Grassroots « Labour Uncut

Using unpaid interns is wrong – there must be a better way

06/04/2011, 03:36:04 PM

by Sabrina Francis

The recent talk of social mobility and interning reminded me of my secret shame. My name’s Sabrina Francis and I was an intern.

I interned on and off for nearly three whole years. The reason I’ll always feel slightly ashamed is that when I was in the throes of my intern adventure there was no high profile campaign – or talk of the unfairness of the PPE brigade stealing all the jobs – it felt like there was just me. I felt like a failure trapped in an endless cycle of interning followed by the crushing disappointment as I realised the organisation I’d given up my time for were never going to employ me. I’d simply just slotted into a place on a conveyor belt of graduates desperate to get a foot in the door.

During all of Clegg’s grandstanding and showing off about the Lib Dems starting to pay their interns “at once”, what’s been on my mind is that as a party we seem to be nowhere on this issue. The Labour party runs on unpaid work. Just a quick glance on Work4MP.org throws up Labour MP after Labour MP offering only expenses to someone who will end up playing a large part in the running of their office.

What has happened to us? How can the traditional party of the people, the working class, be knee deep in practices that hold others back and go against the very spirit of meritocracy? I know IPSA are making it hard for MPs to adequately fund the staff they need and I also know that some MPs use internships as a way to offer opportunities to people that might not usually get them. However, the facts are quite simple: you cannot intern unless you live in London and have the money to support yourself while you’re not earning. They must know this is wrong. (more…)

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Go Fast Dave.

05/04/2011, 05:00:24 PM

by Dan McCurry

Dave Cameron likes to move fast. He can take big risks because he’s cool in a crisis; it suits him. He will make his mark, even if it is a skid mark from his handbrake turns on policy.

He moves so fast that his election honeymoon lasted only a few weeks and the voters’ mid-term blues appeared in the polls within months. That’s fast. Very fast.

When his domestic policy began to fall apart, he did what all elected leaders do, and turned to foreign policy. So fast is Dave Cameron that this came about before his first year of office was even complete. It took two weeks for his Libya policy to fall apart. (more…)

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Don’t disparage direct action: it works

03/04/2011, 10:43:09 AM

by Conrad Landin

It’s always a shame to see people on the left talking down our achievements just so they can prove their point. But this was exactly how I felt reading Dan Hodges’ argument that the rally last Saturday was “ruined” by the direct action taken against businesses in the West End.

Seeing smashed windows and paint-splattered police helmets weren’t my only memories of Saturday. And nor were these the only aspects picked up on by the media. The night before, for instance, saw the BBC talking to rather unorthodox protesters in the home counties, while live coverage during the day included the memorable aerial footage of the sheer scale of the crowds. Sky News’s subtitles – at least for some time – bore the simple words “250,000 on protest march”, or something to that effect.

In an age of sensationalised media, where it seems that, in the rather unfortunate words of Ken Livingstone’s reference to knife crime, “if it bleeds, it leads”, such attention for a peaceful protest isn’t bad going. (more…)

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Enough of the big state, what about the big government?

26/03/2011, 01:00:02 PM

by Dan Johnson

It has been a long held the aim of Conservatives – and now it seems the aim of this Conservative-led coalition government – to roll back the size of the state. We should face this argument head on and argue that we should roll back the size of the government.

The House of Commons will be reduced at the next election to just 600 seats, but the size of the government has been steadily rising since time immemorial. Labour should be fighting to ensure a real balance in Parliament, and that the payroll vote doesn’t make rebellions against the government a non-event.

Charles Walker, a Tory MP, put down an amendment last year which would have seen the number of ministers fall to 87 from the current number of 95. Labour supported this amendment and was joined in the lobby by the usual Tory rebels who have (quite commendably) consistently argued for a House with more independence from the executive. We must accept that, on this issue, the likes of Chope, Bone and Carswell are right. (more…)

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Sarah Brown’s “Behind the black door” gives an intriguing insight – but leaves out the juicy bits

15/03/2011, 01:45:45 PM

by Anita Ward

As someone who has always admired and liked Sarah Brown – for the dignity she showed through the death of a child and her self-respect whilst her husband was under attack from just about everybody on an almost daily basis – I was looking forward to reading this book.

The title was fascinating. What was this tome going to tell me? Scandalous gossip? Cloak-and-dagger political revelations? Sadly, neither.

What it did give me was an insight into a role that few of us would relish. A role where if you put one foot wrong you are likely to be castigated for life; a role where if you express your own opinion, especially as a woman – think Cherie Blair – you’ll be pilloried. You have to be the constant adoring wife with no views of your own, well at least in front of the camera. And, it’s a role hardly anybody will thank you for doing.

This is not a political blockbuster, nor is it the girly book some people were expecting, but is probably halfway between the two. I found it easy to read, something I could put down and pick up; but it wasn’t so absorbing that I felt I had to keep reading no matter what.

There were some light hearted moments, some loving family moments, and you get to find out that politicians talk about the same things “ordinary” people do and are fascinated by the same people many of us are – Nelson Mandela, to name but one.

What I think it lacks is what she really thinks of those people who conspired against her husband. What she really thinks of the media for their hounding of him. I get the impression that she wants to say much more than she has. It’s sad that she didn’t, because it leaves you with the feeling that something is missing from the book.

Did I enjoy Behind the black door? Overall, I think I did, but it isn’t one I’ll re-read in a hurry.

Cllr Anita Ward is Lord Mayor elect of Birmingham.

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Sisterhood is not dead. It is alive and kicking and living in Labour.

13/03/2011, 06:00:18 PM

by Ray Filar

As a relatively new Labour party member, attending the annual women’s conference – celebrating the centenary of international women’s day – was a first insider’s foray into the challenges discussed by women in party politics. The day seemed to structure itself: talks could hardly do anything other than concentrate on the systematic attack on women that is Tory-Lib Dem policy, and women’s continued under-representation in government and politics. It doesn’t take much to connect these two themes. More surprising, though, was an explicit focus on sisterhood. Throughout the day the speakers repeatedly entreated the audience as “sisters” to support pro-women initiatives. Though there was little open reference to feminism and feminists, barely a scratch on the surface of the conference was needed to reveal the underlying message: sisterhood is still powerful.

This is big news because even recently it hasn’t seemed that way. Only two years ago, Harriet Harman proposed a policy at the time so revolutionary, so unthinkable, that a riotous queue (with John Prescott at the head) formed, its sole purpose to decry her suggestion as self-serving nonsense. What was the proposal? Only this: that never again should Labour leadership be a male-only province. Rather, the leadership should always be comprised of one man, one woman, whether this be a male leader and female deputy leader, or vice versa. (more…)

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Ed Miliband and Maria Eagle should back high speed two

12/03/2011, 06:27:20 PM

by Richard Kelly

A high-speed rail link between Birmingham and London will tear a scar across the natural beauty of rural England, cost billions, and is nothing more than a politician’s vanity project – or at least so comes the polite shout from home county village halls.

I watched BBC News 24 with gritted teeth as an anti high speed two action group campaigner explained his opposition. He described his satisfaction with the existing one and a half hour services; he delighted in the ease with which he reserves himself a seat. I’m sure he sits there smugly as the crowds of tired working people – who have dashed to make one of the final few trains of a Friday evening – stand rattling between rammed full luggage racks and packed out carriages.

Our man was outraged by the potential spending implications. This is the kind of wanton expenditure he expected from socialists – not the Tories whom his vote (I expect) helped squeeze into government. This gentleman, and gentleman he was, was not enticed by the new line’s 14 trains each hour and 49 minute journeys, (and potentially 73 and 80 minutes from London to Manchester and Leeds). Nor by 40, 000 jobs created in construction and maintenance. And he certainly had little interest in bridging the growing North-South divide. What good is a bridge if it tarnishes his upstairs view? (more…)

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Trying to keep up with Dan Jarvis in Barnsley Central

12/03/2011, 11:30:36 AM

by Dave Roberts

Labour’s second by-election victory of the year was a moment to celebrate – and not just because the Liberal Democrats were obliterated and the Tories humiliated – but because it demonstrated that Labour could still campaign – and campaign hard – even in a heartland seat such as Barnsley Central.

The overall result in Barnsley was never really in doubt – the constituency is about as Labour as you can get. On the doorstep, voters were determined to show the Tory-led government what they thought of the cuts, and for many the memories of the brutality of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s were very real. But the way the Labour team campaigned was impressive and the landslide victory that the voters delivered should linger in people’s memories for some time to come. People should not underestimate the significance of this result – to increase a numerical majority with a decreased turn out is a significant achievement.

The result was also a huge moment for the successful candidate, Dan Jarvis, the former paratrooper who overcame his outsider status to win the respect, and a few hearts, of the people he now represents. Dan threw himself into the campaign from the moment he was selected. His enthusiasm, dedication and sincerity were recognised by all who met him. Dan’s ability to convince the wavering voter that it was worth going to the polls to vote for the Labour party, was outstanding.

However, the lasting memory I will have of my four days in Barnsley is the sheer pace of the campaign – and here I refer to genuine speed. Being a man who has run marathons in the desert, Dan is not short on fitness – something he demonstrated every day by running between doors. Up hill or downhill, in the morning or after eight hours canvassing – Dan was still running. On polling day we started running at 10am and finished twelve hours later. And the amazing thing is that this energy infected the whole team. I am no runner, but on polling day I, and the rest of the team with Dan, was still moving at an alarming pace when the day ended.

The pain in my legs caused by all that running has now subsided but the pain suffered by the Tories and Lib Dems in Barnsley Central will continue for some time to come – and Dan Jarvis and “team Jarvis” will be there to remind both parties of their humiliation in Barnsley.

Dave Roberts is a Labour activist and director, Morgan Roberts Ltd.

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It’s Cameron, Osborne and Cable who are the enemies of enterprise

10/03/2011, 02:30:12 PM

by Hugh Golbourne

The small to medium sized businesses that I work with around the UK will have been more than a little confused to hear about David Cameron’s declaration of war last weekend on civil servants within his own government departments. The so called “enemies of enterprise” who are holding back entrepreneurs through red tape – for example, long winded procurement and planning processes.

It is not that Cameron is wrong to have pointed the finger at his civil servants. He is certainly right to identify them as the people who are holding back the economy. However, he is pointing the finger in the wrong direction. It is well known to all – except, it seems, to the man who lives next door – that the treasury has been captured by its senior civil servants. Graduates of the Chicago school of economics and the very product of the baby boomer generation, they assume that the British economy can continue to grow exponentially, regardless of global competition and Britain’s slide down the table of world powers over the past 60 years. (more…)

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If we don’t stand, we can’t win. A Labour candidate in every ward.

08/03/2011, 01:00:32 PM

By John Spellar

There have been some significant omens heralding the implosion of the Lib Dems. Barnsley, where they slumped from second to sixth, is the most dramatic, leading to the bizarre outburst by Lib Dem president, Tim Farron MP, in which he compared Barnsley to North Korea.

Nor should we ignore the surge of UKIP as a new oppositionalist channel. A few weeks ago down in Cornwall, Labour went from fifth to first to win a county council seat.

The pattern isn’t universal. The Lib Dems are holding out in some areas. But there is clearly a rumbling in the land. There are also strong rumours that polling shows that Clegg’s position has slumped disastrously in his Sheffield Hallam constituency.

Which leads us to the elections in May. The public will only be able to register their disgust with this Tory-led coalition if they have Labour candidates to vote for. It is not only bad for Labour, but bad for democracy if we let the case go by default in some areas by not running candidates.

The NEC and Victoria Street should instruct all regions to ensure that everyone going to the polls has the chance to vote Labour. There must be no hiding place for the Tories and the Lib Dems.

We will win a lot more votes, build the party across the country and – as in Cornwall – make some surprising gains.

Closing date for nominations is Monday 4 April.

John Spellar is Labour MP for Warley.

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