As everyone returns to the office in various states of unwillingness, this week we cling desperately to 2015 a little longer and revisit some of our favourite articles from our first year. First up – some of the best political writing on Star & Crescent in 2015.
(Click on the image or title to read the article.)
Stephen Harper – Can Corbynmania Go Far Enough?
“But even if a Corbyn-led government were elected – and the next opportunity for that is a full five years away – it is doubtful that any of Corbyn’s enlightened policies would by then be intact, let alone implementable. And we’d do well to remember that radical promises are easily broken. Before the 2010 election, Nick Clegg, of the Liberal Democrats, promised the end of university tuition fees, only to renege later upon his pledge. That’s how politicians roll.”
Sophia Wood – Class and the Career Politician
“Coming from a working class family in Portsmouth, and witnessing the ‘right to buy’ propaganda of the Conservatives in the 1980s, I was aware that decent council houses had increasingly fallen into private hands, given Thatcher’s “vision” of home ownership for all. In reality this had meant that those with steady incomes, and maybe some inherited wealth, could buy, do up and sell their council houses for far more than they paid; while those who could not, found the social housing market depleted of its best stock, and themselves increasingly forced into damp and over-priced private rental stock (or ghettoised on outlying sink estates).”
Matt Wingett – ‘Why I Cannot Vote For This Shower Of Liars’
“What does the future offer us under the Tories?
“More of the same.
“More cutting of the public sector in order to actually subsidize the private sector.”
Richard Peirce – The Lives and Blood of Innocents: An Open Letter to Flick Drummond MP
“I’m curious. Why is our PM’s buddy, Saudi Arabia’s Prince not rushing to use his Brimstones against these brutal terrorists? We are on the same side, aren’t we? And the ones we sold them are just as effective as ours, aren’t they? Surely all those alleged bribes and slush funds by a company convicted of ‘felony to defraud’ were not for nothing? We need them to use theirs so we can sell them some more, I would have thought.”
