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Posts Tagged ‘oona king’

Honour and shame in Tower Hamlets

17/12/2011, 12:30:55 PM

by Dan McCurry

We used to be proud of spreading our ideas around the world. Now we are confused about how we explain our identity to the people who have settled here.

The problem is that we need to understand their culture and identity, before we can explain to them our own. With 3,000 honour crime complaints to the police last year, maybe this is the issue that we’re failing to comprehend.

It would help to understand what happened in Tower Hamlets last year, when the Labour party collapsed in on itself over the selection of Lutfur Rahman as candidate for mayor.

It started out as a conversation about secularism. But we didn’t know it was about secularism, because in school we learn everything there is to know about Martin Luther King, but nothing about Martin Luther. We know about the rights of minorities, but not about the separation of church and state.

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Posted in Grassroots | 16 Comments »

The Week Uncut

29/08/2010, 09:00:01 AM

The ballot papers are in the post. The final days to the leadership vote are marked by ‘fratricide’, suspected Tory tricks and the ever narrowing idea that it’s between two brothers. There’s also another race going on, and the fight for Labour’s mayoral candidacy is just as bitter.

At Uncut, Oona King ruined series one of The Wire, Andy Burnham’s desert island discs turned into a matter of geography, the leadership contenders got the top trumps treatment from our illustrator and Chris Kelly…the puns were all too easy to come by.

In case you missed our week at Uncut, here are our picks.

Milena Popova on the government’s misunderstanding and misuse of information

Labour Leadership Top Trumps

Andy Burnham’s desert island discs

Blair is flipping us the finger, but thats ok, says Dan Hodges.

The Oona King Interview

Stella Creasy talks social mobility

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The Oona King interview: contains Wire spoilers

26/08/2010, 03:30:48 PM

Oona: cute child not included

There are many signs on the wall in Oona King’s campaign office. One states that you may have “tea, or coffee, and MAYBE a biscuit”. A poster charts the details of hot drink preferences for every member of the office (Oona, decaf coffee with milk). Somebody has hand-drawn a week countdown calendar to the ballot on a piece of A4 paper. It is simple but well organised.

Oona’s office is up a tiny spiral staircase. There are dog-sized seagulls staring in at the window of the boathouse-type affair on Heron Quay, but even their squalling, which occasionally drowns out the recording, can’t do much to mask Oona’s cackling laugh. Had we used the Uncut Laughometer for our crowdsourced interviews, Oona’s would have won on the decibel of her laugh alone.

As the campaign staff whisper around the Newsnight team setting up downstairs, Oona perches in heeled patent red boots on her office chair, next to a picture of her model-cute son and cackles away with her spin doctor. (She can’t show us any pictures of her little girl, she explains, because her phone and laptop were stolen at the weekend).

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Posted in Grassroots | 2 Comments »

Crowdsourcing the mayoral race: Oona King

23/08/2010, 11:59:14 AM

The chair is back.

After the success of the leadership crowdsourcing interviews, Labour Uncut is embarking upon a new challenge: crowdsourcing the mayoral selection.

First up is Oona King.

What question would you put to Oona if you could? What would it take for her to win your vote?

We’ll be taking your questions to the mayoral candidate this week.

Get your questions in for Oona by adding them below by midday on Wednesday.

Posted in Grassroots | 12 Comments »

Battle of the stats: Oona King’s campaign manager rebutts Steve Hart

19/08/2010, 08:00:29 PM

This article is a response to an article from Steve Hart based on his pamphlet ‘Who can beat Boris?’

Beware those bearing false statistical comparisons and wishful thinking. Steve Hart’s argument that Ken Livingstone is more popular than Labour is based on a flawed set of assumptions that, don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Steve claims that in 2008 Ken Livingstone out performed London’s MPs in the 2010 general election; and in so doing, he makes a totally false comparison. The mayoral election in 2008 was a London-wide election that was effectively a two-horse race – and voters understood it this way. The Liberal Democrats (and smaller parties) weren’t competitive and many voters simply voted with a major party without going through the charade of transferring their vote.

The general election in London was, in contrast, effectively more than 70 local races. Many of which the Liberal Democrats were competitive in – either where they already held MPs, in say Steve and my own constituency of Hornsey & Wood Green or Richmond or where they were hopeful of taking MPs: Islington South or Hampstead & Kilburn. This meant their vote was motivated to stick with them, rather than to stop their least favorite as was the case in the 2008 mayoral election.

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Posted in Grassroots | 2 Comments »

Who can beat Boris? Ken, argues Steve Hart

17/08/2010, 04:00:21 PM

The London Labour electorate will decide between Ken Livingstone and Oona King on a number of factors. Who has a strategic vision for London? Who can inspire Londoners? Who can defend London against the Tory- LibDem government cuts best? Who has clear policies on London’s economy; for jobs, for transport, for a green future, for diversity, against crime, against poverty? Who has the ability and experience to implement policies effectively? These are just a few of the factors to consider.

But the London selectorate want to be sure that they are electing the candidate with the best prospect of defeating Boris. My paper tries to examine some of the evidence and debunk some of the myths. But the key point is clear – the Ken Livingstone electoral premium makes him the strongest potential candidate for Labour in London.

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The chair of London young Labour says Oona’s ageist attacks are not cool

07/08/2010, 03:44:01 PM

Like many London Labour members, I’ve been keeping a close eye on our mayoral selection, which has galvanised and polarised London activists more than the leadership campaigns.

Several times over the past few weeks, I’ve been struck by negative comments made by Oona King and her campaign highlighting Ken Livingstone’s age.

This blogpost by Oona offers one of the clearest examples:

“And I don’t think Ken Livingstone is the way to go. He may qualify for Britain’s Got Talent but only on UK Gold.” (more…)

Posted in Grassroots | 3 Comments »

Westminster Labour party mayoral hustings: laughometer

30/07/2010, 03:35:50 PM

This is the laughometer from last night’s Westminster Labour Party mayoral hustings, held in the Stow Centre, Harrow Road.

As usual, 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.

It was a particularly dry night as far as laughs were concerned, at least from the candidates. Friend of Uncut and all-round man about town John McTernan chaired the event and kept the spirits up, dispelling the myth that he’s a dour Scotsman.

Ken Livingstone – 1

Oona King – 1

The results were taken by an experienced laughometer operator, who knows the difference between a titter and a roar.

Posted in Inside | No Comments »

Richard Serunjogi says Oona’s got the passion and the pragmatism

30/07/2010, 08:35:24 AM

I managed to resist the tingling temptation to scribble my thoughts second-handed on the basis of twitter, blogs and the smokescreen of the media. I waited until I’d seen Oona and Ken slug it out for myself. The wait was worth its while.

Ken Livingstone has seemed like such a hard candidate to beat to the Labour nomination that I have wondered why Oona King would even try. After last week’s showing it’s pretty clear why. The energy which filled London Young Labour’s (LYL) mayoral hustings could sum up our revitalising project in a phrase – the future, passion and pragmatism. (more…)

Posted in Grassroots | 1 Comment »

Saturday News Review

24/07/2010, 09:42:49 AM

Cash money

David Miliband has raised more in donations than any of the other candidates

David Miliband, the frontrunner in the Labour leadership contest, has raised at least £200,000, his campaign has revealed, as the disparity in financial backing for the five candidates emerges as a big issue. Two wealthy donors have each given him £50,000, sparking accusations within the party that the former foreign secretary is deploying far more staff than his rivals and is in danger of “buying the election” with “Blairite” support. – The Guardian

Apathy

More than 2 million people have a vote in the Labour leadership election, which will trudge on through the summer to a crescendo on 25 September. But how many will avail themselves of the chance to vote must be a cause for concern. The Society of Labour Lawyers has completed a ballot of its 598 members to decide which candidates would receive the society’s formal backing. Labour lawyers, you might think, would be among the more motivated sections of the electorate, yet turn out in this ballot was a dismal eight per cent. In other word, 48 out of 598 bothered to vote. The result was Ed Miliband 18, David Miliband 17, Diane Abbott 8, Andy Burnham 9, and Ed Balls nil. If that reflects the level of enthusiasm, it is not going to be a resounding mandate. – The Independent

The contest has raised barely an eyebrow of public interest, though whoever wins may find low expectations a blessing. There is nowhere to go but up, as opinion polls offer cold comfort. Guardian readers should not be deceived by our daily reasoned critiques of profoundly misguided government policies. The coalition may be about to crash the economy, shipwreck the NHS and splinter the education system but the public does not agree, as yet. The coalition’s honeymoon may last a while. – The Guardian

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Posted in Unbound, Uncategorized | No Comments »