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

Tribune Comment: David Cameron’s judgement over his alliances with the far right in Europe calls fundamentally into question his credibility as a leader who purports to become Prime Minister of Britain. His silence on the past of the senior figures in the European Conservatives and Reformists, the Tories’ new bedfellows in the European Parliament, is a searing indictment of that judgement. The more so, the longer it continues.

Tribune Comment: Gordon Brown has convinced his party that they are back in the game. Now all he has to do is convince the country. For a few electrifying moments at the beginning of his speech in Brighton – when he was running at high speed through the list of Labour’s achievements in government – it seemed that the energy would flow from the past into the future and present the possibility of doing just that.

If Afghanistan is not to be a complete disaster, the West needs to make some big decisions very soon, says Tomas Valasek

What sort of post-recession society we want to see is a key question for TUC leader Brendan Barber

In the myriad channels of communication which constitute diplomatic relations, from the verbal feint across an embassy cocktail glass to the idiomatic language of despatches in the diplomatic bag, words count. Words conveyed in verbal messages between one country and another before the signing of, for example, a bilateral deal can carry a premium.

A battle is underway for Labour’s heart and soul and there are serious questions about its finances, says Peter Kenyon