The UK Prime Minister may have the regal touch in northern England, but he’s been wrong-footed on the constitutional challenges posed by the Celtic Alliance of first ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, argues KENNY MacASKILL
THERE ARE a series of important elections across the country scheduled for May. It is important to state at the outset that everyone should vote Labour, as I have always done. Whatever disagreement we may have within the Labour Party and they are often very serious, any Labour candidate is a better option than any Tory or Lib Dem.
But enthusiasm and exhortation alone are not enough to win elections, otherwise Labour would trounce the Tories every time. You also need strategy and you need the tactics that flow from that. Perhaps one of the most appropriate, but least expected places to look for strategic guidance is the Blair leadership.
Naturally, I do not mean Blair or Mandelson, who offer only a distortion of what they themselves did. But we need to examine both the successes and failures of the Blair period to genuinely learn from it.
Who should the trade union movement be fighting for: pimps or marginalised women, asks ANNA FISHER
Preferable to Starmer he may be, but there is scant sign of a sharp political break in Burnham’s policies so far — while left challenges aren’t making much of a running either, finds ANDREW MURRAY. How can socialism be put back on the map?
The new PM’s opening addresses offered hope, council homes and reform — but little detail on how any of it will be delivered, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
Now at 115,000 members and in some polls level with Labour in terms of public support, CHRIS JARVIS looks at the factors behind the rapid rise of the Greens, internal and external


