Labour Uncut

INSIDE: Trouble at Ed Mil

03/08/2010, 07:33:07 PM

Word reaches Uncut of trouble brewing for Ed Mil.

The young pretender made some unguarded comments to a regional newspaper last week about differential benefit levels for those in the North and the South. He told the Northern Echo that benefits should be raised in the South to offset the higher cost of living. Northern MPs are said to be, “concerned” – Parliamentary language for bouncing off the walls.

They fear he could be opening the door for the Conservatives to drive through a two-tier tax credit system aimed at placating jittery southern Lib Dems and uppity Shire Tories.

This may of course turn out to be a storm in an ale mug, or it could be the first ‘A’ list gaffe of the leadership campaign.

A bold plan for a Labour resurgence ‘dahn saaf’? Or evidence of young Edmond’s political immaturity? Watch this space.

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GRASSROOTS: Sundip Meghani on why Labour is losing the Hindu vote

03/08/2010, 01:34:14 PM

There is an expectation within the Labour party that ethnic minorities will remain loyal to the cause come what may. They won’t. In fact, not only is Labour losing popular support amongst British Hindus, but the Tories are making significant inroads into this once rock solid demographic.

The trend is reversible, but we need to act decisively in the coming months and years to shore up our vote with Britain’s half a million strong Hindu community.

First, it is important to understand that Hinduism isn’t just a religion, it is a way of life. There is a great deal more than just religious belief that binds the British Hindu population together. It is also worth pointing out that the British Hindu community is becoming increasingly confident, organised and influential, with the emergence of several major umbrella organisations and think tanks in recent years.

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UNBOUND: Tuesday News Review

03/08/2010, 08:18:55 AM

The David & Ed show

The next Labour leader is unlikely to be an Abbott, Balls or Burnham. Gordon Brown’s successor will be a Miliband. But I’m more interested in whether he will be Mr Sun or Mr Wind. Aesop captured the dilemma in a fable. If you want a man to take off his cloak, do you huff and puff and force him to give it up or do you cover him with warmth until he discards it freely? In Aesop, the sun scores a predictable victory. Politics isn’t so easy. Harriet Harman’s blasts at Nick Clegg’s alleged betrayal of left-wing voters has undoubtedly blown many Liberal Democrat voters towards Labour. In the long term, however, Mr Miliband (for surely it will be Ed or David) is more likely to prosper by offering flowers to Liberal Democrats than by throwing the vase at them. – The Spectator

He accepts that it looks “odd” for Ed to be running against him and appears to have separated his sibling into two distinct mental compartments: Ed the Brother and Ed the Rival. On the shelves of his office, it’s striking that there is no photo of Ed. This strangeness is reflected in the way the normal rules of politics are blurred by the family affair. Normally, the runner-up in a leadership race can expect to get the shadow chancellor’s post. But wouldn’t it just look weird in the modern age to have two brothers in these two posts? Mr Miliband is firm: “I can honestly say I’ve not started giving out jobs to anybody. It’s certainly presumptuous to start giving out jobs to people and I’m resisting all temptations to do that”. – The Evening Standard

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UNCUT: It’s time the leadership also-rans came clean about their second preferences, says Siôn Simon

02/08/2010, 02:57:17 PM

It is polite to pretend that there are five candidates for the Labour leadership. But it is not true. The next leader of the Labour party will be David or Ed Miliband. Everybody knows that.

There is an important battle for third between Diane Abbott and Ed Balls. Which latter has a lot to lose by coming fourth. He entered the contest as a leading figure of his generation. His extraordinary promotion to cabinet rank within two years of entering Parliament (like Ed Miliband’s) had been exceeded in its rapidity only by that of Peter Mandelson just under a decade earlier.

Like Mandelson, Balls and Ed Miliband were beneficiaries of the extravagant patronage of a grateful new leader drunk on glory. Unlike Mandelson, neither was initially ready for such high office. In Balls’ case, he was up to it administratively, but struggled in Parliament and on the broadcast media. Ed Miliband was better presentationally, but worse in the department. Both are better now. Though neither is as good in either respect as was Peter Mandelson. Read the rest of this entry »

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GRASSROOTS: Kris Ballance wants a leader for the whole UK

02/08/2010, 10:23:53 AM

Can Labour provide a leader for the whole UK? It may seem like a strange question to ask, but it is something that party members who live in Northern Ireland ask daily.

Labour did many great things for my province while it was in government, but one thing is still outstanding – leadership.

During the last election, Cameron tried to seize an opportunity that no other party in Westminster has publicly tried to do before – he wanted to have a government that would represent the whole of the United Kingdom and would contest every Westminster seat to ensure that that happened. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNBOUND: Monday News Review

02/08/2010, 08:09:57 AM

Labour likes an idealist; but it hates being in opposition even more

And David Miliband, the man in pole position? He looks relaxed in an open-necked blue shirt. But he is sombre, statesmanlike, low-risk. There are no sound-bites, promises or grand gestures. Instead he warns the party that it could be out of power for ‘a long time’, and needs to pick a credible alternative prime minister to take the fight to the Tories. The coded message is simple: this is no time for an idealist. We’ve been here before, and we don’t want to make the same mistakes. Follow your head and not necessarily your heart. It is a tough, pragmatic argument. But it is one that just might work. Labour likes an idealist; but it hates being in opposition even more. – Manchester Evening News

Text campaigning first

Labour leadership contender Ed Miliband said tonight he had recruited 1,300 potential campaign volunteers in 24 hours in an Obama-style two-way text message drive. His campaign team claimed the mobile marketing exercise was a first for British politics. Miliband’s team sent thousands of text messages to Labour party members through data supplied to all candidates by the party and instead of just sending a message, asked for a response. About half of the recipients replied, of whom 45% said they were supporting the former energy secretary. – The Guardian

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HOME: The week Uncut

01/08/2010, 06:54:57 PM

As Parliament broke up for recess, and the backbenchers packed their suitcases, the candidates readied themselves for the final push. The phone banks have been staffed, the envelopes have been stuffed, the doors have been knocked, and the summer holidays have been cancelled.

It was the week David warned us of years in the wilderness, Andy hit out at the chattering classes, Ed B told us he was fighting to win, Ed M admired the brass neck of the coalition, and Diane reminded us again, just in case we hadn’t clock it, that she’s the only girl.

Another busy week on Uncut. In case you missed them, here are half a dozen of Uncut’s best read pieces of the last seven days:

Lets get organised, lets get ready to win, argues David Miliband

Trident must be part of the strategic defence review says Des Browne

Kevin Meagher thinks David Cameron is going berserk

We need character – we need Ed Miliband, says Hillary Benn

Jonathan Todd plots a path between swivel-eyed, small-state evangelism and defending the status quo

Full equality will only be achieved when civil partnerships are recognised as marriage agrues Waheed Alli

Don’t forget it is our final crowdsourced leadership interview this week. We will be taking your questions to Andy Burnham. You have until midnight tonight to get your questions in.

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UNBOUND: Sunday News Review

01/08/2010, 08:54:20 AM

Manchester #hustings

Mr Burnham, who was Health Secretary, Culture Secretary and Chief Secretary to the Treasury during his time in government, argues that Labour will only make itself electable again if it ditches the “hollow” elements of the Blair-Brown years. “We need to keep the best of New Labour and ditch some of the hollowness of it, it looked hollow and rootless at times.” Asked what he would do to counter this, he says he would ban the practise of parachuting candidates into safe seats for a start: No more “favourite sons or daughters. No more fixing shortlists at national level. This is where the style of politics really cost us electorally.” – The Telegraph

David Miliband has warned Labour could be out of power for years as he made his bid for the party leadership at the final hustings before September’s vote. The front-runner in the race to replace Gordon Brown went head-to-head with his brother Ed, Andy Burnham, Ed Balls and Diane Abbott in a question-and-answer session for 600 party members in Manchester. The former foreign secretary told the audience that each time Labour had been thrown out of government they had stayed in opposition for between 14 and 18 years. “We could be out of power for a long time; history tells us we will,” he said. “I want to buck that trend.” – The Sunday Herald

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HOME: Manchester Labour leadership hustings: Laughometer

31/07/2010, 04:13:53 PM

This is the laughometer from today’s Labour Party hustings in Manchester.

As usual, tiny chuckles weren’t recorded.

We maintained our rule that to score, you had to get a proper laugh from a significant portion of the room.

The laughometer was close to breaking point under the strain of the hilarity today. On todays appearance Diane may be making her way to Edinburgh next week.

Diane Abbott – 6

David Miliband – 2

Ed Miliband – 4

Ed Balls – 3

Andy Burnham – 2

The results were taken by an experienced laughometer operator, who knows the difference between a titter and a roar.

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UNCUT: Come on candidates, let’s hear what you’ve got

31/07/2010, 03:16:45 PM

For those readers old enough to have attended a concert given by a proper ‘rock band’, you will be familiar with the role of a ‘roadie’. As well as lumping around heavy musical equipment, obtaining narcotics for the band and procuring groupies for the purposes of sexual gratification, their more mundane task is to make sure the band’s guitars are in tune.

With not long of the Labour Leadership World Tour to go, some of our prospective lead singers could do with a good roadie. Not to fulfill the more unseemly aspects of their job description you understand; but to fine-tune candidates’ rhetorical stratocasters. Because I don’t know about you, but my ears are starting to hurt a bit.

Can I make a suggestion? Can we just take it as read that all candidates in this leadership contest are motivated by their “values.” That they all want to “reconnect”. That they are all committed to “renewal” and “fairness”. And that they all want to “listen?”

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