Comment

THE absolute hammering taken by Labour in the local elections and the victory of the upper-class buffoon Boris Johnson in the London mayoral election seem to have sparked a massive outbreak of revolutionary defeatism in the ranks of the left nationwide.

THERE is only one thing worse than suffering electoral meltdown and that is emerging from a disaster with no idea how to overcome it.

WHAT a way for Northern Rock workers and their union representatives to celebrate May Day - having to make a case to the government-appointed executive chairman Ron Sandler not to make any of them compulsorily redundant.

AT first sight, Gordon Brown's belated admission that he made mistakes in abolishing the 10p rate of income tax and not covering "as well as we should have" the effects on childless low-paid workers and on pensioners aged 60 to 64 is heartening.

CHILD Support Agency managers clearly have no understanding of what democracy means if they think it reasonable to allow a staff member to stand as a candidate for the hate-filled BNP and then deny other staff the right to circulate anti-fascist leaflets.

AFTER Lord Levy's unwanted and ill-conceived intervention immediately prior to the local elections, in which he claimed that Tony Blair didn't believe that the current Prime Minister could win an election against Tory lightweight David Cameron, it is hardly surprising that ministers were leaping to the defence of Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday.

AS any labour movement activist will tell you, it is always useful, when facing an important event in the trade union calendar, to have some small preparatory events to publicise the major item in advance to make others aware of the event and book the date.

FOR those who have the eyes to see and information sources less biased and selective than Britain's tame pro-capitalist press, the effects of the White House hard-liners' Project for a New American Century, which was floated over the signatures of such luminaries as Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Francis Fukuyama, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz are obvious.

THE decision to return the freighter An Yue Jiang to its Chinese home port, complete with its shipment of arms, is a victory for trade unionists and other progressive forces in southern Africa.

THERE will be some Labour Members of Parliament congratulating themselves on Thursday over their great victory in challenging the government and winning concessions on aid for those hit by the abolition of the 10p tax rate.