Peter Mandelson « Labour Uncut

Posts Tagged ‘Peter Mandelson’

Economic rebalancing: Labour must be “more interesting”

24/06/2011, 02:29:37 PM

by Jonathan Todd

The Labour front bench might not welcome advice from retirees, no matter how dignified. But they’ve got some. “Be a little bit more interesting”, said Peter Mandelson, in response to a question at a recent Progress event. National recovery from the major economic crisis of recent years requires big, bold ideas. He wants Labour to rise to this challenge.

This is the stuff of pragmatic radicalism on economic rebalancing. Pragmatism demands workable solutions to national concerns. The support that politicians, of all parties, proclaim for rebalancing the economy indicates that this is such a concern. The persistence of the imbalances in our economy – between domestic consumption and exports; finance and manufacturing; the south east of England and much of the rest of the UK – attest that this support is inadequate to purpose. A dash of radicalism is needed, for not only rebalancing to be achieved, but for Labour’s arguments to cut through the white noise of mainstream politicians professing support and delivering so little.

Many more elected city mayors are the stuff of this radicalism. Our top heavy state is a drag on economic performance. Elected city mayors are the next step on the devolution journey begun by the last government. The centre for cities and the institute of government recently called for their powers to be beefed up – through, amongst other things, chairing integrated transport authorities and co-chairing local enterprise partnerships. The common sense of people in cities voting for their leaders and retaking command of their destinies should be a truth loudly proclaimed by Labour – as should be the common sense of rewarding hard work. (more…)

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Mandelson: the great returner

23/06/2011, 05:08:47 PM

by Dave Talbot

Moments after the close of the first debate of the general election, Lib Dem officials were breathlessly rushing around the Granada studios in Manchester. They were hailing their leader’s performance as a potential “game-changer” in an election that had seemingly been thrown wide open. I had travelled up north, more in hope than expectation that Gordon Brown would defy all his critics and speak in Shakespearian tones that would galvanise the nation. It was not to be. Somewhat bored and slightly tired, I turned to a Spanish journalist next to me:

“Nick Clegg did well”, I ventured.

“He has been like a gift from God for me”, he replied in his Catalonian tones. “There was no interest in the election before, none. But now Mr and Mrs Clegg will be on the front page. The Spanish people still fantasise that five hundred years after the Armada we are finally going to put a Spanish catholic woman in Number 10”.

“Probably not”, I replied. “Who had the Spanish press found the most to write about thus far”, I asked?

“Well Clegg, of course. But my favourite is Mr Mandelson. He is the most grotesque character”.

(more…)

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Wednesday News Review

22/06/2011, 06:57:54 AM

Please no return to the bad old days

Several hundred people gathered near interfaces close to the Newtownards Road. There were reports that three shots had been fired and a photographer had been shot in the leg. Michael Copeland, a member of the Ulster Unionist Assembly, said missiles had been hurled between the opposing sides. Police were also attacked with petrol bombs and stones. A major riot on Monday night in which police were shot at by loyalists in Northern Ireland was blamed on the Ulster Volunteer Force yesterday, despite the paramilitary group being on ceasefire. Before last night’s violence, political leaders appealed for calm. On Monday, about 500 people were involved in disturbances when there was hand-to-hand fighting and petrol bombs were thrown. Police said there were gun shots from the republican Short Strand area, while loyalists also opened fire. UVF members were blamed for starting the violence by attacking homes in the Roman Catholic enclave. – Daily Telegraph

Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have condemned the riots, as well as a separate bomb attack aimed at police in west Belfast. Mr Robinson said: “At this time when many are working hard to build a better and brighter future for all in Northern Ireland, it is disappointing and deeply concerning to see this level of violence return to our streets. We have given clear commitments to continue to deliver progress for all within the community including in those areas most at need. This type of behaviour damages the local economy and unfairly mars the reputation of the community.” Mr McGuinness said: “A small minority of individuals are clearly determined to destabilise our communities. They will not be allowed to drag us back to the past. I call on all those involved to take a step back and to remain calm. I support the efforts of community leaders on all sides who have been working on the ground to restore calm in east Belfast.” The sudden upsurge in violence is being described as the worst the city has seen in years and loyalist community workers blamed simmering tensions at the notorious sectarian interface. – Belfast Telegraph

Cameron’s tough stance in tatters

Mr Cameron’s promise of automatic six-month sentences for anyone using a knife to intimidate or threaten also falls far short of his election pledge to jail anyone caught with a blade. But there was a bigger shock buried in the fine print of the reforms as it emerged that more than 3,000 criminals and suspected offenders will avoid jail each year as part of the Conservative-led coalition’s package. About 1,300 would have been jailed on remand but will now remain at liberty until their case is tried in a bid to save money. Around 250 ex-cons who would currently be put back in jail each year for reoffending or breaking the terms of their release will also be allowed to stay at large. Up to 800 foreign criminals will be freed early or let off with a caution on the condition that they go home, raising fears they could simply slip back into the country. Mr Cameron was desperate to talk tough yesterday after an internal Downing Street poll showed that the sentencing U-turn row has destroyed public faith in the Tories’ ability to tackle crime. – Daily Mirror

Ed’s message to Murdoch

Ed Miliband has told business leaders that Labour wants a “strong relationship” with them but there must be “responsibility” on pay at the top. The Labour leader told the Times CEO Summit in London: “I want to celebrate wealth creation in this country.” But he said there was an “issue about rewards at the top” while people on lower incomes had seen wages stagnate. He also backed his shadow chancellor Ed Balls’s call for a temporary VAT cut to help boost the economy. But he said scrapping the 50p top rate of income tax – paid on earnings over £150,000 – was “not a priority for us”. Mr Miliband addressed an audience including News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch and chief executives of Goldman Sachs, Santander and Vodafone, among others. – BBC News

Labour leader Ed Miliband has called for “responsibility” on pay from those at the top of society as he addressed a summit of business leaders in London. Mr Miliband said Labour wanted a “strong relationship” with business and promised there would be “no going back to the penal tax rates of the 1970s” if he won power. But he warned that the credibility of the free enterprise system was under threat if middle and lower-income workers see their living standards stagnate while the richest continue to enjoy ever-increasing wealth. Speaking at The Times CEO Summit to an audience including News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch and chief executives of companies such as Goldman Sachs, Santander and Vodafone – as well as Lord Mandelson, who famously said New Labour was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich” – Mr Miliband warned that there was “an issue about rewards at the top” in Britain. – Daily Mirror

Labour Lords take on Clegg’s plans

Nick Clegg’s plans to create an elected House of Lords suffered a big setback last night when Labour vowed to oppose the shake-up and peers from all parties lined up to attack it. Labour was accused of playing politics as it rejected Liberal Democrat pleas to set aside the differences between the two parties to force through Mr Clegg’s proposal for the first elected peers to be chosen in 2015. The Coalition Government wants the 828-member House replaced by 240 elected members, 60 appointed crossbenchers, 12 bishops and a small number of appointed ministers. But Labour favours a 100 per cent elected second chamber. The Deputy Prime Minister has led the charge for Lords reform. Although David Cameron has backed the change, there are doubts that the Conservatives will devote the energy and Parliamentary time needed to force through Mr Clegg’s Bill before the next general election against strong opposition in both Houses of Parliament. – the Independent

Mandelson shows his support

Ed Miliband needs to show more courage as a leader if he is to unite the Labour party behind him, Peter Mandelson has suggested. Speaking at a meeting of the Labour pressure group Progress, the former first secretary of state warned his party against returning to the infighting which characterised the Labour party during the 1980s. He said: ‘We need to take a few risks; talk more directly to the country; be more innovative and courageous. Our leader is a leader of the country, not of the party’s sections and factions, and it is to the country he needs to be given the space to prove himself.” Lord Mandelson’s support comes despite his backing of David Miliband during the Labour leadership election. – politics.co.uk

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The week Uncut

26/02/2011, 12:30:25 PM

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

Peter Watt thinks our brand’s toxic and we should learn from the Tories

Atul Hatwal brings you the latest shadow cabinet work rate league table

Coach Kevin Meagher is leaving David Miliband on the subs bench, for good

Tom Watson says we must remember the name Mohamed Bouazizi

Peter Mandelson on why there should have been a Granita II

Rob Marchant on faith schools and why a bad idea just got worse

Stefan Stern says Cameron has failed the leadership test

Dave Howells is not happy seeing the sacred cow go off to slaughter

Dan Hodges gets cross with the preachers of “fairer votes”

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Exclusive extracts from the paperback edition of Peter Mandelson’s book, the Third Man.

25/02/2011, 08:00:03 AM

The paperback edition of Peter Mandelson’s book, the Third Man: life at the heart of New Labour, is published on Monday. It contains a new chapter dealing with events since the hardback was first published last summer.

The new chapter includes Mandelson’s thoughts on Ed Miliband’s victory, the impact of the new government and the AV campaign, among other ruminations of the former cabinet minister, EU commissioner and prince of darkness.

In the extracts below, published exclusively here on Uncut for the first time, he talks about David Miliband’s failure to “take the gloves off and mobilise” Labour’s natural New Labour base.

And he rues David Miliband’s refusal to do the deal with Ed Balls that Mandelson says would have secured a David Miliband victory.

Mandelson on why David Miliband lost…

[David] was fearful that if he championed a renewed New Labour vision too strongly, he would be living up to Ed’s stereotype of him as an establishment figure tied to Tony’s coat-tails. He ended up in something of a no-man’s land – wanting to be the New Labour standard-bearer, but terrified that this would lose him many activists’ votes. He did defend New Labour’s achievements when his brother started to single out a number of them for criticism. But I felt then, and still feel, that he missed an opportunity to take the gloves off and mobilise those in the broader party membership who still celebrated our three terms in Downing Street – and who would have followed a leader with a plan to update and reinvigorate our governing programme rather than bury it. (p.xxii)

Mandelson on why Ed Balls could have made a difference…

David and I did not speak during the campaign… I understood and respected his desire to go it alone, although in a roundabout way I did pass on one suggestion. It was that he should reach out to the other Ed: Ed Balls. I had come to know Ed Balls – and in our later years in government to respect him – as a tough, pragmatic politician. I was certain his overriding concern would be to ensure that Labour escaped being relegated to another long spell in opposition. Tactically, there was an obvious interest for him and David, two political heavyweights able to balance their respective strengths, to work together. Although it was fairly clear from the start that Ed Balls was not going to win, he did have significant support to deliver. I knew Gordon would be leaning hard on him to throw this support behind Ed Miliband, since his distrust and resentment of David’s previous on-off leadership challenge had never abated. A concerted effort by David to forge a future leadership alliance with Ed Balls might well have allowed him to carry the day. David was not persuaded, however, both because he did not want to be placed under any obligation to Ed, and because, until the end, he felt he had enough strength on his own to win. (p.xxiii)

The paperback edition of Peter Mandelson’s book, the Third Man: life at the heart of New Labour, is published by HarperPress on Monday.

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Mandelson tells friends he would love to do Strictly

24/11/2010, 08:35:11 AM

Scandal! Peter Mandelson has told close friends that, contrary to reports, he has never been approached to appear on Strictly Come Dancing.

According to a close confidente of the granddaddy of the Labour movement, if Peter were to be invited to trip the lacquered boards he would readily accept.

This news directly contradicts assurances given to Uncut by the BBC that the dark lord of the dance had been given a chance to embrace his inner Widders.

Something here is amiss. Someone is being economical with the actualité.

Whom does one trust? Lord M, renowned the world over for his candour. Or the BBC? Less an aunty, these days, than a punch-drunk uncle.

Uncut is on the case. Our intrepid journalistic team will leave no stone unturned. We have a source close to the heart of the controversy. We shall call him Brucethroat. We will follow the sequins.

Uncut vows to get to the bottom of Strictlygate. There will be no whitewash at White City…

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BBC rules that Strictly will stay a socialist-free zone. No Christmas Mandelson.

22/11/2010, 10:54:24 AM

From: Kate Toft, BBC

To: Dan Hodges, Labour Uncut

Sent: Fri, 19 November, 2010 16:50:27

Subject:

Dear Dan,

I’m responding to your email to Daniel Maynard and your question around political balance on our entertainment show Strictly Come Dancing.

The BBC’s obligation is “due impartiality”. Due impartiality is defined in the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines: “The term ‘due’ means that the impartiality must be adequate and appropriate to the output, taking account of the subject and nature of the content, the likely audience expectation and any signposting that may influence that expectation.”

Strictly is not a political programme it is an entertainment show. The “subject and nature of the content” and “the audience expectation” is rather different.

Both Ann Widdecombe and Vince Cable are huge fans of the show and of ballroom dancing, as is Peter Mandelson, although he declined an offer to take part in the show.

I have no comment to make on reports that Labour MPs are planning to table a House of Commons motion criticising the BBC, if indeed these reports are true.

Regards,

Kate Toft
Head of Communications, Entertainment & Comedy

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Sunday News Review

21/11/2010, 07:26:43 AM

A new consensus politics?

Ed Balls, the shadow home secretary, used an interview with The Sunday Telegraph to signal that Labour was ready to abandon its support for the current 28-day regime, introduced by the party when in government. In the party’s most significant move away from the Blair-Brown era, which led to Britain imposing some of the harshest anti-terror laws in any Western democracy, Mr Balls also said Labour was prepared to consider alternatives to control orders. Mr Balls, in his first newspaper interview since being appointed shadow home secretary, admitted Labour’s policies under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, which led to failed attempts to get Parliament to pass laws to permit suspects to be detained without charge for 90 and 42 days, had been a mistake. – Sunday Telegraph

Shadow home secretary Ed Balls said he would support Government plans to reduce the current limit from 28 days to 14 providing it did not hinder police and the security services. “Even 42 days was a step too far. Our reputation as a party which protected liberty as well as security suffered as a result,” he said. “Our approach should always be that, if the evidence shows we can go down from 28 days without impeding the police and security services from doing their jobs, then we ought to do it.” Home Secretary Theresa May announced a review of counter-terror legislation in July in which she backed a 14-day limit, a move supported by the Liberal Democrats. Mr Ball’s admission opens the way for a cross-party consensus. – Sky News

Mandelson vs Miliband

Peter Mandelson has added to the growing pressure on Ed Miliband, claiming the Labour leader had insulted him by saying he should be ‘packed off to an old folk’s home’. In a new war of words between the two men, Lord Mandelson suggested Mr Miliband was devious and had secretly plotted against Tony Blair. And he contemptuously dismissed him, saying he had ‘never seriously thought of him’ as a leader. His scathing comments follow a growing revolt against Mr Miliband from both sides of the Labour Party. Blairite figures such as Lord Mandelson, who backed Mr Miliband’s older brother David in the leadership contest, have launched a new bid to stop the Left-winger’s attempt to bury Tony Blair’s New Labour. – Mail on Sunday (more…)

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Cometh the hour: the nation needs Mandelson on Strictly Come Dancing

17/11/2010, 10:00:11 AM

Today, Uncut launches our campaign to end a cruel injustice: “Mandy4Strictly”.

Widders. Cable. Both invited by the national broadcaster to grace (we use the term in its loosest sense), the stage of Strictly Come Dancing.

But there is, it seems, to be no place for the people’s party. No shadow cabinet member, nor Labour back bencher, will be slapping on the fake tan, or donning the sequins. At least not in public. Strictly, is to remain a Labour free zone.

Uncut will not stand idly by. We have rights. We were not born in chains. We choose to tango, jive and rumba on our feet, rather than live on our knees.

There is one man with poise, grace and elegance to lead us to our Canaan, (The Tower Ballroom, Blackpol). That man is former Labour party communications director, European commissioner, secretary of state for business and Uncut contributor, Peter Mandelson.

For too long he has lived in the darkness. Now is the time for him to step into the light. Tony Blair said his mission would not be complete until the Labour party had learned to love Peter. Uncut’s mission will not be complete until the entire nation takes him to its heart.

Write. Phone. Lobby. Petition. Spread the word. “Mandy4Strictly”.

We put the BBC on notice. We are the people who forged the welfare state. Rebuilt a country bloodied but unbowed by nazi bombs.

Mandy shall have his moment. We shall have our moment. We will not be denied.

Mandy4Strictly. Yes we can-can.

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Conference diary: the morning after, part 1

26/09/2010, 11:47:42 AM

Union chiefs toasting Ed Miliband’s success last night should be on their guard. Uncut understands that John Prescott is likely to fail in his bid to become the party’s treasurer, pipped to the post by Unite’s Diana Holland. As with the leadership, it appears that union votes were the decisive factor. Hell hath no fury like a Prescott scorned.

* * *

Changes on Team Ed? Spectators surprised at the vigour with which Neil Kinnock campaigned for our new leader will have noted Rachel Kinnock leading Ed on his tour of the victory circuit. Rachel has been a senior advisor over the past few months, and is likely to be a key player in his leadership team. More mysterious is the sudden disappearance of Polly Billington, Ed’s chief spinner. She was apparently not returning calls last night, and hungry hacks were being re-routed to other aides. Where are you Polly? Give Uncut a call.

* * *

Great excitement in the Uncut office yesterday when we received a tip from a senior Labour insider. “David’s in first”, came the message. Excitedly, we prepared to unleash our scoop to the world. Then we learned that our comrade had merely got on the train to Manchester, and seen David Miliband sitting in a first class carriage. He was in good company.

* * *

If Peter Mandelson was planning to do a turn at conference, Uncut advises him to stay away. Already identified by Team Ed as the source of much of the “bile” directed at their candidate, he has now been fingered by Team Dave as a key factor in the their defeat. Last night disappointed DM staffers were identifying Peter’s interventions at key moments as the turning point in the contest. “It was Peter that lost it for us”, said one exasperated aide.

* * *

Touring the bars in the early hours in our bid to bring our readers the most juicy conference morsels, Uncut bumped into David Clark, Robin Cook’s former special advisor. “Much more of this and you should change your name to Labour Half-cut”, he said. It’s under consideration.

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