New StatesmanBritain's award-winning current affairs magazineLabour's deep hole- August 11, 2008 Ex-minister Nick Raynsford compares Labour's plight to the Tories in 1990 when the Thatcher government was deeply unpopular pointing out they won in 1992 under John MajorWhen you are in a hole, stop digging. This simple, familiar advice might appear very apt for the Labour Party at this moment in time. But it prompts three questions fundamental to Labours future: 1. Just how deep a hole are we in2. What type of digging should stop And3. What other activity is necessary if we are to get...http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/08/labour-government-hole-1990 Sunday Roundup - 10 August 2008- August 10, 2008 A weekly look at the politics stories in the Sunday newspapersA good start from Toby Helm, the new Whitehall Editor of The Observer with a story about the trade union dream ticket of Jon Cruddas and Alan Johnson. The idea is that the unions feel this is the only way to stop David Miliband and a perceived return to Blairite free market fundamentalism. So there is now a pincer movement from the left and right to replace Gordon ...http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/martin-bright/2008/08/sunday-miliband-cruddas Woolly minded hippies- August 8, 2008 Rowena Macdonald went to Climate Camp fearing "woolly-minded hippydom" but found a serious and committed group of people - give or take the vegan farmers...Forget Southwold. This years Climate Camp protest against a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent is where Gordon Brown ought to be spending his summer holiday. I went to the Climate Camp in the spirit of curiosity and nostalgia, having been taken to the protest camp at Greenham Common missile base as a child in the early...http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/08/climate-camp-minded-station Oh dear it's the Paralympics- August 8, 2008 As the most glittering festival of disability sport approaches, I'm faced with my usual dilemma: to watch or not to watch Victoria Brignell struggles with an antipathy towards sport...Oh dear, it's the Paralympics soon. Sorry, that's probably not the reaction you're expecting from me. But I'm afraid the Paralympics is not an event I look forward to with breathless anticipation. As the most glittering festival of disability sport approaches, I'm faced with my usual dilemma: to watch or not to.http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/crips-column/2008/08/sport-watch-paralympics China's forgotten people- August 8, 2008 This week's terror attack in China has brought an intense barrage of publicity to the Uighurs. Amy Reger writes that one violent act does not represent more than 10 million people In the tiny offices of the Uyghur American AssociationUyghur Human Rights Project, our phones have rung off the hook since Monday morning. Journalists from four continents have called to hear our comments regarding Mondays attack in Kashgar, East Turkestan, in which 16 border police were killed. Chinese government...http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2008/08/human-rights-uighurs-china America's Iraqi prisoners- August 8, 2008 Detainees all Iraqis, save for a small number of foreigners are denied their basic right not to be held indefinitely without charge or trial. Many are young men rounded up in mass, arbitrary arrestsIraq is casting a long shadow over the US presidential race, and with relative calm in the country the candidates are debating how fast US troops should quit Iraq. Senator Barack Obamas 16-month timetable for withdrawal has the backing of Iraqi leaders, and the Bush administration itself now...http://www.newstatesman.com/middle-east/2008/08/iraq-detainees-held-mnf-rights Something for the weekend: Hoshi Saga- August 8, 2008 Iain Simons recommends something to while away those office hours. But don't let the management see you..."This game is to discover a star hidden in a stage" Yoshio Ishii's sublime Hoshi Saga offers only those words by way of explanation, and then leaves you to explore. Challenged with this simple goal your task is to variously uncover or create stars by experimenting with the different elements of each level. Initially, this is a childishly simple and utterly arbitrary game of hide and seek...http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/culture-tech/2008/08/hoshi-saga-game-away Where now for the peoples party- August 8, 2008 Backbencher Ian Gibson attacks the "faceless" Blairite plotters who brief behind the scenes and urges Brown to a five point pledge plan indicative of Labour valuesThe Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone so as to create for each other the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many not the few This is the.http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/08/labour-party-brown-change Rats to NHS patients!- August 8, 2008 Could vermin infestations in Britain's hospitals be turned to the advantage of the nation's sickRat attack I smell a rat. No, we did Miliband last week. Its the twitchy creatures who inhabit our nations hospitals, at least according to figures uncovered by the Conservatives- and reported here on June Sarpongs supercool Politics and the City. The Tories were apoplectic! Conservative Homes thread on the issue prompted Mary OBoyle to posit that: The only way to go is back to Seperate Domestic...http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/best-of-the-politics/2008/08/vermin-hospitals-rats-patie... Provocative policing- August 7, 2008 It's hard to see the police approach to this year's climate camp as anything other than a bid to provoke breaches of the peace writes Green Caroline LucasThis first of my regular newstatesman.com blogs finds me between my campaign for Brighton Pavilion and protesting in Kingsnorth, where Ive been heavily involved in attempts to get the police to pull back from their campaign of harrassment of the camp. Everyone who enters the site is being searched. Police officers are taking anything away that.http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/08/climate-camp-police-protestors |