News

Are you a Grumpy Nostalgic or part of team Jam and Jerusalem? Are you a Northern Soul or a Post-National Cosmopolitan? In an article in the Observer, Sunder Katwala outlines the main tribes that reflect our attitudes towards Modern Britain. They divide along various lines according to criteria such as class, place and age, but significantly unite at other points. It is this unity which says a lot about the country today and which should be built upon, writes Katwala.

St Patrick’s Day has firmly established itself on the annual calendar in England, with the help of a certain brand of stout, but England’s own patron saint’s day, St George’s Day, is a much more sedate affair. Why isn’t it bigger? What is stopping those in England from celebrating Englishness?

English identity has become a much more inclusive and welcoming identity, but different attitudes towards Europe now form one of the major differences between English and Scottish nationalism, said Conservative MP John Redwood at today’s Englishness festival.

How to reach new groups without losing support from the core was a key theme raised on Monday 30th September when British Future and ConservativeHome hosted a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference entitled “Future majority: how can the Tories win in a changing Britain?”

The Conservative Party will never win their first majority in a quarter-century unless they attract new support. This will have to come from new voters whom they traditionally haven’t thought were with them or like them. This challenge, of reaching and winning the support of such voters – in the north, in cities, among young people and ethnic minorities – was discussed at the “Future majority: how can the Tories win in a changing Britain?” event at the Conservative Party Conference, writes Steve Ballinger.

New research published by British Future and ConservativeHome projects that David Cameron could have secured an additional 500,000 votes and formed a majority government in 2010 if he had appealed to ethnic minority voters. Steve Ballinger offers analysis.

On 20th September the late Rev Dr. Oliver Lyseight was awarded a blue plaque by the Wolverhampton Civic & Historical Society in what marks an important chapter in the history of both Wolverhampton and of integration in the UK.

Another packed fringe event saw shadow justice minister Sadiq Khan MP, former Lib Dem MP Dr Evan Harris, Zoe Williams from the Guardian and David Lammy MP tackle the question What’s the answer to populism?, chaired by British Future’s Sunder Katwala, writes Steve Ballinger.

Local campaigners across the country won a small but important victory last week, as the government agreed to amend a flawed first world war commemoration scheme, writes Steve Ballinger .