Inside « Labour Uncut

Sir Keith, or not Sir Keith? Actually, just Keith.

21/06/2010, 04:05:20 PM

Keith Hill, who recently stood down as MP for Streatham, and comedian Dawn French are both well known for putting in humorous turns at south London CLP fundraisers.

Now, they have something else in common. Like David Bowie and Philip Larkin, they have both turned down honours. While proud to be considered for a knighthood, the egalitarian Hill explained that he would rather just be “plain old Keith” than a “sir”.

It is rumoured that the star of TV’s the Apprentice insists on being addressed as “Sir Alan“. In contrast, Keith remarked: “I have never had the least desire to have a title”.

Spot the socialist. Well played, Keith. The comrades salute you.

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The awesome ruthlessness of Ed Miliband

17/06/2010, 12:06:04 PM

There is an excellent piece by James Macintyre on the Miliband brothers in this week’s New Statesman. We recommend it.

It is surprising that more hasn’t been written about the extraordinary circumstance of these two brothers contesting the Labour leadership. There have been endless passing references, but little of depth.

To all but the most partisan observer, it seems almost certain to be one of these two who succeeds Gordon Brown.

The magnitude of Ed’s decision to stand against his older brother has also been under-scrutinised. This is no fault of his. He has consistently said that it was the most difficult decision he has ever made.

He says so in an attempt to neutralise adverse reaction from those who see it as an unnatural act. There are shades of Sophocles and Aeschylus in this younger brother’s eleventh hour assault on his beloved elder. (more…)

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Tommy Watson takes the fight to the Tories

16/06/2010, 04:19:15 PM

When the coalition caved in to pressure and published details of – some of – its special advisers’ salaries last week – there were a few details missing.

So Tom Watson has produced this briefing paper, which contains a detailed account of the coalition’s spin doctors’ new pay rates and pensions.

It includes what last week’s document didn’t show: the additional civil service pensions that these coalition spinners can expect.

Under the civil service pension scheme, the PM’s spin man Andy Coulson gets £160K to add to his retirement pot.

These are the same “gold-plated and unfair” pension schemes that deputy pm Nick Clegg denounced this week.

Clegg said it was unreasonable to expect the taxpayer to continue to keep paying into “unreformed gold-plated public sector pension pots” – just like those awarded to the new government.

So, Watson asks in his letter to Nick Clegg, if low paid public sector workers are to forgo their “gold plated pots”, will all the coalition spin doctors be opting out of the civil service pension scheme?

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Tom Watson’s letter to Nick Clegg

16/06/2010, 04:17:05 PM

Dear Mr Clegg,

Public Sector Pension Schemes

I was concerned to read your comments regarding public sector workers in the press. Britain’s civil servants, local government and health workers, teachers and school support staff do an excellent job, often for low pay.

Your comments continue to reinforce a negative stereotype of public sector workers and promote a sense that they are getting something they don’t deserve. It’s unfair on them and unbecoming of you.

Can you confirm that your comments on “gold-plated and unfair” pension schemes do not apply to the schemes of our Armed Forces?

Can you also confirm that all of the staff that you have recently appointed will be opting out of the civil service pension scheme in line with your opinion that it is unaffordable?

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Tom Watson MP.

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Efficiency Briefing: Number 1

16/06/2010, 04:16:51 PM

David Cameron and Nick Clegg: The cost of their recently appointed special advisers’ pensions

“So can we really ask them to keep paying their taxes into unreformed gold-plated public-sector pension pots? It’s not just unfair, it’s not affordable.” Nick Clegg, 14 June 2010

Tom Watson MP

Efficiency Briefing: Number 1

Introduction

Last Thursday, after a dismal performance in the chamber by Danny Alexander earlier in the week, the government caved into pressure and published the salary list of their newly appointed special advisers.

As well as showing a startling increase in the number of spin doctors working out of number 10, the publication showed that chief spin doctor Andy Coulson had been awarded a salary greater than that of the deputy prime minister.

What the publication didn’t show you was that on top of a £140K pay packet, Coulson is automatically entitled to a civil service pension – the same pension arrangements that Nick Clegg described yesterday as “gold plated…unfair…[and]…not affordable”. So on top of his £140K, the taxpayer could fund another £27,160 per year towards Mr Coulson’s retirement.

(more…)

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Never mind the quality, feel the width

15/06/2010, 10:36:00 PM

Over at the unionstogether blog they are doing a ‘question to the candidates’ every week of the summer. This week’s is on the living wage, which has become rather a surprise campaign theme. It is worth a read.

In a campaign in which no candidate is strong on content, Ed Miliband has chosen to put the living wage “as the centre of my campaign for Labour leadership”. Not “to put it at the centre”, you will note, but “put it as the centre”. Massive difference in that one letter. For Ed M, the living wage is the defining issue of his leadership bid “because it sums up both the Labour party’s values and its activism”.

Although a nice piece of policy, it would ordinarily seem like a pretty flimsy thing to be the defining essence of an entire campaign to lead the major force in left-liberal politics in the United Kingdom. (more…)

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This morning’s email setting out rules for elections to Labour select committee vacancies

15/06/2010, 12:15:42 PM

From: O’DONOVAN, Martin

Sent: 15 June 2010 11:56

Subject: Elections to Labour vacancies on Select Committees

Importance: High

FAO Labour MPs

Please find below the agreed procedure for electing Labour members to the Select Committees, as agreed at last night’s PLP meeting. This is a pretty complex procedure, I’m very happy to answer any questions you may have. (more…)

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Uproar at the PLP: select committee member elections

15/06/2010, 10:06:21 AM

There was uproar at last night’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Many senior MPs are unhappy with the arrangements for electing select committee members.

Select committee chairs were elected last week by a ballot of all MPs. Now the members of the committees are to be elected, within their party groups, according to the proportion of MPs that that party has in Parliament.

Senior former ministers such as Hazel Blears and Keith Vaz (re-elected as chair of the home affairs select committee) spoke up against the way the election is being organised. (more…)

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Fabian Hustings: laughometer

15/06/2010, 08:23:14 AM

This is the laughometer from last night’s Fabian society leadership hustings.

Tiny chuckles weren’t recorded.

We maintained our rule that to score you had to get a proper laugh from a significant portion of the room.

David Miliband 5

Ed Miliband 7

Ed Balls 9

Diane Abbott 7

Andy Burnham 6

These numbers are significantly higher across the board than for previous hustings. Last night was a first outing for the Uncut reporter operating the laughometer on this occasion. We have not yet been able to establish whether the leap in laughs was due to operator error, or to the candidates loosening up and getting funny.

Views from those present at last night’s Fabian as well as more than one other hustings would be welcome.

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The Miliband brothers go to the fair

12/06/2010, 07:26:25 PM

While the prime minister was on the phone to President Obama this afternoon, the Miliband brothers were both at the Primrose Hill summer fair.

This genteel summer jamboree centres on Chalcot Square, the gracious georgian heart of what some locals call ‘the island’ (there is no through traffic). It is a super-chichi enclave of ultra-pricey knick-knack shops and multi-million pound houses two miles north of central London.

In the charming, pastel-coloured high street, you can buy sixteen different kinds of cappuccino, but there is no laundrette, no corner shop, no ATM.

Not only does Jude Law live in Primrose Hill, it is where you would expect Jude Law to live. In fact, it is where his sybaritic character in The Talented Mr Ripley would have had his London flat. (more…)

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