Labour Uncut

UNCUT: John Woodcock finds glimmers of hope amid the grey

25/10/2010, 09:00:00 AM

And so we charge on into the new landscape. It is cold and bleak. And it is dominated by the comprehensive spending review.

While I am not as pessimistic as some Uncut contributors (you, Dan Hodges) about how the announcement played out last week, we shouldn’t for a moment think it was a good week for the Labour party, or, more importantly, for the country.

Even accounting for a little slanting of questions and selective reporting of the answers, the YouGov poll in last week’s Sun was sobering. Taken after the CSR announcement, it suggested that 47 per cent of respondents blamed the last Labour government for the programme of cuts compared to 17 per cent who blamed the Tory-Lib Dem coalition that is making them, and 20 per cent who cast a plague on both our houses. Sure, respondents didn’t get the option to blame the bankers – but even accounting for that bias, the figures suggest that the Tory message machine is having some considerable success. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNBOUND: Monday News Review

25/10/2010, 08:19:33 AM

Leaders pitch to business

Ed Miliband and David Cameron will trade blows at the Confederation for British Industry (CBI) today, as both men make their pitch to the country’s business leaders. Mr Miliband will argue that the Tories have failed to understand the lessons of the financial crisis and are devoid of plans to stimulate growth in the economy. The crisis has led to realisation among Labour figures that government must support enterprise more robustly, Mr Miliband will admit. “Without profound change in the way we manage our economy, we are at risk of, at best, sleepwalking back to an economy riddled with the same risks as we saw before the recession hit,” he will say. “The way to support business and ensure a return to prosperity is to tackle these risks, not ignore them.” Mr Cameron will use his speech to promise a tougher competition regime to help small companies break into existing markets and the creation of ‘technology innovation centres’ so British companies can be at the forefront of innovation. – Politics.co.uk

THE GOVERNMENT should take a more active role in the private sector, Ed Miliband will say today, as he warns against returning to “business as usual” in the wake of the slump. Speaking at the CBI’s annual conference, Miliband will argue that government should not shy away from pursuing a policy of industrial interventionism. “What it means to be pro-business in the 2010s is different to what it meant in the 1990s. It means more than just getting out of the way,” he is expected to say. “Government should not be afraid to provide support to business that the market will not offer. That is the way to rebalance our economy.” Miliband will also claim the government has become obsessed with spending cuts at the expense of an economic strategy, a charge the Prime Minister will try to deflect with a series of pro-growth announcements to day. – City AM

Nobel Prize-winner questions Osborne

There are particular concerns about where the private sector jobs will come from for the 490,000 public-sector workers who are expected to lose their jobs. The chancellor, George Osborne, was yesterday accused by Britain’s new Nobel Prize-winning economist, Christopher Pissarides, of exaggerating the risk of a Greek-style economic crisis affecting the UK economy. In an article for the Sunday Mirror, the professor warned that Osborne’s swingeing cuts package was taking “unnecessary risks” with the economy. “It is important to avoid this ‘sovereign risk’. But in my view Britain is a long way from such a threat, and the chancellor has exaggerated the sovereign risks threatening the country. Unemployment is high and job vacancies few. By taking the action that the chancellor outlined in his statement, this situation might well become worse.” – The Guardian

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HOME: The week Uncut: supping with Banquo’s ghost

24/10/2010, 02:00:38 PM

This was the week David Cameron and Ed Miliband supped with Banquo’s ghost. Savage Tory cuts cheered by gleeful knights of the shire. Labour’s metropolitan factionalism dragging it to electoral defeat. One nation Conservatives professing shame at the callousness of their party. Ineffectual shadow ministers unable to capitalise. Margaret Thatcher and Ken Livingstone united in one final danse macabre.

Cameron was first to feel the icy touch. As the blade fell, the baying of the mob echoed around Westminster. And beyond. The coalition was blooded. Jobs, homes and benefits lost beneath Osborne’s cold steel. Innocence and optimism too. Cameron and Clegg had once yearned for a new politics. It was savage awakening.

Then, amid the waving arms and fluttering order papers, the prime minister noticed her. A woman. Elegant. With stately bearing. She smiled. A hard smile. And was gone.

Labour’s young leader was next to notice a stillness in the air. But not before being forced to watch the flower of a new generation cut down before him. Wave after wave of Labour MP’s hurled themselves ineffectually across the commons chamber. And as each new charge was repulsed, the Bullingdon butchers taunted: “We are the masters now”.

It was not over. A tortured sleep interrupted. More cruel tidings. The citadel of Tower Hamlets breached. Treachery suspected.

Again, the vision was fleeting. An elderly figure, slightly stooped. But with eyes that still burned. One hand resting on an old walking stick. The other clenched in defiance. Then he too had vanished.

David Cameron and Ed Miliband are similar in many ways. Anointed ahead of their time, they have a mandate, and an imperative, to break with the past. Yet this week history out-ran them both.

Cameron can afford the cuts. Indeed, they form a key part of his narrative. A nation united in hardship. A coalition united in leadership.

But his chancellor’s blade cut that narrative in two. Doing hard, dirty work is one thing. Whistling while you do so is something else. This was not the politics of the big society. This was the politics of those who once told us society had ceased to exist.

Ed Miliband was also slammed back into the future. Fiscally, the CSR took us back to the mid-70s. But the Tower Hamlets debacle was pure 80s. A local party riven by divisions. A flagship Labour council seized by political extremists. The leadership of the party seemingly paralysed and impotent.

There though, the equity in the parallel ends. Because history is written by the victors. And we are the vanquished. As it was in the eighties, so it is now.

Images of Tories cheering cuts are toxic for Cameron. But images of extremism, division and indiscipline are potentially terminal for Labour. The issues in Tower Hamlets may seem a quarrel in a far-away borough between people of whom we know little. But couple them with the broader challenges we face, and they represent a real danger to Labour’s future electoral success.

This week both David Cameron and Ed Miliband were haunted by visions from the past. It’s Ed who should feel most afraid.

Here are half a dozen of Uncut’s best-read pieces of the week.

Siôn Simon says the Labour right needs a new leader

David Prescott says Ken must go

Tom Watson says goodbye to Walworth Road

Nick Keehan on an alternative to the Tories’ seedy foreign policy

Kevin Meagher says it’s wrong to hate Margaret Thatcher

Dan Hodges says the CSR was a disaster for Labour

Jessica Asato on the Tower Hamlets debacle

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UNBOUND: Sunday News Review

24/10/2010, 08:30:08 AM

Plan, what plan?

We could have had a different spending review. We could have ensured that we raised more money from the banks that caused the crisis than from cuts in child benefit. With a more measured pace of deficit reduction, there would still have been difficult decisions and cuts. But we would have done more to support the economy, defend frontline services and protect those in need.

Will they get away with the gamble? I don’t believe people are up for a dangerous and reckless gamble with our economic future. It is up to people of all political persuasions who fear for Britain’s society and our economy to stand up and commit to protect not just our values and ideals but the basics of our social and economic fabric. – Ed Miliband, The Guardian

As Cameron patronisingly told him in the warm-up for the spending review: “If you have not got a plan, you cannot attack a plan.” Labour politicians are being knocked about in the Commons, and in every broadcast studio into which they go, because their answer to the obvious question, “What would you do?”, starts off with “Not this”, before moving quickly on to: “We are in opposition.” Miliband does not have long to settle the doubts. Is he indecisive? Does he have a plan? – John Rentoul, The Independent

Did I really promise that?

Government spending cuts may become a matter of life and death, it was claimed last night, as it emerged that almost two million people could wait longer for cancer tests and up to 10,000 firefighters face the axe.
The highly charged claims appear to contradict pre-election promises made by David Cameron to protect frontline services.
John Healey, the Shadow Health Secretary, said: “Ministers have ignored official warnings and axed planned improvements in cancer care. Waiting times will rise for people desperate to find out if they’ve got cancer and get the treatment they need.” – The Independent

He has a conscience?

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has described how he wrestled with his conscience over the coalition’s spending cuts. The Liberal Democrat leader said that he found administering the biggest financial retrenchment in living memory “morally difficult”. But appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, he insisted there were no “pain-free alternatives” to the measures set out in Chancellor George Osborne’s spending review.

“I have certainly searched long and hard into my own conscience about whether what we are doing is for the right reasons. I am not going to hide the fact that a lot of this is difficult. I find it morally difficult. It is difficult for the country.” – Press Association

First throw of the Union dice

Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Bob Crow told a London rally collective action was needed to fight the cuts. It comes after the TUC said a national demonstration will be held on 26 March next year in London’s Hyde Park. Demonstrators gathered outside the RMT head office to hear speeches from Mr Crow and Matt Wrack, leader of the Fire Brigades Union, which is also holding a strike in London. – BBC News

Organisers of today’s There is a Better Way demonstration claimed 20,000 people took to the streets of Edinburgh in a march against government spending cuts. Buses from all across Scotland brought people to the city centre for a rally between East Market Street and Princes Street Gardens.

The march, organised by the STUC, gathered members of workers’ unions together in a protest against the spending cuts announced by chancellor George Osborne this week. Local politicians at the march included the justice minister Kenny MacAskill, SNP MSP for Edinburgh east, Green MSP Patrick Harvie, Labour’s Ian Murray MP, Sheila Gilmore MP, Mark Lazarowicz MP, Iain Gray MSP, Malcolm Chisholm MSP and Sarah Boyack MSP. – The Guardian

Lordy, Lord

David Cameron and Nick Clegg plan to flood the Lords with another 44 new Coalition peers to stop Labour sabotaging their policies in the Upper House, it was claimed last night. Mr Cameron reportedly intends to award 29 peerages to Tory donors and other political allies, with 15 for Mr Clegg’s Liberal Democrats. By contrast, Ed Miliband will get just ten new Labour peers. – The Daily Mail

Labour edge ahead

Labour back ahead of the Coalition in today’s Mail on Sunday/BPIX poll. The poll shows support for Labour at 37 per cent, with the Tories at 35 and Lib Dems at a lowly ten. It puts Mr Miliband ahead of Mr Cameron for the first time since the lead he enjoyed in the afterglow of his Labour ¬leadership victory last month. – The Daily Mail

Mixed messages from Scotland

Forty-one per cent of Scots believe Alex Salmond would make a better First Minister than his main rival Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader. The SNP leader remains ahead of Gray in the popularity stakes, according to Scotland on Sunday’s exclusive YouGov poll. When the sample of 1,405 Scottish adults was asked who of the two men would make the “better” First Minister, 41 per cent replied Salmond, 24 per cent said Gray and 35 per cent said they did not know.

The poll also shows that Labour’s lead over the SNP remains solid. Voting intention figures put Labour at 40 per cent on the Holyrood constituency vote and 36 per cent on the regional list. The SNP lags behind on 34 per cent in the constituency vote and 31 per cent on the list. – The Scotsman

It’s alright for some

David Cameron will escape the cold by taking his family to Thailand over Parliament’s three-week Christmas break. The PM’s allies denied speculation that his host would be Thai leader Abhisit Vejjajiva. The trip is likely to be controversial because Mr Cameron will be flying off to a paradise hotspot just as the impact of his spending cuts starts to bite. Downing Street last night would not confirm the PM’s plans but sources close to the Camerons confirmed Thailand was pencilled in for “a well-deserved few days away” – The Mirror

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GRASSROOTS: Scrapping EMA really hurts me and my friends, says Simone Webb

23/10/2010, 11:17:02 AM

Of all the cuts announced in the comprehensive spending review, the one which hit me most emotionally was the abolition of educational maintenance allowance. I have seen many arguments levied against it, from supporters of all political parties, but I have felt its impact strongly: not just in my own life, but in the lives of so many friends and acquaintances who rely on the money they get every week.

One of the arguments I hear most often against EMA is that young people should just get jobs, and make their own way in the world. To begin with, this shows a lack of understanding of just how bad the economic situation is at the moment – jobs are scarce, and likely to become scarcer under this government.

Second, it is hard to imagine that holding a job down while studying hard to achieve good grades in A Levels, or whichever course is being done, cannot affect either the job or the grades. This would not be so blatantly unfair if all students had to take jobs in order to keep afloat, but the practical situation will be that children from higher income families will not have to work during college or higher education, while children from lower income families will. In effect, students from higher income families will have however many more hours a week to study, and will achieve better grades. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNBOUND: Saturday News Review

23/10/2010, 07:48:41 AM

It’s all gone Nick Clegg

One question swirling through the sea of British politics is this: how will Ed Miliband act towards the Lib Dems? The Labour leader certainly didn’t flinch from attacking the yellow brigade during the leadership contest, at one point calling them a “disgrace to the traditions of liberalism.” But surely he’ll have to soften that rhetoric in case the next election delivers another bout of frenzied coalition negotiations.

Which is why Andy Burnham’s article in the Guardian today is worth noting down. In making his point – that the Lib Dems haven’t won the pupil premium they sought – he does all he can to force a wedge between Nick Clegg and his party. In other words, it looks as though Ed Miliband’s campaign promise that he could only work with a Clegg-less Lib Dem party is now official Labour policy. – The Spectator

The political significance of Clegg’s failure to fund the pupil premium is huge. It goes to the heart of the politics of the coalition, and raises real questions about Clegg’s influence within it. The issue is politically charged because it was one of the points on which the Lib-Lab post-election talks foundered.

Taken all together, I don’t think this is an education policy that most Lib Dems can sign up to. We now have not one but two major Lib Dem broken promises on education. Ruthless Tory ministers have chewed up and spat out Mr Clegg. For a party proud of its principled approach to education policy down the years – and which famously promised a penny on income tax to fund it – these are bleak times indeed. – Andy Burnham, The Guardian

Nick Clegg faces criticism after attacking the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ (IFS) assessment of the spending review as “complete nonsense”. The deputy prime minister’s comments came after the economics thinktank said the spending review’s approach to welfare and public services would have a regressive impact. The IFS’ acting director, Carl Emmerson, had said the Treasury’s own analysis showed the poorest would be hit hardest by cuts to both public services and welfare payments. – politics.co.uk

Where the Axe Falls

Urban areas will bear the brunt of the spending cuts announced this week with every major English city facing a triple whammy of the biggest job losses, council cuts and benefit withdrawals, a Guardian analysis of the impact of the key decisions reveals.

Local authorities with dense populations face the deepest cuts, according to a breakdown of the measures by George Osborne to slash council spending, reduce child benefit and cut the educational maintenance allowance. The predicted 490,000 job losses in the public sector will fall most heavily on cities.

In public sector job losses, the biggest losers are Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool – all largely Labour strongholds, plus the Conservative Westminster and Sheffield Hallam, which is Nick Clegg’s constituency. – The Guardian

Wayne’s World

The opulence of Wayne’s world and his record-breaking deal stands in stark contrast to the other news which rocked the city this week. It is now estimated that 40,000 people in the Greater Manchester area will lose their jobs as a result of Chancellor George Osborne’s plans to cut £83bn from public spending to fight the deficit. Those cuts will translate into the loss of 30,000 public-sector posts and a further 10,000 job losses from private businesses. The majority of jobs will be lost either in the NHS or from the region’s 10 town halls, where 6,750 workers are expected to be added to the dole queue. – The Independent

Super Councils to the Rescue

A new generation of super-councils across the country is being backed by Conservative ministers as a means to slash costs and drive up efficiency standards. A cull of smaller councils would inevitably lead to sweeping job losses.

Three Conservative-controlled councils in the capital – Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham – yesterday announced moves to share services, although they would retain their separate identities. – The Independent

Council Cuts to Cause NHS Chaos

Hospital beds will be filled by the elderly and the vulnerable because of cuts to local government care, a senior health service figure has warned. Nigel Edwards, the head of the NHS Confederation, said the pressure on beds could mean that hospitals would be unable to admit patients “who badly need care”.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Edwards said the result could be that elderly patients would have to stay on in hospital for longer as there will be no after-care available in the community. “Less support from council services will quickly lead to increased pressure on emergency services and hospitals. Hospital beds will be blocked for those who badly need care because the support services the elderly require after discharge will not be available.” – Press Association

Patients will be left untreated as the NHS struggles to mop up the consequences of severe cuts in local authority funding, said Nigel Edwards, the head of the NHS Confederation. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Edwards — whose organisation represents NHS trusts running hospitals and ambulance services — says the cuts in local authority budgets will force them to reduce care services for the elderly and vulnerable. – The Telegraph

Mandelson’s U-Turn

During the leadership campaign, Mandelson criticized Miliband at various points, blaming him for the platform Labour ran on in May’s election and warning Miliband could lead the party down “an electoral cul-de-sac.”

However, in a telephone interview with Dow Jones Newswires Friday, Mandelson said the new Labour leader had positioned himself well on the key political debate over how to handle the country’s fiscal challenges.

“Ed has done what the leader of the opposition needs to do, make a serious argument that has credibility and speaks for the views of many in the country,” Mandelson said. “He has done that successfully.” – The Wall Street Journal

The Rocky Road to NPF Reform

Labour‘s method of making policy has not achieved its objectives, has been far too distant from ordinary party members and has created a great deal of cynicism, Peter Hain says today.

Hain, the man chosen by Ed Miliband to lead Labour’s policy forum, says in a Guardian interview: “I defend the policy forum principle, but there is a great deal of cynicism amongst party members that we need to address. If you disempower your membership, you start down the road to losing, and that is what happened during our 13 years of power.

“I feel rejuvenating our national policy forum is a precondition to winning the next election, and that is very much Ed Miliband’s view.” – The Guardian

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UNCUT: The lessons from Tower Hamlets, by Jessica Asato

22/10/2010, 02:00:27 PM

Were you out campaigning in Tower Hamlets yesterday?

I thought not. You’re not alone; lots of Labour campaign stalwarts stayed away. They took one look at the situation and thought that their precious holiday could be saved for a more deserving campaign.

Even without knowing the complex saga of Tower Hamlets politics, trying to elect an imposed candidate who came third in a party selection seemed like electoral suicide. It was. Despite a valiant ground campaign which I witnessed yesterday, our candidate Helal Abbas was beaten solidly by Lutfur Rahman on 51% of first preferences. I can’t remember the last election day in which I felt so outnumbered by the sheer presence of opposition campaigners. Rahman’s supporters drove round in cars plastered with his literature and quite happily flouted electoral rules by crowding round the entrance to polling stations with leaflets. The few of us who did make it there were stretched thin. It won’t count as one of my happier campaigning experiences. Read the rest of this entry »

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INSIDE: Select and Parliamentary committee vacancies and elections: latest

22/10/2010, 11:47:16 AM

From: O’DONOVAN, Martin

Sent: 19 October 2010 17:00

Subject: UPDATE: VACANCIES AHEAD OF BALLOT NEXT TUESDAY

FAO Labour MPs

As colleagues will be aware we have a number of vacancies to various bodies that we need to fill in the coming days.

As agreed at last night’s PLP meeting the ballots for every vacancy where a ballot is required will take place next Tuesday (26 October) from 10am-5pm in the PLP Office.

We have four different categories of vacancies:

1. Select Committee vacancies

2. Parliamentary Committee vacancies

3. House of Commons Commission vacancy

4. Vacancies to serve on international Bodies (Council of Europe, NATO and OSCE)

In every case the deadline for nominations is next Monday (25 October) at 5pm. The deadline for agreeing proxy votes in 7pm on the same day.

1. Select Committees – expressions of interest

Following the announcement of the new shadow ministerial team we have a number of vacancies on Select Committees. Many thanks to everyone who has already expressed an interest.

We have the following vacancies – please email me with your expressions of interest: Read the rest of this entry »

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UNCUT: The CSR was a political disaster for Labour, says Dan Hodges

22/10/2010, 09:00:17 AM

We fell into a trap. The CSR saw us out-thought, out-spun and out-positioned. First casualty of Osborne’s cuts: the Labour party.

There will be others. Those set to lose their jobs, their benefits, their housing. We will weep for them. Some of us will march for them. Though, wisely, not our leader. We will rage at the injustice.

It will achieve nothing. Neil was right. He has got his party back. A party of protest, not influence.

Wednesday was a slow motion car crash. For months people have been warning that our failure to articulate a coherent position on deficit reduction would cost us dear. Dismissed as siren voices, they were ignored. So we drove, unblinking, into the wall. Read the rest of this entry »

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