Britain’s Beleaguered Muslims: a review of Nadya Ali’s The Violence of Britishness
John Chowcat reviews Nadya Ali’s The Violence of Britishness – an excellent contribution to our understanding of the politics around who counts as sufficiently ‘British’
Women in the Miners’ Strike: Usable and Unusable Pasts
In recent years, more attention has been paid to the role of women in the 1984-5 miners’ strike. What lessons might recollections of that doomed, 40 year old struggle hold for building a richer democratic culture in the present?
Acts of God and Acts of Humanity: a response to Colin Hay
Colin Hay’s account of the impact of climate crisis on welfare provision rests on an understanding of ‘uninsurable’ risks which is contestable. There remains scope for political choice
Misreading Brexit nationalism
John Chowcat explores the nature of British national sentiment to assess Labour’s current tactics and prospects, given the long shadow Brexit still casts over the country’s future
The Long Shadow of Collaboration
NUPES, the French left’s historic electoral alliance, is breaking apart in acrimony. The long shadow of wartime collaboration hangs over re-emerging intra-left tensions, explains David Klemperer.
Environmental catastrophes and future fiscal politics: Colin Hay’s warning reminds us that re-embedding the welfare state is long overdue
Colin Hay is correct to argue that ecological crisis places the welfare state as we know it in great peril. But a bold reimagining of welfare capitalism can help to chart a new course
Wrenched from the sacred
Traditionalism might be the world’s ‘least known major philosophy’, but its influence stretches from the far right to King Charles. Morgan Jones reviews a recent study.
The real reason Rishi Sunak cancelled HS2: the political economy of high speed rail
Rishi Sunak’s HS2 decision shows that he lives in a world of his own. But we all live in a different world to the one in which we embarked on HS2
Starmer and Reeves are narrating a new economy – now all they have to do is deliver it
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are offering a coherent narrative for how Labour will manage the economy. But it could be undone if the silence around redistribution persists
A speech of political consistency – and a little more confidence
Keir Starmer’s conference speech brought together Labour’s pre-existing messaging and policy offers, but with an increasingly optimistic tone
No need for catastrophising, it’s bad enough: a response to Colin Hay on the future of the welfare state when ‘environmental catastrophism’ strikes
Colin Hay is right about the welfare state’s deteriorating habitats, but that does not mean we need catastrophise by concluding that conventional social insurance will become obsolete
The hammer and the anvil: crafting a new settlement
Labour is likely to govern in dire social and economic circumstances. The party should be energised by the necessity of reform rather than trapped by a politics of false constraints
Maybe a fiscal crisis is what you make of it? Two cheers for Colin Hay’s ‘New Orleans Effect’
Mark Blyth responds to Colin Hay’s account of how environmental catastrophe, arguing that while Hay may be correct to foretell the welfare state’s demise, this will be the result of political choices rather than economic necessity
Liberalism’s own monster
To regard Mary Harrington is to regard the zeitgeist of the international right. Morgan Jones and David Klemperer review ‘Feminism Against Progress’.
The one thing the West Wing can teach you about politics
Unless you’re someone who thinks the Clinton administration just needed a little less sexual harassment and a little more subtly swelling background music, the West Wing has nothing to teach us about contemporary politics. This is true in all respects bar one, writes Morgan Jones.
Three-way split
Mark Perryman offers some thoughts on last week’s by-elections.
Democracy, Devolution and Justice: Nick Plumb talks to Danielle Allen
Harvard political philosopher Danielle Allen has influenced politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. Could her vision of a renewed, more deliberative democratic politics hold lessons for the Labour Party? Nick Plumb speaks to her about the future of centre-left politics.
Climate crisis, economic stagnation and the limits of social democracy
The Labour Party has announced ambitious plans for investment in green infrastructure if it wins the next general election. How likely are these plans to succeed? And what kind of resistance can a Labour government expect from within the institutions of state?
The German dilemma
Germany stands at a pivotal juncture. Its export-oriented growth model is coming under strain in the context of altering global economic dynamics. Added to this, the Inflation Reduction Act has set off a ‘green subsidies arms race’. How Germany responds to these pressures is sure to have significant repercussions for the European project.
A statement from the editors: the purpose of Renewal
For Renewal, the task is the same as it has been over the last three decades, and as pressing as ever: presenting ideas that challenge an unequal society; and to be critical, and constructive, while pushing for a radical, life-enhancing left politics. Renewal will continue to offer a pluralist space for ideas and debate.
Polarisation in Spain
With Spain heading to the polls in a little over three weeks, Andrew Dowling provides an overview of where the governing PSOE-Podemos coalition stands and warns of an ascendant far right.
Bringing ‘securonomics’ down to earth
No real alternative to ‘securonomics’ is possible, but more thought is needed to bring it ‘down to earth’, to translate into a winning election pitch and an agenda for greater economic security. The case of Cornwall’s tin industry provides a useful lens, writes Frederick Harry Pitts.
Nothing to fear
The National Conservatism conference last month was a sign of a party in extremely poor political and intellectual health. So why do we being told that it is a sign of the ‘philosophical zest’ of the right and it’s the left that’s got it all wrong?
Price controls are the right policy, for the wrong reasons
The Sunak government’s proposal to control food prices will help to address inflation, but must be part of, not in place of, a wider package of cost-of-living support
Breaking the mould
Angus Reilly reviews David Grealy’s study of David Owen’s sustained engagement with human rights, which he interpreted as extending beyond the realm of the civil and the political to include social and economic rights.
Biden-omics for Britain
With market-driven neoliberalism exhausted and discredited, progressives around the world are coalescing around ‘modern supply-side’ policy. The IPPR’s George Dibb assesses Labour’s plans.
Why Pluralist Socialism?
Political sociologist Luke Martell asks: What can attempts to build alternative societies — both within and beyond capitalism — teach us about the challenges we face today?
Labour, the OBR, and the Politics of Fiscal Rectitude
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is part of a trend toward expert involvement in economic policy-making visible around the world. Ben Clift asks: how will the OBR — and the ideas about fiscal prudence it institutionalises — influence how a future Labour government pursues its governing ‘missions’?
Centre for Democratising Work: Interview with Elizabeth Anderson
In this interview, Common Wealth’s Amelia Horgan speaks to political philosopher Elizabeth Anderson about tyranny at work, the power of philosophy, and democracy. This is part of a series of conversations hosted by Common Wealth as the UK hub for the global Centre for Democratising Work.
The Strength of a Weak Centre in Times of Crisis
When the Covid crisis struck, some commentators viewed it as the moment the EU would ‘mature’ into a fully-fledged political confederation. Yet as Kate Alexander Shaw argues, it was the very weakness of the EU that proved to be its greatest strength, helping it to avoid the partisan divisions that characterised the US’s response.
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