Labour Uncut

UNCUT: Don’t cut growth: Andy Westwood says that Labour got it right

08/06/2010, 04:43:31 PM

‘We’ve got to get the economy moving’ urged David Cameron ad nauseam during the election campaign. But beyond his condemnation of the ‘jobs tax’ and his desire to shrink the size and the role of the state, the detail was nowhere to be seen. He claimed then that what government spent or did was not the same thing as the economy – visibly incredulous as Gordon Brown warned about endangering the recovery by cutting expenditure too quickly.

A few weeks into the coalition government and the headlines are still about cuts, because in Cameron’s words ‘growth won’t be enough’. That may be because he has yet to give it any serious thought, or it may be because they just prefer to talk about the deficit. But there’s a third possibility: it may be because the Tories and Lib Dems don’t want to admit that they have retained Labour’s new industrial policy.

Key to this was the formation of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and ‘NINJA’ – the ‘New Industries, New Jobs’ white paper jointly written and conceived by Lord Mandelson and John Denham. Which document was published in Budget week exactly two years ago, providing a narrative for a more optimistic economic future amidst the fast developing recession in 2008.

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INSIDE: PLP leadership hustings

08/06/2010, 03:55:32 PM

A private meeting of hundreds of MPs is not really a private meeting. But meetings of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) are slightly more so than entirely public gatherings.

Several MPs tweeted from yesterday’s PLP leadership hustings: John Woodcock, Rachel Reeves, Douglas Alexander and Denis MacShane, for instance.

But these were tiny snaphshots, in some cases only of their favourites.

The note below is a fuller record. There are many public hustings to come. But the tone of the leadership cadre is always slightly different at the PLP than anywhere else.

We have provided this note for that reason.

Nominations close at 1230 tomorrow. There are currently 42 MPs still to declare or nominate.

This is a not a transcript. It is an amalgam of several contemporaneous notes taken for their own use by people present at the meeting. If some candidates have more remarks recorded than others, it is because they said more things that people wrote down.

Read the rest of this entry »

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INSIDE: The Undecided

08/06/2010, 03:15:19 PM

This is a list of MPs who have not yet declared for or nominated a leadership candidate. At present there are 42 undecided MPs.

See the list of official nominations on the party’s website here.

Read the rest of this entry »

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INSIDE: Keith Vaz: he’s got so much love to give

08/06/2010, 01:25:59 PM

You can’t please all the people all of the time. But you can try.

While others hedged their bets, Leicester MP Keith Vaz came out early in support of David Miliband.

Some who remembered the 2007 deputy leadership contest were surprised to see Vaz nailing his colours so firmly to the mast. He was the only MP in that contest quietly to pledge his vote to all six of the candidates.

Less surprising, in which case, that yesterday he nominated Diane Abbott.

Even if she gets on to the ballot paper, though, he is under no obligation – not even moral – to vote for her. This is known as spreading the love. Keith is the master.

What passes for a PLP establishment machine in these days of interregnum is making serious efforts to get Abbott onto the ballot paper. MPs who haven’t yet nominated are being asked if they well lend her their support, in order to secure a less indefensibly homogenous choice for party members.

We believe it is to Vaz’s credit that he has switched his support in this way. More than anything, party members want a broad choice.

Last week, Keith added to the epistolary avalanche which threatens to obliterate the PLP, as dozens of their number seek election to something or other.

In Keith’s case, he is seeking re-election as chair of the important home affairs select committee. As a select committee chair – as in all things – Keith sees broad appeal as paramount: “all but one of the thirty one reports we produced was unanimous”, was the proudest boast of his letter to colleagues.

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GRASSROOTS: Let’s stop the robot-talk and really communicate on the doorstep, says Peter Newlands

08/06/2010, 10:46:08 AM

I don’t mind smiling and clapping when a shadow minister arrives at the church or community centre they’re stumping at that day. I understand the arrangement; it looks good on television to have shiny supporters filling out the screen.
The difficult part to swallow is when the cameras are off and we’re in the pub afterwards. I’ve spent many a night getting upset when an earnest young supporter defends some bizarre policy thought up by the high command.

I lie awake after returning from a day’s campaigning and wonder what goes on in the minds of these people. I struggle to believe that they are stupid, or gutless; but I also find it hard to accept that any supporter really came into politics with a gripping desire to lengthen the time we could detain a terror suspect without charge to 90 days. Read the rest of this entry »

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UNBOUND: Tuesday News Review

08/06/2010, 08:27:13 AM

The debate begins

“During the first major hustings event for the candidates vying to succeed Gordon Brown, Mr Burnham went further

The hopefulls debate at the GMB

than before in distancing himself from the “top-down” approach of Tony Blair and Mr Brown. In a symbolic break with the New Labour years, both Mr Burnham and Ed Miliband suggested they would not have Lord Mandelson in their shadow cabinets.” – The Independent

“The Miliband brothers took different approaches in a grilling by union members at the first hustings of the Labour leadership contest. David risked anger by rejecting calls for a repeal of industrial action laws. “If we return to being a party that says secondary picketing is back and balloting is out, you can kiss goodbye to another Labour government,” he said. But younger brother Ed promised the GMB-hosted debate in Southport, Merseyside, that if elected leader he will work more closely with unions.” – The Mirror

“The potential left contribution is not just about sharpening the style of Labour’s centre-right, but also enriching the party’s substance. There are issues where – as Dr Seuss could have written – the left is right, and the right wrong.” – The Guardian

“The meeting came after five of the hopefuls made their case to the GMB union at a hustings which saw Mr McDonnell win loud applause by attacking Margaret Thatcher’s cuts in the 1980s. However, some observers thought he blotted his copybook by quipping that he would like to travel back in time to “assassinate” the former Tory premier. He later insisted that this was a joke.” – Press Association

The Candidates

“There’s been a lot of attention on Ed Balls over the past couple of days as nominations for the Labour leadership are about to close and the race proper will begin. The big news from the former was his readiness to criticise Brown, his former mentor, while he had an assured performance in the latter” – Political Betting

“There’s been a lot said about Ed Balls’ Observer piece on immigration. But the most striking thing about it to my mind is that it shows that Balls has made the transition to an opposition mindset.” – The Spectator

“Supporters of Diane Abbott are urging fellow backbencher MP John McDonnell to stand down from the Labour leadership race to give the left a greater chance of having a candidate on the final ballot.” – The Guardian

“If Labour’s hopefuls are ever to make amends, it won’t be by playing to imagined prejudice and falling back on the surly, inward-looking populism of the immigration debate. The bitter truth about the last election is that voting for the people’s party became the luxury of the affluent. Now, with an age of unrest dawning, Labour will never win back the trust of the fearful by whipping up the politics of fear.” – The Telegraph

Cameron fast and loose with the facts

Cameron "disingenuous at best"

“Cameron is quite right to reduce the figures to a scale and proportion which means something to the ordinary taxpayer; but he’s treating us like fools to pretend that this figure of £70bn is some sort of deep, dark secret which the last government was trying to hide.” – The Independent

“Now that the new UK government is bedding in and getting ready to unleash austerity upon us, I thought I’d quickly look back at the last Labour government and tell you something that you won’t want to hear: the last Chancellor Alistair Darling did a very good job.” – Investment Week

“To somehow claim that he’s opened the books and found things worse than he thought, that’s nonsense. This is a classic case of the new Government blaming the last government in order to pave the way for things the Tories had always wanted to do, this time getting the Liberals to front it up for them.” Alistair Darling, World at One

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GRASSROOTS: The Tories’ lust for cuts reveals itself in local government already, says Amanda Ramsay

07/06/2010, 02:16:47 PM

When David Cameron coined the phrase “Big Society”, no one really seemed to know what he meant. But take a look at new-style Tory Councils and see how the Prime Minister was sign-posting a well thought-out, ideological intention to take government back to laissez-faire, sink or swim politics, where the state sits back and does the very bare minimum.

It is at local government level that Cameron’s cuts will be fought out. So expect to hear free-market buzz words like “outsourcing”, “privatisation”, “small government” and “consumer choice” as key parts of Cameron’s Conservative vision for municipal governance.

No wonder we’ve heard so much from John Redwood since the Conservatives formed their coalition with free-market zealots Nick Clegg and David Laws. Read the rest of this entry »

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INSIDE: Timetable for the Election of the Leader of the Labour Party

07/06/2010, 12:00:11 PM

After several requests, we’re publishing the formal timetable for the leadership race below.

This is the information sent to MPs by Labour’s General Secretary Ray Collins.

May
Monday, 24 May	2.30pm Opening of PLP nominations Stakeholder mailing: procedural information packs, including nomination and supporting nomination papers 5.30pm MP nominations posted on Labour Party website; thereafter, twice daily at 12.30pm and 5.30pm until close of nomination process.
June
Monday, 7 June	7.00pm PLP Hustings
Wednesday, 9 June	12.30pm Close of PLP Nominations 1.00pm Procedures Committee to declare all validly nominated candidates. Email to all members
Thursday, 10 June	12.00pm deadline for acceptance of nomination by validly nominated candidates. Supporting nominations open
Friday, 11 June	Youth Hustings, London
Sunday, 13 June	Hustings, Glasgow
Saturday, 19 June	BAME Hustings, Leicester
Saturday, 26 June	Hustings, Newcastle
July
Sunday, 4 July	Hustings, Cardiff
Saturday, 10 July	Hustings, Southampton
Friday, 16 July	Hustings, London & South
Sunday, 18 July	Hustings, Birmingham
Monday, 19 July	Procedures Committee
Tuesday, 20 July	National Executive Committee meeting 5.00pm Deadline for candidates to provide 250 word statement and picture for inclusion in candidate booklet.
Thursday, 22 July	Last day for membership queries (and adjudication by National Constitutional Committee)
Sunday, 25 July	Women’s Hustings, Leeds
Monday, 26 July	12.30pm Close of supporting nominations Deadline for affiliated organisations to certify number of members to be balloted Artwork for ballots and candidate booklets made available to affiliated organisations. Ballots being printing
Saturday, 31 July	Hustings, Manchester
August
Monday, 16 August – 22 September	Ballots and member magazine posted to all members. Balloting begins
September
Wednesday, 8 Sept	12.30pm Freeze date for new members to join Deadline for members in arrears
Wednesday, 15 Sept	5.00pm last day to request replacement ballot
Monday, 20 Sept	Procedures Committee
Tuesday, 21 Sept	5.00pm close of affiliate ballot National Executive Committee
Wednesday, 22 Sept	5.00pm close of members and MP/MEPs ballots
Saturday, 25 Sept	1.00 – 3.00pm Announcement of ballot results

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INSIDE: Tony Lloyd sets out rules for tonight’s PLP hustings

07/06/2010, 11:03:21 AM

Chair of the Parliamentary Labour party, Tony Lloyd, has laid out the arrangements for tonight’s PLP hustings.

In a letter to PLP members, Lloyd set out detailed arrangements for the event, held a stone’s throw away from the House of Commons at Church House.

The candidates will draw lots to decide where they sit and in which order they speak. They will then make opening statements for which they will have strictly 2 minutes, with a further 2 minutes for closing contributions.

Lloyd has said that questions to the candidates won’t be vetted, but members will have to submit their question topics before the event.

“I am proposing that anyone who wants to ask a question email me the broad theme of their question so I can make sure we cover as many topics as possible and avoid repetition.

“I am obviously not going to start vetting subjects and questions, but it will in practical terms help me to make sure we don’t end up with the same question being asked several times. It will also help me judge which are the most important topics we all want to see covered.”

There will be as many questions as time allows before MPs return to the House for when the Whip comes on at 9pm. Questions will be taken one at a time and candidates will rotate the order in which they speak, to allow everyone to speak first.

Lloyd has apologised for the ‘somewhat bureaucratic’ process but defends it in the interest of the meeting. “I do think it’s in our collective best interest to make Monday as broad a discussion as possible.”

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UNCUT: Labour must have a woman on the ticket, says Lesley Smith

07/06/2010, 08:11:29 AM

Ten days ago Labour Uncut called, patronisingly, for “a credible woman” on the Labour leadership ballot.

I’ve rarely found myself making common cause with Diane Abbott, and nor is she my preferred candidate, but she has at least seen an open door and walked towards it. There should be a woman on the ticket – but not to save Labour’s embarrassment. It’s an indictment that none apparently wants it (even perhaps Diane) and that we’ve propelled so few women into recent positions of responsibility and recognition that any feel eligible or likely to be taken seriously.

Labour’s 81 women are 31% of the parliamentary party, the highest proportion ever, and include the first three Muslim women MPs. But in terms of women’s voices being heard we’re behind the curve. The 22% of seats held by women in the Commons make Britain the fiftieth most female parliament, level with Uzbekistan, just ahead of China and Malawi but below Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is obvious that broadening participation, in terms of gender, ethnicity, background or experience, changes politics. So a ballot that includes only interchangeable, middle class white men is something of a failure for a party that has banged on about inclusion for three decades. Read the rest of this entry »

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