Andy Burnham « Labour Uncut

Posts Tagged ‘Andy Burnham’

Saturday News Review

02/10/2010, 07:56:55 AM

Luring Lib Dems

Mr Miliband is playing a longer game. He criticised the Iraq war not to embarrass his brother but to send a powerful signal to Liberal Democrat voters. It appears to have worked. A poll of 1,023 people by the PoliticsHome website found that 47 per cent of Liberal Democrat supporters have more respect for Mr Miliband as a result of his remarks about Iraq (as do 48 per cent of Labour voters). He also talked up his credentials on civil liberties and promised to back the alternative vote in next May’s referendum. – The Independent

Lib Dems were also the only group to favour Ed Miliband over his brother David, with 34% of members thinking him the better leadership candidate. The survey will confirm fears in Lib Dem HQ that Ed Miliband represented the most serious threat to the party. By being sympathetic to Liberal views on civil liberties and foreign policy but against the spending cuts being implemented by the Conservatives, the younger Miliband brother can attract Lib Dem supporters alienated by the deficit reduction plan. – politics.co.uk

Strike Breaker

Labour’s new leader had kept quiet over next week’s scheduled walkout. But yesterday, in an effort to rid himself of his ‘Red Ed’ tag, he said Mr Cameron’s address should be broadcast in the “interests of impartiality and fairness”. Mr Miliband, voted leader on the back of union support, stopped short of condemning broadcasting union Bectu’s strike plan. He said: “Whatever the rights and wrongs of the dispute between Bectu and the BBC, they should not be blacking out the PM’s speech. “My speech was seen and heard on the BBC … so the Prime Minister’s should be.” – The Sun

Gerry Morrissey, the general secretary of Bectu, expressed the union’s “dissatisfaction” with Miliband’s intervention. “As a Labour party affiliate, Bectu places on record its dissatisfaction with Ed Miliband’s statement today. The leader’s intervention is not helpful and is dismissive of our actions as a responsible trade union which has been negotiating with the employer on this issue for three long months,” Morrissey said. Miliband this week sought to allay fears that he would reward affiliated trade unions for backing him in the leadership race in his first keynote speech since being elected Labour leader. – The Guardian (more…)

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The Week Uncut

29/08/2010, 09:00:01 AM

The ballot papers are in the post. The final days to the leadership vote are marked by ‘fratricide’, suspected Tory tricks and the ever narrowing idea that it’s between two brothers. There’s also another race going on, and the fight for Labour’s mayoral candidacy is just as bitter.

At Uncut, Oona King ruined series one of The Wire, Andy Burnham’s desert island discs turned into a matter of geography, the leadership contenders got the top trumps treatment from our illustrator and Chris Kelly…the puns were all too easy to come by.

In case you missed our week at Uncut, here are our picks.

Milena Popova on the government’s misunderstanding and misuse of information

Labour Leadership Top Trumps

Andy Burnham’s desert island discs

Blair is flipping us the finger, but thats ok, says Dan Hodges.

The Oona King Interview

Stella Creasy talks social mobility

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Andy Burnham’s Desert Island Discs

27/08/2010, 02:16:24 PM

In case you missed it: Andy Burnham is a working class Roman catholic from the north of England. Not the midlands. And certainly not the south. The north.

He has no aversion to posh people. Nor to protestants. Not at all. But he is not one of them. And it is important that you know that. Weirdly, Burnham has put his ‘ordinary’ northern origins at the centre of his Labour leadership campaign.

His desert island discs are parodically reflective of this. The only tune he’ll hear in paradise which hasn’t been recorded by either a Manc or a Roman catholic or both will be “Protection”, by the Bristol “trip hop” duo, Massive Attack. (more…)

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Tuesday News Review

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

Burnham blitz on ‘metropolitan elite’ continues

“Work experience internships, which often serve as a middle-class passport to good jobs, should be restricted to a maximum of three months, be paid the minimum wage and be required by law to be advertised, Andy Burnham says today as he steps up his Labour leadership campaign against self-perpetuating “metropolitan elites”. In his determination to tackle Britain’s stalled social mobility Burnham also promises to explore the options for graduates to get “extended access to student finance” to see them through low-paid work experience that would help them into their chosen careers”. – The Guardian

Ed Miliband doesn’t seem to disagree with Andy

“He also dismisses any suggestion that his backing from the three biggest trade unions risks reviving an impression of a Labour leader in the pocket of Unite. “I’m not defending everything the trade unions do, nor would I as Labour leader. I don’t think we’re about to go back to the 1970s, and I’m not planning to take us there. But I do defend the role of trade unions in our society. And I think it’s surprising that that’s surprising, coming from someone who wants to be leader of the Labour party. Politics has basically become a middle-class pursuit – a London-middle-class pursuit, detached from ordinary people’s lives – and it’s actually the link with the trade unions which helps make us relevant to people’s lives.” – The Guardian

Cameron urged to break holiday to back cup bid

“David Cameron faced calls to return from his holiday today to show the proper level of support for England’s 2018 World Cup bid. Tom Watson, who sits on the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee said: “We want to put on a good show for the bid but the government is fielding the B-Team. It’s a very poor show.” – The Daily Mail

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Monday News Review

23/08/2010, 08:08:27 AM

Burnham battles party ‘elite’

“Andy Burnham today launches a scathing attack on the “self-serving elite” running Labour, pitching himself as the “anti-establishment” candidate in the battle for the Labour leadership. He spells out detailed plans for rebuilding the party as the struggle to replace Gordon Brown resumes after a two-week lull in hostilities.” – The Independent

“The shadow health secretary said it would be dangerous for the party if the winner was from the “Londoncentric establishment”. Mr Burnham, who comes from a working class home, believes only someone from a different background could take on David Cameron. His comments will be seen as an attack on leadership favourites David and Ed Miliband, the sons of an academic who grew up in a middle class house.” – The Mirror

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Thursday News Review

19/08/2010, 07:34:56 AM

Level pegging after 100 days

At a time when it’s tough to get on the employment ladder, kicking away the first step up that was Labour’s future jobs fund at the same time as removing 10,000 university places is callous. It’s also economically illiterate, hiking welfare costs and reducing tax take. Scrapping the schools building programme, ending Labour’s planned expansion of free school meals and taking away free swimming and play areas place our youngest in the cuts front line. The reality that it is ideology driving this government is nowhere more evident than in the wasteful £3bn, top-down reorganisation of the NHS – the age of austerity suspended when there’s a free market to introduce to the NHS. – Peter Hain, The Guardian

#idontagreewithnick

'No thanks Nick'

Labour leadership contender Ed Miliband has said he would demand the resignation of Nick Clegg before forming a coalition with the Lib Dems. Mr Miliband told the New Statesman that the deputy prime minister’s support for the government’s spending cuts would make it “pretty hard” to work with him. The comments come after Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes said a coalition with Labour was “still on the agenda”. – The BBC

Banks should pay their way

Miliband [David] proposes to double a 2 billion pound annual tax on banks introduced by the coalition — a move to make banks contribute to reducing the deficit after several of them had to be rescued during the financial crisis. He said this would enable the government to avoid cuts in tax breaks for business investment announced by finance minister George Osborne in an emergency budget in June. “He is imposing a bank levy of 0.07 percent of the (banks’) balance sheet. That is by no means a big hit on the banks,” Miliband said, adding however that Britain needed a strong financial services sector. “If you doubled the bank levy you wouldn’t have to abolish capital allowances for manufacturing,” he said. – Reuters

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The Andy Burnham interview

04/08/2010, 12:00:07 PM

Burnham: Everton, FA Cup final

When Andy Burnham is asked a question, he gives it some thought. And then he gives you an actual answer. Sitting in his Parliamentary office in Norman Shaw South, Burnham tells it how it is, no matter how deliberate the grimaces from his team. The result is a genuine response from a man who’s answering on normal terms. He’s got time for everyone; chatting to researchers in the corridor when we arrive, and he’s got plenty to say about the campaign. But even now he’s aware that playing nice is often read as lacking strength. He talks to Labour Uncut about career politics, Christianity, Everton and his eyelashes.

Q. (from Luke Charters-Reid): What would you do to revitalise the party for young people, to attract young members who are essentially the Labour cabinet in 40 years time.

A. Well, we’ve got to make Labour the natural home for all young people who want to change the world. As I did, and as I still do. When I was fifteen, I wanted to change the world. That’s why I joined Labour. But we lost a sense of it when we were in government. So, what would I do? I had a meeting on Saturday with Manchester young Labour and the young Fabians and we had a really good discussion about this.

I think you’ve got to rethink through what is a young person’s introduction to Labour when they join. And I don’t think we should immediately assign them to a branch or a ward and then a constituency. I think the first contact they should have is from a young labour group in their locality. Because I think too many might fall at the first hurdle. They get the first contact and go to a meeting that they basically don’t relate to and we’ve got to rethink our introductory approach to people joining the Labour party. They’re joining it to change the world and to change policy. And we’ve got to make sure that their first experience of labour is inspiring, why they think they’ve joined. And we also have to think about how we can connect them immediately to the policy discussion and how to change the world. Sadly, the party’s not done what it says on the tin. That’s what they thought they were getting when they joined and they often turn up at meetings finding they’re talking about the minutes of the last meeting or the yellow lines by the chippy or something like that. That for me…we’ve got to rethink what is their introduction to Labour.

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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. (more…)

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Stephen Bush and Alistair Strathern launch the “Back Burnham” campaign

27/07/2010, 04:17:39 PM

“We have become dangerously disconnected from ordinary working people, we’ve not been speaking their language, we’ve been dealing with issues that aren’t their main concerns..”

Andy Burnham MP

We are a grassroots alliance of party-members drawn from both left and right, North and South, united by the belief that our leadership election has been marked by the same damaging disconnection from the wider electorate that defined our worst days in government.

The narrative of our leadership election has all too often been shaped by the Guardian editorial team and a handful of influential figures within our party. We have focussed too much and too long upon fringe issues; and not enough on the voters we have lost, why we lost them, and how we win them back. It should be a source of considerable worry to Labour that, as the paper war over endorsements ends and the real battle for votes begins, we have a better idea on how the candidates stand on the alternative vote than deficit reduction. (more…)

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Crowdsourcing the leadership

21/07/2010, 12:42:01 PM

This morning we published the latest in our series of crowdsourced interviews with the Labour leadership candidates. This time it was Ed Miliband’s turn to face your questions.

You can read the Ed Miliband interview here, and in case you missed them, here are our earlier interviews with Diane Abbott, Ed Balls and David Miliband.

Andy Burnham is still to face the Uncut crowdsourcing hotseat, and we will be asking for your questions soon.

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