New Labour is older than me – it’s more than a quarter of a century old – so how much is still relevant in 2022? Focussing on the economic policies of the 1997 manifesto, I argue a lot is still relevant for today. Labour’s contract with the British people for
The 43 year old Iranian regime’s lethal rampages round its neighbourhood have increased of late and reek of desperation. It has, for instance, again bombed exiled Iranian Kurdish camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. It destroyed the house – comically described as an Israeli drone base – of a Kurdish company chief,
Britain isn’t working. That is the inciting claim of Labour shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy’s new book, All In: How We Build a Country That Works. In the ensuing 200 pages, Nandy lays out a litany of public policy failures that have afflicted the UK in the Thatcher and
Childcare in this country is broken. The UK has the second most expensive childcare costs in the world. The average cost of a full-time nursery place for a 2-year old is just under £14,000 a year, for two-thirds of families this equals the costs of mortgage fees or rent. Childcare
This November marks the one hundred years since the Labour Party became the official opposition to the Tories for the first time. The 1922 general election delivered 142 Labour MPs, as the Liberals split into two, never to form a government again. I’ve written a longer essay on it here. JR
Our country has faced a productivity slowdown at a level not seen for the last 250 years. This slowdown impacts living standards, investment in public services, and paints a bleak outlook for the level of future tax revenues the Government will be able to spend. Historically, UK productivity growth has
Our everyday lives, wealth and security rely on the tiniest of things – semiconductors. These microchips are essential components in our healthcare, communications including phones and tablets, appliances, computing, clean energy, transport, military and defence systems. You might be surprised to learn though that despite the ubiquity of these technologies
With economic crisis and war in Ukraine, there is a danger that adult social care will not be top of the agenda of new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. But overlooking social care would be a mistake. Any incumbent or aspiring government seeking to address issues of inequality and growth needs
50 years ago this year, in 1972, my father and tens of thousands of Ugandan Asians were ordered to leave Uganda by the brutal dictator Idi Amin. In a chilling interview, the journalist Richard Lindley asked “what will happen to these people if they don’t go?” Amin replied, “I think
Is the government the prisoner of the market? Labour looks more likely to form a government than any time since leaving office in 2010. If there was an election tomorrow, depending on the poll, the Party could come to power with as much an 150 seat majority. This is exciting
