2015 was a turbulent year in British politics, with the general election, mass demonstrations, and the rise of the Corbyn movement. Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, looks ahead to what 2016 has in store, as the Tories ramp up their austerity and the Blairites sharpen their knifes in preparation to stab Corbyn in the back.

Junior doctors in Britain are preparing to strike next week for the first time in their history. We publish today a statement by Dr. Yannis Gourtsoyannis, a member of the BMA (British Medical Association) national executive junior doctors committee, calling for united working class action to defend the junior doctors and fight austerity.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats, braced for terrible news. The grim realities of life ‘up North’ were about to come crashing down onto Corbyn’s hippy head, sending his naive dreams scattering into a puddle along with his crown of flowers.

Following nearly eleven hours of heated parliamentary debate, Cameron secured a big parliamentary majority for the bombing of Syria. All kinds of arguments were dug up and used to justify this action. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury declared his support for this “just war”, as the Church had done on all previous occasions.

Members of Parliament, tomorrow, will once again be voting on whether to take the country to war in the Middle East. Cameron is leading the charge; but after a retreat by Corbyn, right-wing Labour MPs will now have a free hand to support the Tory leader. The question of Syria has brought all the contradictions in the Labour Party to the surface. The Blairites’ enthusiasm for yet another imperialist adventure, however, may well be their demise.

David Cameron is once again banging the war drum for intervention in Syria. Having been defeated on the issue in 2013, Cameron is now cynically using the horrific attacks in Paris to attempt to whip up support for military action, attempting to capitalise on the understandable outrage of millions against the barbaric ISIS.

As Osborne takes his axe to welfare spending, hacking away at the livelihoods of the most vulnerable layers of society, millions will be facing a very bleak Christmas indeed. The Tories will see to it that for many it will not be a season of joy and goodwill.

The election of Jeremy Corbyn provided the one thing that was lacking in Britain: a point of reference for the accumulated discontent and frustration of the masses. It is beginning to regenerate the Labour Party and push it to the left. That represents a mortal danger to the ruling class and they will stop at nothing to destroy it.

For a very long time British politics has resembled a stagnant pond.  With the election of Jeremy Corbyn in a landslide victory it felt as if a huge stone had been thrown into it, making gigantic waves that have transformed the entire political landscape. But not everyone is pleased.

On Friday 6^th November, Andrew Fisher – a longstanding Labour left-winger, recently appointed as a political advisor to Jeremy Corbyn – was suspended from the Labour Party. His crime? A single tweet, sent in August 2014, in which he satirically called upon those in Croydon South constituency to vote for the candidate from Class War, an anarchist organisation, instead of the Blairite Labour candidate, Emily Benn.

Tata, the giant Indian-owned conglomerate, has announced the closure of its steel plants in Scunthorpe and Scotland, with a resultant 1,200 jobs to be cut. This latest episode in the crisis of the British steel industry is yet another stark reminder of the decrepit nature of British capitalism and of the contradictions within the wider world economy.

The Tory plans to cut tax credits have been seriously delayed thanks to last night’s vote in the House of Lords, demonstrating how much Corbyn’s leadership victory has changed the dynamic in Parliament - only months after the jubilant and complacent Tories won the general election.

The UK steel industry has again been plunged into further crisis following the latest announcement of an expected 1,200 jobs to be cut at Tata Steel in Scunthorpe and Scotland. This comes just weeks after the sudden shutdown of the SSI plants in Redcar, Teesside, with a further 2,200 associated redundancies, as well as the risk of 1,700 job losses at Caparo Industries, which entered into administration on Monday this week.

“Mr Corbyn’s revolution was not made for television, but it has been televised,” stated the Guardian newspaper.

Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for the Labour leadership opened the lid on the seething anger against austerity and the whole political establishment within society. His landslide victory was a political earthquake that left the right wing visibly shaken.