Tag Archives: michael kenny

The compromiser’s dilemma: House of Lords reform

House of Lords. Photo: Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of ParliamentYou propose something. Someone objects to it, giving many reasons. You offer to make some changes to meet some of the objections. A deal is made and progress is achieved.

A perfectly normal sequence of events, both inside and outside politics and whether the matter is as mundane as what to eat for dinner tomorrow or as public as the wording of Parliamentary legislation.

One big …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , and | 17 Comments

Opinion: Reassessing New Labour

It is worth buying Reassessing New Labour just to read James Purnell’s short preface. New Labour’s would-be philosopher king pretty much disappeared from view after Labour chose the wrong Miliband as leader. Purnell’s piece highlights perfectly the challenge Labour faces in coming to terms with its 2010 election defeat. It is brilliantly lucid in assessing why Labour lost. It is extremely limited in its analysis of how to recover. In particular it completely ignores the 500lb gorilla in the corner – the economy. I’ll come back to this in a moment.

Diamond and Kenny’s book brings together a range of contributions …

Posted in Books and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Tim
    @PM. Yes, allowing a LOT more houses to be built would reduce wealth inequality dramatically. We should aim to return to the c1997 price to income ratios - whic...
  • Peter Davies
    and building more houses of course....
  • Peter Davies
    The rising property market contributed more to the impoverishment of the poor than the enrichment of the rich. It is owner occupiers who hold the greatest propo...
  • PM
    @ Tim, You may be technically correct with your argument but it doesn't change the fact that we have become very much more unequal in recent decades. The ...
  • Mick Taylor
    @ColinMurphy. Yes and you could close all the tax loopholes and greatly reduce the huge number of pages in the tax codes that take a highly qualified accountant...