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Center for Policy Studies
Public Affairs Discussion Group

What Next for the British Labour Party?



Luke Reader, Ph.D. - English Department and SAGES Lecturer at Case Western Reserve University
Friday September 30, 2016
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Dampeer Room
Kelvin Smith Library
Case Western Reserve University


Dear Colleagues:

"Will a fervent socialist reshape British politics or lead his party to irrelevance?" A New Yorker article posed this question about British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in May. Many Labour Members of Parliament already had reservations about his views on everything from economic policy to immigration to the Middle East. Then after the Brexit vote, and what was seen as "lackluster" or inept support by Corbyn for the EU, Labour MPs voted resoundingly, 172-40, to express their lack of confidence in his leadership. Two thirds of the party's "shadow cabinet" resigned to express their dissatisfaction.

But the Parliamentary party can no longer choose the party's leader. That choice is made by election by party members and affiliates – and on Saturday, Corbyn won re-election as party leader with nearly 62% of the vote from among over half a million voters. The news was greeted with some satisfaction by supporters of the Conservative party government, as Corbyn has a net 31% disapproval rating in polls of the general public.

A split between a party's legislators on one side and its leader and many of its voters may sound familiar. So may supporters of a nation's more left-leaning party rallying against the legacy of a "third way" leader (Blair instead of Clinton). But the Labour party's divisions seem more severe than the American Democrats', or Republicans'. So what's next, and what could it mean for British politics and government?

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies


About Our Guests

Luke Reader has been a writing lecturer in the SAGES program at Case Western Reserve University since 2015. He received a Ph.D. in History from University of California, Irvine, in 2013, where he examined the development of imperial and international policy in the British Labour Party between the 1920s and 1940s and its impact on left-wing cultural life. Currently, Professor Reader is studying the influence of Liberal philosophies of empire on internationalist thinkers associated with the Labour Party after World War One. Previously, Professor Reader taught History at a number of institutions in Southern California, and was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the History department at John Carroll University. Before entering graduate school he worked for the UK civil service as a press officer.

Where We Meet

The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Our programs are open to all and no registration is required. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library. The Dampeer Room is on the second floor of the library. If you get off the elevators, turn right, pass the first bank of tables, and turn right again. Occasionally we need to use a different room; that will always be announced in the weekly e-mails.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates - just to the right if you were driving out - there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you'll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.

Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

October 7: The Lake Erie Wind Farm and the Future of Wind Energy. With David Matthiesen, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Director, Wind Energy Research and Commercialization Center.

October 14: Living Black: Social Life in an African-American Neighborhood.. With Mark S. Fleisher, Research Professor, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. Alternate Location: Mather House Room 100.

October 21: The DARPA Robotics Challenge and the Future of Robotics. With Wyatt S. Newman, Professor of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering.

October 28: Macroeconomic Challenges for the Next Administration. With Mark S. Sniderman, Executive in Residence and Adjunct Professor of Economics, Weatherhead School of Management, and former Research Director, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

November 4: Biennial Political Science Department Pre-Election Forecast Discussion.

November 11: The Unrealized Promise of Libertarianism. With Gus Dizerega, Ph.D., independent political theorist.

November 18: Can Democracy Meet the Challenge of Polarization? With Mark Chupp, Assistant Professor, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Social Sciences.

November 25: Thanksgiving Break.

December 2: Putin's Russia. With Kelly M. McMann, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director, International Studies Program.

December 9: Health Care Report Cards – Time for Second Thoughts? With J.B. Silvers, John R. Mannix Medical Mutual of Ohio Professor of Health Care Finance.

September 26, 2016

If you would like to reply, submit items for inclusion, or not receive this weekly e-mail please send a notice to: padg@case.edu

Upcoming Events

Censors at Work: How States Shaped Literature

A discussion with Robert Darnton, Ph.D., Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the University Library Emeritus at Harvard University, Tuesday September 27, 2016, 5:00-6:00 p.m., Tinkham Veale University Center, Ballroom C, 11038 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, OH 44106. The 2016 Walter A. Strauss Lecture is sponsored by the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities. Free and open to the public.

The difficulty with the history of censorship is that it looks so simple: it pits oppression against freedom of expression. But if one looks harder, it appears more complicated—and full of surprises. How did censors actually do their work? How did they understand it? And how did it fit into the surrounding social and political context? In his lecture, Robert Darnton, will discuss how by studying the day-to-day operations of censors under three authoritarian regimes—Bourbon France in the eighteenth century, British India in the nineteenth century, and Communist East Germany in the twentieth century—it is possible to rethink our understanding of censorship in general.


The Future of Health Care Privacy

A discussion with Kirk J. Nahra, J.D., a partner with Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, October 5, 2016, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m., Moot Courtroom (A59), 11075 East Blvd., Cleveland, Ohio 44106. Sponsored by the Elena and Miles Zaremski Law-Medicine Forum at the CWRU School of Law.

Data has never been more important for the health care industry. New ways of reaching patients, methods for combining and analyzing data and new devices and applications never before thought possible all give us unprecedented opportunities to improve the health of the population. At the same time, our existing privacy rules, primarily those stemming from the HIPAA statute, focused on somewhat outdated system where only doctors, hospitals and health insurers provided useful data. These rules have worked – for the most part – but present increasing challenges as individuals assert their privacy rights and industry and government seek more opportunities to explore how patient data can improve our health care system. This session will assess today’s baseline for privacy in the health care industry, discussing how the existing rules benefit (or hinder) health care providers, researchers, patients and others in improving the healthcare system.


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Center for Policy Studies | Mather House 111 | 11201 Euclid Avenue | Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7109 | 
Phone: 216.368.6730 | Part of the: College of Arts and Sciences
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