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....
New Approaches to Tackling the Far Right
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....
Labour in Government: Why Slashing Aid is ‘a Strategic Error’
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....
Labour in Government: We Need Hope, Not Hardline Policies
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 in Government: Making Sense of the Energy Muddle
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....
Labour in Government: Workers’ Rights & Union Reform
The election of a new Labour government raises hopes that the scales between labour and capital will begin to be re-balanced. JOHN CUNNISON assesses the evidence so far....
Labour in Government: Health Reform & the Darzi Report
The new Labour government has already made some progress in reforming the health system but there is much more to do, says KEITH VENABLES....
Labour in Government: Lords Reform & Remaining Wrongs
The government’s Bill to remove hereditary peers from the House of Lords is a welcome start on constitutional change, says CHRIS WILSON. But much more is needed for the UK to be a truly modern democracy....
Edward Carpenter & the Future of Freedom
How would society change if no-one needed to work to stay alive? That was the question Edward Carpenter set out to answer almost 130 years ago in an essay titled ‘Transitions to Freedom’. Would it hail a new collectivist phase? And would that then lead to full individual and social liberty?...
It’s My Party … and I’ll Cry if I Want To
Various Labour leaders have been and gone since she first joined the party more than 40 years ago, but come election time MARY HULL has always been an enthusiastic, door-knocking campaigner. This time is different. Here she explains why the Starmer leadership has tested her loyalty to the limit....
Ireland, the ILP & the Slow Train to Peace
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland reaches it 25th anniversary on 10 April. The ILP and a grassroots peace movement played an often-forgotten yet important role on the road to reconciliation. GARY KENT aims to put the record straight....
Labour’s Deep Divide
TREVOR FISHER examines the causes and consequences of Labour’s often bitter splits into hard left and right factions. The soft left could provide the bridge, he says, but it remains organisationally weak and politically invisible....