Must Labour Always Lose

Must Labour Always Lose PDF

Author: Denis MacShane

Publisher:

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 9781910461532

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Denis MacShane has seen and been on every part of the Labour Party over the last 50 years. He has fought, lost and won elections to the Commons, local government and the trade union movement. One unique insight he has comes from 15 years work with trade unions and progressive political movement in Europe and overseas. His book is personal, political and full of insights. Much of the European left is down and out and Labour must avoid that fate. I hope Labour Party members debate without rancour or sectarian anger what needs to be done. This book is a good starting point. Polly Toynbee, journalist Denis MacShane has had a colourful, often controversial life as a journalist-politician in Labour over many years, standing for Parliament in 1974 and being the best Europe Minister of any government until the calamity of Brexit struck. His account of why Labour is so good at losing elections is fascinating reading. What to do to get Labour back into power is a central question if we don't want to live in a one party state Steve Richards, journalist and presenter Since 1970, Labour has won power in just 4 of the 14 general elections. This angry, passionate book asks why Labour is so good at losing elections and so unhappy and edgy when it does win. Denis MacShane joined the Labour Party in 1970, and has held every office at local party level. He stood for the Commons aged 26. He served as an MP for 18 years and was Minister of State for Europe. He draws on experience, meetings with Labour leaders from Jim Callaghan to Jeremy Corbyn, and his personal diaries kept when in the Commons as he tries to answer the question: Why is Labour so keen on fighting internal battles and so useless at winning power? Denis MacShane's book is full of observations that are witty, personal, and exasperating. They offer insights and pragmatic guidance. Based on the hard lessons he's learned, MacShane offers twelve pragmatic suggestions for turning Labour into a party of power as well as protest.

Broken Heartlands

Broken Heartlands PDF

Author: Sebastian Payne

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2021-09-16

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1529067383

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Broken Heartlands is an essential and compelling political road-trip through ten constituencies that tell the story of Labour’s red wall from Sebastian Payne – an award-winning journalist and Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times. The Times Political Book of the Year A Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail and FT Book of the Year 'Immensely readable' - Observer Historically, the red wall formed the backbone of Labour’s vote in the Midlands and the North of England but, during the 2019 general election, it dramatically turned Conservative for the first time in living memory, redrawing the electoral map in the process. Originally from the North East himself, Payne sets out to uncover the real story behind the red wall and what turned these seats blue. Beginning in Blyth Valley in the North East and ending in Burnley, with visits to constituencies across the Midlands and Yorkshire along the way, Payne gets to the heart of a key political story of our time that will have ramifications for years to come. While Brexit and the unpopularity of opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn are factors, there is a more nuanced story explored in Broken Heartlands – of how these northern communities have fared through generational shifts, struggling public services, de-industrialization and the changing nature of work. Featuring interviews with local people, plus major political figures from both parties – including Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer – Payne explores the significant role these social and economic forces, decades in the making, have played in this fundamental upheaval of the British political landscape. 'Impressive and entertaining' - Sunday Times 'A must-read for anyone who wants to understand England today' - Robert Peston

Why I Write

Why I Write PDF

Author: George Orwell

Publisher: Renard Press Ltd

Published: 2021-01-01

Total Pages: 15

ISBN-13: 1913724263

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George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times

Beyond the Red Wall

Beyond the Red Wall PDF

Author: Deborah Mattinson

Publisher: Biteback Publishing

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 157

ISBN-13: 1785906143

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The last general election saw the Conservatives win their highest vote share in forty years, while Labour slumped to their lowest seat total since 1935. At the heart of this electoral earthquake was the so-called 'Red Wall', some sixty seats stretching from the Midlands up to the north of England. Who are the Red Wall voters and why did they forgo their long-standing party loyalties? Did they simply lend their votes to Johnson to get Brexit done – or will he be able to win them over more permanently? And as the Labour Party licks its wounds, how were those votes thrown away and what, if anything, can be done to win them back? And how will the pandemic and the government's reaction to it change the voter's outlook on party politics in the future? Will everything be the same after it has passed? This book sets out to answer those questions by putting them to the people who will decide the next election.

Labour and working-class lives

Labour and working-class lives PDF

Author: Keith Laybourn

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2017-04-30

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 1526100118

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British labour history has been one of the dominating areas of historical research in the last sixty years and this book, written in honour of Professor Chris Wrigley, offers a collection of essays written by leading British labour historians of that subject including Ken Brown, Malcolm Chase and Matthew Worley. It focuses upon trade unionism, the co-operative movement, the rise and fall of the Labour Party, and working-class lives, comparing British labour movements with those in Germany and examining the social and political labour activities of the Lansburys. There is, indeed, some important work connected with the cultural developments of the British labour movement, most obviously in the essay written by Matthew Worley on communism and Punk Rock.

Trio

Trio PDF

Author: Giles Radice

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2010-08-26

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0857719297

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Blair: charming, charismatic and a great communicator but undermined by an unshakeable conviction that he was right. Brown: in private, warm and witty; in public, an authoritative Chancellor but a wooden and curiously un-self-confident Prime Minister. Mandelson: for Blair, supreme courtier and chief adviser; for Brown, from arch-enemy to polished political life-saver. Among the most controversial figures in Britain's recent history, these three architects of New Labour together shaped Britain - and into the first decade of the 21st century. "Trio" charts their rise to power and their undoubted achievements, both individually and collectively, alongside their quarrels, failings and failures. It offers remarkably clear-sighted portraits of three powerful men who created a new politics in Britain, making Labour electable - and then back again - in 12 turbulent years.

Classical Sociological Theory

Classical Sociological Theory PDF

Author: Craig Calhoun

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-01-17

Total Pages: 578

ISBN-13: 0470655674

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This comprehensive collection of classical sociological theory is a definitive guide to the roots of sociology from its undisciplined beginnings to its current influence on contemporary sociological debate. Explores influential works of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Mead, Simmel, Freud, Du Bois, Adorno, Marcuse, Parsons, and Merton Editorial introductions lend historical and intellectual perspective to the substantial readings Includes a new section with new readings on the immediate "pre-history" of sociological theory, including the Enlightenment and de Tocqueville Individual reading selections are updated throughout

Bullshit Jobs

Bullshit Jobs PDF

Author: David Graeber

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2019-05-07

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1501143336

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From bestselling writer David Graeber—“a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate” (Slate)—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs…and their consequences. Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.” It went viral. After one million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. There are hordes of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs. Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. “Clever and charismatic” (The New Yorker), Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation and “a thought-provoking examination of our working lives” (Financial Times).