THIS is Labour’s formal position on Palestine as expressed in its National Policy Forum (NPF) document and endorsed by the Labour Party Conference last October:
“The Labour Party will work alongside international partners to recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel, as part of efforts to contribute to securing a negotiated two-state solution.
“With a deteriorating security situation and the lack of a meaningful peace process between Israel and Palestine, a future Labour government will lead diplomatic efforts with international partners to support a just and lasting peace and uphold international law as a matter of priority.”

I have worked in public services my whole working life and have always been committed to the public sector as a way to deliver essential services to all in our communities. So it has been really hard to see them devastated, especially council services, which have been hit the hardest over the past 12 years of a Tory government And let’s not pretend that the SNP government’s “a wee bit better than the Tories” approach to public services is anything to write home about. We know that there is much more that they could be doing with existing powers – the STUC’s “Raising taxes to deliver for Scotland” makes that very clear. Instead, over the piece, rather than protect local government, they have passed on more cuts to councils than the Tories have passed on to them.

DURING a fringe event at last year’s Labour conference, Jim Murphy offered his insight into how Keir Starmer would govern.

“I think they’ll be the first truly private-sector Labour government,” said the former Scottish Labour leader, admitting Labour intended to govern from the centre.
His reflections are not ill-informed. For a politician in search of power, Starmer has kept Murphy — who oversaw the near complete wipeout of Scottish Labour at the 2015 general election — remarkably close.
Together with his consultancy business, Arden Strategies, Murphy is firmly in Starmer’s tent. His unashamedly honest appraisal of the Labour leader’s plan is instructive in determining the direction of the Starmer project as the general election looms.