What now for the Labour Party?

The vote to leave the European Union is a moment of both crisis and opportunity. Now the need to build a progressive alliance has become urgent. The splits between progressive political parties are just as important as the splits within Labour. Greens, Liberals, Labour and other parties whose goal is a progressive politics have to begin acting locally and engaging nationally in the hope of forging a kinder, more inclusive politics. In doing so they can seek to bring together people who voted for and against European membership to find common ground, address the causes of alienation and find common solutions. By creating an inclusive, tolerant alliance, the aim could be to help build a nation founded on social and environmental justice and a common respect for all people, including refugees and immigrants. A key goal has to be reducing levels of economic inequality, at least to what is usual in Europe, rather than remaining the economically most unequal country in Europe. These are some ideas on the way forward. They were given at a talk to what was billed as not a Labour Party meeting, held in North Oxfordshire on Saturday 16th July 2016: