From the Guardian, January 3rd, 2011: [Ed Miliband] immediately instituted a language change that grumpy Labour backbenchers were impressed by. It was to be referred to as a “Tory-led government” not the more cuddly “coalition”. From this site, July 29th, 2010: It is this appropriate to treat the Coalition not as something strange but as [...]

This is without doubt a new era in politics. The end of a Labour decade, the Liberals are back in government, and of course the start of a coalition. The Education Secretary’s disastrous mishandling over the Building Schools for the Future program posed the question of how long the government’s honeymoon will last and there [...]

In the previous one, two and three parts, I have covered various opportunities that have arisen from the peculiarity of a Coalition government, argued that the Coalition will remain intact until the end of the parliament and why Labour should not try to drive a wedge between the two parties. The first trilogy was about [...]

In parts one and two of Countering the Coalition, I outlined how the current political terrain has changed and argued that the coalition will hold together for the duration of the parliament. Now I will explain how Labour can take advantage of the situation and discuss the role of leadership. Given my previous points, Labour [...]

At the start of the hung parliament, our instincts told us that the coalition would be unstable and probably break down within a year or two. Be it out of No Confidence from parliament or confidence that the Tories could win a majority alone, as Harold Wilson did in 1964. On the contrary, everything we [...]

I have written a series of six articles under the theme “Countering the Coalition.” Having discussed the issue with everyone from grassroots members to civil servants to parliamentarians, I hope that my proposals and conclusions we be of use to the Labour Party, as we learn to adjust to our new role in Opposition against an unknown enemy.

I watched the government change in 90 minutes last tuesday. It was quite a powerful moment, I think, for everybody involved, whether Labour, Tory or Lib Dem. It will also be my first taste of Opposition, and although I am sure many of my Labour colleagues will be panicking; and indeed with Gordon Brown’s immediate [...]