TUC general secretary PAUL NOWAK speaks to the Morning Star’s Berny Torre about the increasing frustration the trade union movement feels at a government that promised change, but has been too slow to bring it about
Who are Blue Labour really?
A new book shows the group’s close links to Labour Together, which hoodwinked the party membership into voting for Starmer on fake left promises. SOLOMON HUGHES attempts to get some answers about what ‘Blue Labour’ actually stands for
BLUE’S WHO? Maurice Glasman (left), who founded Blue Labour, and Keir Starmer who was helped by the group in his leadership bid
DIANE ABBOTT exposes the misconceptions, rumours and downright lies perpetrated around immigration issues
With 12,000 fewer teachers since 2010 and dwindling resources, Scotland’s schools desperately need investment to support diverse learners rather than empty promises from politicians, writes ANDREA BRADLEY
Reversing outsourcing is the pre-election promise the government must honour, says Unison general secretary CHRISTINA McANEA
EMAN ABU ZAYED reminisces about the perilous time her family and neighbours endured in northern Gaza and how they were forced, in fear of their lives, to flee south
The EIS president who defended Marxist politics in the 1980s fought Thatcherite educational policies while organising Teachers for Peace rallies and ensuring Morning Star circulation in Scotland’s pit villages and factories, writes JOHN FOSTER
LABOUR freefalling down to 25 per cent in the polls, behind Reform, is raising questions about Keir Starmer’s direction. Some formerly pro-Starmer publications are toying with “Blue Labour,” a group claiming to be “socially conservative” but “economically leftist,” as an alternative.
In the words of the Guardian, Blue Labour can “seriously challenge” the “indifferent, profit-seeking interests of financial capital” and “free market capitalism,” wrenching Labour back to the interests of the workers, while supposedly reassuring those workers with their socially conservative, anti-migration stands. For Blue Labour supporters, working people always get the blame for “conservative” and “anti-migrant” views, not middle-class people.
However, even a cursory inspection shows Blue Labour’s “left economics” are often absent, while the “socially conservative” stances fit easily into Starmer’s “flag-shagging” approach.
More from this author
Keir Starmer’s hiring Tim Allan from Tory-led Strand Partners is another illustration of Labour’s corporate-influence world where party differences matter less than business connections, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
MBDA’s Alabama factory makes components for Boeing’s GBU-39 bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza. Its profits flow through Stevenage to Paris — and it is one of the British government’s favourite firms, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
SOLOMON HUGHES asks whether Labour ‘engaging with decision-makers’ with scandalous records of fleecing the public is really in our interests
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
