National Executive Committee 19 September 2017 As some of you will know, I have been on-and-off of all four of Labour’s National Committees since 1981 and I have been present when some very important decisions have been made. But in some ways, this NEC was very special. I think am not exaggerating when I call […]
Posts under ‘Politics’
Sunday’s Yellow Pages at Conference 2017
Sep 24th, 2017 by James Elliott.Each year the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, Left Futures and Labour Briefing (the magazine of the Labour Briefing Co-operative), produces a guide to conference called Yellow Pages. This guide aims to help delegates understand conference goings-on and point out which motions to support in order to best support Jeremy Corbyn and the policies he supports. Sunday’s version […]
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Is Corbynism a 21st century version of Bennism?
Sep 22nd, 2017 by Mark Perryman.In an exclusive and edited extract from the new book The Corbyn Effect Mark Perryman argues there are similarities but important differences too. Alan Freeman in his 1982 book The Benn Heresy described the mood in the Labour Party while Jeremy Corbyn was getting ready to stand for the first time as Labour’s candidate for […]
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Eternal Corbynism
Sep 22nd, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Long to reign over us? The decision of Labour’s National Executive Committee this week to lower the Labour leadership ballot threshold to 10% and set up a review into party democracy headed by Katy Clark is a welcome advance for Corbynism. Not only does Corbynism now stand a better chance of continuing after Jeremy, the extra […]
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Labour needs a Corbynista leadership in Scotland
Sep 13th, 2017 by Barry Gray.The Scottish Labour leadership contest this autumn is important for the entire Labour Party in Britain, because how the party performs in Scotland will be a significant factor in whether Labour can form the next UK government. For Labour to win it is vital Scottish Labour improves on its poor performances at the 2015 and […]
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Towards a National Pharmaceutical Service
Sep 10th, 2017 by Chris MacMackin.There are some problems which are too big for the private sector to handle. I’ve given extensive arguments explaining why this is the case for climate change and why solutions will require public ownership of energy. However, there is another set of less well known problems which are going to require similar state action: those […]
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Labour Policy and Annual Conference
Sep 8th, 2017 by David Pavett.After the politically stultifying years of Blair/Brown and its aftermath under Miliband, Labour members voted for a left-wing leader in 2015. This was a palace revolution without a changing of the guard. All the old structures and place-holders remain largely unchanged. They were, and are, either incompatible or largely hostile to the new leadership as […]
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NPF Report reviews – Work, Pensions and Equality
Sep 4th, 2017 by Rory O'Kelly.Serious discussions of Social Security policy start from a few fundamental questions. One is the balance between contributions and means-testing as a basis for entitlement, another the balance between vertical redistribution, from richer to poorer, and horizontal redistribution, between different stages in the life cycle. A third is the relationship between the social security welfare […]
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NPF Report reviews: Health & Care
Aug 31st, 2017 by Brian Gibbons.There is nothing like a snap General Election to shake health and care priorities out a thicket of possible options and fuzzy thinking. And like the rest of the document, the health and care proposals in the Labour Manifesto struck a chord with the wider public and with health and social care staff. The headline […]
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NPF Reports review: Housing
Aug 30th, 2017 by Duncan Bowie.Housing, which was covered by the Communities policy commission, is now incorporated within the Housing, Local Government and Transport Policy Commission. It has met three times between February and April. Given the breadth of this remit, there appear to only have been a limited focus on housing issues. According to the annual report, concern about […]
