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Archive for January, 2011

What would JFK have made of the Tories’ duplicitous weakness on 28 days detention?

19/01/2011, 10:30:27 AM

by Tom Watson

Tomorrow marks 50 years since John F Kennedy’s inaugural presidential address. When David Cameron attends the Nordic conference on behalf of the nation later in the week, his handlers will no doubt try to mark the anniversary by enveloping him in Kennedy stardust. My hunch is that he will want to talk tough, as JFK sometimes did: “let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill”.

Cameron is still looking for international recognition equivalent to that of Blair and Brown and Thatcher. Those television images of statesmen shaking hands in exotic places are the particles of political legacies that politicians crave. In all of Cameron’s grasping hunt for glory, he can only dream of a legacy as enduring as JFK’s. Yet there is a grim reality for our prime minister, one that is only now beginning to reveal itself to him. If you want to leave a positive political legacy in the age of the internet, you probably have to be shot or spend 30 years in jail for a crime you didn’t commit.

And if you don’t believe me, think about the nearest thing the Labour party has to JFK, Tony Blair. That man used to walk on water. The day after tomorrow he will be at the Chilcot enquiry for the second time, wading through misery, as the detail of his decision to take us into Iraq is surgically examined. It wasn’t meant to be this way.

It’s probably an understatement to say that I’ve had disagreements with Mr Blair, but his humiliating second appearance before the committee in some way seems an unworthy way to treat a former prime minister. (more…)

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Do we have to self-immolate to start a revolution against the British Pol Pot?

19/01/2011, 07:00:41 AM

By David Seymour

The swift and partially successful revolution in Tunisia was started by an out-of-work graduate who set himself on fire. Now others under the yoke in despotic regimes are doing the same.

Self-immolation has repelled me since I saw the pictures of Buddhist monks on fire in Vietnam but I have to admit that it has an impact which no other form of protest does. Not that I am volunteering to lead the revolution.

But the impact of what has happened in Tunisia does make me wonder what we have to do to get the British people to realise what is going on in this country.

I am baffled by the Tories, particularly David Cameron. I have no doubt that he genuinely believes in and treasures the National Health Service. He has personal experience of it which few Labour MPs have. When you spend a night a week sleeping on a hospital floor by the bedside of your severely disabled child, you see too clearly the magnificence of NHS staff.

So why is he introducing “reforms” which will destroy the health service? It doesn’t make sense. Even if he has been suckered into believing the nonsense propaganda of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, he can’t be so stupid that he doesn’t understand what the ultimate effect of Lansley’s changes will be. (more…)

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Wednesday News Review

19/01/2011, 06:50:16 AM

Lords settle in for more long nights

The House of Lords has something of a Mad Hatters’ tea party about it this week. Everyone is agitated. Everyone is angry. Everyone is in a hurry. No one knows what is going on. Flustered peers are threatening to stay up all night, and perhaps for several nights to come, as they debate government plans to hold a referendum on the alternative vote and reshape constituency boundaries. If nothing else, this is a bad way to make a good constitution. The standoff involves one of those dilemmas in which there is merit in the arguments from both sides, but over which neither wants to compromise. The government is doing what it promised in the coalition agreement, passing legislation to hold an early referendum on electoral change and reduce the number of MPs (though the cut is smaller than either the Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives offered in their manifestos). The opposition makes the reasonable point that these changes have huge consequences, were barely debated in the Commons, and do not – apart from reasons of internal coalition balance – have to be in the same bill. – the Guardian

The party argues that the coalition is trying to hinder its chances at future elections, but ministers say the changes to seats are needed to make the system fairer and cheaper. Opening the peers’ debate on Monday, Lords leader Lord Strathclyde said the bill had already spent too long going through Parliament, having first been introduced to the Lords last November. He said: “The opposition have dragged their feet. They’ve had their fun.” He added: “The situation has become urgent because the Labour Party has decided to go on a marathon go-slow since we started the committee [to consider the bill].” But Labour’s Lord Falconer said: “This bill is motivated by party politics… It has been introduced without public consultation or pre-legislative scrutiny.” He added: “The bill runs to over 300 pages… It’s unlikely in the extreme that, uniquely among bills, it cannot be improved further by this house.”- the BBC (more…)

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The real middle – and what it really wants

18/01/2011, 02:00:56 PM

by John Spellar

Target voters have been described as Worcester Woman, Mondeo Man and now the “squeezed middle” or “alarm clock Britain”. However, far too much of the discussion has focused on describing the groups rather than trying to assess what this very substantial and important group of voters think, feel or are looking for from politics. In particular, too many commentators seem to believe that they are looking for constant innovation, change and excitement. They would do better to heed Mark Twain, who is reported as saying “I’m all for progress; its change I don’t like”.

With his usual acute observation he encapsulated the attitude of a huge block of voters and particularly those swing voters among the C1 and C2s. They are crucial for elections, not only in the UK, but across the English speaking world. Indeed, I suspect, in much of the rest of the world, particularly the Nordic countries.

In Britain, they have been the backbone of Labour victories, but also the key to victories for Conservative leaders who can tap into their psyche and articulate their concerns. Elsewhere, Ronald Reagan was probably the most adept at this. While the Australian leader, John Howard, and Margaret Thatcher built their success on this group in their earlier years, both were probably too much radical revolutionaries pushing instability, John Howard with “work choices” and Thatcher with the poll tax. (more…)

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The other kind of trade union cuts battle: saving cost within Unite

18/01/2011, 11:29:42 AM

by Richard Horton

At the end of this month, Len McCluskey will officially become general secretary of Unite. The Simpson-Woodley or Woodley-Simpson era of joint leadership will pass. It will be the end of the union’s first post-merger era.

At face value, McCluskey will be inheriting a financially robust organisation. In 2009, the union recorded an operating surplus of £9,384,000 from the income it receives from its members. However, Unite has not been able to shield itself from the rigours of the credit crunch. It has been affected by the recession as much as any other body. For instance, in 2008 it had to write down the value of its properties and investments to the extent that it recorded a deficit of £28,114,000. While even now the union’s cash flow is being negatively impacted by an increase in its net pension liability – which is affecting almost every organisation that sponsors final salary pension schemes.

The merger of amicus and the T&G in 2007 was heralded as a means of generating greater industrial and political benefits for the membership of the two unions. Cost savings would be captured through the merging of two sets of staff, two sets of properties and two sets of campaigning operations. Beyond anything, cost savings would be captured through the sheer scale of the new union. Unite would be more efficient as an organisation and therefore more efficient in campaigning for its membership. (more…)

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In its proponents’ own terms, AV is just soft porn and repeats of Minder

18/01/2011, 07:00:03 AM

by Kevin Meagher

At this time of year, it’s chilly up there on the moral high ground. But that isn’t stopping Yes campaigners for May’s referendum on the alternative vote (AV) donning their bobble hats and clambering up to pitch their tents.

They are doubtless buoyed by a poll in yesterday’s Independent on Sunday which showed 61 per cent of the electorate “could be persuaded” to make the change from first-past-the-post to AV.

This led some chap called Jonathan Bartley from the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign, to write to former Labour deputy leader, Margaret Beckett (who is President of No to AV) to demand “in sorrow rather than anger” that they hear “truthful and honest arguments” for the retention of FPTP in future.

That’s you told, Marge.

For huffy Yes-ers like Mr. Bartley, those staying loyal to our current first past the post (FPTP) system are “defending the indefensible”. FPTP, they argue, is “an analogue system in a digital age”. A strange comparison, I would have thought. Digital television is full of soft porn, repeats of Minder and shopping channels auctioning crappy jewellery. (more…)

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Tuesday News Review

18/01/2011, 06:56:10 AM

Cameron and Lansley criticised on NHS reform

The Prime Minister had been accused by Labour of insulting “millions of NHS staff” with his comments. Mr Cameron was defending the plans for reform of the National Health Service and the speed with which the shake-up is being introduced. In an interview, Mr Cameron said that patients should not have to settle for “second rate” healthcare. He corrected himself, fearing that health professionals would take a very dim view of his assessment. Labour seized on the slip with John Healey, the shadow health secretary, saying that improvements in the NHS were clear for everyone to see. He said: “David Cameron also seems to see the NHS as second rate when everybody else has seen big improvements by Labour in recent years and public satisfaction is now at an all time high. This is an insult to millions of NHS staff. – the Telegraph

The public will soon see for itself the dangers warned of by the medical profession, the Tory-led Commons health select committee, the royal colleges and the independent King’s Fund. The government has skilfully focused all attention on what seems most patient-friendly and easy to understand. Your trusted GP will be in charge of an £80bn budget for your care. Faceless bureaucrats in unknown primary care trusts will be swept away, half of all NHS managers sacked and replaced by your wise GP buying whatever you choose, with no diktats from above. In reality those commissioning services will be more distant from patients, as local PCTs are replaced by far larger clusters of consortiums – some run by the same managers expensively sacked and re-employed, but more by private companies. A survey by Pulse magazine found six out of 10 of the first consortiums are negotiating with private companies to run their referrals. It may or may not hold together, but at a time of famine the price tag is £2bn-£3bn: the real cost of these political re-disorganisations is never fully computed. – the Guardian (more…)

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Dear Ed, remember that party members are not normal

17/01/2011, 01:46:28 PM

by Tom Harris

Dear Ed,

2011 will be a tough year for you and for our party.

Remember when we last spoke, you asked me what I thought we needed to do in order to win the next election? Having given the subject some thought since then, I think I can now flesh out my original, admittedly unsatisfying, response of “win more seats than the Tories”.

Before being able to answer your question, however, it seems sensible to ask why we lost the last election. A recent YouGov poll of ordinary voters concluded that the three main reasons were Labour’s record on immigration, the damage the recession did to our economic credibility, and the personal unpopularity of your predecessor, Gordon Brown.

However, YouGov asked the same question of Labour party members, and the answers were significantly different. Neither Gordon Brown nor immigration figured prominently in their responses; instead they cited becoming out of touch with ordinary voters and failing to do enough to help its natural working-class supporters (although they agreed that the recession was an important factor). (more…)

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A footsoldier’s letter home from Oldham and Saddleworth

17/01/2011, 11:38:24 AM

by Dave Roberts

It had been nicknamed the Old & Sad by-election, but the truth is that the campaign in Oldham East and Saddleworth was neither.

Like many Labour activists, I spent time last week on the streets of Oldham, knocking on doors, delivering leaflets and supporting our candidate. The weather was truly appalling, with relentless rain and persistent fog. During two hours at a rain sodden Moorside Cricket Club polling station early on Thursday morning, I was unable to see the cricket square for even a minute. I looked like a cold drowned rat.

But Oldham wasn’t just fog and rain. I experienced a meat “dinky” for lunch, enjoyed an incredible mega breakfast muffin from the Butty Box and had a fine shepherd’s pie by the fire in a pub shrouded in the ever present fog somewhere on the moors. (more…)

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Fixed term parliaments means maximum two-term prime ministers

17/01/2011, 07:00:55 AM

by John Woodcock

David Cameron’s days as prime minister are numbered. But Ed Miliband is not going to last in the top job as long as Tony Blair did.

It is not that I have been afflicted with a career-limiting combination of nostalgia for past Labour leaders and naïve over-enthusiasm after a single by-election win.

My predictions on the longevity of the current prime minister and his would-be successor stem in fact from a little-considered consequence of fixed term parliaments: namely, that they may well unintentionally place a US-style two-term limit on anyone’s stay at number ten. (And before anyone starts, I am not saying that I think Mr Cameron is on course for a win in 2015. He is not).

But let’s assume for a moment that governments will not generally collapse mid-term and trigger unexpected early elections. For all the trauma currently being experienced by the Liberal Democrats, those at the top are strapped into their ministerial priuses so securely that it is very hard to see them breaking away early. (more…)

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