Rifts emerge in Parti Socialiste

Issue 882

Olivier Poncelet considers the disarray of the French left wing party

Due to inner divisions, the major left wing French political party, the Parti Socialiste (PS) is experiencing a major crisis. The congress that starts on the 14th of November in Reims is supposed to unite the party and put it back on track in preparation for the next presidential election.

New leaders of the PS will be elected during the congress. Party members voted last Thursday over six motions to find out what issues were thought to be most important. Finally, the motion led by Ségolène Royal – the former candidate to the presidency – won, but only with 29% of the vote, highlighting the deep divisions that have been tearing the PS apart since the end of the presidency of Mitterrand in 1995. Mitterand remains the only left wing president.

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Britain "can't wait" for ID cards

Issue 882

As the Government persist with the condemned ID card scheme, Jacqui Smith claims that many Brits "can't wait" for the cards. Emma McFarnon reports

Apparently, Britain “can’t wait” for ID Cards to come into force. The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith recently announced that although the cards won’t be available to everyone until 2012, people have been telling her that they can’t wait that long. In response to this “public demand”, plans for the ID cards have been amended to allow people to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months.

This is a frightening development when we consider the potentially catastrophic impact of the National Identity Scheme (NIS), not to mention its under-developed and un-tested technology. The scheme has been met with a barrage of opposition since proposals for the card came in May 2005. The NO2ID campaign has accused the system of “stalking”. The government’s proposal to log all our personal data in up to 50 categories of information about ourselves has sparked great controversy. Similarly, the use of biometrics has been criticised for being fatally flawed. With fingerprint recognition working for just 81% of a tested quota group, and facial recognition being successful just 69% of the time, the technology which the Home Office has hailed to be “truly effective and secure” is nowhere near accurate enough.

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Labour bounce back to win Glenrothes

Issue 882

Rachelle Simons analyses the latest by-election in Glenrothes and what it means for the Labour party

After epic speeches, voting queues and bulletproof glass across the Atlantic; the focus now turns to a town in central east Scotland. Glenrothes, a former mining town which has been a Labour safe seat for 60 years. So why has retaining this seat become such a victory? With the Labour candidate grabbing 55% of the vote, Glenrothes provided a much need boost to a demoralised party.

The by-election victory functions as a vote of confidence in Labour. The victory puts out a positive message to voters: that Labour are not finished yet. However, as the issues debated were local, the victory may not stand national scrutiny. Significantly, this by-election has come as a surprise, with bookmakers and politicians alike predicting a victory for the Scottish National Party (SNP). Thge party’s First Minister Alex Salmond, who visited Glenrothes 13 times and co-opted Obama’s slogan ‘Yes We Can!’, has since been accused of complacency. Tricia Marwick, the SNP member of Scottish Parliament said: ‘I saw people coming out to vote for Labour who haven’t voted for 20 years. I need to think about that’.

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