People’s Vote should be top of Labour’s agenda

After 4 days of a party conference where Brexit agenda issues were conspicuous by their absence we finally got some clarity on Labour’s position on Brexit. They want a general election at any cost. A huge surge of support for a national referendum on the final Brexit deal has been seen across the country, not least amongst the ranks of Labour members and supporters, with reports of anything up to 90 per cent of members calling for the cross-party People’s...

The heart-breaking real life story of a contaminated blood campaigner

On the second day of the long overdue public inquiry into the NHS Contaminated Blood scandal, leading Criminal Barrister Sam Stein caused a sensation by referring to the harm caused to haemophiliacs and the deaths of so many as “grievous bodily harm and murder”. He represents four clients, three being among the longest standing campaigners like Carol Anne Grayson whose husband Peter Longstaff was a haemophiliac. Peter's blood did not clot properly and he died as a direct result of...

Brexit is a dead parrot and it’s starting to stink up the place

When are they going to admit that Brexit is a disaster? The Conservatives seem pathologically unable to admit it. Labour appears less willing to accept the reality every day. With six months to go before the UK leaves the European Union, there is no agreement. There is no trade deal. There is no plan to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland. Brexit is going to be a failure. We can run through all the analogies from train wrecks to...

Labour’s Brexit dilemma

Labour is stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand it looks increasingly likely that the party will be forced to back a People’s Vote on Brexit over the coming days, succumbing to the wishes of its membership which consist largely of the same youthful demographic that voted overwhelmingly to stay in the European Union. But on the other it has to answer to an electorate that voted 60/40 in favour of leaving the EU in...

Brexit is mortally wounded – it’s time to let it die

Despite the Conservative's incompetence on the domestic front at least they have proved one thing; that there is no workable solution to Brexit that gives us what they promised. That was the words of The New European editor Matt Kelly following the latest round of talks where even a watered-down Chequers proposal was knocked back by the union who remained characteristically stoic in Salzburg this week. The pound plummeted as May delivered a speech saying the UK "cannot accept anything that...

Why do people keep calling the People’s Vote a “second referendum”?

Theresa May today emphatically ruled out the idea of a second Brexit vote, saying that the 2016 referendum was "the people’s vote".  In an interview with the Daily Express she said, “My answer to the People’s Vote is that we’ve had the people’s vote – it was the referendum - and now we should deliver on it”. But the PM seems to have made the same mistake as many others in confusing a vote on the government’s Brexit deal with...

How I became homeless in London

Alan’s story: I’m from Sunderland. My background is pretty chaotic. My father was put in prison for life. He was absent when I was little and we really only ever saw him in prison. My Nan was lovely and my main carer – she brought up me, my sister and brother and a cousin. My mum has been there throughout my life. She wasn’t a drug user or drinker but she just couldn’t cope with kids. When I look back...

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