News & Insight

30 September 2012

The British people have never felt a great affinity with political parties, and politicians are unwise to think that we can return to a golden era of political engagement. However, the current ‘anti-politics’ mood is not only further eroding trust...

30 September 2012

On a visit to Newcastle airport last year I met two apprentices – one was completing the last day of a three year mechanical engineering traineeship and preparing to start his first day as a permanent employee, and the other...

30 September 2012

There is a danger that politics is becoming detached from people at the very time they need it most. With tough economic times leaving lives increasingly insecure, the democratic process should be a vehicle through which people’s concerns can be...

29 September 2012

For months the chatter in Labour circles has been ‘it’s too good to be true’. The polls may say the party is ten points ahead, but Labour strategists convince themselves the lead is ‘soft’ and the path to electability remains...

29 September 2012

Last week I wrote about conference, and continued to ask what conference is for. So I thought I’d build on the three ideas I threw out at the end of the piece that I think might make conference work better...

28 September 2012

And so it begins. After an odyssey of Homeric proportions through the UK legal system, the coalition's Godzilla style rampage though England's green and pleasant land continues with a new enemy: the badger. This cull is a jackhammer blow to biodiversity...