history Articles

George Osborne would probably not appreciate being compared to RA Butler, but reviewing a new biography of ‘Rab’ in current circumstances makes it inevitable. Cynical, clever, elusive, perhaps more cutting and abrasive than he meant to be, from being seen as a...

On 9 November 1989 as senior international officer of the Labour party I was in Warsaw as a member of a delegation of about 10 members of the Socialist International Disarmament Advisory Committee led by Kalevi Sorsa, the former foreign minister and later prime...

Progress’ thought-provoking series of debates with Labour’s shadow frontbench team continues. This time it was the turn of Tristram Hunt MP, shadow secretary of state for education, to be given the third degree by Times columnist and commentator David Aaronovitch. The...

In the second general election of 1974 Harold Wilson won an overall majority of three. This was the last time a Labour leader who was not called Tony Blair won a majority in the House of Commons. Forty years … it is a long time. But it’s true that in the eight general...