Labour Uncut

UNBOUND: Tuesday News Review

16/11/2010, 06:30:07 AM

Miliband committed to 50p tax “for foreseeable future”

Alan Johnson had surprised colleagues by saying that, in five years’ time, Labour might not see the need for the higher rate introduced by Alistair Darling earlier this year. But the Labour leader had indicated, along with other candidates in the party’s summer leadership election, that the 50p rate was permanent. Mr Miliband said in the summer that the new level of tax should stay because it was “not just about reducing the deficit, it’s about fairness in society”. He added: “Let me say plainly: I would keep the top rate of income tax at 50p permanently.” Yesterday, Mr Miliband moved to restate his commitment to the higher rate. His spokesman said: “We remain committed to it for now and the foreseeable future. – The Telegraph

Ed Miliband has started to retreat from his totemic pledge to make “permanent” the 50p top rate of tax, under pressure from Alan Johnson, his shadow chancellor. The Labour leader’s promise to take half the earnings of richer individuals in tax was a key part of his pitch for the Labour leadership, helping him to win union support and pip his brother David to the top job. But on Monday Mr Miliband began the latest phase of his drive to take Labour towards the centre ground, dropping his earlier insistence that a 50p rate should be retained indefinitely. “We remain committed to it now and for the foreseeable future,” Mr Miliband’s spokesman said – a shift in position that brings him into line with the more moderate views of Mr Johnson. – The FT Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: Poor communities will be cut more than rich

15/11/2010, 05:07:53 PM

by Michael Dugher

After the comprehensive spending review, the institute for fiscal studies said that the government’s policies will hit the poorest families harder than the better off. It said that the tax and benefit changes were “regressive”, and would have a greater impact, relative to income, on people at the lower end of the scale. David Cameron says “we’re all in this together”, but as various reports will show in the coming weeks, how badly affected you are depends on where you live.

Key to this unfairness are the cuts in funding to local authorities, who all face reductions of seven per cent a year. But this will not mean that all local authorities will face equal cuts in their budgets. The reductions in central government grant will clearly have a much bigger impact on those councils who serve more deprived areas. In areas like my own in Barnsley, needs are higher but the council tax base is lower. If you are more reliant on central government funding and raise less funding locally, you will not have the capacity to recover funding shortfalls. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: Politicians can’t hide on Twitter

15/11/2010, 12:02:55 PM

by India Knight

If it weren’t for social media – Twitter, specifically – I would never have known that Kerry McCarthy shares my fascination with Jacob Rees-Mogg (though it’s a thin line, isn’t it, between fascination and, um, the baser longings? Just saying). The world would still turn. The stars would still glint away in the sky. Labour politics would still feel a bit like we’d travelled back to some doleful time in the Eighties, with Neil Kinnock droning on tragically about the rightful order being restored and all being well. But the world – my world, at any rate – would be a drabber place. I love that McCarthy tweets from the chamber with barely-concealed trepidation whenever Rees-Mogg stands up to speak. The juxtaposition of the solemnity of the business at hand and of normal human behaviour delights me every time.

Prior to this, I was dimly aware of the existence of the member for Bristol East, but being a punter rather than a lobby hack or a politician, that was pretty much it. I’d never have read her blog, for instance, or any other MP’s, a) because nobody was holding a gun to my head and b) because I thought that reading politicians’ blogs – as opposed to political ones – would be as jolly as hunkering down for a riotous night in with some fabian society policy reports and a macramé project. (Obviously, I realise that this is some people’s idea of the most terrific fun, and I can only apologise for my own lamentable shallowness).

It’s a hackneyed old chestnut that politicians are “all the same”, but it’s a tenacious chestnut that not only endures but has recently grown, richly fertilised by ye olde expenses, to mega-chestnut, Chestnut of Doom proportions. Politicians of all parties are broadly perceived as, variously, pompous, monomaniacal dullards, disengaged freakazoids, Pooterish nobodies or hideously corrupt – sometimes, treat of treats, all four at once. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: Liar, know thyself

15/11/2010, 09:00:20 AM

by Eric Joyce

Upon reading the dozens of bitter and bileful comments below Peter Watt’s thoughtful Uncut piece on the Phil Woolas episode, I was struck by how many people there are around of unimpeachable personal integrity, their lives un-marred by a single personal error of any significance.

As a pure person who has never done anything I later regretted, I felt among kindred spirits. Indeed, if you check out the letters page of any newspaper, you’ll see that such virtue is commonplace these days. While, at the same time, recent research (at yougovstone.com) shows that most people are pretty sure that most politicians are lying most of the time.

So why is it that all politicians, apart from me, are such lying liars? Why are they all, with the same caveat, such cowardly cowards? What’s so wrong with democracy that it only elevates to public office scoundrels and never the pure (me aside)? It’s a puzzle.

It occurs to me that, just for laughs you understand, it might be worth taking a look at these questions through the other end of the telescope. What if it were the case that our democratic system does not systematically and dysfunctionally send just the scum of the earth to Westminster? What, instead, if it were true that many people were living lies and using politicians as a means of exorcising their own demons of guilt and frustration; politicians the vessel for their own imperfections? Read the rest of this entry »

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UNBOUND: Monday News Review

15/11/2010, 07:04:58 AM

Lib Dems feel the heat

The Liberal Democrats are facing twin electoral assaults from the Green Party and the National Union of Students in the wake of the party’s U-turn on tuition fees. The Independent understands the Greens are drawing up a strategy to target Liberal Democrat MPs in the most marginal seats – a move which could potentially unseat up to 10 per cent of the party’s MPs. The Greens are unlikely to win the seats but they could do what UKip has done to the Conservatives and win enough votes to deprive the Liberal Democrats of a majority in several seats across the country. At the same time the NUS has announced plans to target high profile Liberal Democrat-held constituencies with large student populations including Nick Clegg’s constituency of Sheffield Hallam and Don Foster’s in Bath. They are also considering putting up a candidate in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election – which the Liberal Democrats hope to win from Labour following the ejection of former immigration minister Phil Woolas. The election will be the first big test of the Coalition’s popularity. – The Independent

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg was struggling to contain a revolt over tuition fees yesterday as the party’s new president vowed to vote against the rise. Tim Farron MP, elected to the post on Saturday, also said the party would be “stark- raving mad” to deepen its alliance with the Tories. He challenged Mr Clegg by declaring he would oppose raising fees to up to £9,000 and appeared to back last week’s student demo, saying it made him feel “nostalgic” for his radical youth. Mr Farron said: “You would have to be stark-raving mad to think there’s any chance of a merger or closer relationship or a pact.” Shadow Business Secretary John Denham also weighed in with: “Nick Clegg has no credibility on tuition fees.” – The Mirror

Students are angry that the party has failed to stick to its pre-election pledge to oppose charging for university. The NUS claims Lib Dem MPs were elected on that promise and should now be removed from power. The campaign will target Mr Clegg in Sheffield Hallam, Simon Wright in Norwich South, Stephen Williams in Bristol West and Don Foster in Bath. Aaron Porter, president of the NUS, said the aim is to force out Lib Dems who break their pre-election pledge to oppose any rise in tuition fees. Mr Porter has said the NUS will urge a parliamentary recall for MPs who have broken their promises on tuition fees based on a coalition idea for holding MPs to account known as the “right to recall” initiative. – Sky News Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: Lib Dems are trembling over NUS plans to recall MPs

14/11/2010, 04:24:51 PM

by Denis MacShane

The president of the NUS, Aaron Porter, wrote a strongly worded email to all MPs on Friday. In it he said that students would seek to use the proposed Lib Dem law on recall to put pressure on MPs over tuition fees.

The recall mechanism – also advanced on Newsnight on Friday by the thoughtful Tory MP, Robert Halfon – is not yet a draft law so no-one knows exactly how it will work. Halfon was critical of the notion that judges should overturn election results on account of what was printed in leaflets.

In the Woolas case the judges were apparently unaware that there was a local election the same day so the struggle was never going to get above the gutter politics which Lib Dems have for a long time specialised in when it comes to local contests. But Halfon said that, in his view, Woolas should be allowed to contest this seat again.

Now it must be the turn of Lib Dem MPs to tremble as the NUS awaits the new recall ideas becoming law.

In 2005, students angry about Iraq and Labour’s modest tuition fee proposals turned Labour seats like Manchester Withington and Cambridge into Lib Dem seats. But students will be the first to use a recall system to target Lib Dem seats following Nick Clegg’s decision to dishonour the solemn public pledge he gave to the NUS before May.

Calling their opponents liars used to be a Tory speciality. (“How do you know Harold Wilson is lying? His lips are moving” was a favourite Tory remark). Accusing Blair of lying – “Bliar” – was normal discourse. But no-one in politics can recall quite such a spectacular untruth as Clegg’s signature on an NUS pledge poster which we now learn from the Guardian he was planning to betray before the election.

So the Lib Dems’ passion for recall may turn out to be a boomerang. It is also a gift to the BNP, UKIP and other single issue groups who can throw everything at raising the required number of signatures to force a recall election.

How long would Tony Benn have stayed an MP at the height of the media hate campaign against him in the 1980s? MPs like Chris Mullin who bravely defied conventional opinion on the issue of IRA terror bomb convictions could easily have had a recall petition run by the Sun or Daily Mail with a coupon on its front page.

Recall is an expression of the new populism in politics which should raise concerns. The Lib Dems who are experts at local populist propaganda are likely to be hanged by their own dishonesty.

Denis MacShane is MP for Rotherham and a former Labour minister.

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HOME: Who won the battle of Millbank Tower?

14/11/2010, 12:00:45 PM

THE WEEK UNCUT

Who won the battle of Millbank Tower? To some it was the triumphal unprising of a new, radicalised generation. To others a political score draw. The violence was an unwelcome distraction, but a message had been sent. Then there were those who saw only a missed opportunity. The largest student protest in decades, undermined by the hotheads and the vandals.

To judge success, it helps to look at objectives. The organisers wanted to draw the eyes of the nation to their cause. In that they were indisputably successful. Every bulletin and front page ran with images of the day. Some saw criminals. Others freedom fighters. But we all bore witness. They also wanted to put the issue at the centre of the public discourse. Again, they were successful. Prime ministers questions, though nominally subcontracted to the deputies, was handed over to the students. Members of parliament shared common cause with the protestors. Members of parliament shunned them. But all felt their presence.

Finally, somewhat lost amid the filth and the fury, there was a policy objective. The reversal of the misleadingly innocuous Browne report. Here, there is less evidence of progress. Clegg has been exposed and humiliated. But Cameron and the Tories, their headquarters excepted, remain relatively unscathed. They will watch carefully to see whether Wednesday’s events represent a flash of youthful disobedience, or the spark that ignites a dangerous conflagration of protest.

But they do not expect people oppressed by their mortgages, jobs and credit card repayments to rise up in defence of the cherished right to study social anthropology with a year in Denmark.

There will be implications, however, for all of us. On Wednesday, at precisely the same time that the doors of Millbank Tower were being smashed down, a wall was being constructed.

On one side of that wall sit the good. Hard-working people. Fair-minded people. Conscientious, thoughtful, law-abiding people.

On the other side sit the bad. Destructive people. Arrogant people. Selfish, lazy, lawless people.

On Wednesday, we on the left found ourselves the wrong side of that wall. And, by default, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and their government escaped to the other.

We can dismantle that wall. We can scale it. But we must do so. And we must so quickly.

These were the best read pieces on Uncut last week:

Peter Watt sympathises with Phil Woolas

Kevin Meagher says three cheers for Nigel Farage

Inside breaks the story of Ken’s pushing for Rahman’s readmission

Tom Watson on Cameron’s vulgar obsession with image

Luke Akehurst on the student riot

Simone Webb defends Sally Bercow

Dan Hodges on Ed Miliband’s gurus

Jessica Asato goes back to Tower Hamlets

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UNBOUND: Sunday News Review

14/11/2010, 08:20:44 AM

Last minute decision to ditch the Harriers

The highly-controversial cut to the Harrier force – condemned last week by several former heads of the service as “perverse” and risking “national humiliation” – was decided only three days before the final announcement of the defence review, sources said. Until then, the plan had been to scrap the RAF’s Tornado fleet, the oldest strike aircraft currently in service. In a tense meeting, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the First Sea Lord, told Mr Cameron that he “could not endorse as his military advice” the decision to axe the Harriers and considered it a “political, not military decision. Senior defence sources said much of the £4.7 billion of cuts in the review was only decided in a series of meetings at 10 Downing Street over the weekend of 16/17 October, two to three days before it was announced. “There was little more than some PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets for financial planning,” said one source. He said the MoD was left “starting from scratch” that weekend on some of the contentious issues,” – The Telegraph

NUS launch strategy to oust Lib Dems

The National Union of Students will launch a “decapitation” strategy aimed at ousting Nick Clegg and other top Liberal Democrats from parliament in protest at the party’s U-turn on student fees. The move aims to build on anger about coalition policies – which spilled over into violence on Wednesday – in Lib Dem-held constituencies with large student populations. The key targets will be Clegg in Sheffield Hallam, Simon Wright in Norwich South, Stephen Williams in Bristol West and Don Foster in Bath. Aaron Porter, president of the NUS, said the campaign would aim to force out Lib Dems who break their pre-election pledge to oppose any rise intuition fees. The move has echoes of the Lib Dems’ own “decapitation strategy” in 2005, when the party threw resources into efforts to oust leading Tories with narrow majorities, including Michael Howard and Theresa May. Porter said the NUS will make use of a coalition idea for holding MPs to account that was championed by Clegg himself. The “right to recall” initiative, which has yet to became law, proposes that a byelection can be called if an MP is judged guilty of serious wrongdoing and 10% of constituents want him or her removed. – The Observer

Lib Dem president says pact would be “raving mad”

The new president of the Liberal Democrats last night dismissed the idea of a long-term pact with the Tories as “absolutely stark raving mad”. In comments likely to raise the hackles of traditional Conservatives, Tim Farron told The Independent on Sunday his politics is “very much built upon an anger at the injustice” of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership. “The fact there’s a good working relationship is something we should celebrate, but not assume there is any kind of attempt to assimilate,” he said, just hours after defeating ex-MP and former London mayoral candidate Susan Kramer to the presidency by 14,593 votes to 12,950. “You would have to be absolutely stark raving mad to think there’s any chance of a merger or closer relationship or a pact with the Conservatives.” Lib Dems will contest every seat, he added. – The Independent Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: The real reasons Ken wants Lutfur back in the party

13/11/2010, 12:00:13 PM

by Jessica Asato

It is clear that, despite trying to arm-twist some quite senior members of the Labour party into allowing Lutfur Rahman back into the fold, Ken Livingstone has failed the new mayor of Tower Hamlets for the time being. Instead of pushing the issue at the next meeting of the NEC, Ken has recently rowed back – having had the riot act read to him by Victoria Street – and said there’s no timescale. Though the ambition is still there. Earlier this week Ken said “there is a lot to be said for letting this all calm down and seeing how Lutfur performs”. So why has Livingstone gone out of his way to find such common cause with Rahman?

When I last wrote about the Mayoral election, some commenters suggested that Ken was merely being politically pragmatic by supporting Lutfur. This was not an endorsement of Lutfur’s ideological position, but instead a calculated partnership with an eye on the future. They pointed out that his vote doubled in Tower Hamlets during the 2008 London Mayoral election, arguing that the East London mosque and the Islamic forum of Europe (IFE) were key to his success. By siding with the Labour candidate three weeks ago, Livingstone might have alienated these two important lobby interests in the borough, which could create a mass desertion of Muslim voters from Labour’s cause across London ahead of 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

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