Labour's Next Majority Means Winning Over Conservative Voters but They Are Not Likely to Be the Dominant Source of The
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Lewis Minkin and the Party–Unions Link
ITLP_C11.QXD 18/8/03 10:02 am Page 166 11 Lewis Minkin and the party–unions link Eric Shaw ‘For over 80 years’, Minkin declares in his magisterial survey The Contentious Alliance (1991: xii), the Labour Party–trade unions link ‘has shaped the structure and, in various ways, the character of the British Left’.His core proposition can be encapsulated simply: trade union ‘restraint has been the central characteristic’ of the link (1991: 26). This constitutes a frontal challenge to received wisdom – end- lessly repeated, recycled and amplified by Britain’s media – that, until the ‘mod- ernisation’ of the party, initiated by Neil Kinnock and accelerated by Tony Blair, the unions ran the party. So ingrained is this wisdom in British political culture that no discussion of party–unions relations in the media can endure for long without some reference to the days when ‘the union barons controlled the party’.This view, Minkin holds, is a gross over-simplification and, to a degree, downright mislead- ing. The relationship is infinitely more subtle and complex, and far more balanced than the conventional view allows. The task Minkin sets himself in The Contentious Alliance is twofold: on the one hand to explain why and how he reached that con- clusion; and, on the other – the core of the book – to lay bare the inner dynamics of the party–unions connection. What is most distinctive and enduring about Minkin’s work? In what ways has it most contributed to our understanding of the labour movement? Does it still offer insights for scholars of Labour politics? In the first section of this paper, I examine how Minkin contests the premisses underpinning the orthodox thesis of trade union ‘baronial power’; in the second, I analyse the ‘sociological’frame of ref- erence he devised as an analytical tool to uncover the roots and essential proper- ties of the party–unions connection; in the third section, I address the question of the relevance of Minkin today. -
Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)
Thursday Volume 501 19 November 2009 No. 2 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Thursday 19 November 2009 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2009 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through the Office of Public Sector Information website at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/ Enquiries to the Office of Public Sector Information, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 127 19 NOVEMBER 2009 Business of the House 128 we at business questions are the flint she sparks off, we House of Commons share in her reflected glory. May we assume that she is now a subscriber to that publication? Thursday 19 November 2009 May we have a statement on the prospects for the Bills in the Queen’s Speech? On Monday, the right hon. and learned Lady claimed that the majority of the Bills The House met at half-past Ten o’clock in the Queen’s Speech would become law before the next election. We have an absolute maximum of 70 sitting PRAYERS days before Dissolution, and we need to set aside time for debates on the pre-Budget report, as well as ensuring that we have time to discuss other issues, such as [MR.SPEAKER in the Chair] Afghanistan. Given all that, does the right hon. and learned Lady still stand by her original claim, or will Business of the House she admit that there may be difficulties in fulfilling the Government’s commitments? Given the limited time we 10.33 am have left, recess dates have an added significance, so is the right hon. -
Radical Nostalgia, Progressive Patriotism and Labour's 'English Problem'
Radical nostalgia, progressive patriotism and Labour©s ©English problem© Article (Accepted Version) Robinson, Emily (2016) Radical nostalgia, progressive patriotism and Labour's 'English problem'. Political Studies Review, 14 (3). pp. 378-387. ISSN 1478-9299 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/61679/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Author’s Post-Print Copy Radical nostalgia, progressive patriotism and Labour's 'English problem' Emily Robinson, University of Sussex ABSTRACT ‘Progressive patriots’ have long argued that Englishness can form the basis of a transformative political project, whether based on an historic tradition of resistance to state power or an open and cosmopolitan identity. -
OPENING PANDORA's BOX David Cameron's Referendum Gamble On
OPENING PANDORA’S BOX David Cameron’s Referendum Gamble on EU Membership Credit: The Economist. By Christina Hull Yale University Department of Political Science Adviser: Jolyon Howorth April 21, 2014 Abstract This essay examines the driving factors behind UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to call a referendum if the Conservative Party is re-elected in 2015. It addresses the persistence of Euroskepticism in the United Kingdom and the tendency of Euroskeptics to generate intra-party conflict that often has dire consequences for Prime Ministers. Through an analysis of the relative impact of political strategy, the power of the media, and British public opinion, the essay argues that addressing party management and electoral concerns has been the primary influence on David Cameron’s decision and contends that Cameron has unwittingly unleashed a Pandora’s box that could pave the way for a British exit from the European Union. Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank the Bates Summer Research Fellowship, without which I would not have had the opportunity to complete my research in London. To Professor Peter Swenson and the members of The Senior Colloquium, Gabe Botelho, Josh Kalla, Gabe Levine, Mary Shi, and Joel Sircus, who provided excellent advice and criticism. To Professor David Cameron, without whom I never would have discovered my interest in European politics. To David Fayngor, who flew halfway across the world to keep me company during my summer research. To my mom for her unwavering support and my dad for his careful proofreading. And finally, to my adviser Professor Jolyon Howorth, who worked with me on this project for over a year and a half. -
Tennessee Mayors Growing Civic Engagement
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 tennessee mayors growing civic engagement H O W L O C A L L E A D E R S C A N L E V E R A G E T H E I R O F F I C E T O E N G A G E V O T E R S introduction For over a decade, Tennessee has consistently trailed most other states in voter registration and turnout. Participation in local elections is particularly low: Voter turnout fell below 25 percent in recent elections in our state's four largest cities. As a state with a proud civic history, Tennessee has an important opportunity to examine practices, from election administration to civic engagement, that may offer room for improvement. Systemic reforms, such as policies that modernize and secure election machines and voter- registration databases, are critical, but so too are efforts that better connect voters to their communities and elected representatives. Although state leaders, election officials, community groups and individual residents all have roles to play, city and county mayors are uniquely suited to promote civic engagement at the community level. This report highlights Tennessee Mayors Growing Civic Engagment (TMGCE), a new cohort of city and county mayors who collectively committed to making civic engagement a priority in their communities. Within these pages, readers will learn why mayors are well-placed to lead civic engagement efforts, be able to review specific examples from the participating Tennessee leaders and have access to tools and templates to build a civic-engagement action plan all their own. -
One Nation Economy
Labour’s Policy Review 1 ONE NATION ECONOMY Labour Party | One Nation Economy contentS Foreword by Ed Miliband and Ed Balls 5 Introduction by Jon Cruddas 7 Fair deficit reduction 9 Jobs for the future 13 One Nation banking 19 An energy market people can trust 23 Runaway rewards at the top… 29 …low pay and insecurity for everyone else 33 Building long-termism into the economy 39 Backing the forgotten 50% 43 Controlling social security spending – tackling the root causes 49 Immigration that works for Britain 53 3 Labour Party | One Nation Economy 4 Labour Party | One Nation Economy FOREWORD BY ED MILIBAND AND ED BALLS Britain needs to build an economy that works for all working people once again. For most of the twentieth century there was a vital link between the wealth of the country as a whole and the family finances of millions of hard-working families. As the country got better off, so did working people. A growing economy brought shared prosperity. And that meant that people who put in effort were rewarded, with good jobs, paying decent wages, and were able to make a better life for themselves. Millions of families bought a house, a car, even a second car, took holidays abroad, started their own business, looked forward to a stable pension in retirement and were confident that they could set their children up in life so they could enjoy a better life than themselves. That seems like a different world for millions of working families in Britain today. And that’s because that vital link between the overall wealth of the country and the family budget has been broken. -
Little Reason to Smile As Iannucci Lays Bare the Tension Between BBC and Tories
Little reason to smile as Iannucci lays bare the tension between BBC and... https://theconversation.com/little-reason-to-smile-as-iannucci-lays-bare-t... Academic rigour, journalistic flair Little reason to smile as Iannucci lays bare the tension between BBC and Tories August 27, 2015 3.54pm BST Author James Blake Director, Centre for Media and Culture, Edinburgh Napier University ‘Are you listening, John Whittingdale?“ Danny Lawson/PA We are all in this together. That, according to Armando Iannucci, was the theme of his MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. It was his rallying cry to a hall packed with TV executives, directors, commissioning editors, producers and – yes – politicians. It was a speech aimed at unifying the UK TV industry behind a single goal: to save the BBC from the politicians. Said Iannucci: We have changed international viewing for the better, but sometimes our political partners forget this. When Zai Bennett, director of Sky Atlantic, introduced the Glasgow-born creator of The Thick of It, I’m Alan Partridge and Veep, he said that the MacTaggart lecture “sets the tone for the TV festival”. In truth the tone had been set long before that moment. John Whittingdale, the UK culture secretary, 1 of 4 30/07/2019, 11:15 Little reason to smile as Iannucci lays bare the tension between BBC and... https://theconversation.com/little-reason-to-smile-as-iannucci-lays-bare-t... had done a question-and-answer session earlier in the afternoon, while the future of the BBC was bubbling just under the surface during almost every debate in the day. -
One Nation: Power, Hope, Community
one nation power hope community power hope community Ed Miliband has set out his vision of One Nation: a country where everyone has a stake, prosperity is fairly shared, and we make a common life together. A group of Labour MPs, elected in 2010 and after, describe what this politics of national renewal means to them. It begins in the everyday life of work, family and local place. It is about the importance of having a sense of belonging and community, and sharing power and responsibility with people. It means reforming the state and the market in order to rebuild the economy, share power hope community prosperity, and end the living standards crisis. And it means doing politics in a different way: bottom up not top down, organising not managing. A new generation is changing Labour to change the country. Edited by Owen Smith and Rachael Reeves Contributors: Shabana Mahmood Rushanara Ali Catherine McKinnell Kate Green Gloria De Piero Lilian Greenwood Steve Reed Tristram Hunt Rachel Reeves Dan Jarvis Owen Smith Edited by Owen Smith and Rachel Reeves 9 781909 831001 1 ONE NATION power hope community Edited by Owen Smith & Rachel Reeves London 2013 3 First published 2013 Collection © the editors 2013 Individual articles © the author The authors have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1998 to be identified as authors of this work. All rights reserved. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. -
Brexit: Initial Reflections
Brexit: initial reflections ANAND MENON AND JOHN-PAUL SALTER* At around four-thirty on the morning of 24 June 2016, the media began to announce that the British people had voted to leave the European Union. As the final results came in, it emerged that the pro-Brexit campaign had garnered 51.9 per cent of the votes cast and prevailed by a margin of 1,269,501 votes. For the first time in its history, a member state had voted to quit the EU. The outcome of the referendum reflected the confluence of several long- term and more contingent factors. In part, it represented the culmination of a longstanding tension in British politics between, on the one hand, London’s relative effectiveness in shaping European integration to match its own prefer- ences and, on the other, political diffidence when it came to trumpeting such success. This paradox, in turn, resulted from longstanding intraparty divisions over Britain’s relationship with the EU, which have hamstrung such attempts as there have been to make a positive case for British EU membership. The media found it more worthwhile to pour a stream of anti-EU invective into the resulting vacuum rather than critically engage with the issue, let alone highlight the benefits of membership. Consequently, public opinion remained lukewarm at best, treated to a diet of more or less combative and Eurosceptic political rhetoric, much of which disguised a far different reality. The result was also a consequence of the referendum campaign itself. The strategy pursued by Prime Minister David Cameron—of adopting a critical stance towards the EU, promising a referendum, and ultimately campaigning for continued membership—failed. -
Service Review
Editorial Standards Findings Appeals to the Trust and other editorial issues considered by the Editorial Standards Committee December 2012 issued February 2013 Getting the best out of the BBC for licence fee payers Editorial Standards Findings/Appeals to the Trust and other editorial issues considered Contentsby the Editorial Standards Committee Remit of the Editorial Standards Committee 2 Summaries of findings 4 Appeal Findings 6 Silent Witness, BBC One, 22 April 2012, 9pm 6 Application of Expedited Procedure at Stage 1 14 News Bulletins, BBC Radio Shropshire, 26 & 27 March 2012 19 Watson & Oliver, BBC Two, 7 March 2012, 7.30pm 26 Rejected Appeals 38 5 live Investigates: Cyber Stalking, BBC Radio 5 live and Podcast, 1 May 2011; and Cyber- stalking laws: police review urged, BBC Online, 1 May 2011 38 Olympics 2012, BBC One, 29 July 2012 2 Today, BBC Radio 4, 29 May 2012 5 Bang Goes the Theory, BBC One, 16 April 2012 9 Have I Got News For You, BBC Two, 27 May 2011and Have I Got A Bit More News For You, 2 May 2012 16 Application of expedited complaint handling procedure at Stage 1 21 Look East, BBC One 24 December 2012 issued February 2013 Editorial Standards Findings/Appeals to the Trust and other editorial issues considered by the Editorial Standards Committee Remit of the Editorial Standards Committee The Editorial Standards Committee (ESC) is responsible for assisting the Trust in securing editorial standards. It has a number of responsibilities, set out in its Terms of Reference at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/how_we_operate/committees/2011/esc_t or.pdf. -
Justice Sandra Day O'connor: the World's Most Powerful Jurist?
JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR: THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL JURIST? DIANE LOWENTHAL AND BARBARA PALMER* I. INTRODUCTION Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been called a "major force on [the] Supreme Court,"' the "real" Chief Justice, 2 and "America's most powerful jurist."' 3 Others have referred to her as "the most 5 powerful woman in America" 4 and even of "the world.", Even compared to women like Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton, there is no one "who has had a more profound effect on society than any other American woman... If someone else had been appointed to her position on the court, our nation might now be living under different rules for abortion, affirmative action, race, religion in school and civil rights. We might well have a different president." 6 Former Acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger noted, "What is most striking is the assurance with which this formerly obscure state court judge effectively decides many hugely important questions for a country of 275 million people.",7 As one journalist put it, "We are all living in * Diane Lowenthal, Ph.D. in Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University and Barbara Palmer, Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Minnesota, are assistant professors in American University's Washington Semester Program. The authors would like to thank their undergraduate research assistants, Amy Bauman, Nick Chapman-Hushek, and Amanda White. This paper was presented at October 28, 2004 Town Hall The Sway of the Swing Vote: Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Her Influence on Issues of Race, Religion, Gender and Class sponsored by the University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class and the Women, Leadership and Equality Program. -
Ed Miliband's Proposed Reforms to the Relationship Between the Labour
Ed Miliband’s proposed reforms to the relationship between the Labour party and its affiliated trade unions reveal the ongoing struggle for the heart of Labour blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/labour-and-unite/ 7/15/2013 Ed Miliband was under intense pressure to take action and distance the Labour party from strong union influence following the selection scandal in Falkirk. Eric Shaw examines these proposals and argues that the suggested changes do not really form a coherent programme. He asks why this has come about and sees it as an ongoing struggle for the heart of the Labour party between Blairites and the unions. Ed Miliband has announced some sweeping changes in the political and financial relationship between the Labour party and its affiliated trade unions. These have, so far, only been sketched out and we await to see what precise form (in terms of rule changes) they will take. The anticipated reforms include: 1. A shift from collective to individual affiliation to the party: in future trade union members would make an individual choice to join the party rather than being automatically affiliated through the decision of their union executives and conferences. 2. Limits to the amount of money aspiring candidates can spend in selection contests. 3. New limits on outside earnings by MPs and new rules on conflict of interests too. 4. The selection of candidates for the London mayoralty and for parliament by primaries in which all party sympathisers and not simply members would be entitled to vote. Why these reforms? Why now? The first point to be made that the suggested changes (and others too) do not really form a coherent programme.