Use the filters below to refine your search
The combination of Boris Johnson’s remarkable, entirely self-inflicted political disasters and a revitalised opposition frontbench have brought about a possibility seemingly unthinkable a few months ago: Labour might actually do well enough…
‘We challenge the narrative that only the individual matters, the collective is irrelevant. And instead we say the common good is the aspiration of all of us.’ And there, in two confident sentences which define what Labour has always stood…
George Osborne’s idea of a law to ban the government from borrowing in good times would be a silly piece of legislation. For one thing, it displays incredible ignorance about the principles of Britain’s constitution. Unlike Germany, the USA…
We, Labour, are doomed unless we recognise that a second election defeat in five years, against a party which no-one has any enthusiasm for, forces a serious debate about what our party is for. Labour faces an existential crisis. As Jon…
At rapid pace since Labour’s catastrophic defeat a fortnight ago, my inbox has been pinging with explanations about why we lost and what we should do next. I wonder if one of our problems isn’t that it’s too easy to do just what I’m doing…
Only Labour. Only Labour can defend the NHS, protect the poor, return the economy to sustained growth. Without a Labour government, pity the poor and vulnerable. If you vote Conservative, the people who need us will suffer. To us, in the…
‘Mood and self-delusion’ swayed the electorate, Neil Kinnock told us on Thursday night, reiterating his long-standing belief that the only problem with British politics is the people who vote. In the secret of the ballot box, people wrapped…
Compare Labour’s manifestos in 1997 and 2015, and there’s one important way our politics has changed for the better. 1997 opened with that big photograph of Tony Blair, and six paragraphs that began with the first person singular pronoun –…
There will be cuts. Fewer under Labour than the Tories or the LibDems. Prudently perhaps, all four main parties have given an ‘incomplete picture’ of their spending plans after May, as the Institute of Fiscal Studies notes. But we know an…
After work, housing is the second question Labour needs to address if it forms a government next week, and the second area where we need a different approach to power. In this series of pre-election posts I’ve argued so far that a Labour…
Ed doesn’t have it. Gordon Brown probably did. Some of the Parliamentary Labour Party do. It makes the difference between a bad and good council leader. In local government it is (I think) on the wane, but it’s still far too rife. Over the…
How should Labour rule? In this election campaign we’ve got a critique and some policies. Come May 7 we’ll need an approach to government. Over the next few weeks I’m going to use this column to outline what Labour in power should mean in…
