Branding young unemployed people as feckless welfare scroungers is both inaccurate and counterproductive, says ERNIE JACQUES. This simplistic perspective reframes a complex macroeconomic challenge as an individual failing. ‘Tackling the NEETs crisis will require long-term, specific and systemic change.’...
Andy Burnham’s big task of bringing down the benefits bill is about much more than money, says MARY HULL. It’s about the kind of society we want to be. ...
Anthony Crosland’s ‘The Future of Socialism’ was published 70 years ago and its influence on the Labour Party has lasted for decades. So does it have anything to tell us today? ARUN LEWIS has his doubts....
We’re constantly told about a ‘bloated’ disability benefits bill, yet disabled people struggle with unsuitable services and unaffordable costs. We need to look at the issue a different way, says SANDRA WILSON....
For JOHN CUNNISON disappointment with Labour budgets is ‘baked in’. He picks out his personal highs and lows from last week’s announcement. ...
After a week of parliamentary rebellion and government chaos, ERNIE JACQUES assesses the outcome and impact of Labour’s ‘crazy’ welfare proposals....
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. ...
CHRIS WILSON takes issue with Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s claim that there is no alternative to benefit cuts. A tax on wealth is not only possible, he says, but widely supported....
Compass and the Co-operative Party have both launched new initiatives in recent weeks aimed at understanding and tackling the rise of the far right....
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 net zero election promise was one of the boldest aspects of its manifesto. Eight months in, MJ DENISON takes stock of the government’s difficult dilemmas and warns against a rushed transition to clean power....