Tag: Fracture

Britain’s Labour party celebrated its 119th anniversary this week. Founded on 27 February 1900 from the fledgling socialist and trade union movements, it grew to become one of the world’s most influential political forces of the left, and remains the biggest of any party by membership in western Europe. But last week saw of nine of its MPs resign – eight of whom, along with three Tories, have formed a new alignment known as the Independent Group. With Brexit and social decline driving British politics to the margins, both Labour and the Tories are now at risk of fractures that could shatter the country’s familiar two-party landscape. Our cover story this week asks how Labour, in particular, can survive the bitter infighting surrounding its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and his seemingly ambivalent attitude both to Brexit and to alleged antisemitism within the party. None of which might mean much to cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast, who earn on average less than $1 a day. In our Spotlight opener, the Observer’s Tim Adams reports on how Ivorian farming cooperatives hope to get a better deal through initiatives such as Fairtrade. Then, Paul Tullis asks whether we can ever wean ourselves off palm oil, and spare the world the catastrophic environmental damage caused by its mega-plantations. Shamima Begum is a London schoolgirl who ran away to Syria to join Islamic State aged 15. Now, four years later, with the terrorist group all but destroyed in Syria, Begum wants to return to the UK with her newborn baby.

Britons have become angrier since the referendum to leave the EU, according to a survey which suggests there is widespread unhappiness about the direction in which the country is heading. Sixty-nine per cent of respondents said they felt their fellow citizens had become “angrier about politics and society” since the Brexit vote in 2016, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, a long-established, annual survey of trust carried out across the globe. Intolerant post-Brexit Britain: history shows we can be better than this | Hugh Muir Read more Forty per cent of people think others are now more likely to take part in violent protests, the UK results from the survey show, even though violent political protest in Britain is rare. One person in six said they had fallen out with friends or relatives over the vote to leave the bloc, the survey found. Some 60% of people who identify with the Conservatives think the country is heading in the right direction, but among Labour identifiers, the figure is just 20%. According to Edelman, which conducted online interviews with more than 2,000 people in the UK between December 18 and January 7, the results show “party politics is clearly failing many Britons”. Play Video 0:45 Both May and Corbyn have seen their trust ratings among their supporters fall considerably over the past year. Some 72% of respondents said they thought life in Britain was unfair, 68% said they wanted to see change, and 53% said they thought the socio-political system was failing them. The figures were similar for those voting leave and remain, but those leaning to Labour (66%) said they were more likely to feel unrepresented than those leaning to the Conservatives (43%). Commenting on the findings, Edelman’s UK and Ireland chief executive, Ed Williams, said: “We are a disunited kingdom – a country that is seen as increasingly unfair, less tolerant and headed in the wrong direction.

Emblematic of the division splitting the nation's liberals, the California Democratic Party decided not to endorse in the U.S. Senate or gubernatorial contests Saturday at their annual convention in San Diego. Feinstein, 84, is facing an insurgent bid by fellow Democrat Kevin de León, who is calling for generational change and a more aggressive and confrontational approach to President Trump.?????? Though De León did not get the endorsement, he and his advisors noted that a large percentage of the state's Democratic leaders opposed the endorsement of Feinstein, a remarkable opposition to a woman who is a part of the party firmament. "California Democrats are hungry for new leadership that will fight for California values from the frontlines, not equivocate on the sidelines." After she failed to obtain the state party endorsement, her longtime advisor argued that Feinstein, as a senior senator in Washington, D.C., could not shower party regulars with as much attention as De León could. "He spent a lot of time working the party stuff over the years," said Bill Carrick, Feinstein's senior aide. In the governor's race, none of the top Democrats in the running will go into the June 5 primary election with the party's endorsement. Gavin Newsom, state Treasurer John Chiang, former state schools chief Delaine Eastin and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. A candidate had to capture 60% of the delegate votes to win the party's seal of approval — which was considered unlikely given the field of politicians in the race with deep ties to the state party. Newsom received the most votes — 39% — winning a consolation prize of bragging rights. In other statewide races, delegates of the state Democratic Party voted to endorse the following party members: incumbent Betty Yee for state controller; state Sen. Ricardo Lara for insurance commissioner; incumbent Alex Padilla for secretary of state; Board of Equalization member Fiona Ma for state treasurer; and Assemblyman Tony Thurmond for state superintendent of public instruction.