Labour will never win again if it can’t acknowledge, let alone answer, the English Question The old New Labour narrative that England is not a nation, only a set of would-be regions, is damaging the party. The Labour Party’s political woes can be explained as much by the English as the Scottish Question. To govern at Westminster is also to govern England. If this was not well understood before the pandemic, it is now. Since the “West Lothian question” was resolved in 2015 with the introduction of English votes for English laws in the Commons, Labour would need to win a majority of English seats to legislate for England. Otherwise, a Labour government would have to begin life by using SNP votes to change how English laws are made.
50 ways to re-connect with the North East after the end of lockdown chroniclelive.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chroniclelive.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kwasi Kwarteng’s desire to rebrand his Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy reflects the unashamed Thatcherite’s dislike of 1970s corporatism. Yet the Secretary of State privately acknowledges he requires the support of workers and communities to green the economy. Union general secretaries cannily steer clear of using the words “industrial strategy” to avoid inciting Kwarteng in meetings, instead calling it “competitiveness and productivity”. The cabinet minister, who disbanded an Industrial Strategy Council created in 2018 by predecessor Greg Clark, should study from all angles any fresh title when he takes the IS out of BEIS. Tony Blair proposed relaunching the Department of Trade and Industry as the Department of Productivity, Energy and Industry and Science, until Alan Johnson complained that when things went wrong the “n” in Energy would be capped up and he’d be called the PENIS Secretary.