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The week Uncut

10/07/2010, 06:21:52 PM

Another week in the race is over. As the contest rolled into July, five people said the same things they said last week, to some slightly different people, and one man got ready to say lots of things about two people, which a great many more people will read.

It was the week that Burnham didn’t quit, Balls didn’t smear and Michael Gove broke the hearts of millions of children, enraged thousands of teachers, disappointed hundreds of parents, and made one man very angry indeed.

In case you missed them, here are half a dozen of Uncut’s better-read pieces of the last week:

“It was like looking at bambi. So I shot him.” Watson on the moment he lost it with Gove

Ed Miliband’s taste in music causes an argument in the Uncut office*

Bounder doesn’t think Nick Clegg’s Your Freedom is big or clever

James Ruddick thinks the Tories are storing up glory by trashing our past

Nick Palmer argues Ken Clarke isn’t wrong, he just doesn’t mean it

John Woodcock on Ed Miliband and why he is wrong about flexible labour markets

*By office we mean Starbucks

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Caption contest: Spellar special

04/07/2010, 04:15:47 PM

A great man, supporting a great cause, should not be open to ridicule. Sorry John we just couldn’t resist.

Captions please.

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The week Uncut

04/07/2010, 01:44:53 PM

Another busy week for June. The leadership candidates have been racing up and down the country securing endorsements and nominations, consoling England players, cheering on Murray and offering up policy positions on pretty much everything.

In case you missed them, here are half a dozen of Uncut’s better-read pieces of the last week:

Kate Williams gets suckered into facing Nick and Dave

Painter offers his 10 lessons for Labour from England’s hopeless World Cup

Tom Copley wakes up agreeing with Ken Clarke and doesn’t like it

Rachel Reeves argues that we need a growth plan, not regional economic vandalism

Dan Hodges fires off a blistering assault on the new pluralism

Furber gives the candidates and their web campaigns what for

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Caption contest

29/06/2010, 01:10:27 PM

We all have embarrassing photos knocking around, the type your mum gets out when you take a new girl/boyfriend home. We can just see Mrs Clegg making little Nicky cringe when she pulls this one out of the family album when new beau Dave is presented to the Clegg family for the first time.

Captions please.

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On yer bike, Duncan Smith

28/06/2010, 11:10:18 AM

Work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, is a weak link in the Tory cabinet (for that is what it is). He is neither as clever as he thinks he is, nor as clever as he needs to be. Both of which he is too stupid to realise. He is a series of accidents which are starting to happen. (more…)

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The week Uncut

26/06/2010, 01:37:54 PM

A fullish week for June: a big Commons debate on the strategic defence review, an ‘emergency’ budget, the first ever select committee elections and David Miliband’s desert island discs.

The most important thing in all of which was George Osborne’s demeanour. It was a political coming of age. An uncertain boy made man by the advantages of office. For the first time in his Parliamentary career, he knew what he was talking about. He had the facts at his fingertips; the fat ballast of her majesty’s treasury behind him. (more…)

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Fastest anti-budget protest?

22/06/2010, 07:28:29 PM

By 6pm this evening, banner-waving protesters were already massed outside Camden town hall in north London.

Surely, they must be the first to have taken to the streets against the budget?

Even more so, they won’t be last.

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Nominate a government minister to reenact Alan Clark’s finest hour

21/06/2010, 03:24:09 PM

Since taking office on 12 May, the Tory Lib Dem coalition has spent £18,000 on restocking the government wine cellars. We know this through the good work of Tom Watson MP, who made a suitable fuss about it over the weekend.

As well as the famous first growth clarets in the government cellars, it also holds the super-stylish third growth, beloved of the English upper classes, Chateau Palmer.

The greatest Palmer ever was the 1961. Indeed, it is one of the most elegant and glamorous wines ever made.

In 2005, millionaire Tory minister Alan Clark’s widow, Jane, sold a case from his cellar for £7,700. A single bottle of Palmer ‘61 currently retails for £1,800. (more…)

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The art of opposition: speed kills, seize opportunities, never stop punching

20/06/2010, 02:15:10 PM

Six weeks in, and Tom Watson MP is emerging as the leading anti-government stormtrooper. His latest assault is a series of Parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests, which have forced the government to reveal that it has spent nearly £18,000 on re-stocking the government wine cellar since the election.

The cellars include wine’s most legendary names: Chateau Latour, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Chateau Haut Brion. Named as “first growths” in the famous classification of 1855, this is the royal family of wine.

Such wine costs a lot to buy. Hundreds of pounds a bottle. Beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Which seems slightly at odds with the age of austerity and us all being in it together. The very week that George Osborne’s axe is set to fall on schools, hospitals and family tax credits. (more…)

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Uncut – first month

19/06/2010, 10:57:57 AM

Labour Uncut is now a month old. We’ve had some fantastic contributions, a great reaction and massively more traffic than we expected.

The whole venture was a spur of the moment thing. It’s more work than it probably looks for the small group of people involved. But we’re enjoying it and we think it’s worth doing.

What do you think? What should we do more or less of? What would you have us do differently?

We’re genuinely interested. We want to produce something people want to read.

Here’s a random selection of some of the better-read posts of our first month:

Goodhart on immigration

Painter on the non-existent centre ground

That Abbott quote in full

McTernan on Trident

Ray Collins forgets to pay lip service

Cheetham: who you calling a loser?

Wegg-Prosser on opposition

Westwood on the Big Society

Hain on Ed Miliband