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Britain feels like it’s in crisis. It’s a crisis Labour’s stock response to every problem, spending money, can’t answer. The most chilling moment in David Lammy's brilliant book about politics after the riots comes when, soon after he’d…
By Jon Wilson / @jonewilson I joined Labour because I was angry that friends and relatives were denied a decent life and livelihood while the privileged had no sense of responsibility for the rest of society. It was 1988. I was fifteen. I…
By Jon Wilson Labour faces a tough task fighting Conservative plans to dismantle Britain's public services. As ever Tory tactics are dastardly. They hope we'll respond to their attack by defending the 'big state' in all its guises. They…
By Jon Wilson and Marc Stears Arguments about the state just never seem to go away in the Labour Party. When the party was born in the late nineteenth century, some socialists threatened to tear the nascent movement apart if it did not…
By Jon Wilson When I was a cross adolescent lefty shouting at the TV news, my mum used to tell me socialism began at home. She told me you needed to listen to other people before you could say anything sensible about politics. It's taken me…
By Jon Wilson / @jonewilson David Cameron's article in the Daily Telegraph today responds to a real sense that public services aren't what they should be. Thirteen years of Labour in power led to massive improvements in schools, hospitals…
By Jon Wilson / @jonewilson Redcar, Barnsley East, Merthyr Tydfil, these are the heartlands of England and Wales where Labour's vote was decimated in 2010, with an 18% swing against in some places. They are places Labour abandoned to the…
By Jon Wilson / @jonewilson The student protesters are right. Education is not a commodity. Students want to choose their universities and their degrees. But they shouldn't have to choose at a price. Labour's opposition to Tory education…
By Jon Wilson / @jonewilson As we frame a response to the biggest public sector cuts since Lloyd George, our Labour instincts lead us to defend the state as the greatest source of welfare and justice in Britain today. After all, the public…
By Jon Wilson Between 1994 and 2007 Tony Blair went on a journey. He began it as a politician who articulated a vision - albeit a vague one - of a different kind of society. He ended up - in domestic policy at least - as a bureaucrat…
By Jon Wilson August 15th - yesterday - is a day Labour should celebrate. On August 15th 1947, under a Labour government, India became independent from the British empire. Pakistan was freed from British rule the previous day. In the last…
By Jon Wilson Labour needs to return to core values and reconnect with its core supporters. To do that, it needs to develop a stronger attack on the unfettered powers of the free market. Against the acquisitive individualism of the market…
