Tories Follow

Over 70 years ago the British government was rocked by what the historian AJP Taylor described as "the greatest explosion over foreign affairs for many years". This was caused when the Tory "national" government, led by Stanley Baldwin, was caught out lying about its stance towards fascist Italy’s war against the independent East African state of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia).

Over half of the 82 universities in France are taking part in strike action against the Tory government’s plans. Twenty five universities are in occupation.

Even if spring has not officially begun, the temperature is rising very sharply on the streets in France.

Is this Tony Blair’s Ramsay MacDonald moment? Some 75 years ago Labour’s premier relied on Tory votes to push through cuts in unemployment benefit as the Great Depression gripped the country.

Seafarers were ordered to return to their jobs last week by a special "civilian conscription" decree signed by Kostas Karamanlis, the Tory prime minister of Greece. This was an attempt to break a week long strike which has paralysed the country.

It says everything about New Labour that Tony Blair wants the destruction of comprehensive education to be his lasting legacy. And he’s relying on an alliance with the Tories to do it.

The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) won just short of 6 percent in a Glasgow city council by-election last week in Milton, beating the combined votes of both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.

A huge scandal associated with the "war on terror" is rocking Greece’s Tory government following revelations that about 100 mobile phones, including the prime minister’s, were tapped.

Like most people educated in Britain, I was taught that the Tory ruling class that had opposed votes for women so vehemently nevertheless produced the first woman MP in 1919 — Nancy Astor.

The formation of a "grand coalition" government of the social democrats and Tories in Germany is a sign of the crisis gripping Europe’s elites.

The election in Germany has plunged the political establishment into crisis and has led to the biggest breakthrough of a radical left force since the Second World War. Gerhard Schröder’s SPD, similar to Britain’s New Labour, stood with a programme defending hated measures to attack the welfare state — Agenda 2010 and Hartz IV. The Tory CDU and its would-be coalition partners, the FDP, had programmes saying they would implement even harsher neo-liberal measures.

The last Tory government used to fantasise about privatising the whole of the National Health Service. Tony Blair is fulfilling the Tories’ maddest dreams.