By way of an introduction...

As Britain burns, commentators left, right and centre have tripped over each other in their rush to condemn the riots and the rioters. Many have learnt a new word, 'feral', and applied it with the kind of vigour and repetitiveness displayed by a dog chasing its tail. Yet few have attempted a sober analysis of the situation, and those that have, have been shouted down and vilified. (See, e.g., Darcus Howe's interview with BBC News, and this Newsnight discussion...

It was, I think, rather revealing to see figures from the various debt agencies - in particular Moody's, the agency that has gone ahead and downgraded the US's credit rating - being interviewed on various news programmes explaining their actions and outlining their recommendations. It was a stark reminder that for all the waffle about the 'vast impersonal forces' that govern the economic world, the global economy is in fact a complex web of human social relations increasingly subject to the whims...

Fears about the continued Eurozone debt crisis, alongside revelations about a lacklustre recovery in many of the major western economies, has greatly panicked investors across the world. BBC news is reporting 'turmoil on the stock markets', with the Los Angeles Times noting that 'stock markets have plunged in their worst day since depths of financial crisis'. The contagion is beginning to spread, and it seems increasingly probable that we are about to enter another world recession. A recession that...

As if Baron Glasman's 'Blue Labour' was not enough to stomach, Luke Bozier has offered up something even more noxious. In an article written for Labour List, Bozier has suggested that the British Labour Party should consider, of all things, adopting the platform of the American 'tea party movement'!?

Bozier concedes that 'the tactics the group and many of its representatives use to achieve their political goals are nothing short of political thuggery', but he nevertheless argues that...

This is a follow on to an earlier entry I wrote on the public sector pensions dispute.

The Telegraph has published exerts from a leaked letter by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, in which he suggests that the proposed reforms are particularly unfair on NHS workers, and that given the obviously unjust nature of the current proposals, 'it is [therefore] difficult to see how a negotiated agreement could be reached with the Trade Unions'. These revelations effectively concede the claims...