News & Insight

Unfair game: Ed Balls' labour market reforms are not enough

30 January 2014

The big news may have been restoration of the 50p marginal tax rate on the richest one per cent, but it was another part of Ed Balls’ speech to the Fabian New Year conference on Saturday that pricked up my...

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Back to the future? We need to rediscover equality in Britain

30 January 2014

The richest 85 people in the world hold the same wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion people. This is the headline grabbing statistic from a new Oxfam report about extreme economic inequality in the world today.  The paper was launched...

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When super-majorities go sour

29 January 2014

What does over-eating have to do with Labour’s performance at local elections? A new report by the Electoral Reform Society suggests that just as eating a whole box of Christmas chocs leaves you feeling unhealthy and full of regret by...

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2014, Labour's year of...Industrial policy

24 January 2014

A telephone conversation with a constituent over the summer offered a clear insight into what has gone wrong with the labour market since the Great Recession hit in 2008/9. It demonstrated to me the scale of the policy challenge the...

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Salmond won't address inequality inside Scotland's borders

22 January 2014

This year in Scotland, the division between ‘nationalists’ and ‘unionists’ is the one that will dominate our political debate. But for those of us who care deeply about Scotland and our country’s future, this should be deeply worrying. And for...

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2014, Labour's year of...Winning the welfare debate

22 January 2014

Labour holds a solid poll lead over the Tories as we head into 2014 and the electorate has bought into our agenda on improving their standards of living by putting money back into their pockets. This is a good foundation...

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