Posts Tagged ‘Michael Dugher’

The week Uncut

12/09/2010, 03:37:45 PM

The PLP have spoken. The entire shadow cabinet will remain elected. Whoever is celebrating in Manchester on the 25 September will wake up to the reality of leadership and little control over who makes their front bench team.

Talk of who’ll get what job has begun. Senior MPs are canvassing support to make sure they get in to the shoot out for the top roles. With some of the big beasts ruling themselves out it’s all to play for. The big winners this week were the Whip’s office. If their hype is to be believed, there will still be a Mr Brown at the very heart of the party.

It was the week that Ed B played the drums, Ed M led by a nose, Andy sent out a mail shot, David won the support of an east ender and a deep spacer, and Diane, well, has anyone seen Diane?

In case you missed them, here are Uncut’s best read pieces of the last seven days:

The hacking-gate heroes: four men in search of a scandal

Ed Balls may be winning the economic argument – but he could still be wrong, argues Anthony Painter

Lets not get carried away with the Coulson affair says Dan Hodges

We lost the 2010 election during Blair’s watch, as well as Brown’s, says Michael Dugher

Rachel Reeves on the government’s chaotic and contradictory economic policy

Big business, bad bankers and hard times for Northern Ireland, by Peter Johnson

Jonathan Todd on the challenge for the new shadow chancellor

Facebook Twitter Digg Delicious StumbleUpon

We lost the 2010 election during Blair’s watch, as well as Brown’s, says Michael Dugher

06/09/2010, 11:57:20 AM

ALL THE LABOUR leadership candidates have dared to disagree with Tony Blair that we lost the last election because we weren’t sufficiently New Labour. In yesterday’s Observer, Andrew Rawnsley lamented this lèse majesté.

Memoirs and diaries, especially from former prime ministers, are important.  After ten years in office, with three general election victories under his belt, Tony Blair’s deserve to be read.  But what is disappointing is that Blair is so palpably out of touch when it comes to understanding why we lost in 2010 and how Labour can win again in the future.

Much of what Rawnsley writes I agree with.  He is quite right that Tony Blair “understood how to communicate with the public; he grasped that parties must constantly renew themselves to keep up with events, the world and the voters”.  He is equally right that it is “foolish to fashion the party’s future policies or presentation as if the dateline were still 1994 rather than 2010”.  And that Blair understood that “the centre-left wins and holds power only by creating a broad appeal which embraces not just their natural and traditional supporters, but voters without tribal allegiances to Labour”. (more…)

Facebook Twitter Digg Delicious StumbleUpon

Michael Dugher digs in for a long campaign

23/08/2010, 10:47:55 AM

In August 1914, at the outbreak of the first world war, many famously thought that the war would be ‘over by christmas’.  As Labour MPs and party members return from summer holidays, there are those who believe that, perhaps in hope rather than expectation, the Tory-Lib Dem government will implode sooner rather than later.  As the government marks its first 100 days in office, there are few signs that the coalition will fall apart quickly.

Whoever wins the Labour leadership will need to observe our opponents through the correct end of the telescope.  The Conservatives may not have won the last election, but they will be far more formidable opponents at the next one.  A major part of the Labour election campaign was to highlight the ‘risk’ posed by the Tories, as a way of rebutting the ‘year of change’ message put forward by David Cameron.  To some extent, this was successful.  The Conservative brand was still toxic in some sections of the electorate and many people were nervous about Cameron.  Focus groups would quote the ‘hug a hoodie’ speech, would reference the ‘cycling to work with the chauffeur-driven car following with the suit and briefcase’ incident and would respond to the question ‘what would David Cameron be if he wasn’t a politician?’ by likening him to a dodgy second-hand car dealer. (more…)

Facebook Twitter Digg Delicious StumbleUpon

It’s a hard life: The rapidly ageing MP for Barnsley East

19/08/2010, 08:30:23 AM

The strains of public office have taken their toll on many a man.

Remember how Blair greyed; his once youthful, grinning face wrinkling  in the heat of coal-face politics. Holding the jenga coalition together, shiny Dave Cameron has followed suit and sagged. Even the political Peter Pan Barack Obama suffered ‘silvering’; ageing prematurely under stress.

But now, news reaches Uncut of an extreme case. The first of the class of 2010 has been hit by the phenomenon.

New MP for Barnsley East, Michael Dugher, was previously known for his boyish good looks. Even after his pit-town upbringing, there wasn’t a crow’s foot in sight. Here is a snap of fresh-faced, dewey-eyed Dugher in all his pre-election glory:

And here he is, sporting a glamorous centre-parting in the reasonably priced £55 Times Guide to the House of Commons 2010:

Poor boy.

(Note to Times guide researchers, if you got confused by the 9th April post; Michael is the one on the left. The one whose picture is plastered all over the rest of the site.)

Facebook Twitter Digg Delicious StumbleUpon

The week Uncut

26/06/2010, 01:37:54 PM

A fullish week for June: a big Commons debate on the strategic defence review, an ‘emergency’ budget, the first ever select committee elections and David Miliband’s desert island discs.

The most important thing in all of which was George Osborne’s demeanour. It was a political coming of age. An uncertain boy made man by the advantages of office. For the first time in his Parliamentary career, he knew what he was talking about.  He had the facts at his fingertips; the fat ballast of her majesty’s treasury behind him. (more…)

Facebook Twitter Digg Delicious StumbleUpon

Michael Dugher on the strategic defence review

21/06/2010, 11:07:35 AM

At the General Election, all three main parties were committed to holding a strategic defence review (SDR) as part of their manifestos for government. Today in the House of Commons, the debate begins as to how we configure our armed forces for the challenges we face in the coming years. How Labour engages in this will be important.

In February, Labour in government produced Adaptability and Partnership: Issues for the Strategic Defence Review, the green paper which paved the way for the SDR. The document set out very well the principles that underpin Labour’s approach.

The first is that we cannot simply “defend our own goal line”. This is a response to the “troops out” message that goes out, not just from anti-war protesters, but from sections of the media and parts of the wider public, usually in response to ever-mounting casualties in Afghanistan. (more…)

Facebook Twitter Digg Delicious StumbleUpon