I'm new to Substack and still finding my feet. But just want to say that I look forward to reading this every week. This newsletter is what inspired me to finally subscribe to the New Statesman. Thank you.
On Sharon Graham’s article about Labour needing to be bolder.
It will be very interesting to see how Labour positions itself as they head into their conference this week. To date, the strategy appears to be to sit tight, say very little and hope the Tories implode. Not a bad strategy but it only gets you so far.
At some point the voters are going to want to know what Labour stands for. What does it mean for taxes, spending and public services. We live in a world where money is scarce. This isn’t 1997. There really isn’t any money left.
So it will be down to choices and trade offs. This is all boring stuff for an electorate looking for hope and inspiration.
The real danger for Labour is that the silence turns people towards the populist messages of the emerging Tory campaign. In this vacuum, extremism can proposer.
British politics in 2023 (your first 3 articles) reflects the clapped-out, uninspired country that Britain has become. But reflecting on the seven decades of my life, it has arguably rarely been much better. It has mostly been a story of second-rate career politicians pretending to be leaders (rather than actually being leaders)....Macmillan, Wilson, Heath, Major, Cameron, Johnson (for brevity I've left out various other also-rans). Tony Blair was a Progressive class-act (although, from a conservative perspective, a class-act at taking the country in the wrong direction). And look how his own political tribe hated him. The only real class act in all that post war period was Margaret Thatcher. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/mrs-thatcher-and-the-good-life
I'm new to Substack and still finding my feet. But just want to say that I look forward to reading this every week. This newsletter is what inspired me to finally subscribe to the New Statesman. Thank you.
Thank you Delia, we're delighted to hear that.
On Sharon Graham’s article about Labour needing to be bolder.
It will be very interesting to see how Labour positions itself as they head into their conference this week. To date, the strategy appears to be to sit tight, say very little and hope the Tories implode. Not a bad strategy but it only gets you so far.
At some point the voters are going to want to know what Labour stands for. What does it mean for taxes, spending and public services. We live in a world where money is scarce. This isn’t 1997. There really isn’t any money left.
So it will be down to choices and trade offs. This is all boring stuff for an electorate looking for hope and inspiration.
The real danger for Labour is that the silence turns people towards the populist messages of the emerging Tory campaign. In this vacuum, extremism can proposer.
British politics in 2023 (your first 3 articles) reflects the clapped-out, uninspired country that Britain has become. But reflecting on the seven decades of my life, it has arguably rarely been much better. It has mostly been a story of second-rate career politicians pretending to be leaders (rather than actually being leaders)....Macmillan, Wilson, Heath, Major, Cameron, Johnson (for brevity I've left out various other also-rans). Tony Blair was a Progressive class-act (although, from a conservative perspective, a class-act at taking the country in the wrong direction). And look how his own political tribe hated him. The only real class act in all that post war period was Margaret Thatcher. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/mrs-thatcher-and-the-good-life