UK Labour

The British Labour Party, Northern Ireland Labour and the Scottish Referendum

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Since the countdown to the Scottish referendum began, a substantial corps of writing has been produced on the referendum and its impact. As far as the British Labour Party is concerned, it risks loosing some forty Westminster seats in the case of a ‘yes’ vote, which explains Labour’s strong activism on the ‘no’ side. In encouraging Scots to vote ‘no’ for autonomy and sovereignty over their affairs, Labour has come up with a range of intriguing arguments. The promise of …

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Gordon Brown rises above the kidults of Westminster to speak up for the United Kingdom

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So, again in case you haven’t seen this, here’s Gordon Brown putting a bit of last minute umph into the No campaign. It begs two thoughts. One, where on earth where they hiding him? This Gordon Brown should arguably have been striding like a bear round pumping up the No troops. And two, note the clarity of the messaging? There has been ZERO messaging from the No camp (other than “Big boys came..”) So, what’s that all about? Brown looked …

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Accepting Northern Ireland is part of the UK is what nationalists signed up for…

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It’s worth noting Vernon Coaker’s intervention, which is a reminder to both sets of ‘leaders’ in Northern Ireland of the basis of the Belfast Agreement back in 1998:  “I can’t help but think that to overcome the setbacks, we almost need to establish first principles again, the sort that were enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement. “Nationalists and republicans need to show that they accept Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom while the majority of people who live …

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Britain is, and remains for all the rhetoric of Conservative and Labour, a two nation society…

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So Labour is drifting, according to the polls.  The Observer yesterday put some bones on to why that may be happening. Or rather it explained why to some extent there is no real substance to Labour’s UK opposition… Today’s Opinium/Observer poll shows Labour dropping three percentage points from two weeks ago to 36%, taking its lead over the Tories to only seven points. Some senior figures in the party suggest that Labour’s silence for much of the summer is symptomatic of …

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Andy Burnham says ‘let’s organise in Northern Ireland…”

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Hmmm… Haven’t we seen this before? It seems that after meeting Mark Durkan the UK Labour MP and former Minister has said: “The NEC are currently speaking to the Northern Ireland Labour organisation and to our sister party the SDLP. They agreed a process of discussion and they will bring back a recommendation later this year. A decision is coming in the near future and I think it will be linked to the 2014 council elections.” Liam Clarke notes that …

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