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  • Comment It’s time for a debate about the impact of digital change on jobs and society

    It’s time for a debate about the impact of digital change on jobs and society

    By Theo Blackwell

    Given that the advent of digital technology poses real questions about how power is distributed – whether via politics or the economy – it is perhaps surprising that the Left isn’t promoting a more mainstream debate about the impact of digital change on jobs and society. Take a moment to scan the fascinating future-gazing by UK Commission for Employment and Skills on the Future of Workpublished this week and think about the impacts of digital change on jobs.  (To make their […]

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  • Comment Labour is breaking from the past on civil liberties

    Labour is breaking from the past on civil liberties

    By Andrew Noakes

    It’s been more than three years since Ed Miliband trumpeted his liberal credentials after winning the Labour Party leadership. Disowning the knee-jerk authoritarianism of the Blair era, he said government itself can become a vested interest when it comes to civil liberties and pledged to reclaim the British tradition of liberty for Labour. Now, after a long wait, there are signs Labour is starting to put this new vision into action. Yvette Cooper’s cyber-crime speech on Monday represented a major […]

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  • Comment The Whitehall machine isn’t up to the job. Labour must crowdsource

    The Whitehall machine isn’t up to the job. Labour must crowdsource

    By John McTernan

    Labour will face a huge challenge when it forms a government next year. It’s not just the scale of the cuts it will be forced to make – though those will be extraorinarily tough. It’s the Whitehall machine that it will inherit, which is simply not up to the job. And it is the impact of savage cuts to spending on infrastructure. A Miliband government will need to do more with less. And it will need to work smarter, not […]

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  • Featured 5 reasons not to be spooked by UKIP – if Labour gets its act together

    5 reasons not to be spooked by UKIP – if Labour gets its act together

    By Dan Elton

    Matthew Goodwin and Rob Ford have teased their sure-to-be excellent book Revolt on the Right, an analysis of the rise of UKIP, in the Guardian.  Their warning to Ed Miliband’s party is stark: UKIP are taking old male working class voters and as such are a threat. The party should take UKIP seriously, but here’s five reasons not to panic: 1)    A large chunk of the working class has never voted Labour At the height of class voting in 1964, one […]

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  • Comment We must do more to eradicate the Digital Divide

    We must do more to eradicate the Digital Divide

    By Parry Mitchell

    One of the central public policy questions for Labour is how we address the fundamental changes in technology and ensure that the huge opportunities provided by the digital revolution are available to as wide a section of society as possible. In recent years ‘digital’ has been re-defined by the political right as a proxy for neo-liberalism and the small state. While it is true that there are some who pursue this agenda vigorously, this transformation is not owned by one […]

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