Author: Miles Donavan

“There are lots of grounds to be concerned about this on reasons of plurality, for competition, but more than anything else this Labour government should consider whether it is good for Britain, and good for its democracy.” Just when it seemed Britain’s media landscape couldn’t tilt much further to the right, news broke that the Daily Mail’s owner is set to buy the Telegraph. The move marks the apparent end of a turbulent two-and-a-half-year battle for the paper, which was put up for sale after the Barclay family defaulted on debts. On 22 November, the Daily Mail and General Trust…

It was standing-room-only A Holiday Inn might seem an odd location for the beginning of the revolution. But the entrance to the Liverpool Lime Street branch on the evening of November 28 was adorned with an assortment of revolutionary socialists, Trotskyists and communists. Clutching fistfuls of paper – briefings, newspapers and leaflets – they sought to engage the people filing into the building in their particular persuasion of far-left politics. The occasion that brought them here? Zarah Sultana’s standing-room-only rally on the eve of the founding conference of Your Party. Inside, hundreds of people gathered to hear a long list…

Trotskyists have been given the boot Members of the Trotskyist group Socialist Workers Party (SWP) have claimed they have been expelled from Your Party on the eve of its founding conference. The SWP national secretary Lewis Nielsen released a statement on 28 November which read: “Today myself and others received an email expelling us from Your Party hours before the conference in Liverpool. “The decision has been made by an undemocratic clique with no democratic mandate. “I have been expelled because I’m a member of the Socialist Workers Party.” It went on to say: “Instead of building the insurgent left…

Your Party conference is just around the corner Your Party – the new political outfit being formed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana among others – is holding its founding conference in Liverpool this weekend. But what’s happening there? What are the key decisions and debates? This is everything you need to know. When and where is Your Party Conference? Your Party’s Conference is taking place from 29-30 November in Liverpool. Who will be attending Your Party Conference? Because there are currently no local parties and no branch structure exists, attendees for the founding conference have been selected by sortition.…

The former leader of UKIP Scotland was named in text messages sent to Nathan Gill David Coburn, a former MEP who was a member of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, has denied taking pro-Russia bribes. The former leader of UKIP Scotland was named in text messages sent to Nathan Gill. Gill was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison last Friday for accepting £40,000 in bribes from Oleg Voloshyn to make pro-Russia statements.  In WhatsApp messages between Voloshyn, a former pro-Russian MP in the Ukraine parliament and Gill, they discuss a £5,000 payment that had apparently been set aside…

The concession comes after weeks of the legislation bouncing back and forth between the Lords and House of Commons The Labour government is facing a backlash from its own backbenchers after rowing back on its pledge to protect workers from unfair dismissal from their first day in a job.  Instead of giving workers day one unfair dismissal rights, the qualifying period for full protection from unfair dismissal, which is currently two years, will now be reduced to six months.  In Labour’s 2024 manifesto, it committed to giving workers unfair dismissal rights from day one. The concession follows weeks of the…

This is what the public think of the budget Rachel Reeves delivered her second budget as chancellor of the exchequer this week. It contained a raft of measures that will have a significant impact on the economy and on people’s lives. Now, a poll has identified which of these measures have the broadest public support. According to the poll, conducted by YouGov, the policies with the highest levels of support were increases on gambling taxes (backed by 82 per cent of the public), freezing rail fares (backed by 82 per cent of the public), reducing energy bills through reducing ‘green…

The budget does little to improve living standards or facilitate sustained economic growth Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward. The UK government’s much leaked budget statement reduces child poverty but does little to improve living standards or facilitate sustained economic growth. The decision to scrap the two-child benefit cap is most welcome. It will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, and up to 950,000 children will be living in less deep poverty. The…

The Reform leader has made over £1.3 million from second jobs since he was elected as an MP in July 2024 Nigel Farage has pocketed another £135,000 from promoting gold for Gold Bullion and £60,000 from three speaking events in October, two of which were crypto conferences. This takes Farage’s earnings from second jobs in October to more than £206,000. According to the latest entries in the Register of MPs’ Interests, the Reform leader also raked in almost £9,000 from filming personalised videos on Cameo, while Elon Musk has paid him £2,118 for making posts on X.  Farage also received…

Many MPs have welcomed the abolition of the two-child limit but say the government should have focused on making the super rich pay more tax There have been mixed reactions from Labour MPs to the government’s Budget yesterday. The government’s decision to scrap the two-child limit is a clear winner from Rachel Reeves’ statement, but several Labour backbenchers say that the government should have raised taxes on wealth, not workers.  Reeves announced a high value council tax surcharge on homes worth over £2 million, almost doubled the tax on online gambling, and increased taxes on landlords’ rental income by 2%. …