Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Gerry Sables to stand in Barnstaple by-election

Gerrard Sables explains why North Devon branch of the Communist Party is standing in a by-election

When I stood this year in the general election for the North Devon constituency I believed myself to be the very first communist to stand in the South West peninsula. I was wrong. Edwin "Tappy" Tapscott stood in February 1950 for the Totnes constituency. Involved in that campaign were two comrades I had the privilege of meeting in their later years, Ernie Benson author of To Struggle is to Live and the Pensioners leader and author of No Thanks to Lloyd George Dave Goodman. Suffice it to say I was probably the second communist to stand in the South West peninsula.

Thursday, 24 June 2010

A Party of the Unemployed?

The Left has a problem. If one more "socialist" appears on TV complaining about the plight of people on benefits, I might do something silly.

Now before I get torn to pieces and denounced as a "reformist, revisionist, anti worker, naive, patronising, never been there, doesn't understand the problem class traitor" let me explain.

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

Campaign against the 2010 budget

The CPB has launched a campaign against a budget so see-through it may as well be signed by big business, city speculators and the bond markets. Download the campaign leaflet here:

Monday, 14 June 2010

The Not So Independent "Office for Budget Responsibility"

First the Bank of England was taken out of democratic control. Now the government's budget has followed.

If it were not bad enough that the "independent" (listen to how many times the Tories say it) OBR is full of ex-treasury staff and political advisors; they are all appointed by the government anyway. That's almost as stupid as if Israel were to carry out the investigation into the boarding of . . . What? They are?

Perhaps the most disturbing element of the creation if this department, no matter how it s staffed, is the removal of governmental control over its own affairs. This office is the ultimate form of monopoly capital having undue influence over democratic institutions. Big business now not only decides what interest rates it wants to pay, it can now force (and lets be honest, the Tories will go along with whatever big business tells them) the democratically elected government of this country, to cut whatever it deems best for business.