As part of my ongoing role as Co-Chair of Open Labour, I co-edited a pamphlet of the future of the relationship between the EU and the UK. This looked specifically at how the left should approach the future of cooperation with our nearest trading bloc.
Read MoreIt’s unusual for me to meet Alex Sobel dressed in a suit. Before he became an MP we were occasional gig buddies, and so I’m more used to the regulation jeans and T-shirt. But today, relaxing in his Parliamentary office, Alex looks every inch the MP.
One week from when this interview will be published, it will be Open Labour’s AGM and conference at which we will be launching the new pamphlet edited by myself and Allison Roche of Unison and with a Foreword by Alex. In it Open Labour lay out the options available to the Party over Europe and argue strongly in favour of staying in both the Customs Union and the Single Market.
Read MorePoor Rosie Duffield has had to put up with me drunkenly explaining how much her win in Canterbury meant to me more than once over the months she’s been their MP. It was where I voted for the first time in 1997. While Labour won big that night, we didn’t quite sweep Canterbury along with the nation. She’s always listened and responded with perfect charm and I don’t think I’m the only person so have articulated how important her victory felt last June.
Read MoreI don’t mind a little nostalgia, so the first time at conference this year I heard Things Can Only Get Better, I admit I sang along, danced and laughed indulgently at the chants of “Tony, Tony, Tony” – sometimes from those who will cry “cult” at the first hint of Seven Nation Army. But, by the fourth time in four days, I was thoroughly exasperated. While those of us on the left may not feel it our place, it should be said that those to the right of the Party need to get their heads out of the 90s and into the game.
Read MoreLabour is currently promising nothing short of a complete change of economic model for the UK. That would be a hell of a challenge under the best of circumstances. Faced with the likely contraction of our economy post-Brexit, which will make any upfront investment needed to make this shift harder to come by, it’s going to be a bloody difficult ask.
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