Britain’s Labour Party has forgotten how to be nice
Small sums can have disproportionate effects on the public realm
In 1956 Anthony Crosland, a Labour Party thinker, called for “a brighter, more colourful country”. It was not enough, he wrote, for a Labour government merely to increase exports or old-age pensions. Britain must have “more open-air cafés, brighter and gayer streets at night…more riverside cafés…more murals and pictures in public places…statues in the centre of new housing-estates, better-designed street-lamps and telephone kiosks, and so on ad infinitum”.
Explore more
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Brighten up”
Britain November 2nd 2024
- Britain’s budget is heavy on spending but light on reform
- The extreme right after the riots in Britain
- Britain’s birth rate has crashed. It is likely to recover
- A growing number of Britons live on canal boats
- Meet one of Britain’s most influential, least understood people
- Britain’s Labour Party has forgotten how to be nice
More from Britain
Has the Royal Navy become too timid?
A new paper examines how its culture has changed
A plan to reorganise local government in England runs into opposition
Turkeys vote against Christmas
David Lammy’s plan to shake up Britain’s Foreign Office
Diplomats will be tasked with growing the economy and cutting migration
Britain’s government has spooked markets and riled businesses
Tax rises were inevitable. Such a shaky start was not
Labour’s credibility trap
Who can believe Rachel Reeves?