At this stage there can be no definitive answers as to how the Labour Party wins the next general election, or even if it can win, especially if there is a snap autumn poll following the appointment of the new Tory Leader and Prime Minister, Theresa May in July 2016. There is plenty of debate still between social democrats, or democratic socialists, over the future direction of the Party, just as there is in the pages of this book. As stressed in the Introduction the chapters contained in this book are the views of each individual author. What unites them is a belief that social democracy is still something worth fighting for and that in order to succeed there is a need to go back to the foundations of our ideology.

Arguably, there are four dilemmas which the Labour Party needs to face if it is to move forward.

The first of these is leadership. Although not addressed directly in the pages of this book, as the focus is on concepts rather than personalities, it is a crucial factor in winning elections. The leadership issue was a problematic one for Labour post-2010. Ed Miliband was elected largely, but not exclusively, on the votes of the trade unions and because he offered a clearer alternative to New Labour than the other candidates – with the exception of Diane Abbott, who never really was considered seriously. However, his tendency – or perhaps more the tendency of Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls – to advocate limited austerity meant that the electorate were confused as to what the Labour Party stood for, even as late as 2015. His defeat led some to call for a return to the politics of New Labour writ large but obviously the winning emotion in the 2015 leadership contest was the need for a clear alternative to austerity which only Jeremy Corbyn offered. Corbyn now has the overwhelming support of the grassroots but not of the Parliamentary Party. Clearly one issue was seeking to find common ground between the leadership and the PLP, something that appeared further away than ever after the decision to leave the EU. Corbyn has created the space for a reformulation of policy and ideas, moving on decisively from the era of New Labour.