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The smash-and-grab raid on the leadership of the French Socialist Party by Michel Rocard has big implications for the future of the European left. In a sense, it is the [...]

The biggest shock in last weekend's French elections was the collapse of the Green vote to a tiny 7.6 per cent, well below the Communist, and barely more than half [...]

The usually super-savvy Mehdi Hasan is wrong on Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008 (Dissident Voice, 25 January). If 20,000 men cross the frontiers of a sovereign state, while an [...]

Free Radical: a Memoir Vince Cable Atlantic Books, 384pp, [pounds sterling]19.99 If Paddy Ashdown is the best foreign secretary Labour never had, Vince Cable is the best shadow chancellor the [...]

The withdrawal of the UK from European Rate Mechanism and the French vote affirming the Treaty on European Union transforms the European Community into a two-track system of fast- and slow-developing nations. The Conservative government's policies put the UK in the lower tier of nations.

The continental European Socialist parties, unlike the UK Labour Party, have a long intellectual tradition. The European left has moved away from issues of morality towards materialism and seeks to articulate policies promoting economic growth. The European left is committed to republicanism and reform.

Continental European social democratic parties are vital political forces in their countries. The German Social Democratic Party (SPD) wields great power in German politics and has a huge membership. The SPD transformed itself in the 1980s into a party offering an alternative for civil society.

The Japanese trade union model, which is a flexible pro-management union system, is sometimes hailed as an example for other Asian countries. Two of its major features are the steadily rising purchasing power of workers and the willingness of management and the government to view labor unions as social partners. Japanese unions thus support leftist political parties and advocate changes in government policy. The transfer of the Japanese model to other Asian countries is difficult, however, as few relish the idea of equal sharing of profits and the acceptance of unions as independent political entities.

The underclass has not enjoyed the fruits of economic development in Spain, and many workers are on strike. Although corporate employees have flourished, the ruling Socialist Party has not been successful in redistributing income to the poor. The socialist union, UGT, has become more conservative.

The recent elections in France, Italy, and Germany signal a new era for postwar Europe characterized by growing support for non-mainstream political parties. Only the UK choose to stay with the same policies. The Green Party is being taken seriously and regionalism is gaining in popularity.

The British government is promoting legislation that would curb immigration of people claiming political asylum. What the Conservatives are actually trying to do is create a permanent underclass that it can exploit by playing on the racial prejudice of the majority.

The neo-liberal economic policies of Czechoslovakian Finance Minister Vaclav Klaus have lead to increases in unemployment and soaring prices. Implementing free market economic policies in Czechoslovakia had led to economic decline, social unrest, and political repression.

Vincent Cable is quite right to link economic downturns to an upsurge in nationalist politics ('The rise of economic nationalism', 20 October). This might explain why a long-serving Labour councillor [...]

Parliament is back and I can relax. A tiresome cliche holds that MPs have a three-month summer break. If only. I have spent more time canvassing, selling tombola tickets and [...]

Slowly but ineluctably, Labour is reverting to its binary nature. On the right, the Blairites with journals such as Progress and networks like the Policy Network. On the left, Compass [...]

Darcus Howe is right to remind readers and reporters who were not around at the time (Columns, 21 April) of Enoch Powell's deep racism. Perhaps the most offensive line in [...]

Ian Birchall is right about Voltaire (Letters, 25 February)--he was hostile to religious leaders such as bishops, rabbis or imams dictating what we should do. But politics moves on and [...]

Cher Francois-Marie, Please come back. You spent two fruitful years in England nearly 300 years ago, and a healthy diet of Swift, Pope and Addison turned you into the satirist [...]

As Vladimir Putin moves seamlessly from being president to prime minister of Russia, amid mounting worry that Russia is slipping its democratic moorings, there is a group of 21st-century fellow-travellers […]

Statist Unions Wither Away A ticklish problem confronts protocol experts in Moscow. From November 13 to November 20 the congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions convenes in the [...]

The reunification of Germany means a new Europe, but the left is absent from the discussion of its contours. Muted voices are heard on the German left - from Gunter [...]

There is a new French ambassador arriving in London this week. He is Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, known as--what else?--MGM in Quai d'Orsay. It is fashionable to downplay the role of the […]

Sir: Can I make clear, which my diary last week (8 September) did not, that Martin Wainwright is both the Guardian's northern editor and the author of a fine new […]

Bayreuth A lifetime's ambition is fulfilled as I get to hear and see Wagner in Bayreuth. After 1945 it was touch and go whether enough support could be found to […]

While Tories fret about Brussels, a more interesting question is who now decides EU policy--the nations of Europe, or the Kremlin? Tony Blair leapt to being a world player when [...]

The New Statesman 15 July 1977 In the past month I have been arrested twice by the police. The first time was at the back entrance to Mr George Ward's [...]

After a century of snootily looking down their noses at each other, are the US and European mainstream lefts linking up? Howard Dean, leader of the US Democratic Party, was [...]

Is Britain at last moving to adopt part of the social European model? With its decision to limit the rights of Romanians and Bulgarians to work here when their two [...]

As the politics of faith tussle with secular politics in western Europe, so it is becoming harder to separate the two in the east. Poland may have lost its pope, [...]