Published 2005 (ISBN 1 902488 85 7) Price £9.95
Over the last year, the Smith Institute has held a number of seminars and events around issues which their proponents claim are rooted in the ‘common ground’. This has developed in tandem with a growing concern that the tribal politics of Westminster is becoming increasingly alien to the British public whose trust of politicians is diminishing and, for many of whom, party loyalty is no longer the core component of political identity. Single issue lobbies are attracting significant attention, while the offerings of the single issue political parties are often supported beyond their reasonable expectations. In this first pamphlet of a series we have commissioned to explore these developments, Douglas Alexander MP frames the centre left’s quest for progressive policies in terms of the current debate about how to build upon a ‘common sense’ in which the British values of equality, solidarity and social justice prevail. In developing the argument for a politics based on shared principles, this essay also raises questions about how we could ‘do politics’ in 21st century Britain.
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