About

Left Foot Forward is a political blog for progressives. We provide evidence-based analysis on British politics, policy, and current affairs.

Left Foot Forward is one of Wikio’s Top Five most influential political blogs in the UK and Will Straw was named one of the “best political pundits on the web” by the Observer. We have been cited in The Economist, Financial Times, Guardian, Times, and Spectator among many other print and online publications.

We have been described as:

• “an increasingly influential left-leaning blog” – Financial Times

• “The place to start the hunt for intelligent views and news about the centre left” – Observer

• “an intelligent blog” – Conservative Home

• “undoubtedly an influential and serious operation” – Independent on Sunday

Without your generous support, we cannot do the work that we do. Please consider donating. Thank you.

Mission

We are a non-aligned blog. Because we are progressive and because of the aims we’re committed to, we often find ourselves in agreement with left of centre policies and politicians. But we are focused purely on the quality of policies and furthering progressive goals, rather than on promoting individual politicians and parties.

We have been inspired by our U.S. sister site, Think Progress, and have therefore adopted their approach to blogging by setting out our beliefs and categorising our stories accordingly.

We are fighting for:

1.    A proactive and sustainable economic policy that creates jobs, pulls Britain out of recession and towards a low-carbon and more equitable future.

2.    Public services that work for, and are accountable to, local people and leave no one behind.

3.    Safe communities where poverty and inequality are tackled, and the victims of crime are put first.

4.    A multilateral foreign policy to tackle climate change, poverty, nuclear proliferation, genocide, terrorism, and disease.

We are fighting against:

1.    Public greed and attempts by politicians and public servants to line their own pockets.

2.    Administrative incompetence whether it takes place at the national, regional, or local level.

3.    Media manipulation and bias to support a hidden agenda.

4.    The threat of racism and extremism.

Editorial policy

Left Foot Forward is edited by Will Straw. Our editorial policy is set by the editor and contributors of Left Foot Forward alone, and no one else.

We welcome ideas for stories, tip offs, and pitches for articles. Please send your ideas to editor@leftfootforward.org or enter them in our ideas box. If you would like to support our work, please click here.

Comments policy

We welcome discussion and debate but keep it nice. Comments should stick to the topic, any containing offensive language or personal attacks will be removed. And if we have to moderate a specific commenter three times, we’ll block them.

Unfortunately, due to an increase in offensive comments, we will now have to approve the first comment from any new commenters. We didn’t want to do this but the behaviour of a bunch of idiots means that we have to do this.

We hope that’s clear.

1. Digital Economy Bill - Dot Comms says:

   April 19, 2010 at 1:58 pm

   [...] Ged and myself have just finished contributing to Left Foot Forward, a political blog that aims to “provide evidence-based analysis on British politics, news and policy developments.” [...]