News & Insight

Public service outsourcing: An incomplete doctrine

13 March 2014

Insufficient attention has been paid to the line taken by Jon Trickett on outsourcing, the strongest and most critical expression of views by a senior Labour figure for a very long time. Trickett drew movingly on personal experience – illustrating the...

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Crisis in Ukraine: Labour's EU challenge

12 March 2014

The current crisis in Ukraine has prompted MPs and commentators of all political persuasions to call for a strong and coordinated EU response. However, they are largely missing the point. With the recent central and eastern European enlargements, the EU's...

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Measure for measure

12 March 2014

The global financial crisis of 2008 did not just reveal the structural defects in our economy. It also laid bare the total inadequacy of how government measured success. Even as bankers at some of the world’s leading financial institutions were clearing...

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The real enemies of business

11 March 2014

Conservatives claim “helping all Britain’s hard working businesses” is their essential rationale. In contrast, Labour is then portrayed as by definition anti-business. But, heavily favouring the City, ‘big business’ and international capital, Conservative policies have in reality been unsupportive, even detrimental...

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Making work pay: The productivity puzzle

10 March 2014

The restraint shown by the Low Pay Commission recently in recommending a three per cent rise in the national minimum wage is justifiable. The LPC has responsibility over a very successful instrument for attacking serious deprivation in the UK: it has almost...

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Education for 21st century Britain

10 March 2014

Can Labour change Britain? The answer is yes. No other political party, no other political movement has done more to shape the modern UK. Labour shaped the last century for the better through its bold and ambitious post-war effort and...

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