Which Way’s Left? Principles and Goals

The goal of Open Left is to renew the thinking and ideas of the Left. This means starting from first principles, considering fundamental questions about the purpose of our politics. Only on these foundations we can build a powerful and coherent policy agenda. We believe this task is long overdue – and must be done in the spirit of openness and pluralism across the Left.

We launched Open Left by asking people to tell us what it means to them to be on the Left today. We’ve had over a hundred people submit their views on our website, demonstrating the diversity of reasons that people are motivated and passionate about the potential of centre-Left politics. You can read what people said here.

Shaping a popular and effective centre-Left agenda requires being clear about what we believe and care about – and addressing head on the areas where we might reasonably disagree. We think there are five such areas and we’ve tried to encapsulate them in the following core questions.

Economy: Should the Left seek to shape a fundamentally different model of capitalism in the aftermath of the banking crisis and subsequent recession?

Community: Should the Left seek to foster a shared sense of identity, morality and community, or embrace a diversity in each?

Power: Should the Left be collecting or dispersing democratic and political power in seeking to bring about change?

Equality: Should the equality that the Left now pursues be more focused on capabilities than just resources?

Ideology: Should the Left draw more on its social democratic or radical liberal traditions in looking to the future?

Confronting these questions is about much more than simply generating an interesting debate about ideas. They speak to the central political questions facing Britain today and in the years ahead. Whether we are concerned with the crisis in our politics, the future of our economy, or the health of our society – from public services and democratic reform, to the nature of capitalism and the response to immigration – the response to these questions cuts to the heart of any future policy agenda. These are questions we cannot avoid. And the answers will shape the future direction of the centre-Left.

To lead the debate, we have asked some of Britain’s leading political thinkers to address these questions – and we’ll be publishing their responses in the near future. But we also want to hear your views as well. Over the coming days we’ll be kicking off a debate about each of these questions – so watch out for that. But for now, are they the right ones? What have we missed? Post your comments or e-mail us your views to openleft@demos.co.uk.

  • Demos at Labour Party Conference

    Click here to see a list of Demos events at Labour's Annual Conference in Manchester from 26-30 September.

  • Labour Leadership Race

    492px-Miliband,_Ed_(2007)

    Open Left doesn’t want to see Labour’s leadership election become a beauty parade or a contest of personalities. Throughout the contest Open Left will be engaging with the candidates, challenging them on the strength of their ideas and encouraging them to open up their debate beyond the boundaries of the Labour Party.



    Click here to read about the Hustings of Ideas.
    You can watch the event here. You can listen to the event here.



    Click here to read David Miliband's speech to Open Left at 'The Future of Labour' event on May 28 2010



    Click here to read the Q&A with Ed Miliband

  • About Demos

    Demos is a London-based think tank. We generate ideas to improve politics and policy, and give people more power over their lives.
    Go to Demos

  • Join the Mailing List





  • Open Left launch





    Australia's new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, writes for Open Left about what being on the left means to her. Click here to see what she thinks.

  • Contact Us

    openleft@demos.co.uk


    For an archive of Open Left project press, see here.

  • Open Left Project

    immigration Jobcentre Plus jobseeker's allowance Labour Unemployment welfare