In the pre-publicity for its annual conference, Labour’s right-wing party-within-a-party could not resist making another attempt to undermine Ed Miliband. Based on an unoriginal and entirely underwhelming Progress article by Peter Kellner, the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour was briefed with the flimsiest of evidence to run a negative story headed Labour election victory in 2015 looks […]
Posts Tagged ‘Progress’
Progress, class and parliamentary selections
Apr 25th, 2013 by Ken Livingstone.I am one of those who wants to see more working class people – and a bigger range of people generally – active in the highest levels of politics. So I welcome the emphasis the party is placing on broadening the social composition of parliament. That process is certainly not going to be resolved across the […]
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Labour has always been the natural party of “aspiration”
Mar 29th, 2013 by Dominic Curran.Aspiration: its a political buzzword that has been hijacked by the right. The Tories have launched their “aspiration nation” tagline of helping those who want to “get ahead”. Indeed the Blarites in the party have laid the ridiculous charge that “Old Labour” did not understand the aspiration of people wanting to do well for themselves. […]
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On Progress and the parliamentary candidate selection process
Mar 11th, 2013 by Paul Cotterill.Richard Angell, Deputy Head of Progress party-within-the-party, has written an interesting column on how Labour parliamentary candidates are selected and new rules to increase working-class representation. This might sound dull as ditchwater, but the process is actually a pretty key variable when it comes to what kind of person we end up getting to represent us in […]
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Don’t be derailed by Progress confrontation
Feb 6th, 2013 by Ben Folley and Calum Sherwood.This week, former General Secretary of the CWU Alan Johnson has issued an unabashed attack on trade union influence within the Labour Party in an interview with Progress, part of an increasingly confrontational and destructive approach to dictating Labour Party policy from the Blairite wing. Jacqui Smith’s now regular articles, including hers on Osborne’s welfare trap before the […]
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Young Labour should set its sights higher
Feb 3rd, 2013 by Michael Hanratty.Exceptional things happen under the most adverse of economic circumstances. It’s an oft-told tale in the North East of the humble, unemployed men of Jarrow taking their crusade on foot three hundred miles to London in the 1930s. Not specifically to argue about the conditions of the working the man, or to argue about the […]
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Progress: “democracy” at work
Sep 27th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Rejoice! The first exercise in the internal democracy of party-within-a-party Progress is now complete. The new strategy board they’ve introduced to answer the pressure for openness, democracy and transparency has been elected. Considering its powers are very limited, a 30% turnout in the members section (there are also sections for parliamentarians and councillors) is not bad. And […]
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Book Review: Progress in Education from New Labour’s Action Man
Sep 19th, 2012 by David Pavett.A long-term campaign has been conducted against comprehensive education through the mass media. It’s themes are well known: “failing comprehensives”, “falling standards”, “left-wing teachers”, “teachers’ unions”, “local authority bureaucracy” and many other negative tropes. These are all found in abundance in Andrew Adonis’s book Education, Education, Education – Reforming England’s Schools.
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Progress members seem to want internal democracy after all
Aug 24th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.When we publicised (and supported) the call for an investigation into Progress as a party-within-a-party, a frequent response was that there was no call for any internal democracy. Wes Streeting, leading Progress supporter, councillor and former NUS President argued that he “did not see the need to vote”. He later added that “if people don’t […]
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Red, white, (purple) or blue? Just Labour
Jul 26th, 2012 by Lucy Reese.It was an event I’d been looking forward to for a while – a debate on the future of Labour. The speakers were Owen Jones (needs no introduction), Richard Angell of Progress and Patrick McFarlane of so-called Blue Labour.
