlike the 1991 Maastricht Treaty rebellion by Tory [...]

Efforts by the staff of Tribune to save the paper from closure continue following talks with the National Union of Journalists and representatives of co-operative organisations with a view to the cration of a co-op.

As a former chair of the Charity Commission renews her call for a full investigation of Liam Fox’s Atlantic Bridge, the Financial Times has reported that major donor Michael Hintze had to bail the charity out after it was hit by an unexpected tax bill. The bill appears to be for tax foregone in support of activities that were not charitable.

François Hollande, the 57-year-old father of four whose nickname in France is Monsieur Normal, will take on Nicolas Sarkozy as the Socialist challenger in next year’s presidential election. He beat his rival, Martine Aubry, in the second round of the first primary elections to be held in France, with  56 per cent of the 2.7 [...]

In a development reminiscent of the way that the old Soviet Union used to work – opening another investigation once a conviction in court has been secured – Ukraine’s security service has announced it is opening a new criminal case for suspected embezzlement against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Mrs Tymoshenko, who sports what is [...]

Britain is running out of private rental accommodation, according to landlords and letting agencies.The claim comes as the Department of Communities and Local Government prepared to publish its most recent survey on the private rented sector. As local authorities have been increasingly forced to turn to the private rented sector there has been a corresponding [...]

The privatisation of Britain’s energy industry by the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major has come back to haunt the Tories as hard-pressed consumers turn against the companies they accuse of “extortion” in their pursuit of profit. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Secretary of State for Energy, Chris Huhne, met representatives [...]

Demonisation of benefits recipients is not just grotesquely inaccurate and unfair but socially counter-productive, delegates to a TUC anti-poverty conference designed to dispel stereotypes and media myths were told earlier this week. The wide-ranging conference, “Challenging Myths and Stereotypes”, challenged head-on the populist, divisive language used not just by the current Conservative-led Government but also [...]

Soaring energy costs – they jumped by almost 10 per cent between August and September alone – pushed inflation to a record high as economic forecasters once again reduced Britain’s growth forecasts and predicted the economy would still be stagnant next year. Consumer Price Inflation rose from 4.5 per cent to 5.2 per cent, a [...]

China’s President Hu Jintao, who is due to hand over to a successor next year, held out the possibility of extending the “two systems, one rule” dispensation applied to Hong Kong to Taiwan as he urged Taipei to work more closely with Beijing towards eventual reunification.