For millions of families, this is the budget from hell. The combination of a sharp and unfair rise in VAT, the callous freezing of child benefit and the deepest cuts our public services have ever seen will be a hammer-blow to lower and middle income families.
Not only is this an unemployment budget which will see the jobless total rise by 100,000 a year, but George Osborne has also raised the only tax – VAT – that all the unemployed pay – and pensioners too. (more…)
I joined the Labour party when I was 15. Tony Blair had just won his famous landslide victory. I was impressed by his charisma and the effect his campaign had on the national mood. And Labour was part of my community, part of my childhood experience. I’ve always known how central politics is to people’s lives. And it’s important who the party leader is. It was important to me that Tony Blair was the leader back in 1997.
And I think it really matters who the new leader is now. That’s why I wanted to write this article to explain why I am supporting Ed Balls. One of the main reasons I am backing him is because of his economic strength and experience. I feel that his unparalleled economic experience and knowledge can help us be a strong opposition at a time when economics are at the very centre of our battle with the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition. While they are making swinging cuts all around, I believe he has not only the knowledge but the strength of character to resist.
There is no overarching mandate for any one party’s electoral pledges. Which raises difficult constitutional questions for the coalition. Realising that it is on a sticky wicket, the government fears being bowled out, on any given parliamentary vote, if their fragile coalition starts to fragment. Hence their plans to bolster their precarious position by abolishing the simple majority vote of no confidence and fixing Parliamentary terms, with nothing less than legislative super-glue.
The old lie: “lies, damn lies and statistics” has never seemed more appropriate than while the sticky mathematics of this hung Parliament betray our new political masters’ contempt for the constitutional rule book.
Erskine May must be turning in his grave. To deny Parliament the safeguard of a vote of no confidence with a simple majority, half of the votes plus one being traditionally enough to drag a government back to the polls at any time not of its choosing, is both a con and a travesty. Constitutional safeguards exist for good reasons. If a government is too extreme, ineffective or totally irresponsible, what greater protection than the ability to oblige the government of the day to face the electorate and seek a new mandate? (more…)
Our crisis is clear to see: a Conservative and Liberal Democrat government stripping people of the best that a state can deliver for them – from the future jobs fund to free swimming for under-16s and the over-60s.
But our opportunity is just as clear: we have a chance while in opposition to reassert our credentials as both the party of the progressives in this country and the future party of government. These dual goals must be our only priorities. There is no point in being progressives without governing, and no point governing without being progressive. All five candidates address these two points to varying degrees, but only one is sufficiently able to do both: David Miliband. (more…)
Next week sees the start of Uncut’s Labour leadership desert island discs series. Eight music tracks, a book, a film, a website and a luxury. One of the Miliband brothers to kick off, depending which gets his answers in first.
It would be interesting to hear your predictions. Will any of them actually just pick the 8 records they like best? Is there any real chance they will come clean with the Tina Turner and the Mantovani?
Or are they cloistered with their top aides as we speak, agonising over whether Billy Bragg is de rigeur, de trop, passé or just beyond the pale?
And what single book can the boffiny Miliband boys possibly elevate above all others? All those years of wonking, all that policy. How can they possibly fit it all into one book? Will they even try?
Two years ago almost to the day, Ed Balls did a dry run when he hosted a one-man show in his father’s Norfolk village featuring “music, readings and reminiscences” which gave a “personal insight into the life of a high-profile politician”. It was titled: “With Great Pleasure”. Really.
Diane Abbott is the only one of the five who has actually been on BBC Radio 4’s desert island discs programme. Which raises difficult editorial questions for Uncut: should she be allowed to pick different tunes? Or obliged to? Or disqualified? Or what? This playing field is not level. And modern politics abhors – more than anything – an unlevel playing field.
All contributions gratefully received below.
Jim Fitzpatrick wrote last week to Labour’s general secretary Ray Collins to accuse him and the NEC of rigging the London mayoral selection process in favour of Ken Livingstone.
Fitzpatrick’s main complaint was that the 50/50 split between Labour members and trade union votes was somehow out of the ordinary and unfair.
Yet this is exactly the same system approved by the NEC years ago, and was the process used to select Nicky Gavron as Labour’s mayoral candidate in 2004. (She subsequently withdrew when Ken was readmitted to the Labour party). (more…)
Kerry McCarthy reaffirmed her support for Ed Balls on the Staggers site last week, echoing the ‘he gets it’ thesis of that combative tweeting phenomenon, Ellie Gellard.
Their arguments for Ed will appeal to many in the party: he understands why we lost and can win back our disillusioned supporters; he will defend Labour’s record and he can lead us back to power. Unfortunately, they founder on the last premise – outside of his supporters, does anybody seriously believe that the British people will install Ed Balls in Number 10?
To his great credit, Balls is a dogged defender of Labour’s record and will revel in making life as unpleasant as possible for Michael Gove. He fought and won a tough campaign against a well funded Tory candidate in Morley and Outwood, where anger about immigration and housing seems to have made a lasting impression on his thinking.
It was a date that seemed so inconsequential in my diary.
At 6pm on June 2nd 2010 the Copeland CLP was due to hold their post-election debrief at the GMB offices on Scotch Street, Whitehaven. It was supposed to be a positive, upbeat and constructive meeting to build on a superb result for Jamie Reed MP who magnificently held onto his “key seat” with a majority of 3,833.
Due to events that were completely beyond our comprehension – and which had barely sunk in – the meeting was relocated to the constituency offices in Cleator Moor. We knew a gunman had been on the loose across West Cumbria and that at least 5 people had been killed. None of us knew that shots had been fired within yards of the GMB offices, which had been our General Election campaign HQ. Most of us were unaware of the extent to which the international media had descended en masse on our remote community. (more…)
Conference
The first issue that needs to be addressed is how on earth did the Compass conference manage to sell out even though it was on the same day as England’s first World Cup game?
Fair enough, the actual match didn’t kick off till two and a half hours after the conference ended, but many who have endured the World Cup in the past will know how important it is to have a ‘good spot in the pub’ to ‘warm up to before the kick off.’
The morning speakers were the first Green MP, Caroline Lucas, Nick Dearden of the Jubilee Debt Campaign, Christine Blower from the National Union of Teachers and Neal Lawson of Compass. They all spoke well on where Labour went wrong at the last election and what is required for us to move forward. (more…)
Much has been said on this site and others about communicating with our core constituency in a language they can understand. So thought I’d have a crack at explaining the second-most interesting contest going on at the moment in terms of the first.
True, there aren’t 32 contenders in the Labour leadership contest, but there are parallels with the world cup.
Whichever team wins the football, though, it is unlikely to have much of an impact on your life or anybody you know. Even England winning will only have a fleeting impact, mainly a stinking hangover on July 12th.
Our eventual choice of leader, though, could mean the difference between 5 years of a Tory government or 10, or even more. (more…)
