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Last week, John Hutton gave the opening speech in Progress' Progressive Challenge series, in which he argued that 'rather than questioning whether high salaries are morally justified, we should celebrate the fact that people can be enormously successful in this country.'

This week, we will be publishing a number of response articles, exclusive to Progress Online. Today's contributions come from Ruth Lister, Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough Univeristy, and the Labour blogger Luke Akehurst.

'Hutton’s ‘progressive individualism’ thus represents a dead end for those committed to the eradication of child poverty. It also offers a picture of a society that I, for one, do not want to live in. Successive British Social Attitudes Surveys, which reveal that the public appear to be more affronted by the levels of incomes at the top than the bottom, suggest that I am not alone.' - Ruth Lister >

'If anything, aspirational views are stronger amongst Labour's core working class supporters - who want a better material future for themselves and their children - than amongst more middle class voters who are already comfortably off and often want to pull up the drawbridge of opportunity behind them.' - Luke Akehurst >

Tomorrow: Derek Draper and Alex Kemp.

The real McCain

The excitement of the primaries has obscured the Republican frontrunner's equivocation on torture

By Ken Gude
18 February 2008
Progress Online

One of the most encouraging developments of this presidential campaign was that it looked like the United States had begun to turn the page on the disastrous detainee policies of the Bush administration. With so much attention focused on the Republican and Democratic nominating contests, President Bush was almost an afterthought. Furthermore, Super Tuesday narrowed the field of candidates with any chance of becoming president to three—Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican Senator John McCain—all of whom had advocated closing Guantanamo and banning torture. It seemed we were at the beginning of the end of this sad chapter in American history.

Yet not to be outdone, the Bush administration jumped back onto the front pages with more controversy. Slipped in amid all the excitement of Super Tuesday was the stunning admission from the CIA Director Michael Hayden that the United States had used waterboarding on three detainees in 2002 and 2003. That was quickly followed with last week’s news that six Guantanamo detainees, including at least one that was waterboarded, would soon be charged in military commissions and will likely face the death penalty if convicted.

More than six years into its existence, Guantanamo has had more suicides than convictions, with only David Hicks’ plea bargain to show for all the resources thrown at the prison, and he is already out of jail. The speedy conclusion of that case was borne more out of political convenience than a sound adjudicative system, and the commissions have not even held a successful arraignment as the first two cases brought before them were dismissed because of a technical flaw in the procedures. Now the Bush administration has chosen to proceed directly to the most difficult of all cases, those involving the prospect of capital punishment. They are recklessly rolling the dice in a completely untested and flawed system in the first trials of individuals implicated in the mass murder of 3,000 people ...

Read and comment on the full article >

Rudd wot won it

Labor's stunning victory was down to more than just John Howard's woes

Matthew Carter
Progress Online
27 November 2007

Fast forward

We face a choice about the direction of public service reform

Philip Collins
Progress magazine
27 November 2007

Progress

14 November 2007 18:00 to 19:30

With Rt Hon James Purnell MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; Jane Ashworth, Chief Executive, Street Games; Nic Coward, Chief Executive, British Horseracing; Simon Morgan, Head of Community, Premier League; and Barry Gardiner MP (chair).

Kindly supported by CareersInRacing.com.

Venue ***CHANGED TO COMMITTEE ROOM 16, HOUSE OF COMMONS***

Contact: Mark Harrison
Tel: 0203 008 8180
e-mail: mark@progressives.org.uk

The lunchtime debate at Progress Annual Conference on Saturday, November 3 will be entitled 'Should business promote social justice?'

Yesterday, Stephen Alambritis of the Federation of Small Businesses gave his take on the question on the Progress site. Today, you can read another of the speakers, Polly Toynbee, responds to the question.

You can these and many other great speakers at Progress conference on November 3. Click here for the full line-up and to book online.

PROGRESS ANNUAL CONFERENCE - 'Countdown to the general election: how can Labour win?'

Saturday 3 November 2007

The East Wintergarden, Canary Wharf

Tuesday, 12 June - 1800-1930 

With Andy Burnham MP, Minister of State, Department of Health; Stephen Burke, CEO, Counsel and Care; David Walker, Editor, Guardian Public; and Jane Roberts, former leader of Camden Council. Delyth Morgan, Vice-Chair of Progress, will chair.

Committee Room 11, House of Commons

To register, please submit your name and email address to Tom Brooks Pollock (tom@progressives.org.uk; 0203 008 8180).

http://www.progressonline.org.uk/100

Tuesday, 26 June - 1800-1930

With: Lord David Triesman, Foreign Office minister; Stephen Twigg, our chair and Director of the Foreign Policy Centre; Mike Gapes MP, Chair, Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Lorna Fitzsimons, Patron, Progress (chair); and more speakers TBC.

Committee Room 11, House of Commons

To register, please submit your name and email address to Tom Brooks Pollock (tom@progressives.org. uk or 0203 008 8180). 

http://www.progressonline.org.uk/100

The fourth event in Progress's First 100 Days series, which asks wht hould the next Labour leader do in their first days in office, in seven key policy areas.

With Tony McNulty MP, Home Office Minister; the Sunday Telegraph's home affairs correspondent, Ben Leapman; Juliet Lyon, Director, Prison Reform Trust; Enver Soloman, Deputy Director, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, King's College London; and Stephen Twigg in the chair.

Tuesday 17 April - 1800-1930 - Committee Room 9, House of Commons, Westminster

To register, please send your name and email address to Tom Brooks Pollock (tom@progressives.org.uk or 0203 008 8180).

http://www.progressonline.org.uk/100

Tessa Jowell: 'Next steps for New Labour: Securing a fourth progressive term'

A keynote lecture by Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

30 April 2007 - 18:00-19:30

Join Progress for a major set-piece speech by one of the most senior members of the cabinet, and one of the leading players in the New Labour project since its inception.

Jowell will discuss how our party can win the battle of ideas of the next years just as it did in the past ten. Stephen Twigg, Progress Chair, will chair the session.

Venue: Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, Westminster

To register, please send your name and email address to Tom Brooks Pollock, on tom@progressives.org.uk, or call 0203 008 8180.

Progress: Whither Worcester Woman - is Labour losing the women's vote?

1800-1930 - Wednesday 7 March - Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, Westminster

Join Vera Baird MP, Constitutional Affairs Minister; Julia Clarke, Head of Political Research at MORI; Meg Munn MP, Minister for Women; Polly Toynbee, Guardian columnist and more speakers to be confirmed. Lorna Fitzsimons, Patron of Progress, will chair the meeting.

This Progress event will debate whether Labour is losing its appeal to female voters because of the challenge from David Cameron or whether it can be explained by their disengagement from the political process as a whole. Which policies should Labour adopt to win back women's support and how can the party change as a whole to attract more involvement from women?

To register, please submit your name and email address to Tom Brooks Pollock, at tom@progressives.org.uk or 0203 008 8180.

Progress: Whither Worcester Woman - is Labour losing the women's vote?

1800-1930 - Wednesday 7 March - Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, Westminster

Join Julia Clarke, Head of Political Research at MORI; Meg Munn MP, Minister for Women; Polly Toynbee, Guardian columnist and more speakers to be confirmed. Lorna Fitzsimons, Patron of Progress, will chair the meeting.

This Progress event will debate whether Labour is losing its appeal to female voters because of the challenge from David Cameron or whether it can be explained by their disengagement from the political process as a whole. Which policies should Labour adopt to win back women's support and how can the party change as a whole to attract more involvement from women?

To register, please submit your name and email address to Tom Brooks Pollock, at tom@progressives.org.uk or 0203 008 8180.