The sad death of Janey Buchan at the age of 85 brought back a lot of good memories and provoked a few reflections on the current state of left-wing politics in Scotland and beyond, for Janey and her late husband Norman really did represent the best of a political tradition that has now almost expired. Theirs was a humane and practical form of socialism founded in the great struggles of their youth...

Downhills Primary School in Haringey is fast becoming a political battleground. Before Christmas, David Lammy, the local MP, a bunch of union leaders, left-wing opponents of education reform and Labour councilors wrote to The Guardian complaining about Michael Gove’s plans to convert primary school with poor academic records into academies. In the New Year, Michael Gove responded with a spee...

If the Welfare Reform Bill makes it through Parliament this month, it will set the seal on a terrible twelve months in which - sporadic successes aside - 'the Left' has failed to provide effective leadership and representation for those bearing the brunt of public funding cuts and austerity economics. There have been massive shortcomings in how the Left has handled the public funding cut...

Yesterday, Ben Jackson and Gregg McClymont published their pamphlet: Cameron’s Trap – Lessons for Labour from the 1930s and 1980s. But from being a right-wing diatribe against Ed Miliband, as perceived by some, it is in fact a rather banal statement of commonly accepted truths interlaced with some significant concessions to the left-wing of the Labour party.

Left-wing protesters have refused to learn the lessons of the past fifteen years, writes Ruth Porter.

What is a left-wing politics about if not spending more money? You can try and out-muscle the Tories, promise similar cuts and slip a few stealthy tax-funded concessions in through the back door, or you can rethink how the entire welfare state functions and find the savings through that.

In his latest blog, Stephen Tall argues that byseeing Jeremy Clarkson as un-beneficial to a modern society makes me somehow a right-wing *insert your own adjective for the Daily Mail here*. Not in the slightest. I’m left-wing (so David Cameron doesn’t like me either, boo-hoo) and totally a liberal. I’ve never ever claimed Clarkson should

In a heated Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron accuses the Labour leader of being "irresponsible, left-wing and weak" for refusing to condemn the industrial action by public sector workers.

It was a real blood and thunder PMQs today. This was the politics of the viscera; whose side are you on stuff.   Ed Miliband chose to start on the strikes. David Cameron ripped into him from the off, calling him ‘irresponsible, left-wing and weak.’ Miliband came back with an attack about how he wasn’t going to demonise dinner ladies who earn less in a year than George Osborn...

As the polls had predicted, Spain has a new government: Rajoy’s right-wing Partido Popular (PP) defeated Zapatero’s left-wing Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). The only surprise was the large margin of victory, 16%, the worst defeat for Spain’s socialists in their electoral history. So yet another right-wing government takes power in a European nation. On