Posts Tagged ‘Alan Johnson’

Monday News Review

10/01/2011, 06:25:39 AM

Leaders clash over youth jobs

David Cameron has betrayed a generation of young people by denying them help to get a job, Labour leader EdMiliband will say today. The Prime Minister has summoned businesses chiefs to talks today on boosting employment. But Mr Miliband accused the him of ignoring the problem of youth joblessness, which is at its highest level for a quarter of a century. In March the Tory-led Government will end the Future Jobs Fund, which provides 100,000 places for under 25s, but the “work programme” which replaces it will not start until June. Speaking at a press conference in London, Mr Miliband will warn that Mr Cameron is repeating Margaret Thatcher’s mistakes, which led to the creation of a “lost generation” in the 1980s. Mr Miliband will say: “The first thing Mr Cameron should be addressing at his meeting today is the risk of a lost generation of young people in this country. “There will be a looming gap in the help given to unemployed young people. “This decision to betray young people is not just unfair it is the wrong long-term economic judgement.” – The Mirror

The key political battleground of employment will flare up today as David Cameron meets 20 leading multinational companies which have pledged to create jobs in Britain, and Labour mounts a campaign attacking the Coalition on youth unemployment. Ed Miliband is warning that thousands of young people face a “looming gap” when they look for help to find work because of the Coalition’s plans to scrap the Future Jobs Fund.But Mr Cameron counters that 300,000 private-sector jobs have been created in the past six months and he has plans to unveil more job pledges today. He hopes that by enlisting the support of large companies, such as McDonald’s, Shell and Toyota, the Government will appear pro-active in delivering jobs. The Prime Minister also gave warning yesterday that trade unions that strike over public-sector job cuts would find they would not be able to “push anyone around”. Speaking on the BBC, he said the Government was ready to talk about the impact of cuts but would not be forced into changing tack. “Striking is not going to achieve anything and the trade unions need to know they are not going to be able to push anyone around by holding this strike or that strike or even a whole lot of strikes together – they can forget it,” he said. – The Independent

Johnson jibes

Alan Johnson has been dogged by claims that he is not knowledgeable enough to be an effective opponent to George Osborne in times of economic hardship.His latest slip was seized upon by both Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats as an example of his lightweight ability. Mr Johnson appeared on Sky News on Sunday to criticise the Coalition Government’s announcement that VAT will rise to 20 per cent, a move he described as “fiscal fundamentalism”. Labour wants to increase national insurance as a way of tackling the deficit. Accused of being an economic “novice”, Mr Johnson said: “The accusation of economic novice is that when you take over a new job, you have to ensure that you bone up on these things.” A few seconds later, presenter Dermot Murnaghan asked the shadow minister to give the current rate of employers’ national insurance contributions. Mr Johnson tried to avoid the question before he said it would increase by one per cent, rising from 20 per cent to 21 per cent. Mr Murnaghan interrupted, to say: “Sorry, National Insurance, employers’ secondary class one-rate for employers, stands at the moment at …?” There was an awkward pause where Mr Johnson appeared unable to answer before the presenter came to his rescue, telling him the figure of 12.8 per cent. Mr Murnaghan went on: “Right, OK, I helped you out there. Just out of interest, there is still a lot to learn for you in terms of the job.” – The Telegraph (more…)

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Friday News Review

19/11/2010, 06:30:47 AM

Offensive Lord sparks row

The Prime Minister’s enterprise adviser said a drop in mortgage rates “since this so-called recession” had left most people better off. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, the Conservative peer also said “people will wonder what all the fuss was about” when looking back at the Government’s spending cuts, the deepest in more than 30 years. He described the loss of about 100,000 public-sector jobs a year as being within “the margin of error” in the context of the 30 million-strong job market as a whole. – Telegraph

In a sign of Number 10’s desperation to pour cold water on the comments, Lord Young’s apology was issued before the newspaper carrying the interview containing his remarks had even hit the news-stands. He wrote a letter to Mr Cameron to “apologise profoundly” for his “insensitive and inaccurate” comments. – Independent

His remarks were seen as an offensive throwback to Thatcher-era harsh rhetoric, and are bound to lead to Labour calls for his dismissal as enterprise tsar on the grounds he is totally out of touch with the squeeze on living standards almost all voters are experiencing. Lord Young wrote to Cameron last night to apologise and express his “profound regrets”. He described his comments as insensitive, adding: “I am not a member of the government and played no part in the spending review. I deeply regret the comments and I entirely understand the offence they will cause. “I should have chosen my words more carefully. Low mortgage rates may have eased the burden for some families in this country. But millions of families face very difficult and anxious times.” – Guardian

Rift in the ranks

Shadow chancellor Alan Johnson today denied he is rocking Labour’s boat by urging new rules to weaken union influence. He told a journalist that future leadership contests should be changed to prevent members of trade unions and affiliated organisations from having more than one vote. “We did not go far enough, the party was half-reformed and we need to return to it,” he said, referring to Tony Blair’s internal reforms in the 1990s. Tories seized on his comment as evidence of a new rift between him and leader Ed Miliband, whose victory over brother David was achieved with strong union backing. – Evening Standard

Labour may be riding high in the polls, but according to Labour insider Dan Hodges in this week’s New Statesman, there is growing discord within the party supposedly united after Ed Miliband’s election. “Ed Miliband’s team are terrified of Ed Balls and Yvette. They think they’re going to come and try and kill him. And the reason they think that is because they will,” he told Hodges. “There’s a sense of a vacuum developing,” he continued. “People are looking for leadership and direction. And at the moment, they’re not getting it,” according to one shadow minister. – New Statesman

As Alan Johnson sparks off a debate on Labour party democracy, how might the party reform itself? With a recent history of expanding fairness in the country, Labour should now turn to its own internal workings. How democratic is a system where one person, who isn’t necessarily a member of the Labour party, has a number of votes, depending on how many trade unions or socialist societies they are members of? Yet a Labour party member of 60 years’ standing receives only one? How fair is it that 9 per cent of the membership of affiliated trade unions carries the same electoral weight as 72 per cent of Labour party individual membership? How fair is it that some people are allowed to vote on the basis of being ‘Labour party supporters’ but all L5s aren’t allowed to? The answer is it is not very fair at all. – Teddy Ryan, Progress (more…)

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If reform means breaking the link then we will lose

18/11/2010, 03:59:42 PM

by Tom Watson

One of the most difficult meetings I have taken part in was when I defied Gordon Brown at a sub-committee of the NEC. He had been convinced of the need to impose a candidate in Nottingham East by outgoing general secretary of the Labour party, Ray Collins. The general election had been called and there was little time to organise a last minute selection of members.

Collins was worried about the amount of time that would be diverted from campaigning in key seats. On balance, he was probably right, but I felt very strongly that members should ultimately decide who their Parliamentary candidate should be, even if it was at a quickly convened meeting. The vote was won by one, after Dianne Hayter, in a last minute shift and out of deference to Gordon, conceded on her avowed opposition to impositions. I voted against him. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.

Up until the Nottingham decision the last candidate to be imposed by the leadership of the party was a general secretary of a powerful trade union, Alan Johnson. I thought of that moment today when I read Alan’s comments in the Times newspaper. Alan wants to introduce full one-member-one-vote rules for electing our leader like the ones we have for selecting our MPs.

“It can be one member four votes and that’s wrong”, says Alan. He may be right about that. The current system of an electoral college allows multiple votes in different sections all having an unequal value, with a trade union levy payer vote having the least value and an MPs vote having the most value. One MPs vote was worth hundreds of trade unionist votes in the leadership election. Many people think that unfair. (more…)

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John Woodcock finds glimmers of hope amid the grey

25/10/2010, 09:00:00 AM

And so we charge on into the new landscape. It is cold and bleak. And it is dominated by the comprehensive spending review.

While I am not as pessimistic as some Uncut contributors (you, Dan Hodges) about how the announcement played out last week, we shouldn’t for a moment think it was a good week for the Labour party, or, more importantly, for the country.

Even accounting for a little slanting of questions and selective reporting of the answers, the YouGov poll in last week’s Sun was sobering. Taken after the CSR announcement, it suggested that 47 per cent of respondents blamed the last Labour government for the programme of cuts compared to 17 per cent who blamed the Tory-Lib Dem coalition that is making them, and 20 per cent who cast a plague on both our houses. Sure, respondents didn’t get the option to blame the bankers – but even accounting for that bias, the figures suggest that the Tory message machine is having some considerable success. (more…)

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Shadow cabinet: vote for Alan

18/09/2010, 04:01:33 AM

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