Tom Collinge

Deputy Director @progbrit

[Jess Asato MP @Jess4Lowestoft]

What happened to me was unacceptable - but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

A Jewish woman was put in a bikini in Auschwitz.

Women were put in ball-gags for speaking out.

Women were covered in imitation semen.

And all because xAI did not build Grok with safety in mind.

[Tom Collinge @ThomasCollinge]

Really concerning.

[BBC News (UK) @BBCNews]

Port Talbot residents asked to stay inside as 'apocalyptic' fire rages at Tata Steel plant https://t.co/61VjtJplYx

[BBC News (UK) @BBCNews]

Port Talbot residents asked to stay inside as 'apocalyptic' fire rages at Tata Steel plant https://t.co/61VjtJplYx

[Tom Collinge @ThomasCollinge]

Management of global economic change is sometimes a zero sum game. For housing costs to come down, housing wealth must decrease. For energy to be cheap we have to build on nature. For there to be adequate social care we have to pay more tax, etc etc. (2/2)

[Tom Collinge @ThomasCollinge]

Social Democracy is more relevant, not less, in a world in transition. It's the only model that neither stifles the transition or lets capital rip. Our failure is our faith that transition must be managed in a way that pleases *everybody*. (1/2)

[George Eaton @georgeeaton]

The case for social democracy in the 21st century – new column by me for @ArguablyMag.

The AI revolution, climate change and the social care crisis all demand an active state – and the centre left has answers. https://t.co/7xzgN1FCQA

[George Eaton @georgeeaton]

The case for social democracy in the 21st century – new column by me for @ArguablyMag.

The AI revolution, climate change and the social care crisis all demand an active state – and the centre left has answers. https://t.co/7xzgN1FCQA

[Tom Collinge @ThomasCollinge]

The artificial constriction of supply is something we all agree must end. Do we have the guts to do it?

Our 'artificial constriction of supply' is your 'development affecting house prices' or 'endangered newt'.

Can we have these fights and win them? And if not what do we do?

[Mark McVitie @MarkMcvitie]

An Honest Day and Manchesterism have been cast as two competing political and economic visions for the country. @DantonsHead and I have written in the @NewStatesman saying the future will be shaped by both. The old tribal loyalties and arguments were made for a world that has gone, and not coming back.

We're interested in what comes next.

[Pat McFadden @patmcfaddenmp]

As I often say in interviews and in the Department, "we have to change the question the system asks from "what benefits are you entitled to" to "how do we help you change your life".

From BBC PM programme...last Thursday (28 May).

[Full Fact @FullFact]

In his recent article Tony Blair claimed that “By the end of this decade, we could be spending more on incapacity and disability benefits than on defence.”

This is true—but it’s also already the case.
https://t.co/uspqZymjsn

[Tom Collinge @ThomasCollinge]

This is the best comment on the TB essay I have yet seen. ⬇️

[Dan Carden @DanCardenMP]

Tony Blair's essay is a serious contribution. The party is drifting. Just Labour ends in the comfort zone, a place the country is sick of, and that ends in defeat.

There is some common ground on policy reform: on welfare, on the North Sea, on illegal immigration, on growth before redistribution, on the planning system.

But he stops short of the project he says he is looking for.

The age he describes, China rising, supply chains weaponised, a more dangerous world, demands an active state. It demands an industrial strategy with the muscle to build, make and defend. Not incentives and partnership. Direction.

And it demands a politics rooted in the country as it actually is. Family. Work. Place. Nation.

That project has a name. It is Blue Labour. It is radical in the way he claims to want, and it answers the legitimacy problem his Radical Centre cannot. Efficacy is not legitimacy.

His essay names three actors. The state, the private sector, the voluntary sector. The citizen is missing. Treated as a recipient of services, a unit of human capital, a problem on a welfare roll. Never as someone with a contribution to make. That is why his politics will always feel like something done to people, not something done with them.

Homes for Ukraine was one of the best designed policies of recent years. The state set the frame, the councils did the checks, the contracts were in place. But the policy only worked because the British people did the work. Ordinary households opened their doors to strangers on a scale this country has not seen in generations. No essay about Britain's future can be written without what the British people give to it.

A smaller welfare state is the right goal. But you get there by asking more of citizens and more of the state in return. Work, training, a stake in your community on one side. Decent jobs, real opportunity, services that function on the other. Not sanctions on people the system has already failed. Dependency is not dignity. Contribution is.

This is where apprenticeships matter. They were once a relationship. A trade, a master, a young person, a place. The apprenticeship levy turned them into a tax credit for big companies and a way to rebadge graduate training. And we never gave them a home. University students have campuses like palaces. The young person learning a trade would be lucky to get a portakabin. It tells you what this country values. A young person learning a trade from someone who knows it is worth more than anything the corporatised version delivers.

Across economic and social policy, the challenge is to rebuild the relationship and place, so that dignity can be restored.

There is a challenge here for the progressive class as well. People have come second to their causes. The working class were told their concerns could wait or that they were wrong, and when they refused to wait any longer they were called the problem. A party that puts its causes before its people will keep losing them. Causes do not rebuild politics. People do.

Naming the drift is not the same as ending it. A list of policies is not a story about the country and its people, and what we owe each other. That is what the country is waiting so desperately for.

[Resolution Foundation @resfoundation]

Core benefit rates for young people have fallen considerably compared to wages since 2013-14. Work incentives have actually increased for young people in receipt of benefits in recent years.

So, UC rates are unlikely to be incentivising more young people to remain out of work.

➡️ https://t.co/Rbke4Eviwb

[Tom Collinge @ThomasCollinge]

Correct + we should go further. We must build loads of nuclear power. More than we currently need. Cheaper electricity means:

- Lower cost of living, wider adoption of 🟢 tech.
- UK more attractive to manufacturing.
- Insulates against A.I ⚡️ demand.
- Inflation protection.

[Ed Miliband @Ed_Miliband]

4/ As we face the second fossil fuel crisis of this decade, we must learn the right lessons.

The way to get bills down for good and avoid these price spikes is to go further and faster with our drive for clean homegrown power that we control.

[Tom Collinge @ThomasCollinge]

I am a huge fan of the U.S but ultimately this is factually true. Ukrainian assets have become independent on the battlefield. Europe is well positioned to reap the whirlwind. Please god let us.

[Phillips P. OBrien @PhillipsPOBrien]

The US is not “abandoning” its efforts for “peace” in the Ukraine-Russia war. They were never trying for peace. The Trump administration was trying to get a great deal for Putin, and the Ukrainians refused. Now the Ukrainians have no need of this charade. The war will end when Russia is defeated.

[Tom Collinge @ThomasCollinge]

To be a card carrying 'Marxist' maybe yes. But the materialist concept of history. This is the key thing.

[Ralph Leonard @buffsoldier_96]

The necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The most controversial element of Marxism.

[Tom Collinge @ThomasCollinge]

Between this and the holiday announcement the other day... The dividends of growth... Brother, we found them.

[Keir Starmer @Keir_Starmer]

Football should bring people together, not shut them out.

For the first time since the competition began, fans won’t be able to watch the Champions League final for free. That’s not right.

This is bigger than wanting to watch Arsenal in this historic final. It’s bigger than one club.

Hardworking people shouldn’t have to fork out for a subscription to watch this match.

I urge TNT Sports to reconsider and make the final next Saturday free to watch.

[Keir Starmer @Keir_Starmer]

Football should bring people together, not shut them out.

For the first time since the competition began, fans won’t be able to watch the Champions League final for free. That’s not right.

This is bigger than wanting to watch Arsenal in this historic final. It’s bigger than one club.

Hardworking people shouldn’t have to fork out for a subscription to watch this match.

I urge TNT Sports to reconsider and make the final next Saturday free to watch.

[Adam Langleben @adamlangleben]

A little bit of advice for the Greens. This will keep happening until clear red lines are established in public by the leadership. That involves the leadership in detail explaining why this & other behaviours are antisemitic. They wont because they are drunk on the cult right now

[Progress @progbrit]

HS2 was meant to transform Britain.

Instead it became a case study in political interference, spiralling costs and failed long term planning.

What can we learn from HS2's mistakes & how do we build smarter in future?

New blog from Sally Gimson ⬇️
https://t.co/PZcG947cqI

[Tom Collinge @ThomasCollinge]

On holiday rn so will say more next week but this has been a really great piece of work and I hope it informs future thinking on the regional role of industrial policy for this government.

[Frederick Harry Pitts @fhpitts]

New @FEPS_Europe/@progbrit report with Theo Cox, Ed Atkins & @gerardoosterwyk:

"Place-Based Industrial Policy: Places, People & Power in European Industrial Policy"

https://t.co/AQXsNStqa5

Thanks to @LaszloAndorEU @ThomasCollinge @adamlangleben & more for supporting this work

[Frederick Harry Pitts @fhpitts]

New @FEPS_Europe/@progbrit report with Theo Cox, Ed Atkins & @gerardoosterwyk:

"Place-Based Industrial Policy: Places, People & Power in European Industrial Policy"

https://t.co/AQXsNStqa5

Thanks to @LaszloAndorEU @ThomasCollinge @adamlangleben & more for supporting this work