Tag: labour party

THE VOID WHERE AN OPPOSITION SHOULD BE

March 16, 2017 by Kenan Malik

This is the full version of the article I wrote last month for the International New York Times on the crisis of the Labour Party and of UKIP. (I cannot publish my INYT articles on Pandaemonium until the month after it is published in the newspaper.) It was originally published on 24 February under the headline ‘Britain’s absent opposition’. On Thursday, storm Doris lashed Britain with ferocious winds and driving snow. That same day, England’s main opposition parties faced a […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, conservative party, eu referendum, jeremy corbyn, labour party, left, ukip, working class

BRITAIN’S ABSENT OPPOSITION

February 26, 2017 by Kenan Malik

An excerpt from my latest column for the International New York Times, on the results of the Stoke-on-Trent and Copeland by-elections in England, and their meaning for national politics: As party leader, Mr Corbyn has been a disaster. He is opposed by a majority of Labour members of Parliament, and has signally failed to win popular support outside the party’s base. Yet the party’s problem goes much deeper than its leadership. At the heart of its crisis lies the question: […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, labour party, working class

THE REVOLT OF THE FRAGMENTS

June 25, 2016 by Kenan Malik

It was, without question, a bloody nose for the political establishment, the biggest it has received for decades. And many have read the unexpected success of the Leave camp in the British EU referendum straightforwardly as a revolt against the political class and as a victory for democracy. Yes, it was a revolt against the political class in London and in Brussels. But the referendum result was also far more complicated than that. The anti-EU sentiment was not UK-wide. It […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: brexit, british politics, eu referendum, european union, labour party, left, populism, scotland, solidarity, working class

BEYOND THE BREXIT DEBATE

June 21, 2016 by Kenan Malik

Whatever the result of the Brexit referendum on Thursday, of one thing we can be sure: Britain will neither be invaded by marauding Turks, as anti-EU campaigners suggest might happen if the country votes ‘Yes’, nor will Western civilization collapse, as EU president Donald Tusk fears after a ‘No’ vote. There will undoubtedly be economic and political turbulence, but Britain will not be staring into the abyss, however it votes. But, if the world will not end for Britain, neither will the […]

Categories: Britain, International • Tags: boris johnson, brexit, british politics, democracy, european union, fortress europe, labour party, migration crisis, populism

ANTI-SEMITISM AND THE LEFT

May 29, 2016 by Kenan Malik

This is the full version of the article I wrote last month for the International New York Times on the controversy about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. (I cannot publish my INYT articles on Pandaemonium until a month after it is published in the newspaper.) It was originally published under the headline ‘The British Left’s Jewish Problem’. I have slightly edited it to take account of the fact that the original was published before the London Mayoral election. It has, admitted […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: anti-semitism, conspiracy theories, identity politics, jeremy corbyn, ken livingstone, labour party, left, muslims, naz shah

THE BRITISH LEFT’S ‘JEWISH PROBLEM’

May 4, 2016 by Kenan Malik

A excerpt from my latest column for the International New York Times, on the controversy over anti-Semitism in the British Labour party: Anti-Semitism used to be a problem primarily of the right. It wasn’t that the left had a totally clean bill of health — there is a history of left-wing anti-Semitism — but its firm foundation of universal values and egalitarian principles established a proud tradition of fighting bigotry against Jews. . In recent decades, however, much of the […]

Categories: Britain, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: anti-semitism, british politics, identity politics, labour party, racism

THE POLITICS OF DISENCHANTMENT

September 22, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I will be writing a regular column for Aljazeera English. My first column is about Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party. Guardian journalist Seamus Milne hailed it as ‘a political eruption of historic proportions’. The Prime Minister David Cameron claimed it represented a threat to Britain’s national security. Whatever else it may achieve, Jeremy Corbyn’s success in gaining the leadership of the Labour Party, has certainly unleashed the surreal in British politics. To understand more soberly what the leftwing maverick’s […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, jeremy corbyn, labour party, left, tony blair

LEADING THE LABOUR PARTY – TO DO WHAT?

September 9, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This weekend, the British Labour Party will choose a new leader. Below is the full version of my article on Labour Party and the leadership election published last month in the International New York Times. The Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon may be as baffling for those who follow British politics as the Donald J Trump phenomenon is to those who keep an eye on American politics. Both are running for the leadership of parties that have suffered traumatic electoral defeat. Both […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, jeremy corbyn, labour party, left, tony blair

WHAT IS THE LABOUR PARTY FOR?

August 22, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is an extract from my latest column in the International New York Times about the Labour Party leadership contest in Britain. Read the full article in the INYT. In truth, Mr. Blair is neither saint nor sinner. His election victories were as much the product of the exhaustion of the Conservative Party after 18 years in power as they were of his political acumen. And he did not so much rob Labour of its soul as recognize that it […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, labour party

FROM THE ARCHIVES: TONY BLAIR’S JOURNEY

August 10, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I am in South Africa for the next three weeks, to give the TB Davie Memorial Lecture, and hopefully to do a bit more besides. While I am away, I will be raiding the archives for articles – mainly book reviews – not published before on Pandaemonium. This first ‘From the archives’ review is of Tony Blair’s memoirs, My Journey, memoirs that, in the context of the current Labour leadership contest, have renewed currency. The review was first published in he Norwegian […]

Categories: Britain, Culture & Books, Politics • Tags: british politics, iraq, labour party, tony blair

A FRAGMENTED KINGDOM

May 8, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is from my article on the British general election published in the International New York Times, 8 May 2015: Before the election, with most commentators expecting an indecisive result, there was widespread discussion about the issue of legitimacy: Would a minority government, or a coalition of disparate parties, have a genuine mandate to govern? Thursday’s result may have prevented the feared constitutional wrangling, but it has raised deeper questions of legitimacy. . ‘I want to reclaim the mantle that […]

Categories: Britain • Tags: british politics, conservatives, election, labour party

ISLINGTON WOMAN AND WHITE VAN MAN

December 23, 2014 by Kenan Malik

This is the full version of my essay on British politics and public attitudes to immigration published last month in the International New York Times under the headline ‘A Collision with “White Van Man”‘. Rarely can such an unremarkable photo have such heavy political repercussions. Last Thursday, a senior Labour Party member of Parliament, Emily Thornberry, tweeted a photo of a terraced house in Rochester, Kent. It showed three flags of England draped across the facade and a white van […]

Categories: Britain, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, immigration, labour party, racism, ukip, working class

WHITE VAN MAN AND CAR CRASH POLITICS

November 28, 2014 by Kenan Malik

My latest column for the International New York Times is on the furore created in Britain by Emily Thornburn’s tweet, and what it tells us about British politics. Published under the headline ‘A Collision with “White Van Man”‘, here are the opening paragraphs. You can read the full version in the INYT. Rarely can such an unremarkable photo have such heavy political repercussions. Last Thursday, a senior Labour Party member of Parliament, Emily Thornberry, tweeted a photo of a house […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, labour party, racism, ukip, working class

THE STRANGE NEW LANDSCAPE OF SCOTLAND

November 19, 2014 by Kenan Malik

Ken MacLeod is a Scottish science fiction writer, blogger and ‘habitual Labour voter’. He has set a number of his novels in a future, independent Scotland, but campaigned for a ‘No’ vote in the recent independence referendum. I am delighted that he has written an essay for Pandaemonium, based on a recent talk for BBC Radio 4’s World This Weekend, about the strangeness of the post-referendum political landscape in Scotland. Ken MacLeod The strange new landscape of Scotland Scotland is in a […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: labour party, left, scottish independence, snp

REFLECTIONS ON UKIP – AND ON REFLECTIONS ABOUT UKIP

May 9, 2013 by Kenan Malik

A week on from the local elections, and there seems to be no end to the debate about UKIP’s success. Explanations fall into two broad categories. Some insist that UKIP garnered merely a temporary midterm protest vote. Others see Nigel Farage’s outfit as a lasting threat to which the main parties must respond by adopting more hardline policies, especially on Europe, immigration and welfare. Both views are right. And both are wrong. UKIP does draw the protest vote. But the […]

Categories: Britain, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, conservative party, european union, immigration, labour party, racism, ukip, working class