After a week of parliamentary rebellion and government chaos, ERNIE JACQUES assesses the outcome and impact of Labour’s ‘crazy’ welfare proposals. ‘For many, work is a means to an end. It can be, in varying degrees, tedious, unfulfilling and unrewarding. Try telling someone on zero-hours and minimum-wage contracts that work is uplifting and rewarding.‘...
Sick of waiting for free markets and trickle-down economics to make us all better off, ERNIE JACQUES looks for hope in the legacy of a northern factory owner and philanthropist whose social reforms inspired the welfare state. ...
The prime minister’s decision to cut international development aid to pay for increased defence spending is not only short sighted, says WILLIAM BROWN, it trashes the party’s proud record....
MARY STRATFORD is baffled and angry at the increasingly worrying course being charted by our Labour government. We need a rethink, she says, before things become truly terrifying....
Labour’s landslide victory is cause for celebration but serious challenges lie ahead for the party, the government and UK politics, says WILL BROWN....
If opinion polls are to be believed, Labour is on course for a significant election victory. But what should the left make of its policy offer and its prospects for government? WILL BROWN casts his eye over the party’s pledges....
The Labour leader is right on Ukraine, but wrong in his response to the anti-war left, says WILL BROWN. By threatening the left rather than winning a political argument, Starmer is putting petty vendettas ahead of party unity in the face of this perilous European conflict....
It may be a centrist approach, but Keir Starmer’s recent Fabian pamphlet does at least reveal the three prongs of his electoral strategy. DAVID CONNOLLY assesses a flawed and uninspiring statement....
With auto-exclusions and proscribed organisations, Labour seems to have entered another period of acute internal tension. But the party needs its broad church and membership-based democracy more than ever, says DAVID CONNOLLY....
Labour’s poor performance in recent local elections show how it’s still failing to learn lessons that have been decades in the making. WILL BROWN sifts through the all-too-familiar responses and seeks a route to recovery that embraces all parts of the fractured party....
Easter Sunday marks 12 months since Keir Starmer was elected Labour leader on 4 April 2020. DAVID CONNOLLY assesses his first-year performance and suggests a way forward for the left....
Keir Starmer’s Labour leadership must amount to more than just competence and Union Jacks, says DAVID CONNOLLY. It’s time for Starmerism to assume the social and economic shape promised by his own campaign pledges. ...