Emeritus Professor of Political History. The Labour Party and other currently lost causes.
“'Tis a muddle, and that's aw.”
Steven Fielding
Loading...
This is not only distorts what Labour is today but also what it was yesterday. It would never have achieved power without the support of blackcoated workers, the lower middle class, the suburbs, those who worked by brain rather than hand. It was in its postwar heyday a self described people’s party.
This is not only distorts what Labour is today but also what it was yesterday. It would never have achieved power without the support of blackcoated workers, the lower middle class, the suburbs, those who worked by brain rather than hand. It was in its postwar heyday a self described people’s party.
This is ironic that it’s those on the party right who today emphasise Lab’s reliance on the manual working class when it was their counterparts in the past who underlined Labour status as a cross-class peoples party.
Steven Fielding
Steven Fielding
There’s not enough data to definitively suggest coronations or elections produce better leaders but I do recall Liz Truss won an election …🥴
Biden had the impact of age to explain his inability to create a coherent and clearly declared vision for his country. Starmer is just simply incapable of it.
Should Burnham become Labour leader then he has some headwind with current Lib Dem and Green supporters but he will have to demonstrate his difference in immediate, clear & visceral terms to win them back.
I v much doubt a leadership contest will clarify much - do they ever? - all it will do is drag things out by c 2 months or so, time Labour can ill afford to waste.
It’s always interesting to hear what questions foreign journalists ask about our puddled little country.
This almost makes we want to listen to his music. But only almost.
‘Biden was “better suited for a time gone by”’ concludes this assessment of his presidency. How true it also will be of Starmer’s premiership - in which his declared intention was to return UK politics to a pre-populist ‘normal’ - which is surely now coming to an end.
www.nytimes.com/2026/06/16/o...
Steven Fielding
Steven Fielding
Steven Fielding
Steven Fielding
Steven Fielding
Steven Fielding
Steven Fielding
Steven Fielding
Dylan, on life in your 80’s, is incredible.
@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/06/14/o...
Carl Quintanilla
Britons are divided over whether Andy Burnham and Keir Starmer are more similar than different
Similar: 32%
Different: 35%
yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...
YouGov
Absolutely Spot On. Andy Burnham needs to be subject to challenge and scrutiny. Labour members should demand an election. Labour MPs must ensure that there is a contest not a coronation. And let me declare an interest. I will be supporting my excellent local MP Wes Streeting.
