Glasgow Hustings
Miliband: talking on cuts
“Labour leadership contenders have mounted a concerted attack on the Westminster Government’s plans to revive the UK economy with heavy cuts targeted at the public sector. The five candidates were speaking at a hustings in Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall yesterday attended by more than 600 activists from across Scotland. Leadership favourite David Miliband said it was important “the innocent who benefit from public services or work for public services, don’t pay for the sins of the people who were running the financial services at the time of the economic crisis in 2008”.” –The Herald
“A pledge had been taken by Ed Miliband saying that for the next year, he will consent to the Scottish Labour Party that it can run its own election campaign and autonomously build up its own policies. A need to “lighten up” Labour in London has been viewed by the leadership contender.” – Top News Blog
“David Miliband, his brother Ed, Andy Burnham and Ed Balls all said Scots Labour leader Iain Gray should have a seat on Labour’s ruling body, the NEC. And speaking at a special party hustings in Glasgow, Diane Abbott gave her support to devolution.” – BBC News
The Candidates
“I was teased and bullied right through my school years about my name and stammer and it was merciless. I wouldn’t say it reduced me to floods of tears but it was really tough. I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on anyone. That’s why my kids (Ellie, 11, Joe, eight, and Maddy, six) took my wife’s surname Cooper. I’d never dream of calling them Balls.” – Ed Balls, The Mirror
“Why, after threatening legal action to prevent the publication of details of him and his wife adopting two children in America, does David Miliband go public, describing this ‘incredibly exciting, but nerve-racking’ process? Because he is striving to become leader of the Labour Party and, ultimately, Prime Minister. Telling how he and wife Louise struggled to have a family might endear him to ordinary voters. Which, in turn, might confirm his front-runner status among Labour MPs and party bosses. There is no point in being sniffy about his apparent hypocrisy.” – Daily Mail
Balls: Teased at school
“Earlier this month Ed Balls, the former Schools secretary and a contender to be the next Labour leader, admitted it had been a mistake for Labour not to have restricted immigration from eastern Europe. In 1997, annual net immigration into the UK stood at 48,000, rising to 237,000 a year in 2007 and falling back to 163,000 in 2008.” – The Telegraph
“The Labour leadership candidate Ed Balls has claimed that the party’s refusal to rule out increasing VAT was central to its general election defeat. An increase of the rate to 20 per cent is expected in George Osborne’s first Budget next week. Such a move would be “economic madness”, Mr Balls claims, as well as being “the least fair option for raising tax”.” – The Times
The Party
“Labour said more than 2,000 people joined the party in Scotland in the weeks after the election, bringing the total to 20,133. The figure is about 25 times the usual number of new recruits each month.” – The Independent
