Labour supporters of English devolution currently face a dilemma which can only be resolved by a nationwide citizens' convention. Do they embrace the offer from the Conservative government for devolution to individual and combined local authorities, while recognising all its...
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This essay was originally published on 29 April 2016. What sort of Labour can win England? In this post, I address that question in relation to one key area of policy, namely devolution and decentralisation. This issue has risen to prominence...
Answering the English question – left by what since 1999 has been an asymmetric devolution of power to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but, the special case of London aside, not to England’s regions or city regions – remains the...
After a dull campaign, the results of the Scottish election surprised. The SNP consolidated the referendum ‘yes’ voters into party supporters, but lost their overall majority in the Scottish parliament. So another referendum on independence is off the agenda for...
The Conservatives understand – and exploit – the electorate’s concerns about ‘place’
As I argue in my forthcoming book Austerity Politics and UK Economic Policy, if austerity were simply an argument about the merits of deficit reduction, its critics on the left...
A priority for the Labour party should be the transformation of the localist agenda that has assumed pride of place in the government’s plans for devolution in England. Concentrated heavily on metropolitan areas—‘city-regions’—particularly in the north of England, this agenda lacks...