The Shadow Cabinet reshuffle will be announced tomorrow. Lots of activity on going – below is former Shadow Health Secretary John Healey’s resignation letter and Ed Miliband’s response:
Conference diary
27/09/2011, 10:00:38 AMA well-attended Labour party Irish society reception saw a run on the free Guinness within 45 minutes of opening. As stocks became dangerously depleted, quick-thinking chairman, Conor McGinn, did the decent thing and sacrificed his credit card – and possibly his credit worthiness – to supply liquid reinforcements.
Andy Burnham joined the outgoing leader of the SDLP, Margaret Ritchie, and Irish education minister, Ruairi Quinn, as he reminisced about his Irish immigrant grandfather’s days working in Liverpool’s Albert dock.
Praising the BT conference centre, Burnham rued the site not being home to his beloved Everton football club. At which point a reveller in Everton kit ran up to the stage to shake Burnham’s hand, rolling up a sleeve to reveal an Everton tattoo on his arm exclaiming: “It’s not a tattoo, it’s a birthmark”.
Apparently they’re rather fond of football in Liverpool.
……….
A fringe meeting on the olympic games saw plain old “Seb” Coe line up alongside triple jumper, Jonathan Edwards, Labour’s former Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and Simon Henig from the local government association to fly the flag for the all-round wonderfullness of next year’s games. Complete, of course, with its £9.3 billion price tag.
Spouting impeccable New Labour lingo, “Seb” said there was still “a massive amount done, a massive amount to do”.
But on a day when Ed Balls reaffirmed Labour’s commitment to budgetary rectitude, not all of his colleagues were quite so on-message.
Asked to give advice to future cities hosting the games, Tessa had this to say: “Get your budget with a great stonking contingency”.
…..
How is Labour faring with its erstwhile corporate friends?
Many of the regional receptions are without deep-pocketed corporate sponsors to top-up delegates’ glasses with pinot grigio, except, that is, for the Yorkshire region.
They were treated to an embarrassment of riches with both Asda (headquarters in Leeds) and Yorkshire Water throwing contributions into the flat cap.
What is Yorkshire’s secret? Oh yes, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, Caroline Flint, Rosie Winterton, Yvette Cooper, Hilary Benn and Mary Creagh are local MPs.
That’s what.
…..
Party members visiting conference receive an “invitation” to see the leader’s speech. Excellent.
But you have to read the small print. Its to a “live screening” in one of the conference centre’s halls.
Not quite as impressive, but unfortunately there’s more.
“This invitation does not guarantee entry. Admittance to the auditorium is on a first-come, first-served basis”.
So let’s get this clear: its not an invitation to sit in the hall. Its not even an guarantee to see Ed in all his HD glory on the big screen.
So its not really an invitation at all, is it?
New source documents attached to Mandelson new ebook
24/09/2011, 12:56:17 PMOn Monday the world will be told (by publishers, Harper Collins) about the ebook version of Peter Mandelson’s The Third Man, which includes copies of original letters and minutes, audio commentary and video footage. Political memoirs and signings are the standard fare of conference season. But the new and improved The Third Man ebook is not standard. It is deluxe. Or, at least, many of the source materials have genuine curiosity value.
The Dark Lord’s actual handwriting, as those historic events swirled around us, is almost enough, at times, to send a shiver.
In one handwritten note, to Tony Blair on 3 May 1997, simply entitled “my job” he writes “I just beg you to set me up in a job in which I am neither an ornament not a cork bobbing, misinformed and ineffective, in the government machine”. [Memo to TB on position in new government]
Later in the same memo, he asks that in the job he is given he should “support Alistair, and front for him, but (that) I am not portrayed in any way as a “spin doctor”.
And in another note, written between Christmas and New Year of 1995, reflecting on the death of John Smith he writes:
“It was assumed that one of the modernisers, Brown or Blair, would become leader and it was clear from Gordon’s tone which one he thought it would be”.
He, Blair and Brown, he says “were like the three musketeers”. [John Smith’s death and leadership contest]
And we see the famous lines: “We were elected as New Labour and will govern as New Labour. TB to see. Line to take”, dated 2 May 1997. [Final campaign note to Tony Blair]
Uncut understands that Peter Mandelson will be available to sign your kindle or iPad in the lobby of the Jury’s Inn on Tuesday afternoon. He’s behind you.
The second life of Keith Vaz
23/08/2011, 10:00:42 AMGarlanded as the first Asian MP in modern times, when elected in 1987, Keith Vaz has often hit the headlines.
Vaz is the great survivor: his propensity for self-reinvention is notorious. From campaign group member to New Labour minister. From Eurosceptic to Euro-enthusiast. His chutzpah is legendary. Joining Muslim marchers opposing the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses back in 1990, he is even said to have offered words of support to the author too.
Starting as a Parliamentary bag barrier, when Labour came to power in 1997, he rose quickly, becoming a minister in the Lord Chancellor’s department before landing one of the plum jobs in government as minister for Europe in 1999.
By now a devout euro-enthusiast, Vaz held this position for two and a half years before resigning at the 2001 general election, citing ill health, caught up, as he was, in the Hinduja brothers’ passport scandal. (more…)
The glass is half empty for high speed broadband
17/08/2011, 10:15:07 AMby Ian Lucas
When is good news not good news for rural communities struggling to get online?
Yesterday’s announcement by the Government of millions of pounds of investment sounds great. But despite the fanfare with which the Government is announcing its allocations, it is only providing half the money for projects.
Ministers are lining up to say how shameful it is that, in 21st century Britain, people in communities across Britain can’t get online in the way others take for granted.
Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt says people are “suffering”. Environment secretary Caroline Spelman calls the situation “unthinkable.” Scottish secretary Michael Moore says broadband is a “lifeline.” But these are empty words, and more empty promises.
This anger from ministers at the situation communities across Britain face is only half the story – and their solution creates a big money problem for hard-pressed local councils. They must find millions from council budgets to ensure their areas don’t get left behind.
Devon and Somerset were revealed in the DCMS announcement to be receiving £31.2 million. Both counties must now find the same amount themselves. In contrast, in Greater London, a government assumption that the private sector will provide broadband means no government funds – but also no obligation to find the millions to match them.
The government’s decision to provide only half the necessary funds means an inequality in broadband provision is being guaranteed – unless rural councils find extra money from their own budgets.
Labour would have funded universal high speed broadband by 2015 through a 50p per month levy on fixed phone lines and an extra £230 million from the Digital Switchover Fund. The government ditched these plans. But the way in which it has structured their replacement means some local authorities have to find millions and others don’t, simply because of where they are.
The government’s superfast plans are starting to look more and more like a super stealth tax.
Ian Lucas is Labour MP for Wrexham and a shadow business minster.
Osborne and Cameron’s eurozone delusion – the contagion is airborne and the UK is getting sicker
08/08/2011, 11:55:34 AMGeorge Osborne and David Cameron are deluded.
There’s a long list of topics to which that statement might apply, but right now, one is more important than the rest – contagion from the eurozone crisis.
Contagion normally refers to the transmission of eurozone woes to Britain via UK banks’ liabilities in the crisis areas. The greater the exposure, the worse the contagion.
This conventional view of contagion is based on direct contact between banks and infected areas. That’s how the Treasury looks at it and why the government thinks the UK is insulated. Last week George Osborne boasted that the UK was a “safe haven”. Then on Friday, William Hague declared “We’re not in the firing line”.
But what the Bullingdon boys haven’t understood is that the contagion is airborne.
A cursory look at movements in banks’ share prices shows how limited direct eurozone liabilities have translated into plunging prices.
Recent estimates of the exposure of UK banks to public and private debt in the trouble spots were £82.5bn for Ireland, £65.4bn for Spain, £40.5bn for Italy, £14.8bn for Portugal and £8.6bn for Greece.
These might seem like big figures, but for a sector as large as UK banking, worth £7000bn, they are worrying but hardly critical. The latest IMF healthcheck on the UK assessed banks’ exposure as “manageable”
In comparison, since the start of this financial year, the big banks’ share prices have plummeted – RBS has fallen 31%, Lloyds has fallen 46% and Barclays has fallen 35%. Only HSBC has been somewhat insulated, but even they have dropped 14%.
The reason for the collapse is that negative city sentiment has been turned into self-fulfilling fact by the stampede of the hedge fund herd. The link to liabilities no longer needs to be real, it just has to exist in the fevered minds of city traders.
The result of this shift in transmission mechanism for contagion is that the economy is in far greater danger than the government understand or at least is letting on.
If the trend in bank share prices established since April continues, RBS and Lloyds will return to the level where the government had to intervene back in 2008, by Christmas.
Speak to any trader or analyst about what they think will happen if there is a crisis event in the eurozone, like a default, and they are all agreed: there will be a run on the banks similar to the crash of 2008.
The only thing they view with equal certainty is that there will be a defining crisis at some point.
Estimates on the scale of the carnage vary, but in this situation a single day’s losses across the banks would likely top one third of share value.
Anything on this scale, following on from the last few months will potentially send the most vulnerable – RBS, Barclays and Lloyds -into freefall. Sentiment is already too negative and the share prices already so low that one big shock could tip them over the edge.
That would bring Hobson’s choice for the government – bailout mark two accompanied by a massive rise in the deficit and a potential UK sovereign debt crisis or the collapse of some of the UK’s biggest banks.
Take your pick. Either way, we would be in the same position as Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Italy. No credit, no confidence, no money and too much debt.
The crisis would have been fully transmitted from the eurozone to the UK.
As Osborne and Cameron phone in government from their holidays, they are content in their contagion delusion. But the reality is that the UK is no more insulated from the impact of a eurozone crisis than the French were protected by the Maginot line at the start of World War 2.
Their criticism of Gordon Brown was that he failed to fix the roof when the sun was shining. There’s some truth in that.
Now, on their watch, it’s been raining for months, the water has soaked into the timbers of the house and the eaves are bowing. But still there is no action.
If and when the roof crashes in, they and they alone will be to blame.
Louise Mensch – future Tory PM or car crash waiting to happen?
01/08/2011, 01:00:46 PMLouise Mensch – darling of the twitterati and media doyenne. After well deserved praise, even by Labour bloggers, for how she handled potential media revelations about her past, she has become something of a Westminster village heroine.
Already there is chatter about her as future leadership material.
But she combines three qualities which are terminal for new MPs – independent profile, past baggage and a boldness verging on the reckless. Louise Mensch is more likely to crash and burn than become Tory PM.
As a multi-million selling author, Louise Mensch was already well known before becoming an MP. She had money, fans and journalists eager to seek her out.
The House of Commons is like school. A new kid with a reputation breeds resentment amongst the less blessed – both amongst the new intake but particularly from the older hands.
Disparaging asides about la Mensch are already doing the rounds in the tea room and the bars amongst her colleagues.
Last week, one of her female colleagues was seen to roll her eyes at her mention and hiss ‘Louise bloody Mensch’. The whips are mistrusting and she is building up the one thing that newbies must avoid – enemies on her own side.
As someone with a past, the David Jones e-mail is just the start. Mensch was a press officer at EMI at the height of the “fruit and flowers” years. So called because of the euphemistic line item in the budget, which was cover for £200,000 a year allegedly spent on other ingredients of the rock and roll “lifestyle”. In those days, EMI was a party company.
There will be lots more to come.
Her current line, a variant on George W Bush’s “when I was young and reckless I was young and reckless” is fine to a point, but its purpose is to box off debate on past misdemeanours. It begins to break down if there is a stream of new revelations.
Inevitably, given her admission, there will be further questions about when she changed her lifestyle. If Mensch has been a paragon of virtue since her twenties, she will be fine, but as a celebrity author in her thirties, the temptations would have been more, not less.
And then there’s her judgement.
On the plus side, her boldness in pressing News International on the culture select committee is commendable. But the self-confidence that led her, as a new MP, to challenge the Murdochs also meant she made those ridiculous charges about Piers Morgan without bothering to check the facts.
Success in politics builds slowly. The stars that shine the brightest, earliest, often burn out.
At the height of the expenses crisis, David Cameron made lots of noises about wanting candidates from different backgrounds that had been successful before politics. That were more independent and brought new experiences into the House of Commons.
Careful what you wish for, David.
Tom Watson is readers’ hackgate hero
25/07/2011, 08:00:54 AMIn a close fought contest, Tom Watson has emerged as the Uncut readers’ hackgate hero. His intervention on David Cameron during the Parliamentary statement was the public’s choice for goal of the month with 26% of the vote, 4% ahead of his other entry, the questioning of Rupert Murdoch at the Select Committee which secured 22%.
Ed Miliband’s pivotal PMQ performance from the start of July was joint third with Dennis Skinner on 20% of the vote, followed by Steve Coogan on 12%.
In voting throughout Friday, Ed Miliband built up a solid lead over the chasing pack, but was overhauled on Saturday by Watson’s two entries. Despite a late rally on Sunday, Miliband was not able to catch Watson.
The vote reflects the pivotal role Tom Watson has played in doggedly pursuing this issue for the past few years as well as the quality of his contributions in the Parliamentary statement and the Select Committee hearing.
As the scandal has unfolded, the twittersphere has been abuzz with who would play the central characters in the inevitable movie. This being a British scandal, the casting choices are somewhat different to the Redford and Hoffman partnership in All The President’s Men.
Currently the hot favourite to pick up the plum part of Tom Watson is Nick Frost.
They’ve been tweeting and agreeing though who Simon Pegg will play remains unclear. But given the nature of a scandal which continues to grow and grow, there are bound to be some new casting opportunities that emerge in the coming days.
Chief amongst these will potentially be the role of George Osborne. Studiously silent throughout proceedings so far, he has all the makings of a villain who emerges in the third reel as the puppet master, pulling the strings. (more…)
Goal of the month: hacking special
22/07/2011, 08:36:23 AMby Atul Hatwal
Readers pick from Miliband, Coogan, Watson, Skinner and er more Watson, for their Hackgate highlight
Around this time of the month we normally do a shadow cabinet goal of the month competition.
But this hasn’t been a normal month.
Hacking has been global front page news, and in amidst the shocking, tawdry and downright bizarre revelations, there have been some points of light that will be remembered for the right reasons.
We bring you five of those moments. Make your choice, vote and tell us which you rate the best.
1. Ed finds his voice
PMQs on the 6th July seems an age ago. On Monday this week, Michael Dugher gave us the inside story about this pivotal exchange on Uncut.
Back then, it was a risk to call for Rebekah Brooks to resign and the BSkyB bid to be referred to the Competition Commission. Plenty of folk on the Labour side were nervous about attacking News International so explicitly.
But as Ed Miliband sets out his case, even David Cameron begins to understand the strength of the case.
In the clip, at the start of Miliband’s first intervention there’s a cut away of Cameron sitting on the government benches. His puce, Colonel Blimp-like expression is the image of man on the wrong side of the argument.
One of the features of the declining years of the last Labour government was the number of times Ministers went out to defend unpopular decisions by hiding behind the obscure detail of government process. It defined the foot dragging approach on expenses.
Cameron’s response to Miliband’s first question is a case study in the dangers of governmentitis.
Its amazing that after just fifteen months in office, someone who is meant to be good at presentation explicitly mounts a defence of their position to such an emotive issue on “a technicality”
2. Knowing him Steve Coogan, knowing you Paul McMullan, a-ha!
On the 8th July, at the end of the first week of revelations, Newsnight hosted what has already become a legendary confrontation.
Steve Coogan pulverises Paul McMullan, a man who, through his media appearances, has done almost as much damage to News International as Glenn Mulcaire’s notebook.
There’s a clear point where something snaps in Coogan and he is straining at the leash to thump Mcmullan. But instead of lunging, he channels the anger and takes McMullan to pieces.
Coogan’s righteous onslaught perfectly echoes the feelings of a nation getting to grips with the extent of the scandal. Shock, revulsion and a growing anger.
McMullan’s limp and flailing body language is the visible representation of News International’s defence.
It’s a metaphor that remains just as appropriate today.
3. Tom Watson exposes Murdoch for what he is
Do you remember the scene in the third Indiana Jones film, where Harrison Ford comes face to face with Hitler?
Well there was touch of that about the first moments of the Select Committee session.
After years of tireless campaigning by Tom Watson, as well as many others, suddenly there they were, Rupert and James Murdoch, face to face with their previously insignificant and ignored inquisitors.
In the days before the session Tom had been playing down expectations. There weren’t going to be pyrotechnics, a single killer question or Few Good Men moment. Murdoch wasn’t going to crack, shouting “Parliament can’t handle the truth!”.
In a sense, Tom was right. There was no explosion, but something equally striking did occur.
This figure who has dominated the media for the best part of four decades was exposed for what he is – an ageing, out of touch, old man.
No doubt, part of the coaching Murdoch received before his appearance was to drill him to think carefully before answering. But to wait so long before uttering anything? And then to stumble over his words and facts?
This wasn’t Ming the Merciless, it was Elmer Fudd.
In terms of getting to the truth, Rupert Murdoch’s responses weren’t terribly helpful. But for the future of News Corp and the role of the Murdoch family in running a media empire, it may well be the turning point.
On the morning after the Select Committee performance, for the first time, News Corp’s big shareholders started to find their voice and organise to put in place some proper corporate governance – a process that will ultimately likely move the Murdochs out of the company.
Tom Watson’s revenge on Rupert Murdoch could yet be to destroy his media dynasty.
4. Cameron caught out by Watson
ITMA! No, not Tommy Handley, Tommy Watson (if you get that you’re older than you look). Not content with a star turn at the Select Committee, he made one of the key interventions in Wednesday’s hacking parliamentary marathon
Rising to respond to Cameron’s bald assertion that no-one raised any specific claims about Coulson with him when in government, Tom Watson catches Cameron clean out.
Studious, measured and precise, Tom Watson is the anti-thesis of the Prime Minister. He has been methodically driving this campaign forward, week in, week out for years.
In contrast, there is something David Gower-esque about Cameron – ability but insufficient application and prone to the same errors time and time again.
He doesn’t recall the letter. Or the fact he did actually respond. The jeers that greet the first words of Cameron’s response vividly illustrate the growing credibility problems he is facing.
His “tribute” to Tom Watson is so obviously a stalling tactic and the absence of any form of rebuttal confirms that it’s another skied catch from the PM.
Lack of attention to detail has become an established part of the media perception of the Prime Minister and is now part of the core part narrative for his government’s failings.
Fifteen months into office, Cameron is running down his credit with the public. Every time he slips up like this, he becomes a little less the Prime Minister, and little more the PR man.
A comment from the Sydney Morning Herald twenty-one years ago about Gower seems eerily prescient,
“Graceful, elegant, languid, indifferent, cavalier, diffident, reckless, and…too laid-back for leadership. As even his county chairman once observed: “Let’s face it, David does not give the appearance on the field of having the job by the balls.””
5. Skinner and the House laugh at Cameron
Laughter is the cruellest punishment in the House of Commons.
David Cameron’s took one hundred and thirty-six questions on his statement and to those who watched it at the time, overall, he came across as capable and combative.
But politics today isn’t about three hour debates.
It’s mediated through the packages for the news broadcasts. And for all of Cameron’s abilities, his obvious discomfort when answering questions on his discussions with News International about the BSkyB bid always meant he was going to struggle in the clips.
Eleven times Cameron was asked and eleven times he evaded.
Dennis Skinner provided the pick of the bunch.
The question isn’t the most eloquent, but Skinner’s presence carries the House with him. As Cameron squirms, the Commons erupts. Through the prism of the nightly news, this exchange showed David Cameron, literally as a laughing stock.
It’s been a long two weeks for the government. If any proof were needed of the impact of the crisis on their mood, it was written on the faces sitting on their front bench.
Nick Clegg doing his very best “nothing to do with me guv” expression. Every aspect of his body language is detached and uncomfortable. And on the other side, Theresa May, semi-slouched and with a face like thunder.
Regardless of the number of supportive backbench interventions enforced by the Tory whips, David Cameron remains very much a man alone.
So there they are, five magic moments from the hacking farrago. Vote now and tell us, and the world, your choice.
Slow, weak and out of touch – Cameron needs answers fast
18/07/2011, 07:00:44 AMby Michael Dugher
Incumbency in office provides tremendous advantages. The Tories have always understood this. Seeking out ways to change the rules of the game to benefit them in the future (boundary changes, proposals for changes in party funding, may all be cases in point). There are also public relations benefits of being in government too, as David Cameron understands very well. If you are the prime minister, when you organise a barbeque and invite the leader of the free world to share a burger or a banger, the pictures look great and they are beamed out by a grateful media. Also, in government, you make the news. In opposition, more often than not, you have to get into the news. But government can have its downsides too.
In government, it can sometimes feel like you are trying to steer a heavy goods vehicle, rather than drive a light and nippy sports car. Without strong leadership, there is always a danger, in managing the big beast that is Whitehall, that decision-making can be sluggish and slow, bureaucratic not political. No 10 can provide a great backdrop for a photo-op, but it can also sometimes be like a bunker (trust me on this).
As the “firestorm” surrounding phone hacking and news international has raged, Cameron has proved hopelessly slow to react. Worse, he has seemed unwilling to take necessary decisions quickly, to get a grip of the problem and to set the agenda going forward. Just 15 months after taking office, he has already become a prisoner of the civil service mentality, an approach that can – at its worst – be based on the premise that everything is terribly complicated and difficult and therefore it’s probably better not to say too much or get too involved. But most seriously for the prime minister, he has failed utterly to understand the depth and the scale of public anger and what therefore needed to be done as a matter of urgency. (more…)
