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Thoughts after Beckett – Part 4: the SNP threat

on January 24, 2016

2015 election 2016 elections austerity Beckett Report British Election Survey Ed Miliband England Jeremy Corbyn Kezia Dugdale Margaret Beckett Nicola Sturgeon Scotland SNP Trident

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Thoughts after Beckett – Part 3: immigration & welfare

on January 23, 2016

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Thoughts after Beckett – Part 2: nailing economic competence

on January 22, 2016

City of London economy Ed Miliband fiscal credibility Future Candidates Programme Gordon Brown Jeremy Corbyn LFIG Margaret Beckett pro-business rebalancing social democracy Stella Creasy Tom Watson

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Thoughts after Beckett – Part 1: what makes a leader?

on January 19, 2016

2015 election Alan Johnson charisma competence credibility David Cameron Ed Miliband Gordon Brown Jeremy Corbyn Labour leadership Margaret Beckett polling security

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My reply to Labour's 'your views on Syria' consultation

on November 27, 2015

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Dear Jeremy - I'm a Labour member, but I'm not the one you need to hear more from

on November 22, 2015

1983 2015 democracy Jeremy Corbyn Labour Labour moderates Lib Dem NEC NPF party membership policymaking

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I feel for departing moderates, but here's why I'm sticking with Labour

on November 20, 2015

Andrew Fisher Ed Miliband George Osborne Gordon Brown Hopi Sen Jeremy Corbyn John McDonnell Labour Labour moderates Lib Dem Liz Kendall Robert Webb Sadiq Khan tax credits

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Did I like to be beside the seaside? Assorted musings from Labour conference 2015

on October 01, 2015

ACEVO Blue Labour Brighton Jeremy Corbyn Labour Campaign for Mental Health LFIG Maurice Glasman mental health pro-business ResPublica Simon Danczuk third sector Trident

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Labour can and must unite behind Sadiq

on September 11, 2015

anti-Semitism Ed Miliband housing Jeremy Corbyn Labour leadership Living Wage London mayor pro-business Sadiq Khan Tessa Jowell Transport for London Zac Goldsmith

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The £1.8 trillion question: what should a pro-business Labour Party sound like?

on August 04, 2015

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Labour has three paths forward – and we’re picking between the hardest two

on July 27, 2015

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Volunteers’ Week: NHS volunteering matters

on June 02, 2015

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Why the 2% defence pledge could be even smarter than it seems

on May 31, 2015

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Elliot Bidgood: Hackney, London, United Kingdom; Currently a research and comms consultant with a consultancy for not-for-profits, in addition to freelance work (though I blog here strictly in a personal capacity - all views are my own). Active Labour Party member since 2007 and now belong to Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP. Social democrat, Fabians & previously a research volunteer for the Labour Finance & Industry Group. Research interests include civil society, health, localism, business, US politics, the EU and political reform. Americaphile and borderline Twitter addict

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Popular Posts

Book: The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford

I started reading The Undercover Economist last year, and though it took me a while to get round to finishing, it largely didn’t disappoint. In it, economist and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford seeks to put economics in everyday context, explaining theories in straightforward terms and giving an eye-opening account of how various actors behave in the marketplace. My copy was actually an amended edition, re-published to respond to the financial crisis of 2008 (the original, published in 2005, instead focused more heavily on the Dotcom bubble).

Dear Jeremy - I'm a Labour member, but I'm not the one you need to hear more from

Jeremy Corbyn is outlining plans for a “democratic revolution” in Labour that will give individual members more say over party policy. This will include online ballots and a review of the powers of Labour’s National Executive Committee (currently elected every two years by party members like me). The measures would therefore move things away from the status quo, whereby official party policy is mostly decided by a mix of the party leadership, the National Policy Forum (also elected by members) and motions at our annual conferences. They also fit into the broader vogue to open up democracy and shift away from top-down representative systems that we’ve seen in recent years, which I’ve at times been favourable to (I’ve blogged in support of recall for MPs , the EU referendum and electing Britain’s EU commissioner , for example). However, I must say that speaking as one of the rank-and-file party members Jeremy is offering to empower, I actually believe this particular refor...

Yes, we need a serious discussion about the NHS. But charges are not the answer

Of late, the all-important issue of NHS funding has been brought back into the news by various contributions to this vital debate – some good, some bad. I write today to try call attention to one of the more worrying ones, which is doing the rounds with ever more frequency, and then give the alternatives. Phillip Lee MP, a GP and a potential chair of Commons Health Committee following respected Tory moderate Stephen Dorrell’s resignation, wrote in The Telegraph on Wednesday about the challenges facing the service. While pledging to “preserve the important principle of access for all”, he suggests this: “Thirdly, we must change how we pay for healthcare to meet future demand. The NHS is not alone in facing a tough financial climate and other countries offer a range of options to test. Norway charges patients to see their GP and for routine tests. Germany has a compulsory social insurance scheme. France uses a means test. In Denmark patients are charged (at cost) for their dr...

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