Peter Watt « Labour Uncut

Posts Tagged ‘Peter Watt’

The week Uncut

18/12/2010, 10:30:18 AM

In case you missed them, these were the best read pieces on Uncut in the last seven days:

Tom Watson offers a Christmas toast to the leader

Michael Dugher says replacing nanny with nudge is no joke

Dan Hodges interviews the shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy

Stella Creasy says together we can make the government act on legal loan sharking

Peter Watt says that we don’t have the time to be rational

Kevin Meagher thinks Coronation Street is a Tory conspiracy

Tory local government leader lets slip contempt for the north

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We haven’t got time to be rational

16/12/2010, 07:00:07 AM

by Peter Watt

A mistake that we make on the left is to behave as though people make rational decisions, when we know that on the whole they don’t. People tend to make emotional decisions. We go with what feels right; and then if it feels right we adapt our rational thinking to meet our emotional view of the world.

It is what we do when we are trying to make decisions in our personal lives. You may start with logic, but ultimately you just go with your gut. And it is as true in politics as in life. If we had won in May, we would have made cuts, reformed welfare and implemented the Browne review. OK, we might have done things slightly differently (I am sure that we wouldn’t have tripled tuition fees; but we’d have put them up), but we would have rationalised the things we didn’t like. We would have taken to the airwaves and Twitter in defence of the government’s decisions. We would be stressing the overall impact of the international banking crisis and the noble and progressive motives of the government.

And that is why a “two year blank piece of paper” is potentially disastrous for Ed Miliband’s leadership, and therefore the Labour party’s chances at the next election. Rationally, of course, it makes sense. We have just suffered the worse election defeat for nearly thirty years. A period of reflection; time being taken developing policies for an election not due to be fought until 2015; what is wrong with that? (more…)

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Policy-making can’t just be a partnership with ourselves

18/11/2010, 07:00:30 AM

by Peter Watt

“Partnership in power” was established in 1997 as a way of maintaining a dialogue between the three main stakeholder groups which would determine the success or otherwise of a Labour government. The theory was devised in opposition. If the government, party members and, of course, the public could keep talking, then when inevitable tensions occurred they could be handled so that they didn’t become crises. Keeping all three groups involved in the process was seen as essential to its success. If any one of the three groups walked away, then the government would struggle. In essence, it was simple: the government had the right to govern, but also a responsibility to listen to the party and the public. The party had the right to be heard by the government and the responsibility to…. you get the idea.

In the heady post-election days of 1997, anything seemed possible. You couldn’t help but get caught up in the overwhelming sense of optimism. The early local policy forum pilots were large events with multiple facilitators and enthusiastic members. There was a requirement for a minister at every one and head office even paid for some of it. Complex “how to” guides were devised and the public and third parties (no, not the Lib Dems) were invited to take part. And then local parties began spontaneously holding their own smaller events – ”partnership in power” seemed infectious and all seemed to be going well. It might not have been perfect, but our hearts were in the right place. New ideas seemed to be emerging from forums around the country. Government ministers were queuing up to pepper their speeches with examples of new policies that they had adopted from local policy forums. (more…)

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Hung out to dry by Labour: I know how Woolas feels

08/11/2010, 11:30:59 AM

by Peter Watt

I have a very personal experience of what it is like to be brutally cast asunder by the Labour party. The circumstances were different than those which have led to the position Phil Woolas finds himself in – but I suspect that the personal impact was similar.

I was general secretary of the party when, in November 2007, the Abrahams 3rd party donation scandal erupted. It happened on my watch. I took responsibility and in a blaze of negative publicity I resigned.

I knew that once I’d resigned an important part of the “handling strategy” of the donation story would be to rough me up a bit. I wasn’t naive. I accepted it as part of the rough nature of politics. The more I was damaged in the short term, the less the party was going to be damaged in the long-term. That had to be the right thing for the “greater good”.

What I was not prepared for was the massive toll this took on me, my family and friends. I expected that the party would support me personally, behind the scenes. That they would caveat their attacks. Issue some statements of personal support that recognised my contribution to the party over many years. With a few notable exceptions, what I got was a character assassination. It went beyond being “roughed-up” to being a full blown assault. The personal impact was devastating. (more…)

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Labour is wrong on housing benefit

04/11/2010, 09:00:20 AM

by Peter Watt

The proposed changes to housing benefit have certainly got people fired up. “Rightly so”, you may say. It certainly feeds our preferred narrative: a heartless government unfairly slashing that which benefits the most vulnerable. There is also no doubt that thousands of families will suffer from a loss in income and in some cases even be forced to move. The full scale and impact of the changes is unknown, but Crisis has powerfully set out the full range of the government proposals:

Local housing allowance (LHA) rates to be recalculated meaning 774,970 households will lose on average £468 per year;
25 to 35 year-olds to be moved down to a share room rate from a one bed flat rate affecting 88,000 people;
Cutting housing benefit by 10% after a year on job seekers’ allowance affecting 200,000 people;
Index linking of LHA affecting 939,220 households to the consumer prices index;
LHA caps for 21,060 households will ensure that no one-bedroom property receives more than £250 in LHA, rising to £400 for a four-bedroom property or larger;
Non-dependent deductions will be increased from2011;
Limiting working age housing benefit to reflect household size;
Limiting total benefit claim by household to £500.

A hard hitting and tough list; so it should be an open goal for Her Majesty’s loyal opposition. Same old Tories, supported by their new supplicant mates the Lib Dems, doing what Tories do best – screwing the poor. And we are certainly putting the boot in with gusto. Ed Milliband has led with it at PMQs and the Labour blogs have been full of technically correct and eloquent arguments that the government is wrong. It is so obviously unfair, the Liberals are split on the issue and even Mayor Boris is worried about the impact. We can’t fail to miss. (more…)

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Labour’s relationship with the unions is not set in stone, says Peter Watt

21/10/2010, 09:00:42 AM

As Tony Blair once said, “I didn’t come into politics to change the Labour party. I came into politics to change the country.”

And that is why opposition sucks. We all joined the party so that we could play our part in turning our values into practical policies. We want to actually be able to improve the lives of people and their families, raise aspiration, work to strengthen the economy and so on. And you can only actually do that in government. For 13 years we felt that we were making a difference – making a difference at our local party meetings, making a difference at national policy forums and making a difference at party conference.

Oh I know that we complained that we were ignored (and probably we were, although not as much we claimed) but ministers of the crown came to our fundraising dinners, spoke at our events and circulated around the policy discussions and fringe at our conferences. It felt that we were both important and that we were involved in doing something important. And I guess that we can admit this now – we enjoyed it. Even the wine was better at conference when we were in government. (more…)

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The last thing we need is a membership drive, says Peter Watt

29/09/2010, 09:30:45 AM

Rites of passage often involve the adherence to certain rituals that help mark significant moments in life. Think of weddings and think exchange of rings, the best-man’s speech and embarrassing dancing. The point is that the rituals happen almost without thinking and often invoke feelings of familiarity and security.

The same is true for the Labour party. Election victories, election defeats and new leaders are all rites of passage with associated rituals. Generally these rituals are benign at worse and even sometimes helpful. The coming together at conferences to show unity, the cries of ‘all Tories are evil’ and trade union general secretaries condemning the government all help the party feel at ease with itself.

But there is another ritual that almost always occurs and that is far from benign; in fact is positively damaging. The membership drive. (more…)

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The week Uncut

19/09/2010, 04:20:02 PM

With just a few days of voting to go, the leadership election is drawing to a close. On Saturday the coronation will take place in Manchester and opposition can begin. Well almost. On Sunday the new leader will wake, with a hang over, to the noise of 50 colleagues playing musical chairs with only 19 seats.

The shadow cabinet bun fight is well underway, hats have been thrown into rings. A flurry of letter writing, mass emailing, bulk texting, arm twisting, double crossing and general bad behaviour has already taken place. The three stand out letters so far have come from a talonted Maria, a brooding Tom and a thoughtful Eric.

It was the week that Ed M felt confident, David warned of heroic failures, Andy blamed his tools, Ed B wished the campaign was a little longer and Diane rocked the boat.

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

John Woodcock on why the new leader should bring back Peter Mandelson

Shadow cabinet elections are stupid enough without voting stupidly too, says Lesley Smith

Making childish noises at the unions is not the way to lead Labour, says Dan Hodges

As the cold war begins, so do the defections

We must make sure the country is with us on the union fightback, says Ruth Smeeth

We need a more sophisticated response to the big society, says Peter Watt

Blair was always the cynical grit in Labour’s oyster – which we still need, says Kevin Meagher

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We need a more sophisticated response to the big society, says Peter Watt

15/09/2010, 09:00:11 AM

I know what is best for me and what is best for my family. You don’t.

I suspect that most people in the Labour party feel the same about themselves and their families. By and large, we are a pretty independently minded bunch which doesn’t take kindly to being told what to do, how to think and how to vote in (say) internal elections. Presumably this is because we think that we are intelligent, capable of free thinking and able to take decisions for ourselves?

So why do we think that voters want us making so many decisions for them? We have set rules about what school people can send their kids to; what, when and how their home-support services are delivered if they are infirm; when they can visit the GP; which part of town they can live in and even what sort of food they can eat or feed to their families. Of course if you are wealthy enough then you can bypass the rules that we set and decide for yourself. No, our rules are very inequitable and only apply to those who can’t afford to buy their way out of sticking to them. Understandably people are beginning to say “enough – I want to make some decisions for myself.”

(more…)

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Our new leader will need to move quickly to define our narrative, says Peter Watt

16/08/2010, 09:05:28 AM

Whatever people once thought, Labour must be rueing the decision to allow the leadership contest to drag on. This window has allowed the Con/Lib government to to create a sense of moral outrage about Labour’s so called ‘profligacy in government’. They’ve tricked us in to thinking that cuts of up to 40% in departmental budgets aren’t savage – and to do anything else would be irresponsible at best and probably immoral to boot.

Eric Pickles reinforced this last week with his decision to open up the DCLG books. Eric, who must surely be seen as having one of the strongest performances of any cabinet member so far, has pulled a master stroke. How credible does it look for Labour to challenge the government on spending when it allowed tax payers pounds to be spent on massages, trips to the races and swanky hotels?

Over the coming months, journalists and armchair auditors will be poring over the lists of payments and drip-feeding a diet of ‘excessive spending’. It doesn’t matter what the reality is, the perception will be as the public suspected; spending had got out of control. The mood of the day is that although it might be painful, it needs doing.

(more…)

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