Elections
Labour Needs New Synthesis of Practical Thinking and Idealistical Striving
Two possibilities face Labour’s new leader: Either the Coalition will succeed and Labour will be in Opposition for yet another generation, or it will implode and Labour will find itself back in office. I fear the first option and dread the second. The left is in danger of making the same political misjudgement it made [...]
Divide and Conquer: Diversification is the Way Forward for the Left
For social democrats, the decline from parties that regularly poll over 40% and dominate the left-wing of the political spectrum to 20-30% parties that uneasily cohabit with a mix of green and far-left upstarts has been marked. And it has been one of struggle, too: the intra-left contest has often been as intense as the [...]
Isolationism on the Rise Among Disgruntled Electorates as Europe’s Rightward Shift Continues
The swing of Europe’s electorate to the right during the last couple of years was continued in last week’s British general election. Admittedly, unlike elsewhere, no far-right party was actually elected. This though was probably no more than a consequence of the UK’s unique electoral system. The mood of the electorate was undoubtedly towards the [...]
Elections in North Rhine-Westphalia – Another Cliffhanger
The election in Germany’s most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia yesterday produced the second electoral cliffhanger in Europe in a week. The governing conservative-liberal coalition suffered a crushing defeat with the CDU losing more than 10 percentage points compared to the last election. It however narrowly defended its position as strongest party (with 34,6% of the [...]
After the General Election – Labour’s Place in the new Political Landscape
I’m writing this, as the Social Europe order of things dictates, in that awful interregnum between Britain almost going to the polls (in 48 hours) and knowing the result. I’m not a commentator but an activist who wants Labour to win, but knows, like everyone else, that an outright win in terms of seats or [...]
Future of Hungarian Left Hangs in Balance After Election Debacle
For weeks prior to the election one of the dominant questions was whether the so-called Warsaw Express would hit the governing Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) at full speed, or whether, rather than eviscerating the Socialists completely, the voters would leave them some chance for revival. The Warsaw Express referred to the Polish voters’ decision to [...]
Can The State Still Be Saved?
After eleven years in government, the German Social Democratic Party are now having to cope with their greatest electoral defeat in the post-war period. On the day of the election there was a feeling almost of unbelief about what was happening, not just among party members but also among many supporters. How was it possible [...]
After the European Elections: Why we need a more European Social Democracy
Measured against the hopes of a positive shift in power in favour of social democracy in the wake of the financial and economic crisis, European social democracy, even if the real balance of power has barely changed, is the loser in the European elections in 2009. Leaving aside the general tendency at European elections for [...]
Towards a Reformed Conservatism? I don’t think so.
The big political event in Britain over the last week was the launch of Phillip Blonds’ new Tory think tank ResPublica. I’ve known Phillip for a few years – since he was a humble academic in far flung Cumbria – and have watched him move at incredible speed to the centre of debate under the [...]
The very real Powers of the European Parliament
As 2009 draws to a close, a new European order is taking shape, although admittedly with a whimper rather than a bang. The Lisbon Treaty has finally staggered into life. The member state governments have chosen the first ever full time Council President and a new and more powerful High Representative for Foreign and Security [...]
Does Europe’s Social Democracy still have a Future?
Social democracy will only be able to sustain a social Europe through strengthening European democratic institutions. German Social Democrats are lucky. Although in September they received their lowest vote in a federal election since the war– 23 per cent – things could have been worse. The result was still three percentage points more than they [...]
Power Games on the German Left – Lafontaine, the radical Riddle
On the evening of the 30th August the ghost of Weimar walked abroad in the Saarland. The social democrats of Heiko Maas were only just over three percentage points ahead of their left-wing rivals. This was uncannily reminiscent of the last Reichstag elections to be held in the Weimar Republic in November 1932. Then the [...]
