Tory contenders won’t learn from their history, but the left can
KEITH FLETT draws parallels with the 1834 Tory crisis, noting the absence of modern-day Robert Peel among the leadership contenders capable of reinventing the party for a new era
AS the author Geoffrey Wheatcroft wrote in the Guardian recently, not even the Tories care who wins the contest to be the next Tory leader. With 121 MPs, it’s very unlikely that whoever is elected will get be a Tory prime minister.
The Tory leadership contest has now reached a halfway stage. After two ballots, six candidates have now been whittled down to four.
However, with such a small electorate and with each of the four attracting support, all we have really learnt so far is that the Tories are completely split over where to go for the future.
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Every few years, it seems like the ‘right time’ to build a new left party — but what are the right conditions, asks socialist historian KEITH FLETT, looking back at the last two centuries and the insights of Ralph Miliband and EP Thompson
Modern Christmas as we know it, with its trees, dinner menu, cards and time off from work, only dates back to the early days of modern socialism as we know it, writes KEITH FLETT, checking in on Marx, Engels and the Chartists in the 1800s
Forget Farage and the recent daft demands for a new election against Labour: the greatest petition Britain has ever known gathered millions of names demanding the right to vote — and it didn’t work either, writes KEITH FLETT
KEITH FLETT considers how the return of the monarchy after Cromwell offers lessons for a left facing the return of Donald Trump, showing that radical traditions endure despite reactionary victories
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