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Balls scores shadow cabinet goal of the month

17/04/2011, 06:24:08 PM

Shadow chancellor takes 56% of the popular vote

In a runaway victory, Ed Balls received 56% of the votes cast in the inaugural shadow cabinet goal of the month competition for his Commons annihilation of Osborne lackey, Matthew Hancock.

Douglas Alexander was in second place with 14% of the vote for his despatch box humiliation of William Hague with Jon Healey third on 12% for his story on £1bn of cuts to health budgets. Yvette Cooper and Jim Murphy were tied in fourth on 9% each for their respective nominations on police cuts and Commons urgent questions to the MoD.

The face-off went out live just before 2pm on the 24th March but with a tiny audience. Before featuring in the Uncut goal of the month competition, Balls’ exchange with Hancock had been a hit in the Westminster village.

A senior Tory public affairs operator remarked that Balls “dishing Hancock” had even generated “a lot of online buzz” in Conservative circles, where Hancock is viewed as promising but inexperienced and prone to arrogance.

For those in the country who managed to see it on the Parliamentary channel, the reaction was immediate. Posting in the comments section of the Uncut piece, Mark Allen, a constituent of Hancock’s in West Suffolk, recalled,

“Remember watching it live and had to rewind the skybox and the wife in to watch…Car crash TV for the Tories”

The impact on Hancock was revealed the day after his mauling. In an unusual move, he was driven to comment on his website to try to have the last word on what had initially been a minor parliamentary intervention on shadow chancellor.

But it was notable that he didn’t directly deny any of Balls’ string of charges.

Victory in the goal of the month competition caps a weekend of football related success for Ed Balls. His beloved Norwich City beat Nottingham Forest to move within one point of automatic promotion from the Championship.

Its progress he will be hoping to replicate in his brief as he continues to take the fight to the Tories.

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Uncut presents the shadow cabinet goal of the month competition

15/04/2011, 07:00:07 AM

by Atul Hatwal

Readers to choose from Alexander, Balls, Cooper, Healey and Murphy to pick best performance

Back in January, Uncut launched a monthly shadow cabinet league table. It tracks shadow cabinet members’ effort in Parliament and outside in the media. But, effort, while a useful measure, isn’t the whole picture. One frequent comment has been that the table focuses only on process and effort, whereas it is important to looking at results as well.

Fair point.

We present the shadow cabinet goal of the month competition.

The contest has been developed to recognise the successes in the shadow cabinet, based the impact they have had.

Judging quality is a subjective business. One person’s barnstorming performance at the despatch box is another’s unhinged rant. And that’s where you, the Uncut public come in.

Five examples of the shadow cabinet at their best have been painstakingly sifted from the past month’s action in the Commons and the media. They are set out here for you to consider and then cast your vote to award the most prestigious title in Labour politics – Uncut shadow cabinet goal of the month.

As with the league, this isn’t intended to be the be all and end all, but it gives a view of recent highlights.

This month’s five contenders are, in alphabetical order: Douglas Alexander, Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper, John Healey and Jim Murphy.

1. Alexander fells the great white buffalo

William Hague came into office with a reputation as a sparkling Commons performer, an elder statesman with experience as a cabinet minister and a general wit and raconteur. He was deputy leader of the Conservative party in all but name.

How the mighty have fallen.

And in that fall, Douglas Alexander deserves his share of credit.

Questionable personal decisions and Foreign Office bungling might have taken their toll on Hague, but without Alexander’s work-rate and scrutiny, the impact on the Foreign Secretary’s effectiveness would have remained unexposed.

The exchange between Alexander and Hague over the bizarre secret mission in Libya which ended with the Benghazi rebels arresting the British party provides a parliamentary snapshot of the moment a big beast was felled.

As ever with the Commons, piercing wit was the weapon.

Alexander’s deadpan delivery of an expertly framed analogy succinctly demonstrated the true absurdity of the situation. It delivered Hague his worst moment in the Commons in over twenty years. (more…)

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The week Uncut

09/04/2011, 10:20:56 AM

In case you missed them, these were the best read pieces on Uncut in the last seven days:

Ed Balls says this week saw another black Wednesday for millions of Britons

Ex gen sec Peter Watt offers some advice for interested applicants

Dan Hodges asks why don’t we try and find out why we lost?

Tom Watson says letter from director of public prosecutions discredits Met testimony

Atul Hatwal offers up an Old Politics case for AV

Recovering intern, Sabrina Francis, thinks there must be a better way

…and Tom Harris takes aim at Ollie Letwin in this weeks half a minute Harris

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The Tories’ give and take, take, take

06/04/2011, 12:01:05 AM

by Ed Balls

Today will be a black Wednesday for millions of families across Britain.

David Cameron promised to lead the most family-friendly government ever. George Osborne said we’re all in this together. So why are their changes to tax and benefits, which come into force today, hitting women harder than men? And why are they taking so much support from children: with families on low and middle incomes being hit the hardest of all?

We’ve been through a global financial crisis; not a recession made in Britain. And, like every major economy in the world, we now have a big challenge to get the deficit down. So there have to be tough decisions. They will include some spending cuts, fair tax rises, like the 50p top rate of tax for the richest, and the national insurance rise we proposed last year.

But as we have consistently argued, by making a political choice to cut the deficit further and faster than any other major country, George Osborne is going too deep and too fast. He is putting jobs and growth at risk. And he is doing so in an unfair way, giving the banks a tax cut this year while low and middle income families are hit hard.

This month families aren’t just seeing their national insurance contributions go up. David Cameron and George Osborne have gone further and faster: with a big hike in VAT, cuts to tax credits, cuts to childcare support and a three year child benefit freeze as well. (more…)

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Wednesday News Review

06/04/2011, 12:00:57 AM

Tory tax bombshell

Working families face losing up to £1,560 a year from Wednesday under the coalition’s new tax and benefit regime, the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, has claimed, triggering a row with the Treasury, which said that only the richest 20% will lose out. A raft of tax and benefit measures kick in on Wednesday, the first day of the new tax year. Tax threshold increases, child benefit and working tax credits are frozen and the rate of childcare element of the working tax credit is reduced from 80% to 70% of the total costs. Balls said the reforms amounted to a “black Wednesday” for families but the Treasury insisted the increase in the personal tax allowance in particular meant only the richest would be significantly worse off. – the Guardian

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said that what he called “Black Wednesday” would hit women with children hardest of all. According to the Treasury figures, a dual-earner couple with one child and a combined income of £25,000 will be £12 a week better off, a dual-earner couple with two children on £60,000 will gain £5 a week, and a lone parent with one child on £12,500 will gain £10 a week. In contrast, a single-earner couple with no children on £170,000 will lose out to the tune of £35 a week. However Labour published figures compiled by the independent House of Commons Library which, it said, showed that a couple with three children, with each parent earning £26,000, would lose more than £1,700 a year if the VAT rise is taken into account. Mr Balls said: “Today will be a Black Wednesday for millions of families across Britain. David Cameron promised to lead the most family-friendly government ever and George Osborne said we’re all in this together,” he said. “So why are their changes to tax and benefits coming into force today hitting women harder than men and taking so much support from children, with families on low and middle incomes being hit the hardest of all?” – Press Association

Back to basics for NHS reforms

The Deputy Prime Minister would only say that he agreed with the “basic ideas” of the unpopular Health and Social Care Bill and added that the Government must now “get the details right”. He also said that some fears over the legislation would be dispelled “when we’re able to explain what’s going on”, in a further sign that senior Cabinet ministers now admit the public has little understanding of the biggest planned changes in the 63-year history of the NHS, which will see power to buy treatment handed from managers to family doctors and private companies allowed to provide most services. Mr Clegg’s forthright comments, made both in the House of Commons and to the BBC, add to the sense that the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, is being sidelined having tried to plough ahead with the Bill in the face of overwhelming opposition from the medical profession, which fears it will prove hugely disruptive at a time when the NHS is trying to save £20billion and may also lead to privatisation by the back door. – Daily Telegraph

The Liberal Democrats will demand five major changes to the Government’s flagship health reforms as the price of securing their passage through Parliament. Nick Clegg’s party is threatening to join forces with Labour to dilute the NHS and Social Care Bill unless Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, agrees to make the changes sought by the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference last month. David Cameron and Mr Clegg will press Mr Lansley to implement at least some of the Liberal Democrat ideas. But the Health Secretary is digging in against major surgery. “He sees is it as a problem of communication,” one Cabinet source said yesterday. “That is not how others see it.” – the Independent

Calamity Clegg curse strikes again

Nick Clegg was last night branded a hypocrite after attacking internships for the rich, then admitting his dad got him one with a friend’s bank. The Deputy PM said the top jobs market was rigged in favour of the privileged as he unveiled a bid to boost social mobility. But it was revealed he got unpaid work at a Finnish bank through his father Nicholas, and the Lib Dems routinely use interns. Labour’s John Mann said: “It is hypocrisy to attack interns when he enjoyed the advantages of family connections himself.” – Daily Mirror

However, it has emerged Mr Clegg secured the first of three internships after his father, Nicholas, chairman of United Trust Bank, “had a word” with a friend, who worked at a Finnish bank. The Deputy Prime Minister worked there after he left the £10,000-a-term Westminster School and before he started at Cambridge University. His spokesman said: “He had help through family connections. Someone in his family knew someone in the bank.” He con-firmed it was Mr Clegg’s father. In the Commons, former Labour minister Hazel Blears asked Mr Clegg if he had ever employed unpaid interns. The DPM replied: “As leader of the Liberal Democrats I can confirm from today we are making sure advertisements for internships are done in a manner which are name and school blind, so there’s a complete level playing field, and that proper remuneration is provided.” – Daily Herald

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Sunday News Review

27/03/2011, 06:59:24 AM

The day after the march before

Did Mr Miliband mess up? In a way, he had wretched luck. The main trade union march was strikingly peaceful. There were small children and babies in prams, and lots of marchers sitting down having picnics. The marchers were overwhelmingly public sector workers, and in real terms that meant the park was crammed with health visitors, nurses, teachers, college lecturers, tax inspectors and council town hall staff. Compared to the angry entitlement brigade I had met the previous day at Labour’s People’s Policy Forum in Nottingham, the TUC marchers were reasonable people. I made a point of asking scores of marchers whether they thought the cuts should be scrapped full stop, or whether they thought some cuts were inevitable. A big majority took the latter view: these were Keynesians not flat-earthers in the main. All were friendly and happy to talk. Mr Miliband was also unlucky because the number of violent protestors was, by all accounts, small. A few hundred people vandalised branches of high street stores and banks they accuse of avoiding taxes, staged an occupation of Fortnum & Mason, the venerable Piccadilly grocers, and attacked police officers with flares and fireworks. He also repeated his honesty of Friday, telling the rally that: “I believe there is a need for difficult choices and some cuts”, though this earned him boos. But, that said, his ill-luck was also entirely predictable. Two days before the march, I found websites rallying protestors to launch physical attacks on shops in Oxford Street on Saturday, after about 10 seconds of Googling. – the Economist

It was the timing that Labour’s high command had been dreading. At the very moment their party leader began his speech at the anti-cuts rally in Hyde Park, anarchists wearing masks and waving red flags began attacking shops and banks in Oxford Street. For several minutes, live television pictures of the violence were accompanied by words from Ed Miliband. The speech could not have been further away in tone from the actions of the mindless minority. Nevertheless, the warning privately expressed by some in Labour’s high command that Mr Miliband should not be anywhere near Saturday’s events appeared to have been vindicated. The juxtaposition overshadowed the central point of Mr Miliband’s speech – an attempt to turn David Cameron’s Big Society against the Prime Minister. – the Telegraph

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls was briefly heckled by an anti-paedophile demonstrator as he joined the march at Embankment. The man had to be pushed away by stewards after squaring up to Mr Balls as he stopped to speak to reporters. Mr Balls said: “It’s really important that people from all political parties, trade unions, managers, private sector, public sector and parents from up and down the country say these cuts are too deep and too fast. Employment is going up, people are saying there are less police offices, less teaching assistants. There needs to be a better way, a fairer alternative. We don’t want to go back to the 1980s, which Cameron talks about as being a good era. It was an era of strikes and confrontation. Labour is saying there has to be a fairer alternative.” Mr Balls said Labour leader Ed Miliband, due to speak in Hyde Park, had wanted to join the march but had been told not to on police advice. – the Mirror

Clegg’s calamities continue

The Deputy Prime Minister has commissioned a complete rethink of Lib Dem strategy amid rumblings about his stewardship at the highest level. Insiders say senior party figures including Chris Huhne, a former leadership contender, have been jockeying for position behind the scenes. Rumours about Mr Clegg’s leadership have emerged after mounting discontent among party members in the country who are furious at the direction the party has been taking in government. Rank and file activists, who are more left wing than Mr Clegg, reject many of the more right wing policies adopted by their leader since he entered into coalition with the Tories. Mr Huhne, who ran Mr Clegg close in the last Lib Dem leadership election, has told colleagues privately that he would be interested in leading his party in the future. The rebranding exercise due to get under way next month will involve a total rethink of the party’s direction and could even include changing the name and logo, It is also feared the Lib Dems could lose up to 500 council seats in the local elections, further destabilising Mr Clegg. The Lib Dem leadership rules state that a leader can be removed by a vote of no confidence passed by a majority of MPs or by a statement calling on him to go submitted by 75 local constituency parties. – the Telegraph (more…)

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Ed Balls’ commitment problem

18/03/2011, 07:00:09 AM

By Atul Hatwal

It’s been a tumultuous week. Quite rightly, the attention of the nation has been fixed on developments in Japan and Libya. Domestic politics has seemed less important.

But something big did also happen over here – and it wasn’t the launch of Labour’s opposing, yeah-but-no-but, AV campaigns.

On Monday, the two Eds gave a press conference on Labour’s tests for the budget. In the midst of what’s happening around the world, it didn’t get acres of coverage.

Setting aside the sight of head girl Justine Greening leading the Tory response, talking about “gi-noor-mous” holes in credibility on the BBC, presumably before returning to the treasury for lashings of ginger beer, the exchange seemed unremarkable.

But underneath the prosaic was something quite important. Labour developed its approach on the economy.

Before Monday, the position was straightforward. The government is cutting too far, too fast. Labour’s alternative is the Darling plan, halving the structural deficit over four years. In comparison, the Tory plan is to fully eliminate the deficit over a similar period.

So over the course of the parliament, Labour’s policy is for spending to be higher than the Tories to the tune of 50% of the structural deficit. This might not help reassure the 41% of voters who solely blame spending by the last Labour government for the cuts, but it is at least clear. (more…)

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Tuesday News Review

15/03/2011, 06:53:42 AM

Don’t ruin it Nick

Relations between Labour and the Liberal Democrats were back in the deep freeze yesterday after Ed Miliband branded Nick Clegg a vote-loser and refused to share a platform with him. Liberal Democrats accused Labour of “student politics” after Mr Miliband declined to appear alongside Mr Clegg at a rally to campaign for a Yes vote in the May referendum on electoral reform. Both leaders support a switch to the alternative vote (AV) and, despite Labour’s anger at the Liberal Democrats for entering into a coalition with the Conservatives, figures in both parties who want to keep alive the prospect of a Lib-Lab deal after the 2015 election had hoped that co-operation on electoral reform might break the ice. Mr Miliband had agreed to share a platform with the former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, but pulled out after Mr Clegg insisted on taking part. Today’s rally has now been called off. Labour is worried that a high-profile role for Mr Clegg could harm the Yes campaign, but their squabble is a setback for supporters of change. – the Independent

It should have seen a kickstart to the yes to AV campaign, with Ed Miliband, Charles Kennedy and Caroline Lucas happily sharing a platform in the cause of reform. These three yes leaders share quite a few other core values. But then Nick Clegg demanded to be there, and the whole thing fell apart. Miliband’s people say their man will share a platform with anyone who will draw support towards the yes campaign – but not with someone who repels voters. These days Clegg is about as voter-repellent as it’s possible to be. As far as Labour is concerned, if Clegg wants to win this referendum he had better get under his duvet and stay there until his alarm clock goes off when it’s over. Can Clegg swallow his pride and stay away? Even though the remnants of his political career may depend on winning this referendum, the auguries are not good. Ed’s people claim that Clegg banned Kennedy from appearing. The Cleggites deny it – to which the Edites reply, then fix another day for Kennedy to appear without Clegg. If not Kennedy, sendPaddy Ashdown or Shirley Williams. Send popular faces the public trust – just don’t send the most toxic man in British politics, the man who promised “new politics” then broke more promises than most politicians ever make in the first place. Nobody believes a word he says. He is the no-to-AV campaign’s golden asset. – Polly Toynbee, the Guardian

Balls-up

Ed Balls sparked fury yesterday by using the Japanese earthquake to attack George Osborne. He claimed the Chancellor will use the tragedy as an excuse for Britain’s poor growth. The Shadow Chancellor said: “It won’t be good enough if George Osborne stands up next week in the Budget and says the reason he has to downgrade his growth forecast is the cold winter, or the Irish bailout or because of the spike in world oil prices or the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake.” Mr Balls waded in as he and and leader Ed Miliband launched Labour’s plans to use a £2billion bank tax to create 110,000 jobs. Shocked Labour and Tory MPs said it was unacceptable for Mr Balls to exploit the horror in which 450 Brits are missing. Senior Labour MP Roger Godsiff, chairman of Parliament’s all-party British-Japan group, said: “I would not have said what he said. – the Sun

Six months after becoming Labour leader and four months after saying that “in terms of policy, we start with a blank page”, Ed Miliband has finally started to fill the void. His joint press conference yesterday with Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, was billed as a pre-Budget economic policy statement. It was nothing of the sort. About the crippling deficit Labour left behind, there was barely a word. Instead, we were treated to another round of banker-bashing populism combined with a promise to spend large amounts of money. Has Labour learnt nothing from its decade-long spending spree that left the country in penury? Mr Miliband claimed that another levy on bankers’ bonuses would raise £2? billion to fund house building, youth employment and the regional growth fund, creating 110,000 new jobs, a figure that seems to have been plucked from the air. The plan conveniently ignores the fact that his predecessor Gordon Brown said the “one-off” levy on bankers’ bonuses he introduced in 2009 could not be repeated because the banks would restructure their remuneration packages to avoid a second hit. And even if it did produce the £2?billion claimed by Mr Miliband, that would still be less overall than the Coalition’s own permanent bank levy generates. But then the feasibility of the proposal is not relevant – for Labour is not currently in the business of credible economics. Look at the stern injunction Messrs Miliband and Balls issued to the shadow cabinet last month, insisting that all policy statements with financial implications be cleared with them. Since then, Labour has – according to detailed new Tory costings – made £12?billion of unfunded spending commitments. Its addiction to spending is as powerful as ever. – Daily Telegraph

Doctors take on health reforms

Doctors are set to deliver another blow to Andrew Lansley’s faltering NHS reforms today – by lambasting them at a specially convened conference. Some 350 delegates have been summoned to London for an emergency meeting of the British Medical Association to discuss dozens of motions highly critical of the Health Secretary’s policies/ And the medical profession may even declare at the meeting that it has no confidence in Mr Lansley. The meeting is expected to confirm that most doctors are firmly opposed to the controversial proposals to hand £80billion of the Health Service budget to GPs. Doctors are expected to claim his changes will worsen patient care, squander billions of pounds and threaten the principles of the NHS. Their motions will lay bare a nightmare scenario under which services could be cut, waiting times could lengthen and hospital departments could close – as a direct result of the reforms. It tops an awful few days for the embattled Health Secretary, whose controversial NHS reforms are coming in for mounting criticism. – Daily Mail

A hastily-called meeting of the British Medical Association (BMA) will debate a series of motions that are highly critical of the Government’s health reforms. It is the first Special Representative Meeting in 19 years, a measure of how angry many doctors are over plans to give more power to GPs and introduce more private competition into the NHS. Mr Lansley faces three motions of no confidence. Another motion criticises the Health Secretary of cynical and misleading use of statistics to justify the reforms. And Mr Lansley is even likened to a used-car salesman in another motion, for implementing a radical shake-up when he had said before the general election that there would be no major changes to the NHS. – Sky News

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Friday News Review

11/03/2011, 06:35:37 AM

Coalition could field candidates at the next election

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are to change the law to allow them to put up joint candidates using a single emblem on the ballot paper, Labour claimed on the eve of the Lib Dem conference in Sheffield. The Cabinet Office minister Mark Harper pushed legal changes through the Commons this week that will allow two parties to field a candidate under a single emblem for mayoral elections. He said he intended to introduce a similar system for the next general election, probably by using a bill introducing individual voter registration. Harper said: “It is the government’s intention to fix it ahead of the general election so that those candidates who stand for more than one political party will be happy.” Chris Bryant, the shadow constititutional affairs minister, said: “Perhaps the Conservative and Liberal Democrats should merge their logos. They could have a bird in a tree. I would suggest a dodo.” Coalition sources maintained the changes to the law were not a contingency plan designed to pave the way for a joint Tory-Lib Dem ticket. Instead they said the change was designed to help the Labour and Co-operative party put up a single candidate. But any sign of plans for a longer-term deal will be viewed with intense suspicion by Lib Dem members. A strategy motion from the executive for the party’s conference in Sheffield says it must do more to assert its independence. – the Guardian

Tory and Lib Dem MPs will be able to stand as joint Coalition candidates at the next election under controversial plans privately put in motion this week. Ministers are to change the law to allow candidates standing for two parties at the same time to put a joint emblem on the ballot paper. That paves the way for an electoral pact between the Coalition partners at the next election – a controversial move that would anger the grassroots supporters of both parties. The door has been opened to Tory and Lib Dems agreeing local peace pacts with one candidate representing them both – perhaps under a logo combining the yellow Liberal Democrat bird with the Tory oak tree. It opens the door to Tory and Lib Dems agreeing local peace pacts with one candidate representing them both – perhaps under a logo combining the yellow Liberal Democrat bird with the Tory oak tree. At the moment, a candidate standing for more than one party cannot put either party’s logo on the ballot paper – an anomaly that discriminates against a coalition pact. But earlier this week the Government quietly pushed through a change in the law which allows those who stand for mayor or in local council elections to use a Coalition logo. Candidates for mayoral or local council elections can use a Coalition logo. Constitutional Affairs Minister Mark Harper wants the same rules for the general election. Now Constitutional Affairs Minister Mark Harper has revealed that he will introduce primary legislation in the Commons to push through the same rules for the general election – in time for the next nationwide poll in 2015. – Daily Mail (more…)

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When it comes to tax, it’s the politics, stupid.

01/03/2011, 12:00:46 PM

by Rob Marchant

Not content with the questionable strategy – not to mention gift to David Cameron – of our insisting on the extension of 50% tax band indefinitely, Ed Balls has now indicated in a Progress interview that he is also thinking about lowering the threshold of the band. It was one of his leadership campaign pledges.

Doubtless, we could usefully use the money to invest in public services. But before we get into the classic Labour argument of how much money you can make, or not make, by taxing the rich, let us pause for thought and consider the following argument.

It. Doesn’t. Matter.

The question now is political, not economic. It is about perceived competence. About being in opposition, not government, and its impact on the way we do things and, most importantly, about our electoral future. These are things that both Blair and Brown keenly understood, and that is why they were successful. (more…)

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