The INLA rejecting violence has nothing to do with Marxism

The decision of the INLA to pursue it objectives without armed struggle is of course welcome. But to describe this event as representing the decommissioning of Marxism, as the Guardian Jason Walsh did today, is absurd.

Karl Marx (1818-83) never considered armed struggle in Ireland for the twenty-first century. What he did write about in his masterpiece Das Kapital were concepts and models to understand the political economy of capitalism; these theoretical tools are still useful today for analysing society.

The value, or otherwise, of Marx and Marxism is not affected by the actions of INLA in Ireland.

Klaus: sign or resign

Vaclav Klaus is entitled to his personal views on the Lisbon Treaty, but he is not entitled to lead the Czech Republic a dance.

The Czech Republic does not have presidential system, but is a parliamentary democracy. The parliament of the Republic has decided to endorse the Lisbon Treaty and it is merely the duty of the President to sign a treaty which has been lawfully approved in the country.

If Klaus feels so strongly about the issue, he should resign the presidency, not play rogue elephant and embarrass the Czech government, parliament and people. And – if he persists in his obstinacy – cause the constitutional crisis which would ensue from his removal or his being by-passed.

Conservative tie themselves in their own knot over Europe

However much one dislikes the Conservative Party, nobody is seriously suggesting - as some commentators here appear to misunderstand - that Cameron, Hague et al are themselves fascists.

What has happened is that the Tory leadership has made a terrible mistake which many among the Tories already realise. In his attempt to satisfy Tory Euro-sceptics, Cameron took his delegation of Conservative MEPs in Brussels out of the centre-right EPP group and instead formed a parliamentary fraction with right-wing parties which include fascist MEPs from Eastern Europe.

It is no small matter that the MEPs of the party which will probably form the next British government are of their own free will part of a political fraction in Brussels which contains fascists. This point needs to be made again and again until the Tories (or the fascists) leave that grouping.

If Cameron wants to land on planet Earth with regard to the EU he needs to do two things:

First, leave the so-called Conservative and Reform fraction in the European Parliament which contains fascists.

Second, recognise that the EU is a reality (and largely a beneficial one) and work out how best to purse British interests inside that body.

Sir Hugh Orde on the British policing of protest

The UK police service has a long and proud history of upholding the right to lawful protest

This is far from true.

On 1st April 2009 the police in London mounted a full-scale attack on the freedom to demonstrate. Peaceful and defenceless protesters were herded into street concentration pens, held for hours against their will, beaten with riot equipment and had dogs set upon them.

The police acted with impunity, removing en masse their service numbers in order to beat, punch and otherwise assault the general public.

None of this happened because of bad apples in the barrel, but as a result of a police management that couldn’t give a damn about civil liberties, human or political rights.

No to more public debt

We don’t want higher levels of public debt and we don’t want a fall in aggregate demand.

The only solution is a hard pill to swallow and is certainly not on offer from New Labour, let alone the Tories: i.e. an increase in government expenditure on capital projects funded by tax increases, not borrowing. Such an expansion in public investment would help cut unemployment while the high rates of tax on income, land, capital, inheritance, etc would help bring about greater social equality in Britain.

Cameron is no solution to New Labour's faults

Let as look for a second at the faults of New Labour.

Producing the highest level of social inequality in Britain since 1945.

Privatising, linked to hidden public borrowing, through PPP schemes in the public sector.

Running an economy based on massive credit expansion which led to the near collapse of the whole financial sector

Diminishing civil and personal liberties through the creation of a bureaucratic surveillance state.

Brown-nosing to the US and involvement in its imperial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Now which of these faults are Cameron and his Tories going reverse?

The unnecessary arrest of Damian Green

Again we see evidence of the abuse by New Labour of national security and the terrorist threat. The leaked documents were merely embarrassing in showing the incompetence of the Home Office.

The question remains why it was necessary to arrest Green and imprison him for several hours, when the police had every opportunity to question him in freedom about the matter. (Compare the questioning of Tony Blair)

The violation by the police of a parliamentarian’s office in the House of Commons was utterly unacceptable.

One has the feeling that New Labour tried to change the rules of the political game by backing the police on this matter. Their hope was to limit the field of activity for opposition politicians. Fortunately for the sake of democracy they failed.

Tories link up with Euopean fascists

The fact that the Tories share a European grouping with East European fascists does matter. It means that in European politics Cameron and Hague feel nearer to these people than they do to the European Christian Democrats of the centre right.

In some aspects this development is more disturbing than the growth of BNP in Britain, for while Griffin and his BNP are likely to remain on the margins of British politics, Cameron is set to become Prime Minister in 2010.

The Tories are not afraid to stand alone on Europe. If they got the chance they would not ratify the Lisbon treaty, leaving Britain out on a limb. Yet such loneliness was not for them in the European Parliament; they joined forces with East European fascists to form parliamentary group. Their association with fascism is an alliance of choice, and the Tories deserve to be attacked for it.

The survival of New Labour

The coalition of Middle England and working class voters which brought Blair victory in 1997 has fallen apart. Middle England has Cameron; and working people see nothing for them in New Labour.

In the industrial towns of the north and much of the inner city Labour is likely to be the leading party and will, with the help of first part the post, be assured of a certain quota of seats.

If Labour were challenged on the left, such as SDP in Germany is confronted by Die Linke, then the story would be different, but sadly there is no serious Left Party in Britain.

The photomontage of Brooke Shields

There seem to me two be two issues tied up here.

The first is whether Brooke Shields has a right to have a sexually explicit image taken of her when she was ten removed from public display. I would support her right to have the image restricted, but I believe that issue has to be determined in the US. American courts have already decided against her.

That leaves the second issue whether this photomontage should be banned from the Tate Modern. I think not. The image is already publicly available, and people should be able to make their own judgment about it, morally and artistically.

What to me is the most unacceptable is to have police arriving at art galleries and threatening the promoters of art exhibitions. The police should either get a court order against an art exhibit or keep out of it.