Labour's good society

The development of a new model of capitalism has broken up traditional associations and communities. The financial crash has brought one period to an end, but the political consequences are still unfolding. The centre ground in British politics offers the prospect of new kinds of political realignments. Cameron's Big Society is an attempt to redefine it around a centre right politics. Labour has to contest it by framing a different kind of story about the Good Society. It has to begin from a very difficult position. The challenge for Labour is to build a movement of radical democracy in every constituency in the country, developing alliances with a range of local and national cultural and social movements. The foundations of Labour's Good Society will be institutions that embed democracy in society and the economy, and are coupled with macroeconomic policies that secure for people living-wage jobs, decent homes and pensions, and a reformed banking system accessible to all.