The TUC’s new General Secretary seems to represent real change in the 'pale, male, stale' world of British unions. But can she shake them up in policy terms, and draw in the energy of a disparate anti-austerity movement?
After two and a half years as Co-Editor of openDemocracy's British section, Niki Seth-Smith is leaving OurKingdom. Through intimate reflections, she gives an insight into the project, Britain's landscape of power, and the struggle against neoliberalism to come.
Before advocating a return to a pre-Thatcher era of socialism and solidarity, remember the suffocating Labour years preceding her ascension. This House, playing at The National, takes us back to the last hurrah of a failing post-war consensus.
Help us pick out the writing and the moments worth remembering from the last year.
On the day that millions of anti-austerity demonstrators took to the streets across Europe, an official EU event took place on ‘engaging Europe’s citizens’. A troubled participant tells her story.
Last night, as part of the New Putney Debates, senior Bank official Andy Haldane said Occupy is "right" about the economic crisis. What kind of friend is he?
Ed Miliband’s confident evocation of the Tory mantra ‘One Nation’ speaks volumes about the Conservative Party's failure to conserve its ideological roots. But who will benefit from the land grab?
'The Great British Summer' of 2012 is well and truly over. OurKingdom takes a rollercoaster journey back through the season to close its series.
Andreas Whittam Smith’s radical call to seize the UK Parliament from career politicians resonates with the anger of a disenfranchised public. While it is increasingly clear that getting ‘the right people’ into ‘the right seats’ is not enough to stimulate meaningful democratic reform, these proposa
Intimate 'boutique' festivals are mushrooming across the English countryside. Their biggest selling point: a sense of belonging. Is this a rejection of individualistic hedonism? Or the return of the pastoral, manufactured by the urban elite? One thing is certain - they are a sign of things to come
An unemployed man set himself alight outside a job centre in Birmingham this morning, allegedly over a claim. This, days after the Prime Minister prepared Britain for more welfare cuts with a speech denouncing our 'something for nothing' culture. So what is the job seeker owed, if anything? What w
