Previously on ACMD's Breaking Bad

This week, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) fired the latest salvo in the Government’s increasingly farcical response to the manufactured panic around ‘designer drugs’- in other words substances that are created and marketed specifically to get around existing drug laws. The ‘designer drugs’ story has all the ingredients of the best [...]

ETA declare permanent ceasefire – time for Spain to free the Basque country.

Amidst the worldwide media coverage of Gaddafi’s death, a historic development in another conflict went largely unnoticed – after over 40 years of a military campaign against the Spanish state, the Basque armed group ETA announced a permanent end to it’s use of violence in the struggle for an independent and socialist Basque state. This [...]

What's going on in Greece?

On Thursday evening, the Greek Parliament voted through its latest austerity package – approved by all but one of the deputies from the ruling ‘social democratic’ party, PASOK. Tens of thousands of workers will now suffer dramatic wage cuts of 40%, the slashing of pensions and the tearing up of collective bargaining agreements, on top [...]

Exclusive! Today's Sun frontpage…

Nuanced and understated as ever, the front page of today’s The Sun celebrates the demise of a despised despot, class enemy and war criminal whose decades-long rule has created untold misery for millions, and whose stubborn refusal to step aside has led to civil war amid the ruins of his former empire and destruction on [...]

Colonel Gaddafi is brown breid – what next for Libya?

He lived his life like a candle in the wind. A mad candle, ranting that people on ecstasy were trying to overthrow his regime and replace it with Al Qaeda but a candle nonetheless. With the news that Colonel Gaddafi has died in his hometown of Sirte, who now will fill the shoes of craziest [...]

Statement on 2012 council elections and left renewal

The past year has seen a groundswell of opposition and resistance to the cuts and austerity plans the governments and financial institutions of the world are trying to inflict upon millions of people. In Greece, the government is threatened with mass strikes and will be forced to default on its debt, and in Spain and [...]

The "Iranian terror plot" and the Mexican drug war.

The US government has foiled a terrorist plot involving Iran, Mexican drug cartels, Cuba, Hezbollah, and Osama Bin Laden’s reanimated corpse. Ok, ok they’re actually only claiming the first two.  In news that will bring joy to 24 season writers and Tea Party members, the United States Department of Justice has allegedly exposed an Iranian terrorist [...]

Sparks fly as electricians confront bosses in Glasgow

The pavement outside the Radisson Hotel on Argyle Street, Glasgow was the setting of a showdown last night between electricians – currently fighting the tearing up of a national pay agreement that will see wage cuts of up to 35 percent and the wholesale de-skilling of their trade – and industry bosses, who were arriving [...]

The early days of a better nation? – an account of the current situation in Scotland

Turning out to the annual STUC march – held yesterday in Glasgow – I witnessed thousands of people marching in the pouring rain (and it really was monsoon level) for over three hours, and rallying at the end of it. Watching everyone come into the park at the end, and then watching them keep coming [...]