'In the black Labour' sparks media debate

In the black Labour: Why fiscal conservatism and social justice go hand-in-hand is a new Policy Network discussion paper which was launched last week with the aim of starting a debate in the Labour movement on how to achieve fiscal sustainability.

The Guardian opened the debate with a lead news story by their political editor, Patrick Wintour, announcing the launch of the paper, supported by an op-ed from co-authors Hopi Sen and Anthony Painter.

The thread of Labour and greater fiscal discipline ran through a number of key political commentators' columns including The Independent's John Rentoul, Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian, The Evening Standard's Jenni Russell and The Economist newspaper. It was also the subject of a column by UK shadow chancellor Ed Balls in The Times.

Greame Cook, one of the paper's authors, was also in the BBC Radio 4 studio to debate the future of the political landscape in Britain on the Today Programme. 

Many writers from across the blogosphere's political spectrum contributed to the debate with notable critiques from the Telegraph's Dan Hodges, Jonathan Todd on Labour Uncut, Cormac Hollingsworth on Left Foot Forward, Sunny Hundal at Labourlist and Sadie Smith for TotalPolitics.

In addition, there were further contributions from In the black Labour's authors including: Anthony Painter on Labour Uncut, Adam Lent on Liberal Conspiracy, and Hopi Sen on his personal blog.

To follow all reaction and media coverage of Policy Network's publications and events, please see our In the media section.

Image: Policy Network 2011