News & Insight

The referendum game

20 September 2013

Despite recent difficulties the European Union is a great success.  Many others in the Balkans, in Turkey and Eastern Europe still aspire to join us.  Why should that be if it was the unmitigated failure portrayed by Europhobic politicians? In the...

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Review: The Confessions of Gordon Brown

20 September 2013

The first and most pressing thing to say is that Ian Grieve’s portrayal of Gordon Brown is uncannily, scarily, astonishingly lifelike. I don’t mean Grieve does a good impression of Gordon Brown, or an amusing caricature. I mean it’s like Gordon...

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Why it matters: Fighting child poverty

20 September 2013

Of Labour’s many achievements in government, the one of which I’m most proud is our success in reducing child poverty. Between 1979 and 1997, child poverty doubled under the Tories. When Labour left power in 2010, it stood at its...

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How to future-proof the union

20 September 2013

There is a year to go until the Scots vote on whether to remain in the UK. What is increasingly clear though, is that a ‘no’ vote would not be the end of the story – with all three unionist...

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All of our business

19 September 2013

We know what we are against, but what are we for? Ed Miliband struck a chord with many people when he contrasted the evils of ‘predatory capitalism’ with the virtues of ‘productive capitalism’. Almost all of us hate the banks’...

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Why it matters: A new social contract

19 September 2013

Amidst the torrent of questions for the Labour Party, this one certainly stands out. How do we ensure that the people we seek to represent believe that politics matters – and that Labour politics will make a difference to their...

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