The third part of BARRY WINTER’s report on a conference to explore Labour’s lost decades, held on Rotherham on 19 March.

Part 3: the 1950s and the 1980s
The 1950s

Mark Wickham-Jones argued that some important reasons why Labour did not do so well in the 1950s have been neglected. Apart from a team at the [...]

The second part of BARRY WINTER’s report on a conference to explore Labour’s lost decades, held on Rotherham on 19 March.

Part 2: the 1930s

David Howell disagreed with Hobsbawm’s notion of Labour’s continued forward march during the 1930s; the pattern of support was more complex.
Electorally the ‘terms of trade’ were changing radically. The party’s [...]

AARON KIELY provides a student’s eyewitness account of police brutality at the tuition fees demonstration in Parliament Square last week.
First, I have to state that I am a member of Labour Party, a candidate in the upcoming local elections, a Committee member of the NUS Black Students’ Campaign and an elected representative of Kent Students’ [...]

WILLIAM BROWN reports from the Compass annual conference where the Labour left considered the post-election political landscape
In a conference hall not so far away, the labour left gathered on June 12th for the Compass annual get together. Launching this year’s event, optimistically titled ‘A New Hope’, Compass chair Neal Lawson set off on a slightly [...]

Gary Kent argues that the global financial crisis makes the case for a Tobin Tax even more compelling.
Some ideas are nurtured for decades before they shoot to prominence usually to the surprise of those who have long advocated them. This could be the fate of the Tobin Tax, originally devised by the American Nobel Laureate [...]

It is right that there is anger over MPs’ expenses, says Will Brown, but let’s not damn all politics.
The row over MPs’ expenses and the misuse of public funds have rightly been met with pubic anger and criticism. It is indeed indefensible that MPs should be making a fast buck from the public purse at [...]

WILL BROWN examines two welcome contributions to debates on democratic renewal and progressive social change
The need to extend democratic practices within society, beyond the confines of the parliamentary system, has been widely recognised on the political left for some time. However, in a context of rising political apathy and a perceived ‘crisis’ of democracy, the [...]

It’s a sideshow, says Sean Creighton
The type of reform Labour envisages for the House of Lords is a side-show from grappling with the real problem of the relationship between the Houses of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and a future working Stormont.
I wonder whether the relationship could be considerably improved by converting [...]