News & Insight

Signs of life

22 August 2016

When Anthony Crosland was in the cabinet, he trained his children to interrupt dinner parties with the words “the prime minister is on the telephone” when Match of the Day was about to the start. He would retreat to another...

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A respectable Englishness

16 August 2016

The emergence, or rather re-emergence, of England and Englishness continues apace. The Brexit vote was in part inspired by UKIP (a sort of English national party), and supported most decisively by England (53.4 per cent to 46.6 per cent). 72...

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Means and ends

12 August 2016

Few would lump the words ‘Crosland’ and ‘communitarianism’ into one sentence. In outlining his vision for the future of socialism, Anthony Crosland barely gave a nod to the importance of community in the functioning of political life. Indeed, when Maurice...

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Put children first

12 August 2016

The context for progressive policymaking has undergone massive change over the 60 years since Crosland wrote The Future of Socialism. Globalisation, technology, changing attitudes to women’s role, immigration, and increased longevity have all had an impact on patterns of family...

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Finding a new future

12 August 2016

Anthony Crosland’s enduring relevance as an intellectual reference point for the British left is hard to dispute. In the wake of the party’s 2015 defeat, The Financial Times insisted Labour had to “reawaken the modernising impulse in the party’s past,...

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Comprehensive reform

12 August 2016

It is over 50 years since Tony Crosland issued the Department of Education and Science circular 10/65 which ‘requested’ that local authorities ‘go comprehensive’. Since then, the school leaving age, funding, curriculum, qualifications, management and governance have constantly changed. Yet,...

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