Uncut « Labour Uncut

Cameron: a Tsar is born? Or saloon bar prime minister?

07/03/2011, 03:00:30 PM

by Dan Cooke

Downing Street spinners apparently briefed this weekend that in future David Cameron plans to use his office to “act as a critic of the government” and speak “as a tribune of the people against the government when it gets things wrong”.

The prime minister recently “joked” to the Westminster press gallery that he is more a chairman than chief executive of the government. The response was negative commentary suggesting lack of grip, surely giving pause for thought about the wisdom of such remarks if not meant in earnest. Nevertheless, the suggestion must be taken as a significant indication of Cameron’s strategy for the rest of the parliament.

The prospects for success of any strategy of prime ministerial detachment from day-to-day responsibility for government depend significantly on which of two principal alternatives No. 10 has in mind.

First, the briefers hint at a desire to present the prime minister as elevated above the decision-making of his ministers, while intervening selectively to correct errors or chastise lack of progress. Such an approach might appear cunning in the mind’s eye of a strategist, but would be disastrous in practice (like a restaurant manager wandering into the dining room to taste the food after it has already been served, as one commentator has observed). (more…)

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GP commissioning: how some GPs could make a shed load of money

07/03/2011, 12:00:29 PM

by Andy Howell

Do general practitioners (GPs) stand to make enormous profits on the back of the government’s GP commissioning reforms? Government ministers have responded to such suggestions aggressively, arguing that recent stories to this effect are simply the result of scaremongering of behalf of their political opponents.

However, talk to almost anyone involved in running local health services and they will tell you that it is inevitable that there will be huge profits to be made by GPs through commissioning, and they are not happy about it.

But if there are huge profits to be had, then how are they to be made and where will we have to look to find them? Will the opening up of GP services to profit-based ventures change the nature of our NHS forever?

It is not difficult to find experts in public sector organisation and finance who will tell you how they expect the new commissioning service to develop. Here is one such scenario that maps out what we might be letting ourselves in for.

Initially, I thought it might be difficult to monitor profits and to understand exactly how they were being made. After all, GP practices are not limited companies and as such they do not produce public accounts. But the experts tell me that it is not in established GP practices that money is to be made.

The new profits will come through newly commissioned services which, as limited companies, can be developed in very different ways to traditional GP practices. The key to understanding how the money may be made involves appreciating that local GPS will be able to be both commissioners of local services and providers of local services at the same time. There is no rigid separation of purchaser and provider here.

Let us consider two GPs who work on the same patch. Let’s call them Fred and Sally. (more…)

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Cameron’s brave boasts ring hollow: the Tories are failing to back British business.

07/03/2011, 09:17:34 AM

by John Woocock

David Cameron has faltered abroad of late because under him Britain lacks a coherent foreign policy to guide it, as Douglas Alexander cogently set out in the Observer yesterday.

But yesterday the prime minister’s incoherence spread to the home front. Cameron’s speech to the Conservative spring conference highlighted a weakness in his leadership and the government’s economic position that is worth dwelling on, beyond the two lines of rebuttal to which such orations are usually treated.

The foreign policy section of the speech bad enough. Was there really a single true blue activist in the Cardiff hall, never mind anyone in the rest of the country, convinced by the notion that the key difference between Labour and the Conservatives in foreign affairs is that we do “dodgy deals with dictators” while they are primarily interested in volunteering to build schools in Africa? And if any Cameroon speechwriters read Labour Uncut (They do – Ed.) let me help you out: if you are going to force that kind of absurd contrast on your audience, don’t then segue into a eulogy of Margaret Thatcher’s foreign policy principles. Some would say she ended up being a teeny bit too close to a dodgy regime or two herself, as her friendship with General Pinochet and reluctance to impose sanctions on apartheid South Africa showed (which latter Mr Cameron himself adversely criticised back in the days that he wished to project himself as a break from Tory tradition). (more…)

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The Sunday Review: the Adjustment Bureau and l’Immortel

06/03/2011, 02:30:06 PM

by Siôn Simon

L’Immortel is set in Marseille. It stars Jean Reno, was produced by Luc Besson and directed by Richard Berry. Released in France a year ago this month, it was made available for rent on UK iTunes this week.

I watched it because it is set in Marseille, a city I have known my whole life and about which I feel strongly. I thought it would be nice, on a sub-zero March evening in Birmingham, to see the sunshine and hear the accent.

You don’t hear the accent. There is one character (the most brutal in this violent film) who speaks with a strong Marseille twang. Everybody else could be from anywhere. This is the most interesting thing about the film. In any British and most American flicks, it would be inconceivable. Imagine a gritty mafia revenge drama set in Glasgow (the Marseille accent is even more distinctive than the Glaswegian) in which every character sounds like they’re from the Hampshire suburbs. Wouldn’t happen, and you couldn’t watch it if it did. (more…)

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Tackling the Tories’ lies, one by one

06/03/2011, 11:46:19 AM

by Dan Johnson

Yesterday, Sayeeda Warsi listed the Tory-Lib Dem government’s top “achievements”. Labour needs to take them on one by one and expose them for the lies they really are.

“We’ve scrapped the jobs tax”

They haven’t scrapped national insurance. They didn’t impose an increase on employers like Labour would have done, but they increased the employees’ contribution despite their video here asking people what they would spend the additional money on.

“We’re cutting corporation tax”

This, they have done, even on the banks – despite a Labour amendment to keep a higher rate for banks for a few more years.

“We promised we’d protect NHS spending – and we have”

They are not protecting the NHS. The measly increase will not cover the real rising costs due to an aging population. They are going through a wasteful reorganisation that isn’t wanted by patients or doctors.

“A cancer drugs fund”

Money that doesn’t go anywhere near to covering the huge costs involved.

“A regional growth fund”

With significantly less money than regional development agencies and a much narrower focus.

“More loans to small businesses”

The dodgy use of figures continues into government: they are letting the banks off scot-free with no real commitment to lending.

“Tax breaks for new businesses”

Unemployment continues to rise and there is no strategy for growth 10 months into this government’s term.

“We’ve taxed the banks”

Yes, but less than Labour did last year. Which is effectively a tax break for banks.

“Capped immigration”

Sort of. And in a way that the CBI, business leaders and universities say is damaging to the economy.

“Put a block on more power to the EU”

Meaningless legislation that even the Tory backbenchers think doesn’t work.

“50,000 new apprenticeships”

Following on from Labour’s policy, but scrapping EMA and tripling tuition fees.

“200 new academies”

More schools outside of local government’s control, leading to a two-tier system, rather than Labour’s policy of getting the worst schools to improve.

“Cut ministerial pay”

By a tokenistically tiny fraction, saving a tiny amount compared to the costly measures this government is instituting. Still not implemented.

“Blocked a third runway”

A third runway supported by business groups, whose scrapping will push Britain further down in competition with French and Dutch airports.

“No more sofa government, no more spin government”

Nine months of Andy Coulson till their shame won out.

“A national security council”

With few powers and even fewer meetings. COBRA has been shown to work time and again.

“More power to local councils”

Frontloaded cuts and removal of ring-fencing will mean the most vulnerable will suffer the worst.

“Our freedoms restored”

The freedom to have deteriorating public services, run-down schools and hospitals.

Dan Johnson is the Labour party candidate in Stainsby Hill, Thornaby in the local elections this year.

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Multiculturalism: a nice piece about Nick Clegg

04/03/2011, 03:30:32 PM

by Anthony Painter

Nick Clegg showed Cameron how it’s done when it comes to entering the fray on the fraught politics of identity. In Luton, as opposed to Munich, at a calmer time, as opposed to the day of an EDL homecoming rally, with balance, as opposed to lecturing and hectoring, with the intention of contributing to the debate, rather than simply catching headlines, Nick Clegg gave his textured analysis of how the politics of identity is bending our culture and lives.

His reading of the Searchlight Fear and Hope report published earlier this week was spot on. He understands that the middle ground of identity politics is occupied not by liberals, as our traditional notions of the centre would support, but by the culturally concerned and economically insecure. David Cameron erected the straw man of “state multiculturalism”, which doesn’t exist in anything other than the popular mythology of 1980s municipalism. Nick Clegg knocked it down and instead made a cogent case for a diverse but not divided version of multiculturalism built around strong and shared values. (more…)

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Half a minute Harris

04/03/2011, 01:55:13 PM

Welcome, Uncut readers, to the mind of Tom Harris

What did you think? That he’d go gentle into that good night?

Or find another format to rage?

Having folded away his macbook and given up his celebrated blog last November, Tom Harris is back. But only once a week, only on Uncut, and for strictly thirty seconds.

Tune in on Wednesdays from next week to hear why he’s right, you’re wrong, and it isn’t like you thought it was.

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Why Dan Jarvis’ election can help Labour serve our communities

04/03/2011, 12:00:01 PM

by Jim Murphy

The election of Dan Jarvis to Barnsley Central is great news for Labour and for Dan personally. Dan is a good friend and an exceptional man. He will bring something new to Parliament and will be an asset in our ranks.

It’s excellent news for another reason. I have said before that I believe Labour would be strengthened by having more former armed forces personnel in our party, as councillors and in Parliament. Dan, who served for 15 years in the parachute regiment, was an army major and saw action in Afghanistan, will bring insight few others can to defence and security policy.

At this historic moment, when recent dramatic events in North Africa and the Middle East are rapidly reshaping the security landscape, Labour must be central to the debate on future defence policy. There is a major challenge now for the UK on how we best position ourselves to help shape events around our values and priorities – democracy, freedom, human rights. It is not enough for Labour to point out that the government response has been lacking (shockingly so). We must ourselves grapple with challenging global defence issues if we are to be a credible and serious alternative government, not just an effective opposition.

I wanted to be shadow defence secretary because I believe defence should be natural Labour territory. A start must be to tackle the ill-informed old orthodoxy that the Tories are the party of the forces and Labour is the party of the NHS. In truth, we must be credible on both, especially when Tories are no longer credible on either. (more…)

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The trend beneath the Barnsley triumph is that Labour’s poll lead is soft

04/03/2011, 07:00:40 AM

by Atul Hatwal

What a result in Barnsley. To increase the numerical majority in an already safe seat as the turnout halves, this is the stuff of psephological fantasy. For the Libs to come sixth, losing their deposit, is the dark matter of disreputable dreams.

So, what does it tell us about the national picture? About voting intentions in the next general election? About how we’re doing?

To be honest, sadly, it tells us nothing.

By-elections are almost entirely beyond interpretation at the best of times. A by-election in a highly atypical constituency, caused by extraordinary circumstances, fought by asymmetrically effective candidates and teams is entirely so.

The polls, by contrast, are just starting to have tracked long enough since Miliband took over to show trends. The latest YouGov tracker poll posted a Labour lead of 5% and it was as high as 9% earlier in the week. On Wednesday, Anthony Wells, YouGov’s resident polling guru, assured us that Labour’s lead is “still going strong”.

So perhaps Barnsley really is a sign of things to come?

No.

Progress is being made, but nagging doubts remain about a Labour poll lead that feels very 1980s. Something doesn’t quite sit right.

Systematic polling evidence to back-up these doubts has been patchy. Underneath the headlines there have been individual questions that cast doubt on its solidity, but not enough to build a narrative that describes where voters really are.

This changed last month.

In the mass of polling conducted by YouGov for the Sunday Times and the Sun, some of those questions that are asked infrequently, but which shine a light on voters’ core motivations, were finally repeated. It means a consistent pattern of questions can now be tracked back over the past few months.

These questions fall into three areas: the impact of cuts on voters’ wallets; support for the Tories’ approach to the deficit now it is being implemented, and voters’ views on whom they prefer for PM.

The results are unequivocal and give some hard numbers to quantify that intuitive doubt.

The top line on the graph shows that for all the angst and outrage on cuts as covered in the media, at a time of global downturn, most people are pretty sanguine about their personal prospects. (more…)

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Axing libraries is cultural vandalism and a false economy

03/03/2011, 07:00:41 AM

by Sally Bercow

Being partial to an Indian, I’m rather fond of The Cinnamon Club in Westminster, although its astronomical prices (multiply your typical curry house bill by four) mean it’s necessarily a rare treat. Admittedly, I’m biased – I was mid tandoori pigeon when my partner (now husband) popped the question in the Cinnamon Club nine years ago. Nevertheless, as a quick Google search will testify, the restaurant has attracted rave reviews for its gourmet Indian cuisine, its service and, not least, its magnificent venue.

The Cinnamon Club has Westminster city council to thank for its success, even if only in small part and inadvertently at that. In 1998, the Tories shut down and sold off Westminster library in Great Smith Street, one of London’s oldest public libraries. The grade II listed building was then beautifully renovated and The Cinnamon Club arose, phoenix like, in its magnificent, imposing space. In the meantime, Westminster council relocated the library (now known as St James’s) just up the road and it has proved hugely popular with local residents, workers and schools alike.

Last night, however, Westminster council voted to close St James’s Library, as of September this year. I’ve no idea if another destination restaurant will eventually arise from its ashes and, although I like eating out as much as the next person, frankly I don’t care. Like councils up and down the country, Westminster is committing an act of civic vandalism; closing libraries (over 400 are under threat nationwide) will inflict tremendous – and irreversible – damage on local communities.

The sad fact is that, thanks to the Tory-led government – in the shape of Eric Pickles – local authorities are being forced to cut too fast and too deep and, in doing so, many clearly regard libraries as an easy target. “Aha” cries your defensive local councillor “but if not libraries, what would you cut instead”? (more…)

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