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Archive for July, 2010

Friday News Review

09/07/2010, 08:27:14 AM

Show me the money

David Miliband has raised more in donations than any of the other candidates

Since launching his bid to replace Gordon Brown in May, accounts issued by the Electoral Commission show that the shadow foreign secretary has raised nearly £200,000 from major donors alone. He has also drawn in 94 smaller gifts of less than £1,500, which do not have to be declared. In contrast, Ed Balls, the shadow education secretary and his nearest rival, has raked in less than £30,000, and Mr Miliband’s younger brother Ed, the shadow energy secretary, has only £15,000. – The Telegraph

Black Country MP John Spellar has offered a donation of £13,000 to Labour leadership candidate Ed Balls’s campaign – but he doesn’t expect ever to pay it. Mr Spellar is listed as a donor in a new register published by the Electoral Commission which shows how much the candidates have received. Shadow Foreign Secretary David Miliband is in the lead in the cash stakes, with £185,265 in financial support from major backers. – The Birmingham Post

David Miliband brandished his political fundraising abilities today as it emerged he had attracted far more in donations to his Labour leadership bid than any of his rivals. The shadow foreign secretary has so far racked up £185,265 in financial support from major backers, according to the Electoral Commission. That is apart from 94 other donations of less than £1,500 which do not need to be declared and two cash gifts from the Usdaw and Community unions which will be listed in future months. – The Guardian

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Willsman nomination shenanigans III

08/07/2010, 01:45:17 PM

It seems that Uncut was right: Pete Willsman is fulfilling a long standing ambition to move from south east London to east Oxford.

Sources in both constituency Labour parties (CLPs) have confirmed that the veteran left-winger yesterday transferred his party membership from Erith and Thamesmead – the south east London suburb in which he has lived for years – to Oxford East.

Cynics are suggesting that this move has been prompted by Erith and Thamesmead having declined to nominate Willsman for re-election to Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC). Without such nomination from his home CLP, he is ineligible to stand.

On this occasion, cynics are right. After failing to be nominated at their meeting two Fridays ago, Willsman tried to persuade members and officers in Erith and Thamesmead to reconsider their decision. Having failed, he decided to “move” to Oxford East, the (real) home CLP of national Labour party chair and fellow grassrooter, Ann Black. (more…)

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James Ruddick says the Tories are storing up glory by trashing our past

08/07/2010, 09:51:41 AM

The next election is already being lost. And the one after. And indeed the one after that. John Kennedy once said: “We can’t know where we’re going until we know where we’ve been.” Well I’m old enough to have been here before: it was the summer of 1979 and Margaret Thatcher was busy rewriting the last Labour government as the Worst Moment in History.

She succeeded – big time – and her rewrite kept Labour out for a generation. It didn’t matter that the disasters which had led to the fall of the Callaghan government – the biggest since World War II – were not Labour’s fault (there had been an international oil crisis, then a US gold crisis, then another oil crisis, then European stagflation). (more…)

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Thursday News Review

08/07/2010, 09:38:49 AM

The candidates

Andy Burnham, a contender for the leadership of the Labour Party, has accused supporters of a rival camp of conducting “malicious briefing” in the hope of getting him to throw in the towel. His remarks are the first public sign of mutual antagonism in a leadership contest that has been marked by restrained language up to now. – The Independent

ALLIES of Ed Balls fear his Labour leadership campaign is about to be wrecked by damaging revelations in an explosive book by his political foe Lord Mandelson, it emerged last night. The Labour peer’s memoirs are set to be published next week amid growing speculation that he will lift the lid on the feuding and spite that infected the party under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. – The Express

We interviewed him this afternoon to find out why he believes the gay community should back his leadership bid, if he agrees with full marriage equality and why he enthusiastically supports the Pope’s UK visit. His answer to the first question is short and direct: “I’ve got the beliefs and capabilities to lead us back into government and build a more equal country.” Pink News

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Shenanigans at the grassroots alliance II

07/07/2010, 02:42:25 PM

Strange developments over at the grassroots alliance. We reported last week that the savagely-wrought left slate for the CLP section of Labour’s ruling national executive committee has been imperiled by Pete Willsman’s failure to secure the support of his home CLP. Without which nomination you cannot stand.

Strangely, the name of Willsman’s home CLP has now disappeared from the online version of the grassroots alliance NEC election flyer. All the other candidates’ CLPs are listed, according to the rules. Willsman’s, weirdly, is not.

Uncut’s hard copy of the original is in the post. It will be interesting to see, when it arrives, whether it is similarly and bafflingly blank, or whether it says “CLP: Erith and Thamesmead”. We’ll post it up when it gets here.

Cynics are speculating that Willsman intends to attempt a last minute rebirth as a member of Ann Black’s Oxford East CLP.

This would require fast-track help from head office and a pyrotechnic interpretation of the rules. The world (or our little Labour corner of it) awaits with affectionate concern.

Anyone who may be able to help Pete with information or documentation should email Uncut and we will do our best to facilitate.

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John Woodcock says Ed Miliband is wrong about flexible labour markets

07/07/2010, 08:59:30 AM

As this Labour leadership contest goes on, candidates are jettisoning more and more baggage from 13 years in power in the hope that it will make their leadership balloon soar higher.

Much of this is understandable and necessary. We won three elections on the bounce, but we lost what is always the more important one – the last one. And we need to learn why we lost in order to ensure that we can win the most important election of all – the next one.

But the latest sandbag offered to the wind this week – the belief in a flexible labour market – is one that should stay firmly in its place. (more…)

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Wednesday News Review

07/07/2010, 08:25:01 AM

Join the club

Harriet Harman, the interim Labour leader, says a new breed of young political activist, committed to opposing the coalition government and the Liberal Democrats in particular, is joining Labour at a rate of 1,000 a week. She said the unprecedented growth in membership, albeit from a historic low base, represents a huge challenge to the party as it tries to make sure the activism has an effective outlet in opposing the government. She said the party’s research shows that half the 30,000 new recruits are previous Labour supporters but regard voting as not enough to change things. A third are former Liberal Democrat supporters angry with the way in which Nick Clegg formed a coalition government. – The Guardian

The Campaign

After a opening few weeks that were, frankly, as dull as watching people watching paint dry, the campaign for leadership seems to have sprung to something resembling lively as the candidates appear to have realised that just as ‘I agree with Nick’ didn’t work for Gordon, ‘I didn’t agree with Gordon’ wasn’t a particularly great line for them to each spew out. Suddenly policy has become the subject of the leadership race, each contender sharing their core ideas across a variety of subject areas. – Political Promise

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Most recent list of elected Labour select committee members

06/07/2010, 12:00:58 PM

Business, Innovation and Skills

Adrian Bailey (c), Luciana Berger, Jack Dromey, Chi Onwurah, Rachel Reeves

Children, Schools and Families

Nic Dakin, Pat Glass, Liz Kendall, Ian Mearns, Lisa Nandy

Communities and Local Government

Clive Betts (c), Heidi Alexander, Clive Efford, Toby Perkins, Chris Williamson

Culture Media and Sport

David Cairns, Paul Farrelly, Alan Keen, Jim Sheridan, Tom Watson (more…)

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Ken Clarke’s not wrong on prisons; he just doesn’t mean it, says Nick Palmer

06/07/2010, 09:00:12 AM

The response to Ken Clarke’s recent speech has been bemusement all round, and no doubt the old stager likes it that way.

The right has always argued for locking more people up, led by the tabloids and urged on by David Cameron and others during the campaign. How pathetic that Labour only added 20,000 prison places in 13 years. How disgraceful that we were letting some prisoners out early because of overcrowding. Why not use prison ships? Army camps? Offshore islands?

Meanwhile, the left has long been uncomfortable with Labour’s record on this. How disgusting that we were pandering to the Daily Mail. How appalling that we had the highest imprisonment rate in Europe. Why weren’t we rehabilitating prisoners instead of having them fester in jails? (more…)

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Tuesday News Review

06/07/2010, 07:34:33 AM

#hustings

David Miliband in action at the Cardiff hustings

Pity the Labour leadership contenders. They have made themselves hoarse on the hustings, but there are still three sweaty months to go. Yet they know they can only be a sideshow at this stage in the post-election cycle, when all eyes are on the coalition. It may be some consolation to the contenders to know they are doing their party some good as recruiting officers. At least 25,000 new members have joined up since Labour’s election defeat, a mixture of returners and disaffected Lib Dems. When ballot papers go out to MPs, trade union supporters and activists on 1 September, newcomers’ votes may have a disproportionate influence. – The Guardian

A common theme was the need to acknowledge that the last Labour Government had not only stopped listening to the public but had stopped listening to the Labour Party’s own members. Ed Miliband in a powerful moment declared that, “I do believe our society is too unequal. The gap between the rich and poor is too wide. That’s why I’m campaigning for a living wage, not just a minimum wage and for action on high pay.” This won the vigorously approval of Lord and Lady Kinnock who sat in the front row keen to champion their chosen candidate. – Western Mail

If ever there was a moment for Labour’s rebirth, this is it. The C2 voters who walked away will bear the brunt of Conservative thrift, the once-Blairite middle classes are contemplating the scrapheap, and Lib Dem supporters are appalled that Nick Clegg has become the Trojan horse for Tory cuts. Yet in the greatest crisis to engulf Britain since the war, Labour seems oddly absent. The people’s party has become a travelling circus in which the five leadership candidates perform at endless hustings and get reacquainted with an electorate that told them to take a running jump. – The Telegraph

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