To the best of my knowledge Labour are not using canvass returns as evidence for excluding supporters from the leadership election. …
History
For various reasons considering why Labour lost and whether it was because we were too Left or too Right. I am reminded of a speech I gave to LPYS Conference in 1979, where I said that it wasn’t the right wing manifesto during three weeks of the campaign, it was the four year record of a right wing labour government! This was a Government that nationalised things. Right wing? We were mad! The rest as they say is History.
Tom Watson for Deputy
I shall be voting for Tom Watson for Deputy and ask you to do so too. He is a long term campaigner on the side of the good. He has shown he stands up for what he thinks is right and has Government experience having served in the last labour Governments in Defence and the Cabinet Office. In 2010, he took the citizens position and opposed the Digital Economy Act, and during the last Parliament he opposed the Governments repeated attempts to introduce and legalise mass surveillance, most recently 15 months ago when he led the opposition to DRIP, an opposition he took to court and won, with the unique result that the courts have put a judicial sunset clause on the Act. He has also taken the government to court to have their information sharing with the USA declared illegal because of the military use the American make of it. He led the majority on the Culture Media and Sports select committee on phone hacking and media plurality …
Incubating human capital
In the light of arguing what the definition of the national current account deficit is, student finance is an investment! …
Deficit fetishism
Just made a storify on the economics of opposing deficit fetishism, more a series of articles rather than a polemic, that’ll have to wait another day. Much of it points to Jeremy Corbyn’s economic policy manifesto. …
Monopoly Prices
I have been tidying up my hard disks, and came across this paper, written by me called, “Why Monopolies make super-profits?” which I wrote in 2009/2010 to codify my thoughts on monopoly. The pseudo abstract says,
Monopolies restrict supply and offer their goods at prices above an equilibrium price, which is the opportunity cost of the resources used to make the goods. In doing so they make super-profits. This paper looks at how and why this is. It is based on an ABC of Economics, my memories of my Economics classes at school and university and a more recent reading of Begg et al’s “Economics”.
Dave LEVY
It looks at profit maximisation, supply and demand and the nature of competition. It does not look at aggregate welfare underproduction, nor on the lost social costs in building and defending the monopoly. Maybe a re-write is required. …
Vote Jeremy Corbyn
The political choice in selecting Labour’s next leader involves choosing a platform and strategy. The platform choice is pretty clear, growth vs. austerity-lite. The strategy choices equally so, triangulation vs. a clear choice. So that’s simple then; it has to be Jeremy Corbyn. …
Evidence
During drinks with friend last night, we agreed that short of unspent criminal felony convictions, I can think of no evidence that proves someone does not support the aims and values of the Labour Party. Not all criminal convictions prove it either, ask the Yorkshire Miners. …
Steel
Has Mark Steel really been barred from participating in the Labour Leader selection?
Labour’s new extended family
Labour’s electoral roll for its 2015 elections has now closed. We took a decision last year to extend the franchise for the election of Leader, Deputy Leader and its candidate for Mayor of London to supporters and over 120,000 people have signed up as well as over 100,000 new full members. I hope that this is a first step for them in helping Labour rebuild and create an effective opposition, although not only do we need them to stay with us, we need to respectfully listen to them.
As one minor elected voluntary official I welcome you to Labour’s movement. …