After Glasgow East there can be no more hunker down, stunt or top down politics from Gordon Brown. The Labour Party Leader's speech to its National Policy Forum should be scrutinised for clear evidence he has learned the messages set out by Save the Labour Party and the LabOUR Commission. Politics is a two-way process. Too few members have taken part in the latest round of Labour Party policy-maki...

After Glasgow East there can be no more hunker down, stunt or top down politics from Gordon Brown. The Labour Party Leader's speech to its National Policy Forum should be scrutinised for clear evidence he has learned the messages set out by Save the Labour Party and the LabOUR Commission. Politics is a two-way process. Too few members have taken part in the latest round of Labour Party policy-maki...

Press tarnish Tories with Policy Exchange report One cannot help but think that the national and local press are having a bit of fun at the expense of david Cameron and the Conservative Party over the rather daft Policy Exchange report that recommended that we all head for the greener pastures of Oxfordshire. Purely a case

Hello I’m back again, more angry than before. Last time I was concerned about a fourth Labour term instead of a Labour leadership change. And today the Tories are reminding us why Britain needs that fourth Labour term. You’ll have seen today David Cameron’s favourite think tank, Policy Exchange, showing the true nature of Tory principles. I am staggered by their report: to state ...

Labour accused the Tories of shifting policy 'towards deep and painful cuts' in public spending, in an attack that draws the battle lines for this month's party conference season

Following the link from the piece written in the Local Government section by Policy Exchange's Ben Caldecott about litter this morning, I was taken to the Policy Exchange website, and notice that it has gone through something of a redesign....

The Tories and the media have missed the big story about Cities Unlimited, the Policy Exchange report on regional development policies. (You can download a PDF copy of it from the think tank's website.) As James Graham pointed out this morning, the report's lead author Tim Leunig is a Liberal Democrat. Indeed, during my days on the party's federal policy committee he was something o...

I don't agree with every word of this, by Peter Hitchens, but it is basically correct: There is no mechanism at all in the Tory Party through which ordinary members can exert influence on policy. Tory policy is not made by members, or even by MPs but by an undefined unanswerable cabal surrounding the leader's office. Even the Labour Party gave its members more say (or rather used to do so). Before...

We have posted a useful diagram of the anatomy of New Labour for readers to understand the backdrop to the exchange we describe here. There can only really be one winner in Bloggerheads v Labour List. The execrable Labour effort to come late to the online party, led by the honourable Derek Draper. Yes THAT Derek Draper. The exchange between Tim Ireland and Derek does make entertaining reading... F...

In 1976 Britain faced an extraordinary financial crisis as the exchange value of the pound plummeted, to the degree that there was a genuine fear that imports could not be paid for. As a result of which the Labour government approached the International Monetary Fund for a loan – the largest ever loan applied for