Posts Tagged ‘David’

The Diane Abbott interview

09/06/2010, 01:05:45 PM

UPDATE: Diane Abbott has secured 33 nominations and will be on the Labour leadership ballot paper.

This was the second in our series of crowdsourced interviews with the leadership contenders.

Diane spoke to us last night at her office in Westminster, where everyone was keenly monitoring her leadership support with hours left until nominations closed.

She was completely unphased by your questions, which included her son’s private education, the demographic of her leadership opponents and how much she is paid by the BBC.

Q. (From Derek) You and John McDonnell both have solid socialist credentials, but isn’t there a danger that in standing you will split the left vote? I don’t really want the wishy washy alternative of the other 4 candidates. What are your thoughts?

A. There always was a tendency to say that if women stood it split the vote. I think that there is the politics that I’m on the left, and have as good a voting record on left wing issues as John McDonnell, but there’s another issue which is about gender.  It’s not so much that I stood against John, but that John stood against me.

Q. John McDonnell’s come out and said that if it means getting a woman on the ballot, he’ll stand down. In that case, do you wish he’d never stood in the first place?

A. I think it would have been easier if he hadn’t stood. If he was committed to gender issues it would have been easier if he hadn’t. Initially, it was very difficult for either of us to gain momentum. If there’d been just one of us standing then that person would have gained momentum much quicker. (more…)

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The Ed Balls interview

27/05/2010, 12:07:36 PM

Labour Uncut interviewed Ed Balls on Tuesday evening.  We couldn’t ask all the questions you submitted.  There were far too many.  We gave Ed the option of whether or not to answer questions – in this Labour leadership interview – from people who clearly weren’t Labour members or supporters.  He chose to answer, and we’ve included several.

Ed’s is the first of our leadership candidate interviews.  We were impressed by his focus and presence.  It will be great if the rest are as good.

Q. (From Alex R) When the leadership candidates say that they were guilty of ‘not listening’ enough in the last government, how and why were you not listening? What steps would you take to listen sufficiently if you had another opportunity?

A. I think our problems about not listening started much earlier than the last Parliament. I think one of the great frustrations that we had in the election campaign, and in my case the year before, was that many of the things people were upset about, like public housing, the impact of unskilled immigration on terms and conditions, the obstacle of upfront tuition fees for young people going to university – these were issues we’d actually addressed.  We’d put in place controls on immigration; John Healy was leading a big expansion on public housing; we’d got rid of upfront tuition fees.  But the public weren’t hearing at that time what we were saying and it takes time for policy decisions to feed through to the reality of peoples lives.

I think the truth is that the time when we weren’t listening enough was probably during the second term in Government.  My election campaign for the last 18 months has been all about repeated public meetings, listening to people and their issues – and lots of other MPs who were successful in their campaigns did the same thing in this last couple of years.  If we’d been doing that five years earlier we’d have made different and better policy decisions at an earlier stage.

So your politics can’t be about telling communities what you’ve concluded; it’s got to be about asking them, listening to the voices of people who need us on their side and responding.  That’s what I mean by listening. (more…)

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Wednesday News Review

19/05/2010, 06:58:03 AM

Ed Balls to join leadership race

“Mr Balls will travel to the Midlands today to give a speech from Gedling, Nottinghamshire, a marginal constituency which Labour unexpectedly held at the election. Its MP, Vernon Coaker, is among those backing Mr Balls. His declaration takes the number of leadership candidates to three. David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, and his younger brother, Ed, had been the only others to officially launch their leadership bids.” – The Independent

“Ed Balls will announce tomorrow that he will join the race to replace Gordon Brown, as Labour opted for a marathon timetable to elect a new leader. The party’s ruling executive committee responded to calls for a cathartic contest by laying out a four-month battle lasting through the summer. The new leader will be announced on the first Saturday of the party’s annual conference in September. Balls, the former schools secretary, will launch his bid while visiting two marginal constituencies in the Midlands. At the general election, the party lost one of the seats and gained the other.” – The Guardian

“David Cameron and Nick Clegg must be delighted that no women, ethnic minority candidates or working class men have entered the Labour leadership race. Assuming Ed Balls throws his hat into the ring today, he’ll be the third white, middle class man to enter the fray, joining Ed and David Miliband.” – Toby Young, The Telegraph

“The ex-Schools Secretary will join David and Ed Miliband in trying to succeed Gordon Brown. Labour bosses said yesterday the new leader will be named on September 25, the first day of the annual conference. Mr Balls, a close political ally of Mr Brown, will get heavyweight backing from trade unions.” – The Sun

“Mr Balls is expected to formally announce his candidacy today. David and Ed Miliband have already confirmed they are in the running. Andy Burnham, who was Health Secretary under Gordon Brown, is also expected to stand. Jon Cruddas, a backbencher who had been tipped to take part in the contest, has said that he will not be a candidate. Left-wing MP John McDonnell will also announce tomorrow that he intends to stand.” – Sky News

The leadership contest

“It is a tragedy for Labour that the best woman for the job isn’t even standing for the party’s leadership. Yvette Cooper would expose David Cameron and Nick Clegg as a couple of out-of-touch posh boys just by appearing at a TV podium. Persuasive and articulate, this comprehensive-educated daughter of a trade union leader is a family-friendly politician. And that’s a significant reason why the mum-of-three isn’t running. The former cabinet minister is ambitious, but not so ambitious that she’d trade her life for a thankless post with uncertain prospects.” – The Mirror

“The design specifications are exact: fortysomething Oxbridge boys who approach ideological difference through their choice of ties, who understand the importance of political stagecraft and who see no difference between “the country” and television’s demographics. Since the creation of the Blair template, they have become, as Labour is discovering, compulsory. They have to be young(ish), therefore energetic, therefore new, therefore capable of associating their brands with the word “change”. A foreigner might have difficulty in distinguishing between a Cameron, a Clegg and a Miliband (any Miliband) in an identity parade, but that’s of no account, least of all to the contestants.” – The Herald

“THE BATTLE for the Labour Party leadership is expected to intensify today with a declaration by former cabinet minister Ed Balls, but a row is looming over the decision to close off nominations next week. Even though the election will not be decided until Labour’s September annual conference, the party’s national executive committee yesterday decided that nominations would close tomorrow week. Gordon Brown’s replacement will be chosen by an electoral college split three ways between MPs, Labour Party members and union members who have not opted out of paying a political levy.” – The Irish Times

GB tried to resign before election

“Gordon Brown drafted a speech on the eve of the general election campaign setting out plans to stand down within a year of the poll, but was persuaded by senior ministers not to go ahead. At a meeting on the eve of the election, his proposal to announce his plan to stand down was supported by David Muir, his director of political strategy and chief polling adviser. But Ed Balls, Lord Mandelson and Douglas Alexander argued against the idea.” – The Guardian

“Supported by David Muir, his director of political strategy and chief polling adviser, Brown announced his plan at a meeting on the eve of the election campaign, but was dissuaded by Ed Balls, Lord Mandelson and Douglas Alexander. According to an adviser Mr Brown had even drafted a speech setting out his intentions because he saw himself as a barrier to Labour’s re-election.” – The Telegraph

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Let’s hope the candidates out-perform the campaigns

18/05/2010, 09:32:59 AM

So far, the leadership campaigns have been pretty shambolic. There is no sense that any of the contenders have a pre-assembled team which has kicked into operation.  Rather, they all seem disorientated by the lack not only of the civil service support to which they’re accustomed, but even of what remains of the Labour apparatus which served them as best it could during the election.
 
The nearest to organised is Balls.  In part this is just because his core team – in keeping with his niche in the party – boasts better organisers.  People like Tom Watson, Ian Austin, Michael Dugher and John Spellar may not exactly have ‘rainbow coalition’ or ‘next Labour’ printed on their t-shirts, but they are well acquainted with the mechanics both of internal elections and of external spin.
 
Balls is also the one who has done the most work over the last five years.  He’s the only one who’s been assiduously traipsing round the Friday night rubber chicken circuit of local Labour parties since 2005.  He has made the most effort to court the unions, and starts ahead in that section of the electoral college.  And he has worked harder than David Miliband, though perhaps not than Ed, at convincing his fellow Labour MPs to like him. (more…)

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