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
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
What can Labour learn from its European counterparts to support its mission for prosperity and security at work? Against a backdrop of a more dangerous world, there is an increasing sense of a need for security, in every sense of the word. Labour’s missions for a better Britain depend on
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
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
The Labour Party leadership has made it clear that accelerating economic growth is central to everything they want to achieve and a necessary precursor for achieving their ambitions in government. The relationship between government and business is at the heart of this mission. Building and facilitating good, successful, strong British
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
When Boris Johnson was Prime Minister, he made “Levelling Up” one of his big political priorities. During the 2019 General Election campaign, we heard a lot about Levelling Up, which was essentially Johnson’s pledge to revive the large parts of England that lag behind London and the southeast for economic
There is no suggestion whatsoever that Nadhim Zahawi, Cabinet minister and Chairman of the Conservative Party, has broken the law. His fiercest detractors are not calling him criminal, and his loudest defenders, a dwindling band, point out that tax avoidance is not tax evasion. So, what’s the fuss? There’s a
How the Tory Government is failing young people from poorer backgrounds and in places where apprenticeships matter most The conservative government reformed the apprenticeship system in 2017. They introduced new Apprenticeship Standards and reformed the funding formula known as the Apprenticeship Levy. The levy is paid by employers and then stored in
