UK Politics

Keir Starmer: Four lessons from History for an opposition trying to be the ‘government-in-waiting’

— Keir Starmer is a man on five missions, but he will need to learn from his predecessors to lead Labour back to power after over a decade out of it.

UK Politics

Sue Gray quitting to work for Keir Starmer does cause problems for the civil service – It’s also a sign she thinks he’s heading for government

— Sue Gray’s departure from the civil service to work for Keir Starmer has raised concerns about impartiality – but it is also a sign of her faith in Starmer’s leadership.

Climate Change

Labour accepted £12,000 from major polluter Drax

— Labour has accepted £12,000 from the UK’s largest carbon emitter, major polluter Drax. Why?

UK Politics

Starmer: SNP and Tories using Gender Recognition Bill for political advantage

— Sir Keir Starmer argues that the SNP are using the Gender Recognition Bill to distract from pressing issues in Scotland, and accuses the Tories of using it as a tool to divide people and play politics.

UK Politics

Why 2023 is a make-or-break year for Keir Starmer’s Labour party

— The public still does not know what Keir Starmer and the Labour party stand for. Inspiration could come from a surprising source.

Long-Read

Another Brexit year begins

— Professor Chris Grey’s latest Brexit analysis on why it is not in the “remainers’” power to create a post-Brexit consensus, a discussion about the Retained EU Law Bill and Northern Ireland Protocol, plus some thoughts prompted by Frost’s hero-worship of Edmund Burke.

OPINION

UK Politics: Tweedledrear and Tweedletrump

— The most notable thing about Keir Starmer’s speech last week was the way in which the Labour leader shamelessly nicked so many Tory and Vote Leave slogans. Will he be touring the UK in a bus with £350 million a week for the NHS on the side of it next?

Long-Read

There is a better Brexit strategy available to Labour

— With Labour looking like a government in waiting, the understandable caution of its Brexit policy faces calls to be bolder. Actually, it just needs to be more imaginative, Professor Chris Grey argues.

Long-Read

Our politics is incapable of responding to the failure of Brexit

— Professor Chris Grey’s latest Brexit analysis on why despite last-ditch attempts by Brexiters to redefine ‘success’, the public view has settled that Brexit has failed. But for now, our politics is incapable of responding to the failure of Brexit.

UK Politics

Is Labour’s vision of a New Britain any different to the Tories’ levelling up?

— The plan to abolish the House of Lords has drawn the most attention but Labour is also proposing radical changes to how power is distributed.

UK Politics

Winter of discontent: How similar is today’s situation?

— With everyone from rail workers to civil servants going on strike over the winter, it’s hard to see this ending well. To say the least, Rishi Sunak’s government is in a very difficult position.

OPINION

Labour’s same old waffle on Lords reform

— Labour promising yet again to abolish the House of Lords is just more of the same old waffle, which will lead to an upper chamber which serves the interests of the government of the day.

OPINION

Preparing to win the next UK General Election

— It is safe to say now that the Conservative party has made a catastrophic mistake by choosing Liz Truss as its leader and as Prime Minister.

UK Politics

Keir Starmer needs to tell a bolder story about Britain’s future to convince voters to back him

— Keir Starmer has never made the creation of a story of us central to his leadership; his storytelling is an occasional practice. When he brings it out, his instincts are spot on, but so far he has lacked the courage of his convictions.

UK Politics

Why Labour will resist calls for electoral alliances, even when facing the prospect of a hung parliament

— Forming a pact with the Liberal Democrats to form a ‘Progressive Alliance’ would make electoral sense in England – but Keir Starmer does not see it as a risk worth taking.

UK Politics

Will Keir Starmer lead Labour back into government?

— There’s a mountain to climb but there are positive signs for the opposition in the first few weeks of Liz Truss’s government.