Category: Labour
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Hastings – How do we take back our town?
This week, a citizen who happened to be a councillor happened to be at an assemblies planning meeting I went to. She informed me that our borough council is doomed. ‘It’s done and dusted,’ she said. The last couple of years have been a rollercoaster of first-priority issues for anyone even remotely involved in politics.…
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A wonderful opportunity
There are so many reasons to be interested in Marilyn Garson’s writing. She has worked in Afghanistan and Palestine, and has written a book about her experiences in Gaza during the 2014 bombardment. She describes the mission she gave herself as aiming to ‘rehumanize’ the people of Gaza. I love that focus. It brings strong…
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Congratulations sisters!
[The header pic is a screenshot from a 2018 article in the National Scot, published during the #NoDebate years] This week, Woman’s Place UK closed up shop, and the women who founded it are now resting on their laurels amidst cheers and tears from women all over the country. Well if I know them, they’re…
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An open letter to Sir Keir Starmer
Dear Prime Minister, This is probably the one and only time I will send you a genuinely well meant message of encouragement, so I would like to take this opportunity to assure you that it is sincere, and is the heart-felt opinion of many Labour supporters and members, past and present. Yesterday saw the issuing…
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Bombs, poverty and toilets
At an academy school in the UK in the 21st century They have anti-bullying toilets – wide halls opening onto the main corridor with toilet cubicles down each side and rows of dirty sinks back-to-back in the centre. Originally, they were boys-side and girls-side – so that if you, for example, needed to rinse something…
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The old stories are the best
When a good author gets hold of a classic theme, like Antigone for example, and applies it to an important current topic like what happens to Muslim families when politicians are trading on hatred and fear, the result is likely to be a gripping read. That’s why although Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire is a story…
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Activism works — here’s the evidence
I was a Green Party officer once. I was a trade union officer, and a member of a regional activist group in my union, and I have been a Labour Party officer. Every single time, I stood down from the roles I had because there was some politics that needed doing, and I couldn’t do…
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I found the racism, now what?
At least the BBC has the decency to mention the Pennines, the Co-operative Movement and Gracie Fields but other than those reasons to think about Rochdale, this article is mainly rattling with racism and as far as I can see, that’s really not the fault of the people of Rochdale. I decided to spend a…
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Are you independent enough to stand up for Hastings?
I was a member of the Green Party once. I was an enthusiastic Labour Party officer for a while. I am out of patience with party politics altogether just now – and you know, my opinions haven’t changed much. What is the point of going on supporting an organization because it once had policies you…
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From Blairites to sex workers
*** Long Read*** [It’s taken me a few weeks to get around to writing this. It’s one of the articles I drafted out when I was thinking about dropping my FB account. There was absolutely no doubt it was giving me problems but, as the horror that is the Israel / Palestine story dominated even…
Kay Green 