James Purnell on Labour's future

Now, there are some who think Purnell is more Tory than some Tories.
I don't tend to disagree, but i noticed this very interesting passage:
"Third, we need a more ambitious concept of security. One of the reasons we have lost voters is that people no longer believe the welfare state will protect them from the forces of globalisation.

The solution to that isn't to stop globalisation, it's to make the protection real and the outcomes fairer. That should include extending the government's jobs guarantee so that everyone is guaranteed to find a job within, say, a year. And it means thinking about how people who work hard can be guaranteed that they won't be in poverty."

a government job guarantee. That is good and lefty, that's for sure. I like that.
He references Amartya Sen, who i like too. So there is some hope. If he's the most right Labour is going to get, then i suppose that's not too bad.

"Cruddas's speech was important in making sure that the debate about renewing the Labour party is pluralist, civilised and committed. It also shows that there's intellectual energy on the left. The task now is to try to cohere the different strands of thinking in the Labour party in to an effective and convincing argument for a better society."
the problem could be that we're trying to do that from opposition. I hope that if we loose the next election (almost certain) then we need to be ready straight from the off to be a government in waiting, to balance putting pressure on the Tory gov. straight away but not peaking too early