Labour Uncut

INSIDE: Cry baby Chris Kelly hits back with peace-loving-fighting-talk

20/01/2011, 11:30:49 AM

“Man’s inhumanity to man and genocide is what makes me cry, not prime ministers” – Chris Kelly MP, in all seriousness.

Uncut’s favourite Tory backbencher, the publicity hungry Chris Kelly jnr, was in the news again at the weekend. This time it was the Mail on Sunday’s turn to find a Kelly gem, reporting that the gaffe prone MP had cried his eyes out after receiving the hair dryer treatment from the PM.

Young Kelly jnr was said to be more terrified of his anti EU sugar daddy than of the Tory whips – deciding to side with his dad over the PM on a crucial vote on the EU bill. The Mail reported:

“A Tory Euro rebel MP was reportedly reduced to tears after being caught in the crossfire between his millionaire father and a furious David Cameron over a vote to stop Brussels gaining more power over Britain… amid reports that he was more terrified of upsetting his father, Tory donor Chris Kelly senior – a leading Thatcherite with robust views on Brussels – than his party leader. Mr Kelly junior was paid about £4,000 a month last year for eight hours of work for his father’s truck dealership. It tops up his MP’s pay of £65,000 and helped him acquire a £30,000 BMW coupe, with his initials CDK on the number plate.”

But young Kelly Jnr hit back with a totally bizarre attempt at bravado in his local paper the Dudley News yesterday. Torn between trying to beef up his hard man image while still demonstrating his sensitive side, he said:

“Man’s inhumanity to man and genocide is what makes me cry, not prime ministers”.

Wow. Say wow. What a line. The Fonz would be proud of that one. It sounds more like it came straight out of the ‘gap yah’ seduction book than the mouth of a wannabe “serious politician”. One thing is for sure, Kelly isn’t using his extra income to fund a press officer.

Thankfully, Patrick Harley, the old pro spokesman for (Tory) Dudley council, was on hand to help clear up the cry baby confusion, saying:

“It’s absolutely not true that he was in tears. Even if he was, which he wasn’t, he still would vote for what he thought was right”.

Thanks Patrick. Crystal.

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UNCUT: Labour should back moves to a minimum price for alcohol

20/01/2011, 07:00:41 AM

by Sally Bercow

This week, the government unveiled plans to introduce a minimum price for alcohol for the first time. Admittedly, the minimum price they’ve set (duty plus VAT) is way too low to have any real impact – either on the price of drinks or on alcohol abuse – but it’s a start.

The new rules do at least establish the principle of minimum alcohol pricing and, with a bit of luck, the government might be persuaded to get tougher over time and steadily up the minimum price per unit until it reaches 50p (it works out at 21p per unit of beer, 28p per unit of spirits at the moment) – which is the level recommended by a vast array of health professionals. Don’t hold your breath though: the Tories aren’t exactly known for standing up to big business – and big businesses the supermarkets and the UK drinks industry sure are.

Politicians know that something has to be done, though. Easy access to cheap booze is killing us as never before. The number of people reporting consumption of harmful levels of alcohol is increasing; around a third of men and a fifth of women report drinking more than the weekly recommendations. Society bears the burden of alcohol misuse – the antisocial behaviour, drunk drivers and domestic violence that ensue. Alcohol accounted for five per cent of all deaths in 2005 and its impact costs the NHS around £3 billion a year. Drink wreaks misery and havoc on families and communities. There can be no doubt that action is long overdue. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNBOUND: Thursday News Review

20/01/2011, 06:50:11 AM

Election Pact? Gove thinks so

Michael Gove has reignited talk of a Tory Lib Dem pact by urging people in Hull to vote Lib Dem to keep Labour out at the local elections. Gove’s intervention was not planned but it does reveal how he thinks. Gove’s department is the most coalitionised. Not only is there a Lib Dem minister there in Sarah Teather, tellingly the only Lib Dem minister not to moan to the Telegraph’s undercover reporters about her colleagues. But there is also David Laws, who is acting as an unofficial adviser to Gove. Anthony Wells’ thorough analysis of an electoral pact suggests that it could do well in the seats where it matters. Obviously, all this discussion of pacts could be overtaken by events if AV passes. Interestingly, Gove remains undecided on that issue. – the Spectator

Michael Gove today became the first member of the cabinet to urge people to vote tactically for the Liberal Democrats in the May local elections, as he fended off attacks on the abolition of the Educational Maintenance Allowance. In an attempt to spike the guns of Labour and Lib Dem critics campaigning against the scrapping of the £30 weekly allowance, Gove praised Lib Dem councils that help students with travel costs. The education secretary’s comments came ahead of a defeat in the Commons tonight of a bid by Labour to keep the allowance; it was defeated by 317 votes to 258, a government majority of 59. Gove’s remarks highlight the support among senior allies of David Cameron for greater co-operation with the Tories’ coalition partners. He hailed Lib Dem and Conservative councils that are helping students by upholding their statutory commitment to fund student travel. “Well they won’t if a Labour council takes power, I suspect. But if they’re wise enough to vote Liberal Democrat at the next local elections in Hull …” Amid gasps and laughter, Gove paused before adding, “… or for the Conservatives in any seat where we are well placed to defeat Labour, then they will have a council which is fulfilling its statutory duty. It is no surprise that there are Liberal Democrat and Conservative councils which are ensuring that all students receive the support they deserve. It’s striking that this is in addition to Education Maintenance Allowance.” – the Guardian

Warsi comments spark debate

Islamophobia has “passed the dinner-table test” and is seen by many as normal and uncontroversial, Baroness Warsi will say in a speech on Thursday. The minister without portfolio will also warn that describing Muslims as either “moderate” or “extremist” fosters growing prejudice. Lady Warsi, the first Muslim woman to attend Cabinet, has pledged to use her position to wage an “ongoing battle against bigotry”. Her comments are the most high-profile intervention in Britain’s religious debate by any member of David Cameron’s government. They also confirm the Coalition’s determination to depart from its Labour predecessor’s policy of keeping out of issues of faith. Lady Warsi will use a speech at the University of Leicester to attack what she sees as growing religious intolerance in the country, especially towards followers of Islam. – Daily Telegraph

The first Muslim woman Cabinet minister will today launch a controversial attack on Britain’s approach to Islam. Baroness Warsi will caution that Islamophobia is seen as normal and acceptable at dinner parties. The Tory Party chairman will warn that describing Muslims as ‘moderate’ or ‘extremist’, fosters prejudice against them. In a speech at the University of Leicester, she will pledge to use her position to wage an ‘ongoing battle against bigotry’. Lady Warsi will say: ‘It’s not a big leap of imagination to predict where the talk of “moderate” Muslims leads. Her high-profile intervention suggests that the Government is more willing than its Labour predecessors to tackle sensitive issues of race and religion. But Lady Warsi’s controversial speech will lay her open to the charge that she has sided with her own community at a time when Christian leaders are also concerned that public respect for their faith has diminished. The Tory chairman will say that terrorist offences committed by a small number of Islamists must not be used to condemn all Muslims. But she will also acknowledge concerns about the failure of some British Muslims to integrate into Western society. And she will warn that some Muslim communities must do more to ostracise extremists. – Daily Mail Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: Only electoral reform can rescue democracy from MPs

19/01/2011, 04:34:02 PM

by Alex Hilton

The referendum debate is getting a little personal, with yes and no campaigners bickering and name calling. Which does Labour little good, because we’re the only party split on the issue. So I will write in the spirit of comradeship. No calling of names like “analogue” or “swivel eyed”. No abuse.

Except of MPs of course. They deserve everything they get.

Remember, that’s where this all came from, the expenses scandal. In the days of the Jenkins review, the electoral reform debate was entirely about fairness. And that didn’t get very far. But the expenses scandal highlighted the other really big problem of FPTP. That of accountability – and that’s an issue that isn’t going away.

MPs are desperately trying to forget the expenses scandal. They want you to believe – they want to believe themselves – that it was a few rotten apples who are now facing the courts or who have resigned in disgrace. But if the sum total of politicians who face trial reaches even twenty, that won’t include any of the MPs who stuck to the rules (that they made to suit themselves) in their over claiming – like the capital gains tax flippers. Nor any of those who weren’t greedy but who turned a blind eye to their colleagues’ behaviour. Which adds up to nearly all of those in Parliament at the time.

I do still have a lot of respect for some of those people, particularly those who achieved most and who represented people best. It’s just a lot less respect than it used to be. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: What would JFK have made of the Tories’ duplicitous weakness on 28 days detention?

19/01/2011, 10:30:27 AM

by Tom Watson

Tomorrow marks 50 years since John F Kennedy’s inaugural presidential address. When David Cameron attends the Nordic conference on behalf of the nation later in the week, his handlers will no doubt try to mark the anniversary by enveloping him in Kennedy stardust. My hunch is that he will want to talk tough, as JFK sometimes did: “let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill”.

Cameron is still looking for international recognition equivalent to that of Blair and Brown and Thatcher. Those television images of statesmen shaking hands in exotic places are the particles of political legacies that politicians crave. In all of Cameron’s grasping hunt for glory, he can only dream of a legacy as enduring as JFK’s. Yet there is a grim reality for our prime minister, one that is only now beginning to reveal itself to him. If you want to leave a positive political legacy in the age of the internet, you probably have to be shot or spend 30 years in jail for a crime you didn’t commit.

And if you don’t believe me, think about the nearest thing the Labour party has to JFK, Tony Blair. That man used to walk on water. The day after tomorrow he will be at the Chilcot enquiry for the second time, wading through misery, as the detail of his decision to take us into Iraq is surgically examined. It wasn’t meant to be this way.

It’s probably an understatement to say that I’ve had disagreements with Mr Blair, but his humiliating second appearance before the committee in some way seems an unworthy way to treat a former prime minister. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: Do we have to self-immolate to start a revolution against the British Pol Pot?

19/01/2011, 07:00:41 AM

By David Seymour

The swift and partially successful revolution in Tunisia was started by an out-of-work graduate who set himself on fire. Now others under the yoke in despotic regimes are doing the same.

Self-immolation has repelled me since I saw the pictures of Buddhist monks on fire in Vietnam but I have to admit that it has an impact which no other form of protest does. Not that I am volunteering to lead the revolution.

But the impact of what has happened in Tunisia does make me wonder what we have to do to get the British people to realise what is going on in this country.

I am baffled by the Tories, particularly David Cameron. I have no doubt that he genuinely believes in and treasures the National Health Service. He has personal experience of it which few Labour MPs have. When you spend a night a week sleeping on a hospital floor by the bedside of your severely disabled child, you see too clearly the magnificence of NHS staff.

So why is he introducing “reforms” which will destroy the health service? It doesn’t make sense. Even if he has been suckered into believing the nonsense propaganda of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, he can’t be so stupid that he doesn’t understand what the ultimate effect of Lansley’s changes will be. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNBOUND: Wednesday News Review

19/01/2011, 06:50:16 AM

Lords settle in for more long nights

The House of Lords has something of a Mad Hatters’ tea party about it this week. Everyone is agitated. Everyone is angry. Everyone is in a hurry. No one knows what is going on. Flustered peers are threatening to stay up all night, and perhaps for several nights to come, as they debate government plans to hold a referendum on the alternative vote and reshape constituency boundaries. If nothing else, this is a bad way to make a good constitution. The standoff involves one of those dilemmas in which there is merit in the arguments from both sides, but over which neither wants to compromise. The government is doing what it promised in the coalition agreement, passing legislation to hold an early referendum on electoral change and reduce the number of MPs (though the cut is smaller than either the Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives offered in their manifestos). The opposition makes the reasonable point that these changes have huge consequences, were barely debated in the Commons, and do not – apart from reasons of internal coalition balance – have to be in the same bill. – the Guardian

The party argues that the coalition is trying to hinder its chances at future elections, but ministers say the changes to seats are needed to make the system fairer and cheaper. Opening the peers’ debate on Monday, Lords leader Lord Strathclyde said the bill had already spent too long going through Parliament, having first been introduced to the Lords last November. He said: “The opposition have dragged their feet. They’ve had their fun.” He added: “The situation has become urgent because the Labour Party has decided to go on a marathon go-slow since we started the committee [to consider the bill].” But Labour’s Lord Falconer said: “This bill is motivated by party politics… It has been introduced without public consultation or pre-legislative scrutiny.” He added: “The bill runs to over 300 pages… It’s unlikely in the extreme that, uniquely among bills, it cannot be improved further by this house.”- the BBC Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: The real middle – and what it really wants

18/01/2011, 02:00:56 PM

by John Spellar

Target voters have been described as Worcester Woman, Mondeo Man and now the “squeezed middle” or “alarm clock Britain”. However, far too much of the discussion has focused on describing the groups rather than trying to assess what this very substantial and important group of voters think, feel or are looking for from politics. In particular, too many commentators seem to believe that they are looking for constant innovation, change and excitement. They would do better to heed Mark Twain, who is reported as saying “I’m all for progress; its change I don’t like”.

With his usual acute observation he encapsulated the attitude of a huge block of voters and particularly those swing voters among the C1 and C2s. They are crucial for elections, not only in the UK, but across the English speaking world. Indeed, I suspect, in much of the rest of the world, particularly the Nordic countries.

In Britain, they have been the backbone of Labour victories, but also the key to victories for Conservative leaders who can tap into their psyche and articulate their concerns. Elsewhere, Ronald Reagan was probably the most adept at this. While the Australian leader, John Howard, and Margaret Thatcher built their success on this group in their earlier years, both were probably too much radical revolutionaries pushing instability, John Howard with “work choices” and Thatcher with the poll tax. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: The other kind of trade union cuts battle: saving cost within Unite

18/01/2011, 11:29:42 AM

by Richard Horton

At the end of this month, Len McCluskey will officially become general secretary of Unite. The Simpson-Woodley or Woodley-Simpson era of joint leadership will pass. It will be the end of the union’s first post-merger era.

At face value, McCluskey will be inheriting a financially robust organisation. In 2009, the union recorded an operating surplus of £9,384,000 from the income it receives from its members. However, Unite has not been able to shield itself from the rigours of the credit crunch. It has been affected by the recession as much as any other body. For instance, in 2008 it had to write down the value of its properties and investments to the extent that it recorded a deficit of £28,114,000. While even now the union’s cash flow is being negatively impacted by an increase in its net pension liability – which is affecting almost every organisation that sponsors final salary pension schemes.

The merger of amicus and the T&G in 2007 was heralded as a means of generating greater industrial and political benefits for the membership of the two unions. Cost savings would be captured through the merging of two sets of staff, two sets of properties and two sets of campaigning operations. Beyond anything, cost savings would be captured through the sheer scale of the new union. Unite would be more efficient as an organisation and therefore more efficient in campaigning for its membership. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: In its proponents’ own terms, AV is just soft porn and repeats of Minder

18/01/2011, 07:00:03 AM

by Kevin Meagher

At this time of year, it’s chilly up there on the moral high ground. But that isn’t stopping Yes campaigners for May’s referendum on the alternative vote (AV) donning their bobble hats and clambering up to pitch their tents.

They are doubtless buoyed by a poll in yesterday’s Independent on Sunday which showed 61 per cent of the electorate “could be persuaded” to make the change from first-past-the-post to AV.

This led some chap called Jonathan Bartley from the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign, to write to former Labour deputy leader, Margaret Beckett (who is President of No to AV) to demand “in sorrow rather than anger” that they hear “truthful and honest arguments” for the retention of FPTP in future.

That’s you told, Marge.

For huffy Yes-ers like Mr. Bartley, those staying loyal to our current first past the post (FPTP) system are “defending the indefensible”. FPTP, they argue, is “an analogue system in a digital age”. A strange comparison, I would have thought. Digital television is full of soft porn, repeats of Minder and shopping channels auctioning crappy jewellery. Read the rest of this entry »