It’s been a week of ups and downs, highs and lows – but what’s got you talking? Discuss the best news and comment here from noon to 4.30pm 12.24pm BST _After reading his long read this week one reader asked John Harris to expand on what he thinks the alternatives for the future left are – so where it can go now? Is Labour dead? What would a new party look like? Here is his response._ The most basic point that arises from what my piece says is that the revival of the political left, here and across the world, is probably going to be a long haul. The break-up between social democracy and the new radical left (e.g Podemos in Spain, elements of Syriza in Greece, many of the forces behind the Bernie Sanders campaign) has only just happened. Debate and thought about how much economies have changed and what the left should do about it is still in the foothills. 12.23pm BST _Below John Harris comments on the biggest questions that came to mind when writing his long-read on whether the left has a future._ One of the biggest themes in the piece was about the changing nature of work, the roots of that change in technology, and the idea that in a world of temporary employment and the gig economy, work can’t be the main way we give people security and stability. Does that match people’s understanding of how their lives are headed? Does a word like “worker” carry much weight any more? And a final one: the most talked-about way of dealing with all this is a universal basic income, which I personally think will have to be the core of any viable left politics in the future. What do people think? Related: Does the left have a future? | John Harris Continue reading...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |