Moderates and modernisers will not be proved wrong by the new establishment, writes Richard Angell

First published on ProgressOnline

Michael Cashman and Gloria De Piero did us proud in the Conference Arrangements Committee elections this summer. It is a thankless task standing for a committee where is it hard to show impact – as important as it is – and relevance, especially when it falls on everyone’s first summer holiday since 2014! (more…)

James Graham tells Richard Angell and Conor Pope why his new play Labour of Love is set in a ‘grotty’ constituency Labour party office

First published on ProgressOnline

Even in the final weeks of summer, an election poster still remains up in a window a few doors down from the London rehearsal room where Labour of Love, the new play from Britain’s eminent political playwright James Graham, is being prepared. Each day, the cast members will walk past the words ‘Vote Neil Coyle’, despite the general election now being months past. It is a small reminder that Westminster party politics feels like it has a larger cultural relevance than at any point in years. (more…)

Making Labour’s single market shift permanent, punishing parents and farewell to Kezia Dugdale – Progress director Richard Angell has this week’s Last Word

First published on ProgressOnline

As an interim – before formally adopting the right policy to keep Britain in the single market indefinitely, Keir Starmer has committed Labour to membership of the single market and custom union for a long transition period as the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. At the moment this just delays the cliff edge facing British workers and the British economy. The only correct position is for Labour to make this single market shift permanent. (more…)

Jon Snow knows something about privilege, GSCE results, foreign student falsehoods and justice for Grenfell – Progress director Richard Angell has this week’s Last Word

First published on ProgressOnline

Jon Snow used his James MacTaggart Memorial lecture to explored the necessary – and urgent – steps broadcasters and others need to undertake to give Britain a representative media.  (more…)

The Barcelona attack, Republican shame, smearing centrists, and the Campaign Against Living Miserably – Progress director Richard Angell has this week’s Last Word

First published on ProgressOnline

Today we woke up to yet more carnage from Daesh-inspired terrorism in the Catalan area of Spain. Our thoughts and solidarity goes out to the Catalan people, those from many nationalities who are the victims of this cowardly attack and the friends and family whose loved ones will never come home.  (more…)

Unison’s huge victory, the BBC pay gap, a brave councillor and a big thank you – Progress director Richard Angell has this week’s Last Word

First published on ProgressOnline

Unison did the whole Labour movement proud when they got the government’s pernicious tribunal fees ruled as unlawful this week. The government has to return £34m to those who have been wrongly charged these fees. What they cannot do is ever compensate those who have not sought justice from rouge employers because the cost was a prohibiting factor. At least that will no longer be a barrier to workplace justice. (more…)

Staying in the single market – and averting the Tory plan to turn Britain into a Singapore-style economy – must be at the heart of Labour’s brexit strategy, writes Progress director Richard Angell

First published on ProgressOnline

‘We’ll fight to secure single market membership’ are the bold words on the Labour party webpage about the Tories’ failed Brexit plan ahead of the recent election. They remain there to this day. This is the only way of having a ‘job-first Brexit’ and is the basic lifeline needed for British manufacturing to continue. This is all before we consider how we protect the vital income public services receive from the financial services industry and others. As Alison McGovern said at Progress annual conference, staying in the single market is the best anti-austerity policy the Labour party can support right now. If you need more convincing of this, Jeremy Cliffe of the Economic explained it best. (more…)

There are five modest changes that would improve the manifesto, writes Richard Angell in his Last Word

First published on ProgressOnline

The prime minister has been in post for one year and one day. Theresa May’s style is a strange mix of shyness and arrogance. Her ‘stiff upper lip’ looks cold and heartless but her actions wreak of a quiet confidence that she is born run to rule. She no longer has David Cameron’s majority – and neither does she have his Eton-taught entitlement, but there is something similar at work. This arrogance was exposed in her disastrous election campaign.   (more…)

Labour’s 2017 manifesto best bits will feature in Labour’s next winning manifesto, but suggesting changes cannot be seen as heretical, writes Richard Angell

First published on ProgressOnline

Never before have the manifestos of both major parties been – both simultaneously and so obviously – written for audiences other than the public. The Conservative party’s programme was written for the House of Lords so the revising chamber could not block its ‘tough’ reforms. Labour’s was for the post-2015 members of the Labour party anticipating a huge loss and then an epic battle over the soul of the party. (more…)

Turning Chingford and Woodford Green red, Pride in London and the tragic cost of a Tory government – Progress director Richard Angell has this week’s Last Word

First published on ProgressOnline

Something is happening in north-east London. The area is going Labour. Wes Streeting won the 5,000-Tory majority seat of Ilford North in 2015 with the slimmest majorities. In 2017 his majority went up by 16 times. But next door, in Iain Duncan Smith’s seat something was also afoot. Two years ago, Labour candidate Bilal Mahmood worked tirelessly, assiduously getting around all of the local community groups and putting out as many Labour leaflets as he could get printed or passed on from neighbouring seats. He made a massive, but largely unnoticed, dent in Duncan Smith’s majority. This year the same candidate, Mahmood, got the Tory’s majority down to just 2,438.  (more…)