Blog articles tagged with Labour

Burnham: Social care collapse A&E's biggest difficulty

by Heather Spurr / 31 May 2013 16:28

Andy Burnham is a man on a mission. He has already set out a clear goal of fully combining health and social care if elected in 2015, in what will prove a pretty radical overhaul. For this, he is going to need health workers his side. In opposition, he has been busy getting to know staff on the front line.

Yesterday, he gathered doctors, nurses, paramedics and other healthcare staff for a “Health Summit” to

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Social housing can be for life, not a life sentence

by Emma Burnell / 09 Apr 2013 11:13

There was somewhat predictable outrage from some parts of the left over the weekend, when Labour’s unloved DWP shadow, Liam Byrne, announced a new approach to welfare reform including emphasis on contributions, a full employment strategy and giving councils the option to give those who work or contribute to their communities’ priority on social housing lists.

Arguments around the contributory principle and full employment will continue elsewhere, but for me the really interesting part – and

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Labour’s welfare stance isn’t working

by Emma Burnell / 19 Mar 2013 12:01

Besides immigration, the one issue Labour will never outflank the Tories on in the minds of the public is welfare. However poorly we treat the poor (and some of the things we did in government are shameful, not least unleashing – and ennobling – Lord Freud) the public never see us as "tougher" on welfare than the Tories. There was a moment there when it looked like Labour had glimpsed this truth. As

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Cynical or not, mansion tax is a coup for Labour

by Ray Filar / 12 Mar 2013 15:17

Labour’s sudden conversion to the mansion tax cause could be that rumoured beast: a One Nation Labour policy. A real, One Nation-values espousing policy. The sort of concrete, saleable idea eagerly anticipated by party activists, who can now rejoice in the hope of more where that came from. By stealing a Liberal Democrat flagship policy to partially fund the return of the 10p tax rate, Labour may have just pulled off a

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Why the parties are ripe for rebranding

by Tom Wadsworth / 04 Mar 2013 13:08

It’s easy for political geeks to forget that most people in this country are not absorbed in politics on a day-to-day basis. So once every few years when they come to vote, people have to rely on their overall impressions of the parties – the brand.

That brand needs to give voters an overall impression of what they’ll get for the next five years: what the party’s vision for the country

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Lessons from Eastleigh for Labour

by Emma Burnell / 01 Mar 2013 11:57

Well they say you should never bet what you can’t afford to lose. Luckily I can just about forego my £20 bet on John O’Farrell in Eastleigh. Labour and myself talked big about the campaign, and we fought the seat hard, but mostly we were in it for the laughs. Fun while it lasted, we aren’t the party with the biggest hangover today. We might have stumbled, but we can take huge comfort

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Why Eastleigh is a laughing matter for Labour

by Emma Burnell / 15 Feb 2013 11:27

I've just been to the bookies.

It's not something I do very often. In fact it's something I’ve only ever done once before, betting on the result of the AV referendum (as sure a thing as I can imagine). Usually, my gambling lends itself more to online poker than the shabby insides of a betting shop.

But this week, a little flutter on a slightly more

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'It's not a conscience issue': LGBT Labour on gay marriage

by Emma Burnell / 01 Feb 2013 11:01

EB: How did LGBT Labour feel about the government consultation on equal marriage?

JA: There was a whole process around equal marriage – partly driven by the Lib Dems who wanted to say “We’re going to do equal marriage, we’re going to get it through nice and easy and Labour funked it in government”. This led to quite a lot of irritation about there being a consultation with an attitude of “why not

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Europe: What will Labour do?

by Alex MacDonald / 23 Jan 2013 14:57

Today the prime minister made his case for the future of Britain’s position in Europe: change, or Britain will leave. The PM spoke of five key reforms that he wanted to see inside the supranational body, which were: competitiveness, flexibility, reciprocal power flow between member states and the EU, democratic accountability, and fairness.

What we do now know is Miliband’s position on the European referendum. The leader of the opposition said: “My position

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Labour needs to see the Lib Dems for who they really are

by Emma Burnell / 14 Jan 2013 15:29

The Lib Dems are not the party some of Labour’s soft left like to think they are. This is not to denigrate the Lib Dems in any way. Most of the people I know who share this opinion are – in fact – Lib Dems. It’s quite insulting to them to be held up in the imagination of others as a left wing party with an interest in civil liberties. They believe the Lib

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Problems with Labour's press plan

by Josh White / 10 Dec 2012 13:01

The Labour party has today released their draft “Press Freedom and Trust Bill”, outlining a system of statutory press regulation in which an independent watchdog is overseen by a “Recognition Panel”, led by the Lord Chief Justice. The intent of the publication is mainly political, since even the backing of a Commons majority would not convince David Cameron to initiate what he has so publically opposed.

Nevertheless, the intended effect of the bill

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Time for a joined-up One Nation

by Emma Burnell / 06 Nov 2012 09:28

Ultimately, everyone who works should – at the very least – earn enough to live on. The UK is the seventh largest economy in the world. That we have reached a situation where nearly five million people living on poverty in the UK are in work shows just how unsustainable low wages have become.

Yesterday, Ed Miliband gave a speech in support of the Living Wage. Following on from his

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