The news is full of the plans of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition to hammer the public sector in the interests of the ruling class. But “the best laid schemes of mice and men, go often askew,” as Robbie Burns wrote. This is precisely what happened to Ted Heath's government.

What has the banking crisis cost us all? Andrew Haldane of the Bank of England has tried to work it all out in a paper called ‘The $100 billion question’. As Socialist Appeal has pointed out many times the ‘banking crisis’ is really a crisis of capitalism, but for the time being we’ll stick with Haldane’s terminology.

The present Tory-Liberal coalition is preparing to launch a major attack on British workers. History shows that the British workers have always responded to such attacks with militant class struggle. One such example was the miners' strike of 1972, a rock solid strike that shook the Tory government and prepared its eventual downfall two years later in 1974.

Britain is heading for a showdown. The British establishment is taking stock of the situation. They are fully aware of the social crisis that is unfolding. The illusions of class harmony have evaporated. They consider that it is time that the working class learned its lesson that capitalism cannot afford any reforms. Counter-reforms are on the order of the day. The workers are therefore being sent to the school of the coalition government whose programme is “red in tooth and claw” austerity.

Ian Isaac’s new book, published on the 25th anniversary of the end of the 1984/85 miner’s strike, is essentially an autobiographical account of the St John’s Lodge of the National Union of Mineworkers during the late 1970s and ‘80s. Ian was the youngest Lodge Secretary in the NUM at the time, a South Wales Executive member and a supporter of the Militant newspaper and Labour Party Young Socialists. The book will be fascinating for any young socialists or trades unionists who are interested in finding out the truth of what happened during that great strike.

No sooner has the dust started to settle on the fall out from the 2010 general election and the decision of Gordon Brown to fall on his sword both as Prime Minister and Labour Party leader than we are already seeing names being put forward as “suitable” choices to become the new leader of the party.

It was one of the surest things in British politics: when an election comes around, no matter the national trend, Scotland will always vote Labour. But with the SNP managing to form a minority government, winning one more seat than Labour in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, and then their shock by-election victory in Glasgow east in 2008 it seemed, to some, that the Scottish working class was switching their allegiances. The SNP could now challenge Labour in its industrial urban heartlands. We explained then, as now, that the SNP gain only because of Labour's continuing failure to present the working people of Scotland (and the whole UK) with a Socialist programme.

It didn’t take long for the Liberal democrat leaders to understand that any principles they may have had are far less important than their own personal careers, and even less important than the needs of the market. All the election campaign rhetoric went out the window as they join a coalition with the Tories, whose task will be to carry out a draconian anti-working class programme.

Last week’s elections results have posed a dilemma before the British ruling class. They wanted a strong Tory government to introduce draconian anti-working class measures. The electorate denied them that pleasure. Now they are seeking to patch together some form of government that can guarantee them the same programme, but on a much more unstable base.

The British elections have produced a hung parliament, with no party winning an outright majority, precisely the opposite of what the ruling class wanted. They need a "strong government" to take on the working class in the coming period. That attack will come anyway, and the labour movement must prepare to fight back.

After a seemingly guaranteed Tory victory, now the opinion polls indicate that the coming elections could produce a hung parliament with the Liberal-Democrats holding the balance of power. The voters have not forgotten what the Tories did when they were in power but are also disappointed with Labour. This unprecedented volatility, is a reflection of the crisis of British capitalism, and a yearning for social change, that was denied after 1997.

The Liberal Democrats are riding high in recent opinion polls. They are presenting themselves as something “new” and “clean”. A closer look reveals a very old party that has always carried out the policies dictated by the capitalist class of Britain.

The prospect of a new Tory government coming to power after the next election should be more than enough to concentrate the minds of active workers in the Labour and Trade Union Movement. But what sort of Tory government will it be? Mark Twain made the point that although history never repeats itself, it often rhymes.

The general election of 2010 has been called. To no-one's surprise, on Thursday 6th May, voters will go to the polls to decide who will form the next UK government. For a very long time now, the Tories - the party of big business - have enjoyed a sizeable poll lead, backed up by good results in local and Euro elections. Yet the gap between the Tories and Labour has closed sharply in recent months. Why is this?

There has been a massive campaign in the British press and media to “soften up” public opinion for the cuts that loom. Above all, they are trying to split the workers in the private and public sector. Tomorrow, Saturday, April 10, a trade union march and rally has been called in London and here we provide the leaflet that Socialist Appeal supporters will be distributing on the rally. Download the leaflet (pdf)