Best of the left web 7th August 2019

Welcome to this new page on Thinking and Doing. I’ve been blogging for about 2 years now with varying degrees of success (highest 520 views, lowest 4 views), but it has always been exclusively my content. This page, which I hope to publish regularly, is more a round-up of what is out there. I hope people see this as a good resource. If you know of any leftie blogs please let me know. Incidentally, this is all compiled by hand with not an algorithm in sight.

From Labour List: We need a United Left 

Jade Azim’s LabourList article ‘The real battle for Labour’s soul? Lansmanites vs cranks’ certainly caused a stir. Reactions ranged from cheering to weariness, but also from the perplexed to the very personalised. I want to start by making a defence of Jade, though I disagree with much of her piece. Continue reading here

From Vox Political: How the right are baiting the left

If you’ve never heard of “Torrancing” before, don’t worry. I don’t think I have either, although I certainly believe I have been a victim of it. Continue reading here

From The Morning Star: War with Iran looking ever more likely

A DISASTROUS war with Iran has “just got more likely,” peace campaigners warned today. Continue reading here

From Middle East Eye: EHRC has broken its own rules in investigating Labour says Jewish Group.

The UK equalities watchdog charged with investigating alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party has broken its own rules, according to a group of Jewish members of the party. Continue reading here

From UCU Left: Support the climate strike on September 20th

Greta Thunberg has called for the next global school student strike on the 20th September. This strike will kick off a week of climate action which finishes on the 27th September. It looks set to be one of the biggest days of action for climate justice yet. Continue reading here

From Counterfire: Johnson’s turbo-charged alt-right must be defeated

‘Turbo-charge’ appears to be the soundbite of choice for members of Boris Johnson’s newly installed cabinet of horrors. First off the mark was the racist buffoon himself, telling the House of Commons in his first address as PM that he will ‘turbo-charge’ preparations for a no-deal Brexit. Continue reading here

From The Canary: Twitter tells the truth about the Brecon by-election

The Brecon and Radnorshire constituency was a Liberal Democrat seat until the party’s electoral wipeout in 2015. The Lib Dems have now won it back from the Tories in a by-election, reducing Boris Johnson’s working parliamentary majority to just one. Continue reading here

From the poor side of life: 

Today is the Unite Union Day of Action against universal credit and I hope that there’s lots of demos outside Jobcentres today.Continue reading here

From Thinking and Doing Archive: The case for putting morality into politics

What character traits ought we to look for in our elected representatives? The question may seem odd at a time when our expectations of our representatives have never been lower. The idea that politicians should be “respectable” and that they, if not we, should aspire to some higher ideal, seems to belong to a bygone age. Political idealism is to be sneered at, and politics, it seems, no longer has any place for outmoded concepts such as truth, honesty or integrity. Continue reading here