Andrew Harrop
@andrew_harrop
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UK public policy and politics. Former Fabian Society general secretary 2011-2024. Writing and reading about work, money & public services.
London
Joined February 2011
I’m not going to pretend I’m happy with Labour’s new line on the 2-child limit. It is a vicious policy that seeds child deprivation. And a nasty dog whistle (what sort of families have 3+ children in modern Britain?). Reversing it is fairly cheap & lasers in on hardship. 1/n.
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‘We really must get around to sorting out social care’. 2010.2011.2012.2013.2014.2015.2016.2017.2018.2019.2020. ‘Let’s give social care a badge’.
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Keir Starmer is called out for writing a full-length pamphlet that NO ONE will read. Also. @thefabians website crashes from tens of thousands of people downloading a copy. 🤷.
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Amazing news!. @KateGreenSU is kind, passionate, honest, thoughtful & modest. She was a brilliant chair of @thefabians & has supported & inspired me throughout my career. Living proof that good people can get ahead in politics
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Just imagine if your post-rent income was £5,000 per year. And today the government took away £1,000 of it.
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Labour needs to get better at not ruling things out it may well want to do in power… (if the public finances permit). ‘We have no plans to…’. ‘It’s not something we could afford immediately’. ‘It won’t be in our manifesto’.
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🎙️ I will be leaving my incredible job as @thefabians general secretary after party conference season. It’s been a blast! . 13 years is long enough(!) & this is a natural moment to seek a new challenge (nothing lined-up as yet). Thank you to everyone who’s helped me along the way.
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@pollytoynbee in my inbox this morning, from a dedicated NHS doctor I've known for 20 years
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A sad moment as I cast my vote… the elderly woman one ahead in the queue is turned away because she has no photo ID
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I’m very excited to say this is my Autumn! . Reform of adult social care in England has been my political passion for 15 years. @thefabians are delighted to be working with @wesstreeting & @unisontheunion on this vital project
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This was the most ideological, unequal and reckless budget Britain has ever seen. The best paid people in the country just saw their marginal tax rates cut by 6.25 per cent while millions cannot afford to hear or eat. 1/2.
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It’s my last day at @thefabians !. Thank you to everyone who’s made it such a pleasure over 13 years, colleagues, Fabian members, comrades & collaborators. I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved together. From tomorrow the fantastic @lukeraikes will be interim general secretary.
🎙️ I will be leaving my incredible job as @thefabians general secretary after party conference season. It’s been a blast! . 13 years is long enough(!) & this is a natural moment to seek a new challenge (nothing lined-up as yet). Thank you to everyone who’s helped me along the way.
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We love a good conspiracy theory at @thefabians! . With 12 staff we’re the perfect size to undermine the US right & run the deep state. But then, when would we find the time to do pamphlets and fringe meetings?.
New: Trump HUD Secretary Ben Carson believes the Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations are part of a centuries old Socialist plot that began in England with something called the Fabian Society.
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'We want to reduce levels of child poverty' >> but no change to planned social security cuts means child poverty will soar.
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Last 36hrs were the wake-up call: Brexit is not a game. 15yrs of flat living standards. Poor get a lot poorer. And that's with a soft Brexit.
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TWO extraordinary omissions in #Budget2020 . 1 - Living standards of low-income families & places. Poverty & inequality will rise because nothing for social security. 2 - Social care - with older people so fearful right now, no money for support of frail & disabled.
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“Labour cannot promise electoral reform – it’s a distraction and a Tory trap”. My piece for @Independent on why LAB was right to reject PR in Brighton
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My weekend number crunching. 1. To win a majority at the next election Labour needs to gain 123 seats, almost twice as many as it required at the 2019 election. 2. This actually under-states the extent to which Labour’s position has deteriorated. 1/n.
The Guardian reports the Fabians’ post-election analysis on Labour’s new mountain to climb
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Very sad to hear of the passing of my inspirational predecessor Shirley Williams - general secretary of @thefabians 1960-63, chair 1980-81. Condolences to all her friends and family . A true loss to centre left politics
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Or ideally, scrap it altogether… but plan your comms to explain it well!. Full report Kindly supported by @finan_fairness . ENDS
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But the 2-child limit IS a tricky policy issue which @thefabians explored in depth in our 2021 report Going with the Grain.
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Just let this sink in. - The mountain Labour has to climb.- The cosy like-minded bubbles we on the left inhabit .- A country persuaded to trust blaggers over swats
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But that’s no reason for inaction. We pitched ideas that fell short of ending the 2 child limit in full & go with the grain of public opinion. In particular, scrap it for families where someone works or no one is expected to be in work. That helps a large majority of big families
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@Helen_Barnard What uplifting replies!. 50s - mass house building.60s - HE expansion (or 00s. ).70s - sex and race discrimination laws.80s - ozone layer.90s - minimum wage.00s - tax credits.10s - pensions.
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Don’t crow over the government’s u-turn on primary schools. It may be logistically unavoidable but it is a DISASTER for educational inequality & poor children’s life chances.
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I believe v strongly in the EU, now even more than 3 years ago. I also KNOW far more about why leaving is so bad for Britain. My heart was on the march. But my head? .I want us to Remain, but only in a way that brings the country together & makes our democracy stronger.
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These are extraordinary results. Very early intervention increases education outcomes at 16 and reduces childhood inequality. Significant investment in kids from pregnancy to 2 should be the first priority, ahead of badly underfunded hours of free childcare for working parents.
Children living near Sure Start centres did better at GCSEs, study suggests
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THREAD. Labour under Corbyn - the verdict. My post for @LabourList . "Labour has fewer MPs than at any time since the Second World War. In one sentence, that sums up Jeremy Corbyn’s legacy as Labour leader" . 1/n. @thefabians .
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The next few days will define the UK for the 2020s. and maybe decide if we still have a UK at all. A hefty Tory majority keep Boris in power for a decade. Is that really the Britain we want?. 🇬🇧 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇪🇺.
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News that @SadiqKhan is going to make a HUGE 2020 election pledge at @thefabians @FEPS_Europe conference tomorrow. Can’t wait to welcome him on stage
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@MattChorley My first ever canvass, mid-1990s, age 19…. Me: hello do you know there’s a council by-election?. Householder: yes, it’s my dad who died, he was the councillor . 😱 😬.
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Our research showed the public back the current policy - both when asked in polls & after deliberation in a citizens jury. Even though broader views on social security are becoming more accommodating
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The Fabians are consulting on the roadmap to a National Care Service. Workforce pay and conditions are at the top of my priority list. @thefabians @wesstreeting @unisontheunion
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Things I support. 1. a fairer voting system.2. less tribalism.3. doing everything to win under the voting system we have. Which means.- ruthless focus on marginal seats.- NOT campaigning for PR.- loose understandings between parties to push tactical voting NOT defeatist pacts.
Labour cannot promise electoral reform – it’s a distraction and a Tory trap | @andrew_harrop
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The next government should promise to end (the need for) food banks within 5 years. And Labour should put this in its manifesto.
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This is a seriously impressive win for Labour. The party faced the headwinds of. - The sickening & divisive Galloway challenge.- The Brexit delivery bounce.- The vaccine bounce.- A decade of local cuts. Overcome by a message of decency & unity, and a great candidate & campaign.
Fantastic result for the brilliant and brave @KimLeadbeater. Kim ran a positive campaign of hope, in the face of division. She will be an outstanding Labour MP for Batley and Spen.
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Over to @joswinson . Is she really going to contest Lab-Con marginals against Labour remainers?. LDs now have their work cut out winning in the south. Why harm LAB and split the anti-Brexit vote where not competitive?. Do LDs want to stop Brexit. or just gain a few MPs?.
"The Brexit Party will not contest the 317 seats the Conservatives won at the last election". Nigel Farage says his party will only fight seats held by Labour and "the rest of the Remainer parties", rather than field 600 candidates as previously promised.
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After all the debate about maths teaching yesterday, today’s idea for the next Labour manifesto is:. - Restore high quality MUSIC EDUCATION as a core learning entitlement for every child. - and create a NATIONAL MUSIC EDUCATION SERVICE to do it.
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For weeks I’d been wondering why the West Midlands jumped to the top of the poverty league table this year. Here is the likely answer…. A new government should end the 2 child limit in its first budget.
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Saying goodbye to my amazing Dad, who left us last week after a wonderful 94 years. I miss him so much.
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This is just embarrassing . There are three BIG problems with social care:. - can’t get care when you need it.- can’t get sufficient hours of care.- rates paid for care too low. This White Paper tackles none of them
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- A couple who are both high-earners will be 1,700 pounds better off in April, thanks to #Budget2018's income tax giveaway. - A couple who are both out of work will be ZERO pounds better off in April, thanks to the freezing of benefits. #ABudgetForTheFew.
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The full analysis. Another Mountain To Climb: Labour's Electoral Challenge in the 2020s.
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After North Shropshire - thoughts & numbers on tactical voting and Lab/Lib Dem cooperation. TLDR: the electoral map massively favours Lab/LD tactical voting & non-aggression. A formal progressive alliance is a distraction. 1/10.
My reaction for the Guardian on what North Shropshire means for Labour
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2023 is the year @UKLabour will work up and present its policy programme for the next general election. So from Sun 1 Jan I’ll be tweeting an idea each day for a policy that could be in Labour’s next manifesto
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Huge thanks to @Keir_Starmer and the 80 other brilliant speakers, plus our 600 delegates, who made #FEPSFAB21 such a great weekend. Above all thanks to the staff at @FEPS_Europe & @thefabians for their great work, especially ringmaster @KatieCurtis . We had a blast!. 🌹 🐢 🇬🇧 🇪🇺
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5. 63pc of the seats Labour needs to win are in the north, the midlands and Wales; 13pc are in Scotland; and 24pc are in southern England. 6. 104 of the 123 seats Labour needs to win are in towns not cities (over half of existing Labour seats are in cities).
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It’s not every day you propose a new arm of the welfare state. (even if you work at @thefabians). Today we call for a new system of BRITISH EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE to replace earnings when people can’t work. 1/.
🚨 Fabian Society calls for ‘British employment insurance’ 🚨 . 🧵. Read the major new report, supported by @finan_fairness here:.
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Labour should plan to . REBUILD SURE START. as an England-wide universal offer, targeted at the most disadvantaged children
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While we’re rightly focused on today’s tragic news, this incredibly important story could slip under the radar. 1. Austerity II: Sunak’s mammoth underfunding of public services is a choice not a necessity, to make room for discretionary tax cuts later
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The next Labour government should replace three existing property taxes with a LAND VALUE TAX paid by landowners. Today’s proposal is prompted by an excellent article at the weekend by @DanNeidle. (all the other ideas in it also good!). Cont/.
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The Tories overtaking Labour's tenure in power is a nice excuse to look at how household incomes fared under each party. Since 2010, an extraordinary collapse in income growth across society. & Tories have done worst for what were 'their' people, those with highest incomes ?!
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This morning @thefabians staff team and friends out volunteering to help @sarahsackman turn Finchley and Golders Green red. #FabiansOnTourGE24
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Delighted and excited to see ideas developed by @thefabians for @unisontheunion on building a National Care Service confirmed in Labour’s manifesto
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I’m confused by those Labour folk saying. BOTH . We need to reconnect with working class leave-leaning towns. AND. Let’s ignore our bridge-building Brexit policy and vote for the EEA. I’d love to campaign for super-soft or no Brexit, but LAB can’t until median opinion shifts.
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The thing is, how can we join the EEA, if the public think they just voted for cap on migration, laws made in UK & no budget contribution?.
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London parks today stuffed with large groups picnicking w/o 2 meter distancing 🧺 ☀️ 🌳 . People were already confused or testing boundaries. How can the authorities tell them to hold the line now?. From a public health perspective the timing of this COULD NOT BE WORSE.
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It's a day when the interests of the Labour party🌹and the country 🇬🇧 are in conflict. Though it's tempting to want Johnson to stagger on, mortally wounded, to lead his party to crushing defeat later. Britain needs fresh leadership now.
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So true. @johnprescott's spent £bns refurbishing old social housing, one of New Lab's greatest, least trumpeted achievements
Not true Lab & Tory govts "all same re social housing" @bbclaurak. Lab £bn's spent upgrading. Tories huge cuts.
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LAB being competitive in seats like Swindon is essential whatever the result tonight. for winning next time.
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Paddy Ashdown’s sad death is a moment to reflect on his 1990s politics . A time when democratic socialists & liberals:. - recognised that more united than divided them.- saw the value in pluralism.- knew that the fortunes of each tradition rose together by vanquishing the right.
Former Liberal Democrats leader Paddy Ashdown dies aged 77 following short illness, party spokesperson says
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I grew up in Richmond where voting Labour helps Tories win. Every extra LD MP reduces the Tory majority. Labour should stand aside.
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20 fantastic speakers already confirmed for FEPS-Fabian New Year Conference, Sat 18 Jan @FEPS_Europe @thefabians . @SadiqKhan .@lisanandy.@Keir_Starmer.@KateGreenSU.@SeemaMalhotra1.@RachelReevesMP.@wesstreeting.@theresaMEP.@Rory_Palmer .@LaszloAndorEU .
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The Fabian Society's 11 big policy ideas for a Labour government. My post for @LabourList on the new @thefabians report Plans for Power
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#MyFirstFabianPamphlet . Isaac and Inigo chose ‘Growing Up in the 2020s’. (thanks to @FabianWomen chair @sarakhyde for bringing all work at @thefabians to a standstill this morning!)
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This is #fakenews . Returning to inflation uprating in April is already in HM Treasury and OBR numbers as freeze was temporary policy. Not a spending increase. Government (and opposition parties) should be pledging 3.9% Triple Lock rise for all benefits .
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No silver bullets, but there are solutions to Labour's working-class problem. 1 Listening not telling. Switch off twitter, talk about the everyday & what matters to people in marginal seats. 2 Avoid bossy 'we know best' vibe. Learn, empathise, reflect 1/6.
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Social housing. Labour should promise to . - Build 150,000 new social homes per year . As proposed by the @Shelter commission on the future of social housing
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The Clive statue is yards from Downing Street at the heart of UK power. What does that say about us as a nation?. The man was reviled in his lifetime & only memorialised in the early c20th at peak empire. (I’m reading William Dalrymple’s The Anarchy - highly recommended).
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A premiership defined by 🎂 . Having it.Eating it.🇪🇺🇬🇧. Ambushed by it.🏃…🍰.
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Today @thefabians publish PLANS FOR POWER. It’s a ‘mix tape’ of all our best recent policy ideas, with…. 2 ambitions.10 decade-long goals.11 chapters of policy ideas.20 reforms that don’t cost money. 🧵 .
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Keir is absolutely right to be reaching out to countryside voters in his NFU speech today. Labour currently holds TWO mainly rural seats. To win the next election it needs to gain around TWENTY.
Keir Starmer to push for investment in UK food and farming
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Brilliant article… low income living standards higher in Slovenia than Britain . This underlines how the UK left must think big on. -progressive taxation.-social security.-collective bargaining .-low pay . 1/2
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Labour should make two changes to the triple lock:. 1. Apply it to ALL benefits for ALL ages (makes it more expensive, but fairer & better targeted). 2. Apply it on a rolling five year basis not annually (makes it a bit cheaper).
Labour committed to triple lock on state pensions and will put it in its election manifesto, party spokesman says.
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I’m totally delighted to see <another> member of @theFabians board join the Labour top team. Massive congratulations to @AnnelieseDodds our new Shadow Chancellor.
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I’ve lived almost next door to Pentonville prison for the last 16 years. For all those 16 years these publicly owned prison flats have been vacant. 1,500 families in Islington are waiting for social housing
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What a fantastic appointment. Keir just keeps on giving jobs to amazing MPs with deep, decades-long expertise of their portfolios.
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The chancellor knows there is no evidence that 'trickle down' boosts ordinary living standards. His unfunded tax cuts for the super rich and the most profitable companies will be paid for by all of us through higher debt and taxes for years to come. @thefabians. 2/2.
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“I support a National Care Service”. In 2023 @BenCooper1995 and I wrote SUPPORT GUARANTEED on the roadmap to a National Care Service for @unisontheunion & @UKLabour . Now we have a government committed to that journey!.
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Labour folk - if you're not very very worried, you're not paying attention #sickfeeling #ToryLandGrab.
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Some of the hard truths in my new report: 1. just over half of LAB 2015 voters now support the party. 2. new (non-GE15) support looks soft.
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Fair play to HMT for re-commencing distributional analysis of budget. It reveals huge inequality in the impact of tax/benefit measures (ignoring the public services bars). - poorest 10th are WORSE OFF in cash terms. - 8th and 9th deciles are BIGGEST WINNERS gaining £100 per year
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One consequence of the #dementiatax will be huge self-inflicted pressure for family carers to get by without social care.
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Imagine if the Labour Party had a leader (and advisers) who carefully studied the interests, expertise and background of MPs and appointed them to jobs accordingly, irrespective of factional politics. Don’t think it would ever catch on. .
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Johnsonism is just like Corbynism. Making choices to suit the narrow ranks of its most committed supporters.
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Leaving the EU is like saying 'we've got railways, but wouldn't you like to go back to canals?' @hammersmithandy #FabSummer.
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Today @thefabians celebrate our 135th birthday! . We’ve been shaping the future of the left since 4th January 1884. Right now we have over 7,000 members. Help us celebrate by joining today!
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This is truly bonkers kite-flying. Surely even this government wouldn’t fund older people’s care with a tax older people don’t pay?
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Clearly there’s a lot to welcome in this package. But it is only sticking plaster 🩹 . We need a fundamental reckoning on living standards to end food banks, homelessness, hunger & cold:. 1. benefits adequate to meet essential costs.2. secure work.3. lower housing & living costs.
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@djmgaffneyw4 @tonywilsonIES @CovidRealities Terrible policy making…. Our failing social security system already rushes people into poorly fitting jobs, burning human capital & productivity . This makes a bad design worse
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Freezing energy bills for the winter is essential so Keir Starmer has made the right call today. But this is a policy that only buys the country time. UK needs to reform our energy markets & spend £bns on insulating homes & increasing social security for low-income households 1/2.
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Days after the 2019 election I wrote a paper on the 100+ seats Labour needed to win to govern again. I called it 'Another Mountain to Climb' and to be frank the climb seemed impossible. Today @thefabians have updated that analysis to reflect the new seat boundaries and. .
🚨NEW . Labour has a 34 point lead over the Conservatives in 150 key target seats, per exclusive @thefabians analysis. This is 10 points higher than the national average 👀. GB.🌹LAB 46%.🌳CON 22% . TARGET SEATS.🌹LAB 52%.🌳CON 18%. 💻LIVE 9PM @itvpeston.📺10.45PM @ITV . #Peston
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13 MAY - BOOK YOUR PLACE to hear @tom_watson deliver his Fabian Society #JohnSmithMemorialLecture - marking 25 years since the former Labour leader's death.
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“The seats Labour needs to take are very diverse, which is why the party must be a truly national, big tent political force. But their centre of gravity lies in middle Britain – neither rich nor poor, young nor old, strongly for Remain or Leave”. My new post for @LabourList.
"There are only two years to get match fit. The Fabian Society is asking what Labour needs to do next to improve its prospects.". @andrew_harrop on Labour's electoral challenge and the @thefabians survey asking you for ideas:
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Here’s a pitch to excite/scare a future Labour chancellor. 1. Make pretty much everything VATable… food, kids clothes, health, books etc. 2. Compensate people with a off-rise in all benefit rates & NIC/income tax thresholds . Progressive and pro-growth.
VAT is the 2nd most important tax in the UK, after PITs (incl NIC). Removing the exemption to private schools is a start, but tinkering at the edges is not enough. The UK needs a deep VAT reform. Urgently. My take on where we are at, and what needs to be done.
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LABOUR promises to design a new social security system:. "Our ambition in designing this system will be to end poverty by guaranteeing a minimum standard of living" . Not in published costings, so only an 'ambition'. But this is a huge announcement. Most radical in manifesto?.
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