Durham Miners’ Association chair STEPHEN GUY speaks to Ben Chacko about the Reform threat, what’s needed from Labour and why the Big Meeting will never lose its politics
THE first Labour government was a minority government and lasted just nine months. Was it the product of a cunning Tory-Liberal plot or a wise decision by Labour to prove that it was “fit to govern?”
Against a background of post-war political and economic dislocation, Stanley Baldwin, the Tory prime minister, decided to call a snap election in December 1923.
The crisis facing Britain’s staple industries (coal, cotton and engineering), the impact of the Russian Revolution and a massive strike wave presented major problems for the ruling class and its political representatives (Tories and Liberals) in Parliament.
JOHN McINALLY sees little chance of change at Westminster, and calls on the left to get serious about building a real alternative
The defence secretary’s resignation reveals not a split over principle but a dispute over pace of military spending, as Britain’s political Establishment unites behind deeper Nato commitments, argues NICK WRIGHT
The General Strike exposed the power of the working class — and the limits of its leadership, writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY
MARY DAVIS welcomes a remarkable documentary about the general strike — politically spot on, and featuring accounts from the strikers themselves — that is available for screenings


