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Andrew Fisher

Andrew Fisher

The Guardian

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Keir Starmer has 'changed' Labour so much that Tory MPs are flocking to it

More than 100 Conservative MPs have announced they are standing down at the next election. The phrase “rats leaving a sinking ship” springs to...

previous day 4

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Andrew Fisher

Rachel Reeves will regret her Blairite business plan

As Labour’s shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh dominates the airwaves with talk of nationalising our train services and ending three decades of...

26.04.2024 5

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Andrew Fisher

Crash the economy, blame the NHS – and then blame the working class

Every few years – maybe once or twice a decade – the working class in Britain decides not to work. There’s an outbreak of “swinging the...

19.04.2024 20

iNews

Andrew Fisher

Disabled people are paying for the failure of universal credit

The UK Government is committing “grave and systematic” violations of disabled people’s rights. That was the verdict of the UN’s Special...

15.04.2024 6

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Andrew Fisher

When child poverty is this bad, how on earth can Labour prioritise defence?

“Nothing Labour does will be unfunded or uncosted”, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves asserted ahead of the Labour Party conference last September....

12.04.2024 9

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Andrew Fisher

The cruellest benefits crackdown we've seen yet

Imagine working at least 35 hours per week and getting paid a maximum of just £2.34 per hour, in the UK, in 2024. If a company was exploiting people...

09.04.2024 10

iNews

Andrew Fisher

As bills rocket, we should ask ourselves: what are we paying for?

Today is bad news for bills – that’s no April Fools joke. If you pay council tax or car tax, have a water bill, a mobile phone, a broadband...

01.04.2024 5

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Andrew Fisher

Let Thames Water go bust

Thames Water is an object lesson in the failure of privatisation. The company inherited the infrastructure on the cheap and failed to invest in it,...

29.03.2024 10

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Andrew Fisher

Why I will not follow Owen Jones and leave the Labour Party

Nearly 20 years ago an energetically keen, motormouthed and precociously bright young man, started work in the office of John McDonnell, then a...

21.03.2024 6

iNews

Andrew Fisher

Diane Abbott is a political pawn in Labour’s farcical disciplinary process

The predicament facing Diane Abbott has led to something quite rare in today’s Labour Party: agreement from the left and right. Abbott, the first...

20.03.2024 10

iNews

Andrew Fisher

British people detest politicians. Who can blame them?

Politics in this country has never been worse. That’s the verdict of the British people. Only 12 per cent of the British public said they trusted...

04.03.2024 20

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Andrew Fisher

Keir Starmer's weakness is about to be exposed again

After Labour capitulated on their £28bn green investment pledge, the next obvious target for those wishing to dilute the party’s already meagre...

19.02.2024 4

iNews

Andrew Fisher

The die is cast. The Tories are doomed

An uncommonly tough week for Labour has been cauterised by two big by-election victories, one of which saw the second biggest swing in by-election...

16.02.2024 7

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Andrew Fisher

Labour has managed to lose both its economic and environmental credibility

On the day when we find out global warming has exceeded 1.5°C across an entire year, Labour has decided to drop what it branded its “Green...

08.02.2024 9

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Andrew Fisher

Post-Brexit Labour could learn a few things from Sadiq Khan

The fact that Sadiq Khan backed Remain and still favours closer ties with the European Union is hardly news. The London Mayor has been a consistent...

23.01.2024 4

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Andrew Fisher

What every Labour Prime Minister got wrong

One hundred years ago the first Labour government took office. And polls suggest Labour looks set to mark this centenary by returning to government...

21.01.2024 10

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Andrew Fisher

Sunak's sunlit uplands do not exist - not for me, you, or the Tories

Happy New Year! Inflation is falling and wages are rising. After a global pandemic and the worst cost of living crisis on record, we are emerging into...

09.01.2024 6

iNews

Andrew Fisher

Keir Starmer's Labour offers no new answers and no reasons for hope

We live in an era of post-truth politics. Earlier this week it was announced that the Office for Statistics Regulation is investigating Rishi...

04.01.2024 4

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Andrew Fisher

Reasons for the left to be hopeful in 2024

You might think that being on the left of British politics is a fairly miserable affair – as both the Tories and Labour drift to the right. Within...

25.12.2023 6

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Andrew Fisher

Royal visits to baby banks are a dangerous normalisation of poverty

The British economy shrank in the last month – falling by 0.3 per cent in October. It increasingly feels like the only sector that is booming is...

13.12.2023 3

iNews

Andrew Fisher

Labour's response to the Rwanda plan is gutless and shameful

This week, floundering Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will put forward yet another piece of legislation to save his morally and legally-challenged Rwanda...

11.12.2023 4

iNews

Andrew Fisher

We're still paying for Thatcher's cruelty - what was Starmer thinking?

Keir Starmer’s praise of Margaret Thatcher in The Sunday Telegraph , in which he credited Thatcher with delivering “meaningful change”, “to...

04.12.2023 2

iNews

Andrew Fisher

Labour does not want to have a serious debate about immigration

Last week net migration was revealed to be 672,000 in the last year. Rishi Sunak said the figures were “too high… we need to do more… the levels...

27.11.2023 6

iNews

Andrew Fisher

We have failed as voters – and Suella Braverman was our punishment

Last Friday evening, I was discussing the Suella Braverman debacle on BBC News. I described her as “a glorified internet troll”, and said her...

13.11.2023 9

iNews

Andrew Fisher

Keir Starmer appears to have forgotten that the Labour Party is founded on principles

When I worked for the Labour Party, I remember discussing the electoral significance of foreign policy with a colleague in my team. “Foreign policy...

30.10.2023 10

iNews

Andrew Fisher

The Israel-Hamas war is Keir Starmer's greatest test - and he is flailing

Labour may be the first opposition party to be in crisis over a foreign policy issue. The storm began when Keir Starmer was interviewed by LBC on 11...

26.10.2023 5

iNews

Andrew Fisher

The Labour Party is splintering because of Starmer's cold response to Palestinian suffering

There was an air of confidence about Labour as their annual party conference concluded earlier this month – heading into government and free from...

16.10.2023 2

iNews

Andrew Fisher

Rachel Reeves's plan is full of populist promises which won't fix our creaking public services

The eye-catching moment of Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s speech was popular in the conference hall: announcing she would stop ministers from...

09.10.2023 2

iNews

Andrew Fisher

Labour's by-election win is nothing to do with Keir Starmer

The result in Rutherglen and Hamilton West seemed like a foregone conclusion. The SNP is racked by in-fighting and scandal, their popular leader...

06.10.2023 2

iNews

Andrew Fisher

Jeremy Hunt is wrong about people on benefits – but cruelty is the point

Unemployment is rising: up by 159,000 over the last three months, and up 240,000 on a year ago. Youth unemployment is up 61,000 in the last three...

02.10.2023 30

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Andrew Fisher

Private schools are the antithesis of charity - Starmer's U-turn is a huge mistake

It is ludicrous that private schools have charitable status. If I donate to a local food bank, a hospice or to relieve famine abroad, I know that...

28.09.2023 4

iNews

Andrew Fisher

What it's like to live under a bankrupt council, where you pay more for less

Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority in Europe, issued a Section 114 notice earlier this month – effectively declaring itself...

19.09.2023 30

iNews

Andrew Fisher

Stop the War has exposed how hollow it now is. It should disband

In 2001, I was at the founding meeting of the campaign group Stop the War Coalition. I’m immensely proud of marching against war on Afghanistan and...

14.09.2023 5

iNews

Andrew Fisher

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