“The Brexit vote was the biggest single democratic revolution the UK has experienced in decades,” according to Neal Lawson of Compass, whose new report brings together more than 20 short essays…...
The Origins of Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn’s rise is only the latest in a long line of left-wing ‘corrections’ to a rightward drift in the Labour Party, which date from before it was even founded, argues GRAHAM TAYLOR....
Transforming Labour’s National Policy Forum
Labour policy-making needs to be more open and democratic, argues HUGO RADICE. And party members need to be fully involved. Could an online College of Labour provide the answer?...
A Manifesto for Democracy
It is the contention of this brief paper that British democracy is not working, either philosophically or practically. Philosophically speaking, there is no effective representation; practically speaking, no political party is proposing radical reform to break the sclerosis currently evident in the system....
Labour and the Corbyn Effect
DAVID CONNOLLY reviews a recent collection of essays that examine Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and seek to map out a possible future for the Party. I recently overheard a conversation in a café in Chester-le-Street that illustrated an on-going problem – namely that despite the many and varied travails of the May government, Labour...
Is Our Democracy Broken?
The state of British democracy and how we can fix it will come under scrutiny at the Dronfield Labour party Discussion Meeting in north-east Derbyshire this Sunday when Vicky Seddon, coordinator of Sheffield for Democracy, will be the main speaker....
Understanding Corbyn’s Politics
BARRY WINTER examines the political origins of Jeremy Corbyn’s politics, asking: what are its ideological roots and what is the nature of his leadership?...
Jack Lawson: A Man’s Life
Harry Barnes’s review of Jack Lawson’s autobiography, A Man’s Life, has been re-published on the North East Labour History website. Like many of his era, Lawson first became politically active through the ILP which he joined in 1904....
The Big Conversation
Local campaign group Sheffield for Democracy is hosting one of many public events in MP Paul Blomfield’s annual Big Conversation....
The Progressive Alliance and a War of Position
Is the Progressive Alliance an idea whose time has come? GERRY LAVERY thinks so after reading a new Compass pamphlet on the election initiative. The call for a Progressive Alliance starts from the idea that our electoral system gives the Conservatives a built-in advantage and enables them to govern nationally even though most people do...
Brexit: Labour’s Fading Red Lines
Labour is in a mess over Brexit and its strategy for the forthcoming parliamentary votes on triggering Article 50 is a shambles. It did not have to be this way, argues WILL BROWN....
New Labour and the Roots of Labour’s Crisis, Part 1
In the first of a two-part examination of the state of the Labour Party, HARRY BARNES looks at the roots of Jeremy Corbyn’s rise and the Party’s turmoil. He begins with New Labour’s emergence after the death of John Smith. I start by referring to a period during my own time as an MP when...