Category: British politics

The Soviet Fall and the New Right Failure

gwydionwilliamsLeave a comment

Problems 34: Freedom as Misunderstood by Liberals

  • How Gorbachev Wrecked the Soviet Union
    • Looking at how the man messed up.
    • A reminded that the Soviet Union worked well in the 1950s and 1960s.
  • Notes on Asocialism
    • People go wrong by imagining themselves as autonomous individuals who could and should exist independently of the wider society.
    • How the New Right took advantage of moral uncertainty following the radical and necessary changes demanded by 1960s radicals and protestors.
    • Why the unregulated internet is not an answer.

Also available as a PDF, Problems 34 – Freedom Misunderstood

Advertisements

Labour Affairs – April 2019 Updates

gwydionwilliamsLeave a comment

Latest update.  April Editorial: The Last Throw Of The Dice?  Mrs May ignores mass protests in favour of a fresh vote.  Just as protests in 2003 at the planned Iraq War were ignored.

From December 2018: News from France (Froggy), and Parliamentary Notes.  Also Notes on the News: State Aid: Bad for Everyone Except Me, Socialist Failure?, Feed-the-Rich Economics, The Last March of Donald Trump, A Man, a Plan, an Abomination – Venezuela, Dams Damned.

Also everything for April 2018: Editorial: Rush To Judgement  (Nerve Gas Attack); Parliament And World War One; Froggy;  Notes on the News; Diary of a Corbyn foot soldier; Parliamentary Notes; Letter from New Zealand; Boris Johnson and the alleged Russian Nerve Gas Attack; The Wapping Dispute of 1986 (Print Workers); Poems: Eunuchs United; The Inklings Of Whitehall.  Also available as a PDF, Labour Affairs 286 April 2018

Labour Affairs – March 2019 Updates

gwydionwilliamsLeave a comment

Latest update.  March Editorial: Paper TIGers.  The eight Labour MPs who resigned from the party last month, and formed themselves into The Independent Group, hope to wreck Labour’s chances of winning the next general election.  They want to prevent anything being done about the unfair accumulation of wealth and the squeezing of the needy.

From December 2018: News from France (Froggy), Parliamentary Notes 1 – Mrs May, and Parliamentary Notes 2 – Legal Position;.  Also Notes on the News: Bush Senior, the Vice President, They Shall Not Grow Old: They Were Stupidly Slaughtered, US Republicans – Make Hate, Not Love, Climate Change – Not Always Warm, But Mostly Worse, Climate-Change Extinction?  Or Hitler Plus?, Taiwan: Not Gayly Wed, Not Separatist, Ukraine Versus Ukraine, But Blaming Russia, From Brexit to Poxit?

Also everything for March 2018:  Editorial: Labour’s Poisoned Chalice; Parliament And World War One; Froggy;  Notes on the News; Diary of a Corbyn foot soldier; Walter Citrine in the Soviet Union in 1925. Part 3; Letter from New Zealand – Eugenics; Parliamentary Notes; Listening to Italy.  Also available as a PDF, Labour Affairs 285 – March 2018

Labour Affairs – December 2018 Updates

gwydionwilliamsLeave a comment

December Editorial: Back To The EU Cap In Hand. 
Facing defeat, Theresa May pulled the plug at the eleventh hour on MPs meaningful vote on her Brexit deal..

From October 2018:  Parliamentary Notes but no Froggy this month.  Also Notes on the News: New Labour – the Timid Tendency Fades, Hurricanes – Abnormal is the New Normal, Times Are Changing, The Chinese Example, No, There Is No International Law, Sport Polluted By Money, Racism in Sweden, Snippets , Wider Anti-Semitism Acknowledged?, Dangers of Alcohol, Brexit.

Also everything for December 2017: Editorial: Faint-Hearted Phil (Tory Budget); Parliament And World War One (USA and Russia); Froggy;  Notes on the News; Letter from New Zealand; Walter Citrine in the Soviet Union in 1925. Part 1; Feed-the Rich in Haringey (new housing); Diary of a Corbyn foot soldier; Parliamentary Notes; Listening to Italy; Shoe Horn (poem).  Also available as a PDF, Labour Affairs 283 December 2017

Labour Affairs – November 2018 Updates

gwydionwilliamsLeave a comment

Latest update.  November Editorial: The Troublesome 5%.  Outstanding Brexit issues.

From September 2018: News from France (Froggy), Parliamentary Notes, and  Notes on the News: Britons Voting For Their Own Suffering, Shed No Tears for Bomber McCain, Trump Guilt of Sex!, Fifty Years On From Russia Crushing Czechoslovakia, A Deadly Bridge In Italy, Getting Tough With Turks, Living In Peace, Another Suffering Minority, Brains Hurt?, Wrecked Syria, Sex Abuse Wasn’t Only Catholics.

Also everything for November 2017: Editorial: Corbyn On a Roll; Parliament And World War One: ; Froggy;  Notes on the News; New Zealand ‘Populism’; Zionism as the Abolition of Jews; Diary of a Corbyn foot soldier; Parliamentary Notes; Listening to Italy; Poems: Disembodied Voices, Truth as an Illness, Mannequin as President.  Also available as a PDF, Labour Affairs 282 November 2017

Labour Affairs – October 2018 Updates

gwydionwilliamsLeave a comment

Latest update.  October Editorial: Catching the Mood of the Nation.  Labour’s Liverpool conference was a huge success.  Jeremy Corbyn was accepted even by his critics as a credible Prime Minister.  But Brexit remains a problem.

From July 2018: News from France (Froggy), and Parliamentary Notes.  Also Notes on the News: The Mid-Atlantic Sinks Beneath the Waves; Blame It On the Boomers?; In Praise of Authoritarian State Capitalism; Rights of Humans Just Like Me; Support Israel, Hasten Armageddon; Snippets; An Impossible Diet?; Going To Pot.

Also everything for October 2017: Editorial: Brexit Divisions; Parliament And World War One: German Prisoners; Froggy;  Notes on the News; Northern Ireland: Britain’s Responsibility; Diary of a Corbyn foot soldier; Parliamentary Notes: European Union (Withdrawal) Bill; Listening to Italy; Poems: Now They’ll Go On About This For Days And Days, Of Tills And Pills, Tourist Class, Flag Of Convenience, But Not Like That, Now Why Did I Think Like That. Also available as a PDF, Labour Affairs 281 October 2017

Labour Affairs – September 2018 Updates

gwydionwilliamsLeave a comment

Latest update.  September Editorial: Democratic Reforms.  Should the leaders of Labour council groups to be elected by the party membership? And what’s happening with direct elections for the national leader?.

From June 2018: News from France (Froggy), and Parliamentary Notes.  Also Notes on the News: USA – Land of the Freely Self-Harming, In Iceland, the State Does Its Job, Guns Before Royals, Black in the Union Jack, How Dare Anyone Know I am Related to my Relatives!, How Dare They Recognise My Face!, Thou Shalt Have No Eternal Truth, Other Than What We Invented Last Week, Global Votes, Most Flesh Is Grass.

Also everything for September 2017: Editorial: Brexit Blues; Parliament And World War One; Froggy; Notes on the News; Diary of a Corbyn foot soldier; Parliamentary Notes; Listening to Italy; Labour in Northern Ireland; Baby Boomers to Blame?; Taylor report on Industrial Practices;  Poems: Barcelona, Gaza City, Hallelujah!, Did You Pack This Bomber Yourself.  Also available as a PDF, Labour Affairs 280 September 2017