Albert Mansbridge and a Fresh Coat of Paint

Those celebrated toilers of the Forth Bridge must have great sympathy for Britain's Labour Party policy makers these days. No sooner have they finished one review than they have lost an election and are starting again. And it is a sticky business. How to make a more colourful design without offending those who are happy with the old one. One way is to claim that the new design is not new at all.

Raymond Plant, Professor of Politics at the University of Southampton, is one socialist thinker wishing to do exactly that. He is highlighting a tradition within the labour movement that does not rely upon a Marxist interpretation of society, where the battalions of class are forever at war. The alternative is based upon citizenship and a belief that a bedrock of shared values exists between different groups and classes. He wants this idea to be a unifying theme at the heart of Labour's review and a way of linking policy reports to the recent 'Statement of Democratic Aims and Values'.