Burnham battles party ‘elite’
“Andy Burnham today launches a scathing attack on the “self-serving elite” running Labour, pitching himself as the “anti-establishment” candidate in the battle for the Labour leadership. He spells out detailed plans for rebuilding the party as the struggle to replace Gordon Brown resumes after a two-week lull in hostilities.” – The Independent
“The shadow health secretary said it would be dangerous for the party if the winner was from the “Londoncentric establishment”. Mr Burnham, who comes from a working class home, believes only someone from a different background could take on David Cameron. His comments will be seen as an attack on leadership favourites David and Ed Miliband, the sons of an academic who grew up in a middle class house.” – The Mirror
Ed Miliband’s Liberal welcome
“I am not going to start predicting who is going to defect and when they might do so, but there is a real chance for us to show that this coalition is going in the wrong direction as far as LibDem MPs are concerned and the welcome mat is out,” declared Ed Miliband. –The Herald Scotland
Balls backs the posties
“We’re proud of our posties delivering mail six days a week from John O’Groats to Land’s End – come hail, rain or shine. But its future is now under threat from the Tory-Lib Dem government. The Lib Dem minister in charge of the post says he is looking at plans to sell it off – even though this is against Lib Dem policy. That’s why, with the postal workers union the CWU, I’m today launching a campaign to Keep the Post Public.” – Ed Balls, The Mirror
Betting on the leadership result
“The first rule of betting on party leadership contests is to recognise that the specific electorate involved bears little resemblance to the wider populace. Most people aren’t, and would never consider becoming, party activists. Remember, it took three election defeats for Conservative activists even to opt for a telegenic, fluent media performer. In the two previous contests, internal divisions over the general direction of the party led them to reject Ken Clarke and Michael Portillo, despite their greater name recognition and in Clarke’s case, popularity amongst the wider public. In both cases, odds-on backers paid the price for failing to recognise the mood of the party’s electorate.” – Paul Krishnamurty, betfair.com (blog)
Wales backs Ed Miliband?
“Ed Miliband offers Labour its best chance of winning the next general election, shadow Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said last night. Mr Hain said Ed Miliband was prepared to go furthest in reforming the party’s policies and provide an alternative to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. The Neath MP also suggested the contest – which will not end until the winner is announced on September 25 – had gone on for too long. As well as backing from around half the Welsh group of Labour MPs, Ed Miliband has also been endorsed by half the Labour Assembly group and by former leader Neil Kinnock.” – Wales Online
David’s broad pitch
“There is no route back to power based on narrow segments of the electorate – economically or ideologically. Rather the task is to build a broad base of support across low and middle income Britain. The Tories want to suggest there is a choice for Labour between speaking for working or middle class Britain. That is a fatal trap that we must not fall into.” – David Miliband, The Telegraph
Still all to play for down under
“Latest unofficial forecasts today had Labor and the Coalition each predicted to win 73 seats, short of the 76 required to form government in their own right, with the remaining four seats set to go to independents and the Australian Greens. Electoral officials caution that some results could take days to finalise, as they wait to count postal votes.
Both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott flew back to Canberra today to begin negotiations over forming a minority government. The Prime Minister said she planned to provide regular public updates of Labor’s negotiations with crossbench MPs. Ms Gillard said she and her deputy Wayne Swan would meet the three independents and Mr Bandt and report on how negotiations were proceeding.” – The Australian
Tags: Andy Burnham, Ed Miliband, Liberal Democrats, Peter Hain
Via his web-site Andy Burnham has just issued a 9,000 word Manifesto entitled “Aspirational Socialism”. It arises in response to a campaign run over the past 2 months by the blog “Dronfield Blather” – http://dronfieldblather.blogspot.com/ . We have promises from the other four candidates that they will also issue Manifestos. Andy has set the marker.