New Labour has failed. We need a new political formation which will survive the demise of the Labour Party, argues Andy Pearmain.
For fear of stating the obvious, education is about the future. It’s not just about giving children the best start or a foundation for life; education should also be a lifelong habit. We all need to keep learning. Governments are no different. We need to keep learning the lessons of what has and hasn’t worked […]
This is, I think, the third piece written on the renewal of social democracy that Shalom Lappin has written. I have to say I’m no further forward in understanding what this advocacy of free-trade, trade unions and ‘preserving the integrity of the public sphere’ would amount to in practice and I’m not sure that this […]
I am a retired civil servant who endured the dogmatic approach of the Thatcher Government to the privatisation of the public services, and who has observed at first hand the consequences of the failing of the Labour Government to understand the reasons for its failure.
James Purnell caricatures choice sceptics as being traditionalists who are fundamentally opposed to choice in the context of public services. In reality, hardly anyone holds such an extreme position.
Choice and competition can help create self-reforming public services and secure traditional social democratic values.
Global trade unions and social trade agreements are the foundations of a 21st century global social democracy.
As part of the conversation we have started, we have created a new category of post on the Website: “Social Democratic Futures” will be vehicle for new Left thinking. The first two, very different, “carriages” of this train of thought are conducted by Shalom Lappin, a co-author of the manifesto and by James Purnell, Minister of State […]