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Archive for June, 2010

Thursday News Review

03/06/2010, 08:06:11 AM

The Leadership Race

Miliband contacts Walcott

“If one of the candidates … shows, bona fide, that they’ve got 32 and they need a 33rd nominee I’ve still got my nomination to make and that’s the nomination I can control. When I say I want the more the merrier, that’s what I mean.” – David Miliband, The Guardian

“Labour Party members are crying out for fresh thinking, but the four main candidates look well placed to provide Labour with more of the same. They are all creatures of New Labour. To quote Diane Abbott, they are ‘all male, all white, all former policy wonks’. The initial PR challenge identified by all four candidates is thus to break free from the shackles of New Labour.” – PR Week

“My message to Theo is, ‘don’t give up. Stay fit. Stay fit over the summer and make sure you are ready for the new season’. He is still young – only 21, – and I look forward to his participation in the next World Cup.” – David Miliband, The Mirror (more…)

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Immigration is not the enemy, not the answer, says Rob Carr

02/06/2010, 03:59:01 PM

I’m puzzled. I’m puzzled by our leaders and by some of the commentariat.

I spent the general election campaigning on the ground. I knocked on a lot of doors, did a lot of phone-banking, talked to a lot of voters.

While I did most of that campaigning in Newcastle, it wasn’t the only place. I talked to voters in Bury. I talked to voters in London. I talked to voters in Nottingham, Scotland, Wales and the Southwest.

I had fantastic conversations in our word-of-mouth campaign. Conversations about SureStart, about jobs, about hospitals. I listened to voters’ concerns on the economy, housing, welfare, education, and human rights. I learned a lot about what people thought Labour had done right and what we had done wrong.

And having done all that talking, listening, communicating, I’m puzzled. (more…)

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Je vis de bonne soupe et non de beau language

02/06/2010, 12:06:13 PM

The main leadership candidates are the sons of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. (Andy Burnham, it must be admitted, is more like the son of Chris Smith; but at the moment he is struggling to look like a main contender).

It comes as no surprise, in which case, that they are taking great care with their ‘messaging’.

(None has so far come up with very much to say. But actually having something to say goes beyond ‘messaging’. It is up there in the spin-wonk stratosphere with ‘strategy’).

David Miliband’s campaign is the best across the board. And so is his messaging. Every word is painstakingly crafted, by people – such as his spin doctor Lisa Tremble and Google’s DJ Collins – who are good at crafting words. Every two or three sentences carries a mellifluent phrase which stops – just – short of being a soundbite. (more…)

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Neither Blair-lite nor Clegg-lite, thanks, says Eric Joyce

02/06/2010, 09:05:17 AM

If you read the respective pitches of the Labour leadership candidates, you’ll see the themes which each claim would characterise their putative reign. So far, I’ve spotted: ‘reform’, ‘love’, ‘public services and the less well-off’, and ‘I have a working-class background’.

But it seems to me that when Labour folk talk about the leadership race, these pitches count for little. There are three quite distinct strands of discussion that do matter: each candidate’s personal style, his political record and what his selection would say about the Labour Party. I’ll take each strand in order.

With personal presentation, the backdrop is of course that, for good or ill, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are both early-forties white men with first class Oxbridge degrees who served as special advisers to senior politicians. Both present well through the media. Notably, neither wears his undoubted intellectual credentials on his sleeve and neither seems remotely ‘geeky’. Both come across as somewhat Blair-lite. As personalities, they each have broader appeal than many Labour people like to recognise. (more…)

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Wednesday News Review

02/06/2010, 07:34:40 AM

The Candidates

Darling: David Miliband the 'right choice'

“Darling said he “believed strongly” the former foreign secretary was the right choice to lead Labour “for opposition and then back to power”, in a period he described as crucial for the party. In a letter to his Edinburgh South West constituency party, Darling said: “David is a leader … He has the judgment and gravitas to make tough decisions … we don’t know what will happen with the coalition government, the tensions in it are becoming clear … I have seen David up close – I know he can lead.” “- Alistair Darling nominates David Miliband, The Guardian

This is a key moment in the fight for Labour’s top job. Winning the support of a few crucial party figures is absolutely necessary for the wannabe leaders – and Darling is the perfect example of the vote all the contenders will be fighting for. – News of the World

“I’m more of a team player, while others see themselves as leaders. My role is to help get Labour back into power. Clearly, I want to back David and I think he has got what it takes to do just that.” – Douglas Alexander backs David Miliband, The Paisley Express (more…)

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Alistair Darling’s letter in support of David Miliband

01/06/2010, 10:13:56 PM

Alistair Darling released the following letter to his constituency party at 10pm on 1 June 2010.

Andrew Burns
Labour Party offices
78 Buccleuch Street
Edinburgh

Dear Andrew,

I am writing to let you know I will be nominating David Miliband as the next Leader of the Labour Party, and to explain my reasons for doing so. This is a crucial moment for our party so I wanted to write to you myself to set out my thinking.

We are fortunate to have a field of very strong candidates, each with different qualities. However, I believe strongly that David Miliband is the right person to lead our party, first in Opposition and then back to power. He has the right Labour values, with a deep commitment to equality. He has the ability to inspire the party with a compelling vision for the future, returning to our roots as a social movement for change. He has the maturity and humility to bring together different talents irrespective of whether they supported him in the leadership contest. He will re-engage Labour with the public, particularly those with whom we have lost touch. David has always campaigned and argued positively for the Labour Party and that is the kind of leadership we need. (more…)

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Darling likely to endorse David Miliband this evening.

01/06/2010, 05:30:45 PM

Uncut hears convincing reports that the Shadow Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is likely to endorse David Miliband’s bid for the Labour leadership later this evening.

An increasingly pivotal figure in the previous regime, Darling’s support will be seen as significant.

Other members of the defeated Labour cabinet backing David Miliband include Alan Johnson, Douglas Alexander, Ben Bradshaw, Bob Ainsworth and Jim Murphy.

Ed Miliband is backed by Hilary Benn, John Denham and Peter Hain; while Ed Balls is supported by his wife, Yvette Cooper.

Still to declare are Gordon Brown, Nick Brown, Liam Byrne, Jack Straw and Shaun Woodward.

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Select Committee elections: democracy washes over the machines

01/06/2010, 04:04:15 PM

“The usual channels” is House of Commons code for the strange mixture of the whips’ offices, the Speaker’s office, the House authorities and the party leaderships, which has always arranged the business of the House.

Everything to do with select committees has always been carved up by the usual channels.

Not any more. In the name of reform, democracy is intervening.

Though less than it may seem.

Most important is the distribution of committee chairs by party. Some are decided by tradition: the treasury committee goes to the governing party, the public accounts committee to the opposition. Most others vary according to the composition of Parliament.

This most important decision was made last week – in the coalition government’s tinglingly transparent new reform Parliament – by carving it up in secret between the usual channels.

The way is now clear to proceed with some elections. (more…)

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Comment Contest

01/06/2010, 01:26:49 PM

Today, all six Labour leadership candidates posted their pledges for the party on The Guardian’s Comment is Free.

There’s lots of rediscovery, reconstuction and reconnection.

David Miliband, mourning the “tragedy of the 2010 general election”, is promising to purge these 80s demons.

Is he talking about Andy Burnham’s campaign website?

You can read the rest of the candidates’ pieces here.

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Peter Hain on Ed Miliband’s X-factor

01/06/2010, 08:15:12 AM

Labour is blessed in its choice for Leader by having dynamic fortyish main runners each with Cabinet experience – not a benefit either the Tories in 2010 or Labour in 1997 enjoyed. Each could do a good job.

But doing a ‘good job’ is not enough. From a 29 per cent base – lower than the Tories polled when they lost so badly in 1997 – it is not going to be easy to win next time. And, for me, the candidate who has the winning X-factor is Ed Miliband.

His support is spread right across the Parliamentary party – male and female, black and white, all regions and nations, new and experienced, shadow cabinet and backbench, left, centre and right.

With an open, comfortable, media-friendly personality, he appeals to the public. He offers both freshness and governmental gravitas; super-bright yet highly approachable. People warm to him, and he talks like a real person, uncluttered by New Labour’s grating technocratic jargon and on-message guff. (more…)

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