Preface

Summary

I have thought about the Labour Party, most days, for over 15 years now. That is not quite as uninteresting as it sounds, I hope. In 2007, I began working for the Labour Party, then became a parliamentary researcher for a Labour MP, and then a political advisor to members of the shadow cabinet. After that, I completed a PhD and became an academic, and my thesis was on Labour in the 1980s and 1990s. Politics is in the news a lot, and I while I mostly enjoy reading about it and hearing people talk about it, I also think it's incredibly important to engage with regardless. So, when you add up the jobs, the experiences, the fascination with politics and the thinking it is important, Labour politics is on my mind at some point, most days, and for good reason I think.

This book is a new take on a political party and a moment in time. The way we look at things is shaped by a great deal, and my beliefs about the Labour Party, and politics more generally, have changed over the years. They will, I am sure, change again. One of the joys of research is discovering different ways of understanding something, affecting your own ways of seeing and thinking. For having made it to this point, many thanks are owed. First, thank you to the MPs I worked with and the Labour Party members I have learnt from over many years. Second, since becoming an academic many colleagues have been incredibly generous with their time and taught me so much. Thank you, in particular, to Peter Allen, Tim Bale (with additional thanks for being a fantastic mentor), Phil Cowley, Madeleine Davis, Patrick Diamond, Nick Garland, Eunice Goes, Farah Hussain, Andrew Hindmoor, Ben Jackson and Colm Murphy. And thanks to colleagues who organize and attend TheoryLab at the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) at Queen Mary University of London, as well as my colleagues at the Mile End Institute, also at Queen Mary. While the support of colleagues has undoubtedly made this a better book, any errors are, of course, mine and mine alone.