Archive for September, 2010

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Shadow Cabinet elections: the astonishing technical complexity of writing x

17/09/2010, 04:21:04 PM

PLP secretary, Martin O’Donovan, is worried that Labour MPs are going to be thrown into disarray by the stressful business of receiving, completing and returning their shadow cabinet ballot papers. All crazy-crammed, break-neck and irresponsible, into a mere, madcap seven days of voting.

In his email below, you can hear the fear in O’Donovan’s voice. He just knows – for sure – that he’s in for massive grief.

Because the best and the brightest are going to forget to vote. And they’re going to vote for people they didn’t want to vote for by mistake. And they’re going to change their minds three days after they’ve cast their votes and want another go. And several will want to cast their votes after the ballot has closed.

And it’s all going to be his fault. All of it. So he’d better be able to explain himself. That’s why he’s writing to them every 25 minutes explaining the rules. Poor Martin. Most sophisticated electorate in the world? Yeah, right.

(more…)

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Shadow Cabinet: vote for Angela

17/09/2010, 12:40:25 PM

From: EAGLE, Angela
Sent: 17 September 2010 11:01
To: EAGLE, Angela
Subject: Angela Eagle – for Shadow Cabinet

Angela Eagle for Labour’s new Shadow Cabinet

Today I announced my intention to stand for election to Labour’s new Shadow Cabinet. I hope that you consider giving me your support.This is an important time for our Party and it is right that the best team is elected to take on this Demolition Government. Since the election, I have worked as part of the shadow Treasury team to take the fight to the coalition on the economy and the profound risks they are taking with the fragile recovery. There was no mandate for the vicious decisions they took to impose the largest spending cuts in peacetime history – the result of which is an attack on the most vulnerable in our society and will see genuine hardship for many.I have used every opportunity to expose the dangers the Con Dems pose and now I want to be in the Shadow Cabinet, working with you, leading the fight against the Con Dems and returning Labour back to Government.

I have the energy and the experience

I was elected in 1992 in the most marginal seat in the North West famously defeating Tory International Development Minister Lynda Chalker. Between 1992 -1997 I served in the Whips office and served on numerous Select Committees including: Members Interests, Employment, Public Accounts (three times) and Treasury.

In government I spent eight years as a Minister in DETR, DSS, Home Office, Treasury and DWP and on the Government backbenches I was elected Vice Chair of the PLP and served on the Parliamentary Committee.

I can connect with the party and the public  

I have been a bridge between the PLP and the Party on the National Executive Committee first elected as PLP representative and later as one of the leaders Government Nominees. I am also an Ex officio member of the National Policy Forum.

I am also an active campaigner for Labour up and down the country and will continue to do so as a member of the Shadow Cabinet.

I will take the fight to this Con Dem Government

We must be strategic and flexible in our response to the coalition. It might be highly enjoyable to focus on the Lib Dems discomfort but it is the Tory small state ideology which we must defeat if we are to stand a chance of making a swift return to Government.

To return to Government we must win the country’s trust again and this will be no easy task – but with the right arguments, the right ideas and the right team – we can and we will.

I’d be honoured to have your support. Please feel free to call me on XXXX XXX XXX.

Best wishes
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Shadow cabinet: vote for the Eagle

17/09/2010, 12:26:33 PM

From: EAGLE, Maria
Sent: 16 September 2010 17:55
To: EAGLE, Maria

I believe I have the talons talent to help make Labour soar upwards again. See my two most recent debates:

 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm100708/debtext/100708-0003.htm#10070875001355  

 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm100913/debtext/100913-0003.htm#10091330000151  

I both opened and wound up for the opposition on ConDem proposals to extend anonymity to defendants in rape cases. We all demolished their case and the policy was abandoned following the debate – the first defeat of a proposal in the coalition programme for government.

I wound up in the second reading debate on the Fixed Term Parliaments Bill and got stuck into the Deputy Prime Minister –  one coalition weak link upon whom we should focus our fire.

Lets get stuck into them in Parliament – and everywhere else!

Maria Eagle

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Shadow cabinet elections are stupid enough without voting stupidly too, says Lesley Smith

17/09/2010, 11:37:01 AM

Has anyone thought to ask why we are having shadow cabinet elections? Is it to achieve the best possible team to lead our parliamentary party? Is it because elections unite the mass base around their demonstrably popular and talented leaders? Is it a sure fire way of finding a brilliant team that will row in harmony behind whomever a different process elects leader? Is it guaranteed, or even likely, to select people who will work well as a team and share the objectives of that leader?

Well. Nope. ?Or is it, as some say (idiotically) “to act as a counter balance to the leader”? So we go through three months of agony (when we could have been building a strategic and effective opposition to the Tories) to elect someone whose authority we wish the PLP, many of whom have only been there for three minutes, to be able to undermine? If you wanted to sabotage a new leader’s chance of running a half way decent strategy, this is how to do it. (more…)

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Clegg has betrayed every Lib Dem voter – says Lib Dem Cllr as he joins Labour

17/09/2010, 11:00:36 AM

As the Liberal Democrats head to Liverpool for what is sure to be a difficult conference, Solihull Councillor Simon Slater becomes the latest in a stream of Lib Dems  to leave the party to join Labour.

A Lib Dem Cllr for Shirley West since 2006, and Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Meriden in the general election, Slater accused the party leadership of selling-out their principles to secure “top jobs with their new Tory friends in government.”

On joining the Labour Party Cllr Simon Slater said:

Before the election Nick Clegg talked about not cutting too fast or too deep, he talked about protecting the most vulnerable in society, fairness for students and meaningful constitutional reform, and he fought against a Tory VAT bombshell. But now in government he has betrayed everything he said he believed in and everyone who voted for him.

The national Liberal Democrat leadership seem more interested in securing the top jobs with their new Tory friends in government than any principle.

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Rob Carr on the Lib Dems’ exit strategy

17/09/2010, 10:09:54 AM

If you are a viewer of Dragons’ Den on the BBC, you will have heard the phrase “exit strategy”. The idea being that if you want someone to invest in your business, there has to be a way for them to make a profit and get their money back out of the business. The obvious way to recoup capital is to sell equity, and the Dragons do that all the time. Four years or so into an investment, they’ll begin looking to sell their share of the business for a profit.

We also hear it more and more as a military term. How does a nation get its troops out of a given conflict? George W Bush didn’t have an exit strategy for Iraq. The Iraq war began on March 20 2003 and there was no real exit strategy until 2007, four years later.

Andy just you need an exit strategy in business and in war, you need one in politics too. (more…)

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Friday News Review

17/09/2010, 07:00:28 AM

Miliband: 'winning support'

For the first time in thirty years, the Labour Party is electing a new leader without knowing in advance who it is likely to be. There are other parallels with 1980: Labour has recently been evicted from office, and its successors are turning out to be radical remakers of the state. – The Economist.

“I went into a briefing on a white paper for children [as chairman of the council’s children’s services scrutiny panel]. There was nothing in there for the children of the borough or anywhere else in the country. They are going to put the weakest to the wall. That was the last straw” – Barnsley councillor Lynne Brook on defecting from the Lib Dems to Labour BBC News.

With delegates heading to Liverpool for the annual conference of the Liberal Democrats, the challenge for Nick Clegg is to keep his party behind him as the government begins to flesh out what will be cut from its budget. His party is tanking in the polls and the mood among rank and file may not have been lifted by an interview he gave defending cuts to welfare. – The Guardian.

‘I’m winning support from MPs, members, unions and people outside the party, so I think all claims should be taken with a large pinch of salt. It’s my ideas for the future that have put me in the lead in this contest. I have been a candidate standing for what I am for in the future and not what I am against in the past. – David Miliband, Metro.

Admit it, Clegg, you’re in love. You rise each morning with that ache of uncertainty in your breast. You choose that tie, that suit, those shoes with him in mind. You scurry early to the office, practising the phrase that will please him, the gesture he will notice. When you first see him in the corridor … you can’t help it. The knees go. He is adorable. – Simon Jenkins on Nick Clegg’s leadership love The Guardian.

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You can’t pour a quart into a pint pot

16/09/2010, 01:30:58 PM

As the inboxes of Labour’s 257 Members of Parliament continue to clog up with subtle (and not so subtle) appeals for support in the forthcoming beauty contest that is the shadow cabinet election, our back-of-a-fag-packet calculations indicate a potentially embarrassing problem for the boys.

Rule changes reserve at least 31.5% of the 19 places (that’s 6 in old money) for women, two more than the last time Labour elected its top team in 1996.

However the current shadow cabinet contains 19 men (excluding Nick Brown as chief whip). When you remove declared retirees like Alastair Darling, Bob Ainsworth and Jack Straw you drop to 16. Then take out one of the leadership contenders so we’re down to 15. But there are no more than 13 places available for those with an Y chromosome.  This is before insurgents from the lower ranks break through. And, of course, there may well be more than six women elected. Sunder Katwala has a good piece on this over at Next Left.

An embarrassing game of political musical chairs beckons if the 15 run as expected:

–          A Miliband

–          Ed Balls

–          Andy Burnham

–          Liam Byrne is said to be marauding

–          Pat McFadden

–          Alan Johnson has thrown his hat in

–          John Denham

–          Sadiq Khan has declared

–          Hilary Benn

–          Douglas Alexander

–          Shaun Woodward

–          Jim Murphy

–          Peter Hain

–          John Healey looks likely

–          Ben Bradshaw

So at least two male former Labour cabinet ministers could face an unceremonious ejection from the shadow cabinet.

Or will some drop out of the process rather than risk denting their reputations?

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Shadow cabinet: vote for Wayne

16/09/2010, 12:27:17 PM

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Shadow cabinet: vote for David

16/09/2010, 11:36:34 AM

From: HANSON, David

Sent: 16 September 2010 11:15

Subject: Shadow Cabinet Elections – David Hanson

Dear colleague

I write to ask for your support in the forthcoming elections to the Shadow Cabinet.

I believe it is important that the Shadow Cabinet focuses on three key tasks:

1)     To challenge the Tories and the Lib Dems in the Chamber and articulate a strong Labour alternative

2)     To galvanise the party throughout the country and work with the new leader to ensure we develop a campaigning role across the UK

3)     To work with the PLP to develop effective policies to tackle the challenges of the 21st Century

As a member of the Shadow Cabinet I would use my 18 years of experience in the House of Commons to help the new leader achieve these aims.

Since the General Election I have taken the fight to the Tories from the front bench in my current shadow roles at the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and the Treasury and as a regular back bench questioner.

Prior to the election I served as Minister for Policing and Counter Terrorism, where I developed the policing White Paper; as Minister for Prisons and Probation,  where I oversaw the development of an integrated prisons and probation service; and as Northern Ireland Minister where I ran four, now devolved departments, and supported Cabinet Ministers in restoring the Peace process

I also served as Wales Office Minister at the start of devolution and spent four years as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, working in Downing Street as the liaison between the PLP and Prime Minister. This role in particular gave me a deep understanding of the importance of working in partnership with the PLP. I also have experience working in the Whips Office in government. All of this I believe will be invaluable in helping to get Labour back into power.

Having had five years as an opposition MP, I am aware of the task ahead and have first hand experience of forming a constructive and effective opposition.

Prior to my election to Parliament I worked as Director of a National Charity and was Leader of my local council.

I am pleased to have the support of all of the former Cabinet Ministers with whom I worked with when I was a Minister in government:

The Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP

The Rt Hon Peter Hain MP

The Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP

The Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP

The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP

I would be happy to speak to you about my candidacy on xxxxxxxxx and I hope for your support.

Best wishes

The Rt Hon David Hanson MP

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