http://blogs.independent.co.uk| Blogs from the Independent newspaper - news, views and features from the world's most free-thinking newspaper| Fri, 24 May 2013 11:52:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2| en hourly 1 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/08/payday-lenders-are-they-targeting-gamblers/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/08/payday-lenders-are-they-targeting-gamblers/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:04:31 +0000 Simon Read http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=33938 Ed Miliband's crackdown on payday lenders is long overdue. They're already preying on vulnerable people.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/08/payday-lenders-are-they-targeting-gamblers/feed/ 2 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/03/26/a-measure-of-labours-problem/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/03/26/a-measure-of-labours-problem/#comments Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:40:41 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=33657 David Miliband’s resignation as an MP to run a charity in New York is a loss to the Labour Party. More than that, though, it tells us what a state Labour is in. There has recently been speculation about the possibility of Alistair Darling replacing Ed Balls as shadow chancellor – a change on which Darling [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/03/26/a-measure-of-labours-problem/feed/ 9 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/01/12/europe-tories-wobble-labour-dont/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/01/12/europe-tories-wobble-labour-dont/#comments Sat, 12 Jan 2013 17:59:07 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=31529 Master strategist George Osborne’s latest cunning plan is to play Bad European to David Cameron’s Good European. The Prime Minister said in July that leaving the EU would be “bad for Britain” and “a complete denial of our national interests”. The Daily Telegraph paraphrased him thus: “Mr Cameron will not countenance leaving the EU and [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/01/12/europe-tories-wobble-labour-dont/feed/ 17 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/10/15/housing-will-be-the-next-political-battleground-for-2015/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/10/15/housing-will-be-the-next-political-battleground-for-2015/#comments Mon, 15 Oct 2012 03:00:36 +0000 Roger Harding http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=29132 The imagery and the towns change, but the theme of party conferences is always the same: we are the party looking out for YOU.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/10/15/housing-will-be-the-next-political-battleground-for-2015/feed/ 26 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/10/01/the-labour-conference-funnier-than-the-edinburgh-festival/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/10/01/the-labour-conference-funnier-than-the-edinburgh-festival/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:48:54 +0000 Grainne Maguire http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=28795 My name is Gráinne Maguire and I have a terrible secret; this year, the highlight of my social calendar, my Glastonbury, my 18-30s holiday is the Labour Party Conference in Manchester. As a stand-up comedian and a veteran of the Edinburgh festival, I want to see how the Labour Party conference compares with the annual comedy month of shame.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/10/01/the-labour-conference-funnier-than-the-edinburgh-festival/feed/ 4 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/17/why-single-tony-blair-out-for-protest/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/17/why-single-tony-blair-out-for-protest/#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:24:10 +0000 James Bloodworth http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=26439 Tony Blair made a tentative return to politics last week as an advisor to the Labour Party. For a number of people on the left, including your humble servant, this did not sit particularly well. Many of us had hoped that under the stewardship of Ed Miliband the Labour Party would move beyond the privatisation and political cowardice of the “triangulation” years to a more confidently social democratic outlook]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/17/why-single-tony-blair-out-for-protest/feed/ 131 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/16/generation-y-are-suffering-from-the-recession-dont-tell-us-were-not/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/16/generation-y-are-suffering-from-the-recession-dont-tell-us-were-not/#comments Mon, 16 Jul 2012 03:00:30 +0000 Caroline Mortimer http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=26375 If some of the more hysterical right wing papers are to be believed there is only one type of young person; the angry, feckless yob that graces the front of the tabloids carrying various electronic goods looted from Argos. ]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/16/generation-y-are-suffering-from-the-recession-dont-tell-us-were-not/feed/ 48 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/22/ed-miliband-and-britains-anti-immigrant-backlash/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/22/ed-miliband-and-britains-anti-immigrant-backlash/#comments Fri, 22 Jun 2012 17:42:18 +0000 Owen Jones http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=25604 The politics behind Ed Miliband’s long-awaited speech on immigration are pretty straightforward. Polling – and Labour activists’ experience on the doorstep – suggest that immigration remains a big concern for large numbers of working-class voters. Unless Labour engages with a conversation going on in ‘every kitchen’, as Ed Miliband puts it, the [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/22/ed-miliband-and-britains-anti-immigrant-backlash/feed/ 0 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/05/24/where-all-the-lib-dems-have-gone/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/05/24/where-all-the-lib-dems-have-gone/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 12:35:49 +0000 Matt Chorley http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=24596 At the weekend we splashed on how 26 per cent of Tory voters would "seriously consider" voting for UKIP, after 10 per cent have already made the switch. I went back to ComRes to find out where the other parties vote has gone. This is what the results show - and they make grim reading for Nick Clegg. ]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/05/24/where-all-the-lib-dems-have-gone/feed/ 9 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/05/17/every-mother-with-their-own-named-midwife-sounds-like-an-empty-promise/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/05/17/every-mother-with-their-own-named-midwife-sounds-like-an-empty-promise/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 16:30:30 +0000 Grace Jacobson http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=24321 Andrew Lansley’s announcement that pregnant women being cared for under the NHS will be provided with a ‘named’ midwife, seems thoroughly unrealistic.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/05/17/every-mother-with-their-own-named-midwife-sounds-like-an-empty-promise/feed/ 28 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/05/05/farewell-ken/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/05/05/farewell-ken/#comments Sat, 05 May 2012 22:14:10 +0000 Owen Jones http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=23916 Last night, I sat in City Hall as Ken Livingstone's political career ended; bizarrely, my parents were there as it was beginning. Back in the early 1970s, they were all members of Norwood Labour party's insurgent left, battling the party's right together following the perceived disappointments and betrayals of Harold Wilson's Government. And so began a two-pronged struggle that would mark the rest of Ken's career: against the Tories on the one hand, and the right-wing flank of his own party.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/05/05/farewell-ken/feed/ 45 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/04/14/machine-politics-the-machine-has-broken-down/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/04/14/machine-politics-the-machine-has-broken-down/#comments Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:31:25 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=23211 Phil Collins wrote an interesting column in The Times yesterday (pay wall) about the persistence of machine politics in the Labour Party. He took in the failure to organise the Bradford West by-election, the allegations of attempts to fix the Birmingham mayoral selection and this: The ultimate objective is the pathetically trivial one of gathering sycophants [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/04/14/machine-politics-the-machine-has-broken-down/feed/ 11