On the 70th anniversary of his death aged 46, BENEDICT COOPER assesses George Orwell’s relationship with the ILP and its effect on his life, writing and politics. ‘The ILP helped shape Orwell and he helped secure, and clarify, the ILP’s once-maligned place in history.’...
STEVE THOMPSON reviews the first ever biography of Labour’s former Cabinet minister and independent-minded MP, Peter Shore....
The UK’s response to Covid-19 has been characterised by government bungling and lack of preparation, says HILARY CAVE. Following years of cuts, privatisation and inequality, the burden has fallen hardest on the old and poor....
BARRY WINTER reviews Searching for Socialism by Leo Panitch and Colin Leys, a valuable examination of the left’s ongoing struggle to transform the Labour Party....
For MARIA GOULDING, John Clare’s poetry is not only uplifting and restorative, but deeply relevant in our age of environmental uncertainty and social unease....
Last December Labour returned only one MP in Scotland for the second time in three general elections and it’s been out of power in Holyrood for 13 years. The time has come for change, say DANIEL DEERY and CIAN IRELAND, or the party faces continued decline....
Why has the UK failed so conspicuously to cope with this pandemic? HILARY CAVE points the finger at decades of neoliberalism and 10 years of Tory-led austerity....
A new podcast series of indepth interviews about leading figures from the history of the Labour movement is now available online, thanks to the efforts of host Paul Simpson, Academic Tutor in History at Sunderland University....
JEANNINE SUDWORTH reports from Leeds where council, club and community groups are coming together to help the city’s vulnerable survive the Covid-19 pandemic....
MIKE WADSWORTH reports from the Norfolk coast where a region that relies on tourism fears a visitor-sparked second wave of Covid cases if lockdown is eased too much too soon....
MARIA GOULDING reviews The Overstory by Richard Powers – probably ‘the best novel ever written about trees’, a tale with a compelling political message for our lockdown times. The characters and narrative are engrossing, and the big themes are of urgent contemporary relevance....
A number of local Labour Parties are calling on the leadership to allow branches and constituencies to meet online for formal business while in-person meetings are not possible during the coronavirus pandemic....