What we're reading: Progressive blogs

Northern Rock: History will vindicate Darling
The Tories have been crying wolf about this and everything else. The world can now see that. The counter proposal to have let the thing go bump immediately was (a) not what they said at the time and (b) not in the tax payers, depositors, borrowers or workers interests. How would that have benefitted shareholders.
Posted by Chris Paul, February 19 at 3:46pm

The politics of Northern Rock
Clearly it’s taken a long time getting to this point, during which many people (including the Lib Dems) have been calling for more speed. The Government has spent months casting around for a suitable private buyer – and failing to find one. You might well call this dithering, but given that, you can’t also say that they’re eager to take Britain “back to the 1970s”.
Posted by Tom Freeman on Freemania, February 18 at 3:40pm

Bye, bye Castro
Is it too much to hope that the people of Cuba might be given a vote in a free election to decide who now leads their country? Maybe the Communists would win, but personally I hope Cubans would choose a third way which kept Cuba's commitment to free healthcare and education whilst bringing in freedom of speech, political pluralism and an end to the command economy.
Posted by Luke Akehurst, February 19 at 12:06pm

Further nail in coffin of Respect
Anyone following this blog, my Tribune columns and other web outpourings will know I’m parti-pris when it comes to Respect (can’t stand them) so I was amused to see that another of their councillors in their Tower Hamlets powerbase has defected. This one has not “come home to Labour” but done a political somersault to join the Tories, after it seems having a few wobblies on the way.
Posted by Rupa Huq, February 17

Daily Mail’s true colours
The Daily Mail has a reputation for insidious racism and xenophobic propaganda, however, this leaked email from features writer Diana Appleyard illustrates the extent of the Mail's cynicism.
Posted by Alex Hilton at Labour Home, February 16 at 9:57am

Comments

[Tobias]

I tried to find out (to no avail) whether Diana is related to that professional right-wing grump of the Sunday Times, Brian Appleyard.

Brian forms one half of the Appleyard 'power couple', alongside wife Christina, editor of the Daily Mail's 'Night and Day' supplement and close friend of Carol Caplin.

Needless to say their daughter, a contemporary of mine at university, is also in journalism, for the BBC.