PLP leadership hustings: laughometer

08/06/2010, 06:45:26 PM

We did a laugh count at last night’s PLP leadership hustings.

Tiny chuckles weren’t recorded.

To score you had to get a proper laugh from a significant portion of the room.

David Miliband  1

Ed Miliband  4

Andy Burnham  3

Ed Balls  1

Make of it what you will.

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PLP leadership hustings

08/06/2010, 03:55:32 PM

A private meeting of hundreds of MPs is not really a private meeting.  But meetings of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) are slightly more so than entirely public gatherings.

Several MPs tweeted from yesterday’s PLP leadership hustings: John Woodcock, Rachel Reeves, Douglas Alexander and Denis MacShane, for instance.

But these were tiny snaphshots, in some cases only of their favourites.

The note below is a fuller record.  There are many public hustings to come. But the tone of the leadership cadre is always slightly different at the PLP than anywhere else.

We have provided this note for that reason.

Nominations close at 1230 tomorrow.  There are currently 42 MPs still to declare or nominate.

This is a not a transcript.  It is an amalgam of several contemporaneous notes taken for their own use by people present at the meeting.   If some candidates have more remarks recorded than others, it is because they said more things that people wrote down.

(more…)

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Daniel Finkelstein gives a Conservative view on Labour and the cuts

25/05/2010, 07:50:14 AM

Something has struck with me with force watching the Labour leadership debate.

No one wants to talk about the cuts.

Well, Ed Balls threw out some frankly rather silly remark about the new Chancellor enjoying having to cut things, but aside from that, no one wants to talk about the cuts.

Yet, obviously, the cuts are central. (more…)

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Sunday News Review

23/05/2010, 07:41:15 AM

Kinnock and The People back Ed Miliband

“Conventional wisdom holds that David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, is the favourite. But Kinnock’s intervention may change all that. He is convinced that it is David’s younger, less well known brother, Ed, who has the “special qualities” needed to inspire party and country.” – The Observer

“Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock came out in support of Ed Miliband in the race to succeed Gordon Brown. In an interview with The Observer, Lord Kinnock said that he believed that the former energy secretary had the qualities needed to bring voters back to Labour. “I would say he has got the X-factor, especially where X is the sign you put on the voting slip at election time,” he said.” – The Mail on Sunday

“TODAY The People announces its support for Ed Miliband as Labour’s next leader. We do so because the defeated and exhausted Labour Party desperately needs new blood at the top if it is to ­become an effective opposition. We do so because Mr Miliband the younger is untainted by the grievous errors of the past, particularly the ­unjustified invasion of Iraq.” – The People

Blunkett backs Burnham

“Mr Blunkett is understood to think that the other leading candidates – David and Ed Miliband and Ed Balls – are too obsessed with working out why Labour lost middle class voters. Last night he said: “It is absolutely crucial that we fight the next election and the one after that – not refight the 2005 and 2010 elections, which is always a danger in contests of this sort. “I’m also extremely keen that there should be the widest possible field and that this should include candidates with a vision of the future. “That’s why I’ve indicated that I’m prepared to nominate Andy Burnham, to widen the field and to provide a genuine debate which reflects the different elements not just of the Labour Party but, more crucially, of the electorate on which we will be reliant for a return to office.” – News of the World 

Brotherly love

David Miliband (R) stands with his brother Ed Miliband“The battle between the Milibands for the Labour leadership threatened to turn nasty last night as supporters of Ed, the younger brother, were accused of smearing David as an “android”. The Sunday Times has learnt that MPs acting for Ed Miliband have rung activists urging them not to back his brother as he lacks the “human touch”. “They are saying David is too geeky,” said one MP. In at least one instance a supporter of Ed Miliband claimed that David behaved like a “robotic android”.” – The Telegraph

Iraq haunts leadership battle

“David Miliband clashed yesterday with his brother Ed over the decision to invade Iraq… as they fought it out for the Labour leadership. Ed Miliband and rival candidate Ed Balls both criticised the 2003 assault on Saddam Hussein yesterday in the six-way battle for the top job. Mr Balls said the invasion had been a “mistake” for which Britain had paid a heavy price, while Ed Miliband said that it had resulted in a “catastrophic loss of trust” for Labour.” – The Sunday Mirror

David Miliband defends position on Iraq – ITN

“Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, both former aides of Gordon Brown, identified the Tony Blair-led war in Iraq as a mistake that led to a loss of trust. Meanwhile David Miliband, the front-runner and former foreign secretary, begged his party not to make Iraq a main issue and instead to focus on the future. His plea for old wounds not to be re-opened was backed by the former health secretary, Andy Burnham, who said he believed Iraq would not become an issue in the leadership contest.” – The Herald

“David Miliband attempted to shift the focus of the Labour leadership debate away from the Iraq conflict yesterday, after two of his main rivals criticised the decision to go to war in 2003.The former foreign secretary, who supported Tony Blair over the hugely controversial invasion, claimed that it was “time to move on” from the war, amid concerns that it would become a divisive issue during the leadership campaign.” – The Independent on Sunday

“The former foreign secretary admitted that the 2003 conflict had been a divisive issue within Labour in the past, but claimed it did not need to be a “source of division in the future”. He spoke out after two of his rivals in the race to succeed Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, both spoke out firmly against the war. Mr Balls, the former schools secretary, told The Daily Telegraph that the invasion had been a “mistake” for which Britain paid a heavy price while Ed Miliband, the former climate change secretary, said it had resulted in a “catastrophic loss of trust” for Labour.” – The Sunday Telegraph 

Queens Speech leaked

“A late draft of the Queen’s Speech, obtained by this newspaper, reveals that the Government will spell out an ambitious programme of at least 21 Bills to be introduced in the next 18 months. Within days, the coalition Government intends to bring in key school reforms and scrap plans for ID cards. A radical programme of political reform will get under way in the following weeks. The speech has “freedom, fairness and responsibility” as its main themes and contains many key policies demanded by the Liberal Democrats as the price for their entry into the coalition government.” – The Sunday Telegraph

Read David Miliband’s speech to Prospect 2010

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