Lisa Nandy is such an impressive, articulate and clear politician to listen to, but this book is weighed down with convoluted sentences, repetition and no clear progression or structure. She repeats so many times near the end of the book, that life is complex, politics is complex, and we need to accept that, yet we look to our politicians to wade through the complexity and come up with genius, simple solutions to dilemmas. Reportedly spoke at Blue Labour’s 2016 conference (though she has allegedly said its ideology isn’t the answer to Britain’s problems). Down the corridor, a group of widows and widowers in their seventies were playing bingo. Nandy couldn’t resist, grabbing a chit and one for me, and taking a seat at the table. The eighty-something lady calling the numbers was a joker. “All alone: number ten.” Being in a room with Rayner and Starmer used to feel, she said, “like two different conversations going on at the same time”. Now there is a better rhythm. “The leader of the party needs to look to the country – the deputy needs to look to the party itself.” She admires Rayner. “Ange has a great relationship with the unions.”

All In by Lisa Nandy | Waterstones

She also argued that the “public are moving away from us” on a number of issues. But in reality, Corbyn’s principles and proposals helped to push Labour membership over 500,000 – the biggest number since the 1970s. The party’s 2017 election campaign, meanwhile, was largely successful despite massive establishment opposition, with Labour increasing its vote share more than under any other leader since 1945. 2) Smears and Palestine Maybe (probably!) I'm just irredeemably wonkish, but I just think that the electorate will spot the hole in "we need to be honest about what we can afford, instead of talking about halving or scrapping tuition fees" *five minutes later* "of course, I will scrap tuition fees". She said: “There are some key differences between them, like Andy will be much more open and outspoke, and Keir is much more silent.She added that locals know what is best for them, and they do not need someone in the centre dictating solutions to their problems. Nandy dedicates an early chapter to cover the global issues at play over recent decades that have marked an end to certainty, which she then links to the situation more locally in the UK. Big issues like the response to Covid-19, the Climate Crisis, Brexit and the technological challenges which affect our work are all explored as factors which have all challenged our way of life in recent years and on a daily basis. This number sees a sharp rise when you look at the members of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority – which is made up of leaders of each GM council.

Lisa Nandy | Events | Manchester Literature Festival Lisa Nandy | Events | Manchester Literature Festival

All In is a well-written book. Too often, books by politicians are platitudinous, but this isn't the case with All In. It's strong on diagnosing the challenges that twenty-first century Britain faces, but also how to reverse our managed decline. It's also balanced and recognises that while the Conservative Party has created and exacerbated many of the challenges we now face, others have been longer in the making and therefore the Labour Party must bear some responsibility. Lisa also recognises that politicians have failed to meet the expectations of the public; they have been too slow, too timid, and in some instances taken the wrong course.Rebecca Long-Bailey is the progressive frontrunner, with numerous promising policies. But she’s already alienated many left-wingers by capitulating to some of her opponents’ demands. Nandy begins at Wigan Athletic’s DW football stadium, remembering the first match she attended as the town’s MP. Ten years later, she found herself part of a battle to save the club, after a new owner based in Hong Kong put it into administration at the first opportunity. Recalling the fire sale of assets that took place before weeping, baffled employees, she writes: “Fans and a community that should have been at the heart of the process were shut out, treated as a nuisance by wealthy and powerful people with no connection to the club… the wrong people held all the power.”

All In: How We Build a Country That Works by Lisa Nandy

As we drove down Wallgate towards Wigan Athletic Football Club, the shadow secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities admitted that she was writing a book. “I thought it was a great idea,” she said. “I had an image of myself in an oak-panelled room on a green leather chair. Turns out it was the worst idea I’d had since running for Labour leader.” In June 2016 Nandy was part of the mass walkout of the soft left from Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet before contesting the leadership in 2020, coming third after Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long Bailey. This to Nandy is evidence of why devolution is needed – but her ideal vision of GM is still far away. The trust is financially independent, Flower told me, employing 60 staff across 13 programmes that range from four-year-olds with school-readiness issues to a football team for the children of Afghan refugees. Does she get more done when she’s working in Wigan? “No. The combination of spending enough time in Wigan, then taking those issues to Westminster, is the right one. The fact that Westminster doesn’t work doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.I don’t trust any of them and I’m glad I left the Labour Party two years ago, though I did vote for them in December (Corbyn’s weakness against unscrupulous colleagues invited his own defeat). These people, all of them, screwed their own chance at getting into power and the only reason a politician might do that is because they’re more interested in personal advancement than party achievement. Lisa is a serving Shadow Secretary of State, so I did not expect the book to announce new Labour policies - and it's always a risk that a position articulated in All In is mistaken for Labour policy, so I it should be expected that Lisa would err on the side of caution in their work. That may be why I think the solutions Lisa sets out fall short. They are all well-trodden paths: handing power to communities and so forth. That doesn't mean that Lisa is wrong, but I would have liked her to be bolder in her solutions - and I think looking further afield outside of the UK may have added value to this. Nandy never intended to become a politician. She wanted to study English literature at university, but her sister – a superior academic, she said – got a place to study English at Oxford. “And I thought, that is not a comparison I’m going to win.” Instead, she studied politics at Newcastle. Her years at university were, bar none, the best of her life, she said.