Philip Collins

1 month ago | prospectmagazine.co.uk | Philip Collins

Liz Kendall’s announcement in the House of Commons that £5bn needed to come off the welfare bill by 2030 was made in defiance of a strong Labour tradition. There is a storm to come on this question because the defence of welfare has for a long time been a core Labour idea. At best, Kendall’s proposals can be complimented as being brave. Incapacity benefits as part of Universal Credit will be cut for new claimants by more than £2,000 a year and frozen for existing claimants.

2 months ago | prospectmagazine.co.uk | Philip Collins

Maurice Glasman, Blue Labour (2022) and William Morris, News From Nowhere (1890). There was once a seminar, at the Labour party stronghold of University College, Oxford (Beveridge, Attlee and Wilson all had connections) that brought together thinkers from both the New and the Blue Labour folds. It was 2009; Gordon Brown was prime minister. Putting the Blue side, Maurice Glasman opened his remarks by quoting Virginia Woolf’s diary: “Terrible weekend. Man drowned in river.

2 months ago | prospectmagazine.co.uk | Philip Collins

Michael Young: The Rise And Fall Of The MeritocracyMichael Young embodies the promise of the Labour party but also the doubt that it can ever live up to its self-stated ideal. He will forever be the man who brought the 1945 general election manifesto into being, from his position as director of Political and Economic Planning.

Jan 20, 2025 | spectator.com.au | Philip Collins

The abiding question for the 47th President of the United States of America is whether he now, after running against everything that counts as orthodox in the way of politics, has suddenly become a politician. Donald Trump is the candidate from beyond the beltway, the man who speaks directly to the public.

Jan 20, 2025 | spectator.co.uk | Philip Collins

The abiding question for the 47th President of the United States of America is whether he now, after running against everything that counts as orthodox in the way of politics, has suddenly become a politician. Donald Trump is the candidate from beyond the beltway, the man who speaks directly to the public. Yet the conjuring trick, rhetorically, for every successful candidate is the extent to which he can maintain outsider status after an emphatic victory.