Uncut « Labour Uncut

Is it ok for socialists to pay for private education and healthcare?

13/01/2011, 07:00:37 AM

by Peter Watt

Like many other parents, we have spent the last two weeks trying to sort out a school for our four-year-old. Coming straight after the Christmas break, it means I have had lots of reasons to reflect on how my family, and my children in particular, are the most important thing in the world to me.

I am at one of those transition stages in life. I have just finished one job and start a new one in February. It has made me a bit introspective, to be honest. I look back with sadness at the sacrifices that my family, my older children in particular, made so that I could pursue a career in politics. I thought about the school plays and the messy pasta and paint pictures that I chose to miss. All in order to work long hours. I am lucky that they don’t seem to hold it against me. But I am sad at the shared experiences that we missed and grateful for the things that we do now do together.

My now better-balanced life means spending more time with the younger children. This year I saw three nativity plays, went to four Christmas parties and cannot count the number of times I bumped into Father Christmas.

Seeing and thinking about my children develop, change, explore and grow is incredible. It has made me think of every other family, across the country, doing whatever they can to put their family and children first. (more…)

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A snap election promises Cameron the glory he craves

12/01/2011, 07:00:05 AM

by Tom Watson

The Conservatives are preparing for a general election in May. That is what a devilishly well-placed conservative insider told me in response to my “Operation Detach” column last week.

My source has been spot on in the past. He also told me that the working assumption for Andy Coulson’s departure announcement was now 25th January. He told me this to help justify his argument that an election in May was a strong possibility. Clearing the decks and all that.

I immediately dismissed the idea of an early election, but it has gnawed at me since. And the more I think about it, the more I think the logic is impeccable. It was Peter Oborne’s brilliantly incisive new year’s eve column that firmed up my thinking.

Here’s the rationale within the Cameron camp: (more…)

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It was the risk not the spending that Labour got wrong

11/01/2011, 04:15:34 PM

by Anthony Painter

Ed Miliband is in a bind. He is tied to a fiscal policy that the public believes was profligate and irresponsible. His strategy so far has been to defend that record to the best of his ability. That is not enough. It may be time to switch tack.

The debate is homing in on the question of whether Labour was spending too great before the 2007 turbulence. And actually if you pull out the figures the answer is marginally on the side of ‘defend the record’- on the face of it. Current spending was in deficit ahead of the crisis though not catastrophically so- 0.3% of GDP in 2006-2007. The public sector net debt was lower than in 1997 at 36.6%.

None of this looks irresponsible in fiscal terms. Public sector productivity and inefficiency tell a slightly different story- there is no doubt that the money invested in public services post-2001 failed to raise output as it should have done. Steve Richards in his articulation of the case for the defence in the Independent this morning acknowledges that fact:

“Labour failed to address inefficiencies in the public sector and some of the additional investment was wasted needlessly, but the overall spending was necessary at the time, as Blair discovered then and some senior Tories discover now.”

So the case for the defence seems to exonerate Labour for imprudence but is more ambiguous on wastefulness. (more…)

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The Piers Morgan of politics – 30 years since the birth of the SDP

11/01/2011, 02:30:05 PM

By David Seymour

Can it really be 30 years since the formation of the SDP? What a torrent of political water has flown under the bridge since then.

Younger readers will not have experienced that extraordinary mix of violent bitterness between those who left the Labour party and those who stayed (not to mention the internecine hatred between many of those who remained) and the thrill of something momentous happening in British politics.

The infiltration of the organised left – particularly the Militant tendency (note to younger subs: keep as lower case t) – and the chaos of the disorganised left was tearing Labour apart. Thatcher was in power but deeply unpopular.

It was such an exciting time to be involved in politics, but looking back on it now, you can’t help wondering what all the fuss was about. Was the result of all that angst and agony simply the creation of New Labour and this coalition government? (more…)

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We need to be on the right side of EU disintegration

11/01/2011, 07:00:52 AM

by Jonathan Todd

Labour modernisers have been largely pro-European since Neil Kinnock made them so. The role of the EU in advancing Labour’s goals has often, however, been vaguely defined. As UK relations with the EU head towards various crunches, this seems likely to be inadequate.

The issues that are most important to people will determine the next general election: the economy, jobs and public services. Nonetheless, debate about the EU is going to get hotter. As this happens, the connections between EU policy and the things that people care most about are likely to become more apparent.

Most immediately, the European Union bill, over the short to medium term the euro-zone crisis and the longer term need for the UK to adapt to the rise of Asia could all bring UK/EU relations to the boil. The first of these pressure-points diminishes UK influence in the EU at the same time as the second poses not only an existential crisis to a currency to which we don’t belong, but a union to which we do and our largest trading partners.

Either disintegration of the euro/EU or consolidation of the euro as both a fiscal and monetary union seem more likely outcomes of this crisis than perpetuation of the status quo. Either way, British business has only just begun the adaptation that it must undergo to prosper in a world whose centre of gravity lies ever more firmly to the east. (more…)

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How to free yourself from facebook friendship

10/01/2011, 03:00:08 PM

by Dan Stokes

During an extended new year break this week, back in the bosom of my family, I found I had ran out of crap telly and exhausted the Sky+. Having watched Love Actually three times, the Gruffalo twice and perhaps the worst film ever made, The Triumph, I turned to mum’s dvd collection.

Other than the handful of free films from the Guardian and the Express (held on to after granddad died with some sentimental attachment), I was left with two choices: Titanic or About a Boy. The 4.5 seconds of Kate Winslet’s naked breasts were tempting, but About a Boy won the day.

I watched it in the usual way: messing around with laptop, flitting between ebay, BBC sport and the femail section of the Daily Mail website. And as I did so, I began to realise that, as Hugh Grant muses in the film, I am an island.

Just a few hours before, I’d made an excuse not to go and meet friends. And these were my childhood friends, whom I loved, whom as the years went by I only had the opportunity to see during national holidays, or more recently, weddings.

“I’m looking after my brother’s kids”, I’d said. The truth was I just couldn’t be bothered. (more…)

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A quantum of spin

10/01/2011, 11:39:34 AM

by Michael Dugher

You always know when a government is short of ideas. In the absence of serious policies to announce, any government will revert to “process”. I can almost picture the No 10 “grid meeting” from a few weeks ago: the strategic comms team will have been lambasting their hapless counterparts in the policy unit for having nothing positive to present to the public and the media. After a fraught meeting, the room came up with the idea of a “summit” with business figures to discuss “how we can promote growth”. Today’s Downing Street summit come hot on the heels of that other old chestnut of spin-over-substance: last week’s prime ministerial “regional tour” to talk about “how we can promote growth in the regions”. But behind the spin of today’s summit, the truth is that the Tory-led coalition has no plan for jobs and growth.

“You’ll get great pictures, boss” will have been the advice to the PM from the No 10 events team. So today, in time for the lunchtime bulletins, expect pictures of business leaders arriving at Downing Street, followed by shots of them gathered round the cabinet table, sucking the Fox’s Glacier Mints, leaning forward in their shirtsleeves whilst David Cameron, George Osborne and a token Lib Dem “get down to business”. There may even be the odd business leader, probably not a current Tory donor, who will be wheeled out to do a round of interviews at the Millbank studios to talk up the success of the summit, the poor fellow flattered to be asked/used, though no doubt keeping one eye on next year’s honours list. (more…)

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It’s not all right, Jack (Straw). Stop now before you get hurt.

10/01/2011, 07:00:29 AM

by Atul Hatwal

When boxers are past their prime, it’s the movement and speed that go. The power is still there, but when they throw a punch, it’s slower and off-target. Politicians are the same.

When Jack Straw stepped in to the ring on street grooming and the Pakistani community, he swung hard, but what did he hit?

If the intention was to draw attention to the problem, then he was late and missed. The debate was already raging; that’s why he was on Newsnight. If he wanted to add some insight, then he missed again; all he offered was more opinion.

On this issue so far, there has been a lot of comment but a shortage of actual evidence. There are some statistics; the Times cited a study which showed that out of 56 convictions for this type of offence, 53 were Asian men, predominantly Pakistani. (more…)

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The Sunday Review: the King’s Speech

09/01/2011, 02:30:00 PM

by Siôn Simon

I dislike Colin Firth. Not as an actor; he is thespically adept. Nor in a truly personal sense; I don’t believe I have ever met him. My only relations are to have sent him a letter on behalf of her majesty’s government.

He had won some prize or other. I think it may have been a golden globe. I was the film minister and a letter of congratulation was presented to me to sign. I did not really see the point. I did not imagine that Mr Firth would be likely ever to read the letter, or to care if he did.

My officials assured me to the contrary and advised me to sign. There are many occasions on which it is important for a minister to reject the advice of his officials, though to do so is rarely without pain or consequence. This was not such an occasion. I signed. (more…)

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One Emile Heskey

07/01/2011, 09:44:50 AM

by Dan Hodges

Since embarking on an illustrious career as Uncut’s contributing editor I have been in receipt of numerous queries from our discerning readership. Excluding the occasional request for me to combine sex with travel, the top three, in reverse order are: “What does the contributing editor actually do”, “When are you going to lay of Ed Miliband” and “Why do you have a Twitter avatar of Frank Bruno being chased by a long haired Scott Baio”?

The answers are: “I have no idea”, “Probably not for a while yet, though things are looking a little more promising”, and, “that’s not Frank Bruno, it’s the footballer Emile Heskey, and he’s not being chased by Scott Baio, it’s Steve McManaman. Although at that stage in his international career, Scott Baio would probably have proved more effective at delivering a final ball into the box”. (more…)

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