I’ve not made much secret of the fact that I greatly admire the work Stephen Twigg has done during our time in opposition. I’ve had plenty of arguments with those who think he endorses Tory policy (he doesn’t), that he will open up the schools system to a market free-for-all (he won’t) or that he …

Have you heard the one about two Christians, two Jews and two Muslims in a hotel in Iraqi Kurdistan? None of us on the recent parliamentary delegation there devised a witty answer but we did establish that all are welcome in this beautiful region. The sixth fact-finding report in five years of the all-party parliamentary …

Labour probably experienced a southern discomfort well before 1992, but it was after that year’s general election that the Fabians published the first of a series of pamphlets authored by the then Labour MP, Giles (now Lord) Radice. Twenty years on and while the fortunes of the party in the south have ebbed and flowed, …

Bank of England governor Mervyn King recently declared in the 2012 BBC Today Programme lecture that ‘our banking and financial system overextended itself’. This included allowing financial institutions to leverage their balance sheets by over 50 times, and making use of esoteric, complex derivative instruments which few understand even today. This created a profound and …

The state as we’ve known it since the second world war has delivered some remarkable achievements. We are, as a society, healthier, wealthier, and better educated than ever before. But there have been unintended consequences too that are not so positive. For too many of the most excluded and the poorest in our society, the …

Having spent all of Sunday reflecting on the thoughts presented in Saturday’s opening session by Liam Byrne, Mary Riddell, Phil Collins and Peter Kellner, and as the stream of thoughts that were being shared coalesced, an invigorating sense of optimism and anticipation has emerged by the time of writing, Monday morning – early! To have …

I have a dilemma. Tasked with reviewing the first session of today’s Progress Annual Conference 2012 titled ‘Is there a new centre-ground? – how does Labour win it?’, I instinctively falter. The reason? Other than a long week and the usual writer’s search for a worthy-enough ‘hook’, Ed Miliband’s timely speech later in the conference …

My answer to the question ‘how should we reform public services?’ is … Please don’t try. At least, not yet. Do it a bit later. If the left has a fault, it is that we are not very good at waiting for the right moment. We will have one huge problem when we win the …

It is always a risk putting a plenary at the end of a jam-packed one-day conference. Despite the lure of high-profile panellists, Caroline Flint MP, Chuka Umunna MP, David Aaronovitch and Jacqui Smith, and witty chair Simon Fanshawe, there is always the temptation to call it a day and run for an earlier train. However, …

What should a modernised link look like? – Progress annual conference 12 May 2012 The ideals of working people forming trade unions so that they could collectively fight to improve their working and living conditions and of having a voice within the Labour party have remained unchanged through more than a century. However, the workplace …