August 2003 Archive 

Red tape whingers attacked by British trade unionists Trade unionists have lambasted "red tape whingers" and attacked British industry’s focus on cheap labour and low investment, in a report responding to a government study on UK competitiveness.

Do shoot the messenger Tony Blair will face a nigh on impossible task attempting to restore the cloak of secrecy that has surrounded the true extent of Alastair Campbell’s influence and control over the inner workings of the government machine

New Labour think-tank says Kyoto is flawed A major London think-tank with close ties to New Labour has highlighted the limitations of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and thrown its weight behind a radical green policy based on equal rights to the atmosphere for the world’s population.

After 30 years, the Green Party comes of age Against the odds the Green Party is 30 years old. For those of us on the inside, getting past 1981 looked doubtful and it was perhaps both a surprise and a relief to reach the 1990s. The British political system has traditionally been unforgiving to new parties. But the party has survived, is growing and is making an electoral impact: it has seven MSPs, two MEPs and numerous councillors. Most important of all, it is now a party of the left.

They came from a Millbank focus group Carole Hayman’s Hard Choices is a dystopian satire of life under New Labour in the year 0010. The book has been compared to 1984 and Brave New World. Here, Hayman provides a dictionary style introduction to the nightmare that is Blair-world.

Whatever happened to the German Greens? Back in the early 1980s the West German Greens were a bastion of radicalism, challenging US imperialism, advocating pacifism and describing their own position as one of ’ecological socialism’. By the late 1990s the party seemed to have changed beyond all recognition: as a member of Gerhard Schroeder’s ’third way’ coalition, the Greens were defending radically neoliberal policies and staunchly supporting military interventions for humanitarian purposes.

Government GM advisers warn over contamination risk Environmentalists have seized on comments made by the government’s GM advisers warning about the risk of contamination by GM oilseed rape.

NGO launches bid to force EC to open up GATS negotiations Friends of the Earth has lodged a complaint with the European Commission’s Ombudsman in a bid to force the Commission to release documents detailing the European Union’s stance in international trade negotiations.

The GM Debate While concern over GM foods and their possible health risks is increasing among the public, the government seems to be undermining the GM debate by hurrying through decisions and limiting public input into the review.