Recent Articles

How can we improve Children’s Centres?

It’s top of the list of every Labour politician’s list of Labour achievements.

And so it was at the Labour fringe meeting dedicated to looking at the detail of childcare and early years development policy. Children’s Centres are good things, pure and simple, and they must be defended.

If I had been invited to speak at the love-in, though, I’d have said something different; I’d have broken the New Labour taboo.

For the reality of Children’s Centres, as they are really experienced by real people, can be very different from the picture painted by New Labour, and potentially by New Labour’s successors. continue reading… »

Living Wage victories at UCL and Islington

In the latest victory for Living Wage campaigners, University College London has become the seventh university in the capital to agree to pay the London Living Wage (a minimum of £7.85 per hour) to all of its staff.

A spokesman for Citizens UK says that UCL bosses “have clearly heard the arguments of the campaign that a living wage is both the right thing to do, and makes good business sense”, following years of campaigning.

UCL is the latest London university to sign up for this higher rate of pay – with commitments already made by Queen Mary, London School of Economics, Birkbeck, Goldsmiths, School of Oriental and African Studies, London Business School, Institute of Education and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

In another success, Islington Council announced that from November it would be paying the Living Wage to all of its cleaners, as the cleaners will be directly employed by the council rather than being employed by private contractors.

The council’s deputy leader, Richard Greening, said: “The council is taking an important step in making Islington a fairer borough by ensuring that staff who clean council buildings are paid properly.

Bringing the service back in-house means we have been able to redirect money spent on contractors’ profits to increase cleaners’ pay to the London living wage of £7.85 per hour. We’ve done this without increasing the cost to council taxpayers.”

Why the UK is entering the economic danger zone

Yesterday, whilst most the commentariat was focusing on Ed Miliband’s big speech, we got revised numbers for UK GDP from the ONS.

As the headline growth numbers were not changed this generated little interest from most commentators. However there were substantial changes to the components of GDP, changes which paint a mixed picture of the state of the recovery. The FT reported it in a broadly positive light, whilst Bloomberg was more negative.

To me the revised Q2 numbers paint a picture of a strong recovery built on fragile foundations – foundations that Mr Osborne is about to demolish. The UK economy is entering the danger zone.

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Ed Miliband’s new generation

So now we know – The torch is being past to a new generation of optimists, who will bring the wind of change to Labour.

Kennedy, with a hint of Obama, by way of Macmillan. Not bad rhetorical reference points.

More seriously, it was an excellent speech.

Ed stuck to the centre ground on Economics, made it clear he understood people frustrations with political culture and decisions of the past, and setting out a new direction on civil liberties and laying a real stress on fairness for those who work hard and would like the government to be on their side.
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Cash to quit fags? It’s Thatcherism gone mad

If saving two thousand quid a year and avoiding lingering painful death from any number of chronic health conditions doesn’t convince you to stop smoking, a handful of poxy WH Smith vouchers is hardly going to do the trick, is it?

I only point this out because this is the logic that underlies the National Institute for Clinical Excellence consultation on NHS financial incentives to encourage better lifestyle choices.

Ideas that should be confined to consenting free market whackjob think-tankers in private have obviously gone mainstream.
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Ed Miliband’s speech, David Miliband’s dilemma

Ed Miliband will make his big inaugural speech within the hour. There are, I believe, two problems for Ed at the moment: the situation his brother David is in and the need to challenge the ‘red Ed’ label.

David Miliband is in a lose-lose situation. If he walks away from the Labour shadow cabinet to something else, the job to unite the party and keep Blairites from constantly launching coups becomes harder.

Ed needs his brother on side so the Blairites are kept in check. If David walked away then party unity would be in serious trouble.
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Cider and socialism

I’m hopeful about the chances for socialism over the next two to three years, but I’m hopeful not so much because I listened to what John McDonnell had to say, or because I read Laurie Penny’s latest article.

Rather, I’m hopeful because I saw an advert for cider.

Making my tortuous way home to the Socialist Republic of Bickerstaffe last night, I got off a slightly delayed train at St Helens Junction to find I had missed the last bus, so I went into the appositely named Junction Inn, ordered a pint, and asked for a taxi number. continue reading… »

Labour takes lead in polls, Tory attacks flop

For the first time since 2007, the polling company YouGov shows Labour ahead of the Tories. Labour is on 40%, Tories on 39% and the Lib Dems on 12%.

The polling company also found that over 90% of people didn’t care that Ed Miliband was not married to his partner, only 33% agreed with the Tories that the trade unions will have too much power now that he is leader, 24% think that he will take Labour to the left and that this will be a bad thing, and just 19% agree that it is justified to call him “Red Ed”.

Despite heavy media coverage of Right Wing attacks on Labour’s new leader, it seems that the Tory attempts to define Ed Miliband have flopped with the public.

Yvette Cooper for Labour shadow chancellor!

In the end, I voted for Ed Balls as my first preference. Not because I preferred him over Ed Miliband – but because he has undoubtedly put the Coalition on the defensive by attacking them on the economy.

The big question on everyone’s lips here (I’m at conference, so blogging will be sporadic unfortunately) is Who Will be Shadow Chancellor.

The two front-runners are undoubtedly Ed Balls and David Miliband.
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Red Ed? He may not even be a pinko

On the one hand, sections of a jubilant  Labour left are turning cartwheels across the floor. On the other, the rightwing press is rehashing the kind of low level McCarthyite headlines not seen in this country since the early 1980s.

Both immediate reactions to the election of Ed Miliband as Labour leader highlight the lack of balance or historical rigour that prevails in political commentary in Britain today.

To the extent that Ed is not his brother – who of course stood in apostolic succession to Blair – then those who do not favour the continuation of New Labourism in its most anachronistic variant will regard his success as the least bad possible outcome of an unnecessarily protracted contest.

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