‘The Land of the Free’ is no more. This statement should no longer even be associated with America. It has come into light, the ‘Land of Opportunity’ has sunk yet another level in its economic freedom index: the ‘Great American Nanny State’ is 20th in the Overall Freedom Ranking. In […]

In Part Five of ‘Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay’ with no political party willing to seriously oppose Thatcher’s poll tax, millions of ordinary people begin to organise themselves at grassroots level, often inspired by the historic revolutionary events in the former Stalinist countries of Eastern Europe. The town of Northwich was typical of […]

Part Five in a series of ten articles on the history of the  ‘Anti-Poll Tax Campaign’. CHRIS ROBINSON looks at how the campaign developed at the local level in his own area of Northwich, Cheshire – reflected up and down the country as millions prepared to fight back against the […]

Part Four of ten articles exploring the history of the grass-roots movement against Thatcher’s infamous poll tax. CHRIS ROBINSON looks at the beginning of the fight back. Thatcher’s Tory government introduced the poll tax a year earlier in Scotland following their rejection of ‘Thatcherism’ in the 1987 elections. An acknowledged ‘Labour stronghold’, yet […]

Continuing with his series on the historic ‘Anti-Poll Tax Campaign’ that brought down Margaret Thatcher, CHRIS ROBINSON looks at how the political left were on the defensive in the face of the 1980s Tory government onslaught to end the post-war social consensus. With the Labour Party moving to the right, only the […]

In America, the biggest beast of capitalism, they call May 1st ‘Labor Day’. In South Africa, it’s ‘Workers Day’. The Germans call it ‘Arbeiterstag’. While here in Britain it’s known, blandly, as ‘May Day Bank Holiday’. It wasn’t that long ago that an earlier Tory government – it could have […]

Next year marks 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War.  David Cameron recently called on people to remember that it was a war fought in ‘defence of democracy’. Indeed, tragically, it was called ‘the War to End all Wars’. Standing where we are today, we know this to […]

Launch a discussion or debate about ‘socialism’ and, before you can say ‘religion is the opium of the masses’, some cynical bright spark will pipe up with the usual string of cliches. ‘Ah,’ they’ll say. ‘Socialism doesn’t work. Look at Stalin. He had more people murdered than Hitler ever did. Revolutions always  […]