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1. Remembering John Smith: His Legacy and Lessons

Author:
Robert Saunders, David Ward, Richard Johnson, and Dame Pauline Green
Publication Date:
05-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
The night before John Smith QC died in May 1994, he spoke at the Park Lane Hotel to raise money for the Labour Party's campaign for the next general election. To the 500 people in attendance, Smith remarked that 'the opportunity to serve our country—that is all we ask'. 30 years on from his death, Smith is often recalled as one of the 'best Prime Ministers we never had' and is still viewed with affection by many people regardless of their political views. However, in his own party, John Smith's legacy has often been more contentious. For supporters of the 'New Labour' project pursued by his successor, John Smith - as David Miliband told the Mile End Institute in May 2022 - failed to 'understand that in 1992 the electorate told us, in no uncertain terms, that they wanted a different offer from Labour'. On Thursday 9 May 2024, the Mile End Institute marked the 30th anniversary of John Smith's death by inviting a distinguished panel of historians and eyewitnesses to consider John Smith's legacy and lessons for the Labour Party today. Chaired by Dr Robert Saunders, it featured David Ward (John Smith's Head of Policy and Adviser from 1988 to 1994), Dr Richard Johnson (Senior Lecturer at QMUL), and Dame Pauline Green (former Chair of the Party of European Socialists).
Topic:
Politics, History, Labour Party, and John Smith
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

2. Yvette Cooper MP: Remembering John Smith

Author:
Yvette Cooper
Publication Date:
05-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
On Thursday 9 May 2024, the Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper MP came to ‪@QMUL‬to give a keynote lecture in memory of the late ‪@labourparty‬, John Smith. 30 years on from Smith's untimely death, Cooper reflected on working for him before the 1992 election and his legacy on devolution to Scotland and Wales, the creation of the Minimum Wage, Freedom of Information, and the lessons of his leadership for the Labour Party today.
Topic:
History, Domestic Politics, Political Parties, and Labour Party
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

3. 'An Insane Miracle': 100 years of since the first Labour government

Author:
Carolyn Quinn, Jon Cruddas, David Torrance, Jane Ridley, and Richard Johnson
Publication Date:
02-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
On 22 January 1924, the United Kingdom experienced what The Annual Register described as ‘a revolution as profound as that associated with the Reform Act of 1832’ – the formation of the first Labour government. After an inconclusive general election in December 1923, the King invited Ramsay MacDonald to become Prime Minister. For the leader of the so-called ‘Wild Men’ – who had helped to found the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 and been the fledgling party’s leader for a little over a year – the formation of his minority administration was ‘an insane miracle’. While the government was defeated just over nine months later, at a general election in October 1924, it proved to the country and the wider movement that the Labour Party was willing and able to govern. To mark the centenary of MacDonald’s appointment, the Mile End Institute assembled a stellar panel of experts on Labour politics, the constitution, and interwar Britain. In addition to Jon Cruddas MP and Dr David Torrance - whose new books A Century of Labour and The Wild Men had just been published - we were joined by Professor Jane Ridley (the author of George V: Never a Dull Moment) and Dr Richard Johnson. In this fascinating discussion chaired by the journalist and former host of Radio 4’s Westminster Hour, Carolyn Quinn, the panel reflected on King George V's decision to call for MacDonald rather than the governing Conservative or Liberal parties, the changing makeup of the Labour Party and its relationship with the Crown, and the MacDonald administration's political and legislative achievements. With a general election approaching, the panel also considered what lessons, if any, MacDonald’s minority administration offers to future Labour governments.
Topic:
Reform, Elections, Domestic Politics, and Labour Party
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

4. Governing in Hard Times: Urgent Questions for the Centre-Left

Author:
Colm Murphy and Farah Hussain
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
Leading speakers from politics, policymaking, and academia provide Starmer and his team with not only questions that they must address ahead of next year’s likely election, but also some potential answers.
Topic:
Government, Public Policy, Labour Party, and Keir Starmer
Political Geography:
Britain, United Kingdom, and Europe

5. Marcia Williams: The Life and Times of Baroness Falkender

Author:
Linda McDougall
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
Over a decade before Margaret Thatcher swept to power in May 1979, another woman was running Britain from 10 Downing Street: Marcia Williams, private and political secretary to Harold Wilson. Having worked for Wilson since 1956, Williams became the Prime Minister’s trusted adviser and confidante forming, as the historian Ben Pimlott once described it, ‘the most famous and mysterious partnership in modern political history’. To mark the publication of Marcia Williams: The Life and Times of Baroness Falkender by ‪@BitebackPublishing‬, the ‪@mileendinstitute4300‬ and Tides of History welcomed her biographer, Linda McDougall, to ‪@QMUL‬‪@QMUL‬, where Marcia Field (as she then was) studied History from 1951 to 1954 and was Secretary of the Labour Society. Linda McDougall is a leading journalist, television producer and author of several books on women in politics. In addition to charting Williams’ rise through the Labour Party, Linda examined the assumptions and accusations that were a constant accompaniment to her political career and charted her influence on British politics and policy.
Topic:
Politics, Women, Domestic Politics, Labour Party, and Marcia Williams
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

6. Governing in Hard Times Conference: Final Reflections

Author:
Javier Sajuria, Eunice Goes, Ben Jackson, Karl Pike, and Carys Roberts
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
In this concluding session, a panel of academics and policymakers reflected on the day's proceedings. They tried to draw together the most urgent questions facing the centre-left and Keir Starmer's Labour Party as well as the historical parallels for a party seeking to return to government after such a lengthy spell in opposition. Chair: Dr Javier Sajuria (Reader in Comparative Politics at Queen Mary, University of London) Panel: Professor Eunice Goes (Professor of Politics at Richmond University) Professor Ben Jackson (Professor of Modern History at University College Oxford and Co-Editor of Political Quarterly) Dr Karl Pike (Deputy Director of the Mile End Institute) Carys Roberts (Executive Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research)
Topic:
Governance, Domestic Politics, Labour Party, and Center Left
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

7. Governing in Hard Times Conference: Constraints and Strategy with Nick Thomas-Symonds MP

Author:
Lyndsey Jenkins, Nick Thomas-Symonds, Nick Pearce, and Alan Finlayson
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
In this introductory session, Nick Thomas-Symonds MP delivered a keynote address on the Labour Party's strategy for government and the lessons that Keir Starmer and the current Shadow Cabinet can learn from previous Labour governments. This was followed by responses from Professor Nick Pearce and Professor Alan Finlayson on the institutional and economic constraints that a future centre-left administration will face and how it might navigate its first difficult months in office. Chair: Dr Lyndsey Jenkins (Deputy Director of the Mile End Institute) Panel: Nick Thomas-Symonds MP (MP for Torfaen and Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade) Professor Nick Pearce (Director of the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath) Professor Alan Finlayson (Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia)
Topic:
Economics, Governance, Domestic Politics, Labour Party, and Center Left
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

8. In Conversation with the Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy MP

Author:
David Lammy and Marie Le Conte
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
On Thursday 9 March, the Mile End Institute welcomed the Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy MP, to ‪@QMUL‬. In a wide-ranging conversation with Marie Le Conte, David reflected on his early life, becoming the first black Briton to graduate from Harvard Law School and over two decades as the MP for Tottenham. He also took stock of the ongoing war in Ukraine, outlined his vision for the UK's foreign policy if the Labour Party win the next election, and reflected on being one of the few members of the Shadow Cabinet to have served in government before.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Government, Elections, Domestic Politics, and Labour Party
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

9. Breaking the Glass Chamber: Keynote Lecture by Prof Sarah Childs on New Labour's Women MPs

Author:
Sarah Childs
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
2022 marks a series of historic anniversaries for women in British politics. Forty years since the election of Harriet Harman, the Mother of the House; thirty-five years since the election of the first Black woman MP, Diane Abbott; thirty years since the first woman, Betty Boothroyd, was elected Speaker of the House; and twenty-five years since the election of more than a hundred women MPs for the Labour Party. At its landmark Breaking the Glass Chamber conference from 15 to 17 September 2022, the Mile End Institute brought together historians, political scientists, and sociologists to explore what politics meant to and for women in the second half of the twentieth century. In this video, Professor Sarah Childs delivers a keynote lecture which brings together the key themes of the Breaking the Glass Chamber conference and reflects on whether there has been a 'feminization' of British politics since 1997. Sarah returns to some of her earliest work about how New Labour's women MPs experienced being in Parliament, whether they acted as role models for other women, and explores the complicated relationship between women's descriptive and substantive representation.
Topic:
Women, Domestic Politics, Representation, and Labour Party
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

10. New Labour, New Britain: In Conversation with Lord Mandelson

Publication Date:
05-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
n the final session of the Mile End Institute's New Labour, New Britain conference on 6 May 2022, Dr Robert Saunders was joined by Lord Mandelson to talk about his time as Neil Kinnock's Director of Communications, his ministerial career during Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's premierships, and his reflections on the state of the Labour Party in 2022.
Topic:
Governance, Domestic Politics, Domestic Policy, and Labour Party
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe