Category: Blog

Blog
Gary Kent

Estonian theses on European security

Napoleon said that “to know a nation’s geography is to know its foreign policy” and this holds true for the Baltic nation of Estonia. Its strategically vital place on the map explains both why aggressive neighbours inflicted misery on it in the 20thcentury and why it is now a keen

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Blog
Richard Carr

Rachel Reeves in the Land of Opportunity

As Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves rounds up her tour of the US, it’s worth reflecting on its overall meaning. For the New Statesman’s Rachel Wearmouth, the trip is of real importance: ‘if Labour does win the next election, I wonder if people will look back at Rachel Reeves’ visit to

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Blog
Paul Richards

Mr Greg Hands MP: an apology

During the local elections campaign I wrote an article entitled ‘The Tory Myth of 1000 seats’. I wrote that the Conservative chairman’s assertion that the Tories would lose a thousand seats on 4 May was ‘ludicrous’. I further accused Mr Hands of peddling ‘nonsense’ and ‘fake news’. Now that the Conservatives

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Blog
Gary Kent

Local to Global: Facing the Threats of Tomorrow

Labour should not count its chickens before any general election and especially one that will take place in highly dangerous international conditions where various vultures are preying on weaker states and making the UK vulnerable.  Jeremy Cliffe rightly says we face “…a febrile and multipolar world in which the US

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Blog
Paul Richards

The Tory myth of 1000 seats

Who is winning the election expectations battle? Behind the scenes of the fierce contest for England’s local councils another bare-knuckle fight is being fought. This one is not fought with voter I.D, leaflets, and rosettes, but instead with projections, predictions, and briefings to the press. This is the expectations battle, and

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Blog
Jim Dickson

Beating the Greens at the ballot box — Lessons From Lambeth

This May’s local elections are gearing up to be a key test for Labour in making further decisive inroads into local Conservative control of key councils. Battlegrounds include Bolton, Walsall and Plymouth, amongst others. A less heralded tussle,  which nonetheless could be a harbinger of fights to come over left

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Blog
Gary Kent

Britain in a Multipolar World: Embracing Foreign Policy

Useful idiots who supported Soviet invasions, or “fraternal assistance” in the Orwellian lingo of the day, were rightly damned as “tankies.” Progressives now back genuine assistance to Ukraine including heavy metal military kit. We are all tankies now, perhaps.Russian aggression has triggered a steep learning curve on defence and foreign policy. Neutral Finland and

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Blog
Paul Richards

Victory within reach, but far from certain for Labour

Like the olfactory pleasure emanating from a coffee grinder or bread-maker, there is a brimming, pleasing sense of confidence coming off the Labour Party. It smells like victory. To eavesdrop the behind-the-scenes conversations of some of the young people working for Labour is to hear a generation measuring up the

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Outlines of 3 women set against backdrop of Islington
Blog
Sara Hyde

IWD: The Power of Women in Local Government

On this International Women’s Day, whilst we celebrate our proud achievements as a Labour movement, the fact that over 50% of our parliamentary party are women, we must also remain concentrated on areas where we still need to improve: local and devolved government. We do not get thriving, representative democracy

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