David Cameron’s modernisation of the Tory party has failed. Just look at the debate on same-sex marriage You can tell a great deal about a political party by the candidates it selects for a by-election. In 1987, for example, the Labour party proved its ‘red rose’ makeover was merely cosmetic by selecting Deirdre Wood for …

Recent calls for more ‘working-class MPs’ are age-old code for ‘more leftwing trade unionists in parliament’ It is easy to assume that the Labour party was founded by horny-handed sons of toil, wiping the oil or coal-dust from their hands as they voted to establish a working-class party in parliament. This image of miners, dockers …

Ed Miliband has to start planning for what a Labour government in impecunious times would actually do The cancer of discord is now rampant within the coalition. It eats away at ministers’ capacity to act; it erodes by inches public support. It is an obvious truth of politics that divided parties do not win elections. …

The Tories are blundering and, so far, Labour has not put a foot wrong. Welcome to the Corby by-election When Louise Mensch decided that two and a bit years in parliament was quite long enough, pundits scratched their heads. None could recall another MP resigning a seat, midway through a parliament, creating a tricky by-election …

The Leveson Inquiry has been compelling television but may reveal little new about the morality of the press Royal commissions take minutes and waste years, Harold Wilson is reported to have said. Public inquiries, on the other hand, take minutes, last years and cost millions. Such inquiries in Northern Ireland – however important the subjects they are investigating …

The obsession of some with the term ‘Blairite’ is Orwellian in its ability to shut down debate before it has started In a recent lecture on ‘the good society’, by way of Louis Althusser, Milan Kundera, TH Green, John Ruskin, William Morris and Dylan Thomas, Jon Cruddas argued that: ‘“Blairite” is now an orthodox term …

Labour should seize the chance to bring about a new age of  powerful city politics in Britain Corporation Street in Birmingham is a testament to the power of local authorities and civic leaders of the calibre of Joseph Chamberlain to shape cities. Under the sweeping authority of the Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings Act of 1875, …

An independent Scotland is a non-starter, but advocates of ‘devo-max’ should be careful what they wish for Joel Barnett has lived a long life. He has scaled the heights of politics, from treasurer of the Manchester Fabian Society to chief secretary to the Treasury under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. He remains a Labour member …

Is Labour prepared for another highly political budget from George Osborne? One day above all reminds us who is in power, and who is in opposition, and that is budget day. On 21 March George Osborne will deliver his budget against a backdrop of rising borrowing, falling public investment, mounting unemployment and turmoil across the …

If we do discover ‘the new centre-ground’ it will likely be no bountiful El Dorado but an inhospitable terrain hostile to old-style leftwing politics In The Hero With A Thousand Faces, published in 1949, Joseph Campbell argues that most stories, legends, and folklore, in every language and culture, can be boiled down to a ‘monomyth’, …