There is now just over one year to go to the 2015 general election and it could be the closest in living memory. The strength of Labour’s offer to the electorate may decide the result. The Fabian Summer Conference 2014 is titled ‘The Road to the Manifesto’ and will scrutinise Labour’s policy programme. CONFIRMED SPEAKERS…
We are facing a democratic deficit of startling proportions. Across Europe, electoral turnout has been on a downward trend for decades and membership of a political party is dwindling compared to the post-war era. In the UK, only 44 per cent of those aged 18–24 voted in 2010 and a recent survey found that only…
The forthcoming general election will be fought in a radically redefined political context from the last: the UK government is in coalition, Labour is determined to be a one-term opposition for the first time in 40 years and the post-war economic settlement, in which one generation does better than the last, is under threat. Campaigning…
The global financial crisis of 2008 did not just reveal the structural defects in our economy. It also laid bare the total inadequacy of how government measured success. Even as bankers at some of the world’s leading financial institutions were clearing their desks, our main headline indicators provided almost no warning signals of the catastrophic…
For the next 14 months everyone within Labour will be focused on keeping the party’s polling lead intact and winning in 2015. But a different disaster could unfold: Labour might come to power, govern badly and leave no impression at all. If Labour resumes office next year without clear and specific plans to change Britain,…