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Is Blue Labour the anti-thesis of New Labour?
Although he never says so directly, Owen Jones’ Chavs shows us the economic base of Blue Labour.
Much of his book is a description of how economic change in the last 30 years – deindustrialisation and the rising power of capital – has destroyed the livings standards and communities of the old working class.
Of course, if your experience of change has been pretty uniformly of change for the worse, then you will come to value tradition, to favour the known over the unknown, and to be sceptical about such change. You will become small-c conservative.
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The liberal ‘modernisers’ at Labour, Libdems and Tories have failed
contribution by Neal Lawson and Prateek Buch
Does a core belief in liberalism unite the leaderships of the three biggest political parties? At the Guardian, Julian Astle recently described a political grouping that transcends party boundaries, united in its core aim to reform public services and, above all, remain in power.
At the same time we read of an “anti- political mood. Could the two be connected; has the modern political race-to-the-centre left voters cold and uninspired?
This ‘alchemy’ of Blairites, Cameroons and Orange Bookers are described as bravely taking on “their parties’ backwoodsmen” and delivered years of, well, what exactly?
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Will Ed Miliband’s looped interview hurt him? I doubt it
Of all the things to complain about on recent events, I’m rather puzzled so much has been made about that interview by Ed Miliband where he responds to four questions with the same answer.
The rationale is simple, and I have little doubt his team mind the interview getting out there.
What does bother me however is the sanctimonious attitude of some broadcast journalists.
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Lesson for Dorries: report says abstinence education doesn’t work
The American Foundation for AIDS Research published a new issue briefing in 2007, which fully deserves to be widely circulated.
It assesses the effectiveness of abstinence-only sex education programmes for HIV prevention amongst young people.
The briefing pulls together the evidence from a wide range of published studies covering the outcomes of abstinence-only programmes in both the US and internationally and arrives at an unsurprising but damning conclusion:
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Ed Miliband needs to be braver, by supporting the union strikes
I was disappointed by Ed Miliband’s unwillingness to support the unions yesterday, in their fight to maintain pension schemes.
I’m sure the unions expected it, since they did not offer any criticism in response. But this is an electoral mistake for the Labour leader.
And it ignores the very analysis that he offered during the Labour leadership.
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Our choice is to treat people with dignity or go back to the 1930s
I was interrupted this morning by a doctor’s appointment, where, yet again, I have been sent home to bed, my laptop is to be confiscated and I have to rest on pain of a hospital admission on Thursday if I don’t improve.
I’ve had 7 weeks now of a crohn’s flare that screwed up my immune system, which led to a virus, which turned into a chest infection. If I don’t get better, pneumonia is just a blink away.
And all I really wanted to say before I am exiled to a world without even my cyber friends is this. The last few months have taught me that welfare is the murkiest department of all.
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Ed Miliband should get rid of Labour’s Clause I
I am quite taken with Sunny’s recent notion that Ed Miliband need more ‘stunts’ to raise his profile:
Ed Milband says he hates stunts – he’s just not that kind. I agree. But the pendulum has swung too far the other way – he needs to avoid looking too invisible. And a flurry of speeches alone won’t do the job – he needs symbolism.
Miliband seems to be trying precisely that with his Shadow Cabinet election-removal controversy thing, but that just makes him seem inward-looking; no-one beyond the Westminster Village really cares. So here’s something else to rival Blair’s Clause IV moment. It’s Miliband’s Clause I moment.
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Eric Pickles uses his department to push rubbish, media ignores it
Ben Goldacre uncovered a massive scandal the other day, but as far as I can see no-one has picked up on its political importance (as opposed to Ben’s media slant).
It concerns a press release from Pickles’ Department, which announces:
New, cutting edge analysis of council spending data by procurement experts Opera Solutions has revealed that greater transparency coupled with improved analysis is the key to unlocking massive savings by driving down costs.
The report gives the highest estimate yet of potential savings that could be achieved if councils secure better value for the £50 billion of public money they spend on procurement every year. The £10 billion figure is equal to £452 per household every year and equivalent to the salaries of almost half a million bin men or 650,000 dinner ladies.
Refounding Labour: how the party needs to change
Labour councillor Rowenna Davis was one of those who submitted her suggestions to the ‘Re-founding Labour’ iniative. Here, she outlines how she thinks the party needs to change.
The first thing we need is more diversity – and I say that as a white middle class councillor in the heart of Peckham.
Labour has always been able to celebrate the fact that it has a more diverse membership and elected representative base than any other mainstream party, but it needs to do more to engage a wider range of people into politics.
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A radical proposal for Ed Miliband on shadow cabinet elections
contribution by Mark Thompson
I’m not altogether surprised Ed Miliband has decided he wants to abolish shadow cabinet elections. Perhaps what is more surprising is that Tony Blair allowed them to remain. But to be fair, he only had to put up with them for less than 3 years and once Labour was in government .
It is in some ways understandable that the new leader wants to stamp his mark of authority on the party and he may well feel frustrated that his hands are tied at the moment in terms of who he has to appoint to the shadow cabinet.
But that is where the big problem with what he is proposing lies.
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Once again, ministers ignore evidence of low benefit fraud
How much Tax Credit fraud takes place? As of yesterday, we know the answer to this question.
In 2009/10 no more than 1.9% of tax credit entitlement was accounted for by fraud. 1.4% was a more likely figure. What is more, this figure was down from 2.3% in 2008/9.
Once again the government is nowhere to be seen in appreciating how low this figure is.
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Workless households: another success ministers don’t want to explain
Yesterday new statistics showed that the proportion of working age households who were workless was lower in 2010 than in 1997 – despite an increase after the global recession hit this country.
There was even more good news: the proportion of children living in workless households was also lower in 2010 than in 1997 and the number of children fell by more than a third of a million. I held off blogging about this until today because I wanted to double-check whether DWP Ministers would say anything about these figures.
Of course they didn’t – it was good news and they seem only to be interested in bad-mouthing the achievements of the Department they run.
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A Liberal Conspiracy guide to the “hateful Right”
Matthew Barrett on ConservativeHome wrote an article yesterday about “the hateful Left”.
After a full day’s work, Barrett managed to find nine journalists who are members of this “hateful Left”. We’ve come up with ten members of the “hateful Right” – it took us about ten minutes to compile, and we aren’t even scratching the surface.
If I were a right winger, I would think twice before accusing my political opponents of “spewing poison” or being hateful, particularly if after a day’s work the best haters that I could come up with were Owen Jones, Laurie Penny and a cartoon in the Guardian being mean about Iain Duncan Smith. So here’s a selection of some of the finest right-wing hatred, lies, self-pity and downright ignorance:
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Why is Tony Blair letting Cameron use him for advantage?
contribution by Steven Fielding
The Independent’s Steve Richards has highlighted the existence of an ‘informal alliance’ between David Cameron and Tony Blair.
Richards suggests this ‘alliance’ is based on a policy agenda embraced by many of those who worked closest with Blair in government as well as some of Cameron’ s most trusted Cabinet colleagues.
This will not come as news to those academics and Labour members who have always claimed that Blair was a Thatcherite.
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Cameron’s Cuddliest Conservatives
Contribution by Sarah Hayward
Fridays are normally a bit of non-event as far as Parliament is concerned. But it’s always worth checking out what backbenchers are up to. Today saw the second reading of Christopher Chope’s private member’s effort, the Employment Opportunities Bill. Among the provisions of the attractively-titled Bill was an opt-out on the national minimum wage.
Yes. It seems despite Cameron’s best detoxification efforts, and embracing of Labour’s landmark policy, there’s still a rump of Tories willing to support efforts to lower wages for the least well-off, ironically and inversely pushing up the welfare bill for those benefits that are linked to income, but that’s another blog.
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What the government won’t say about benefit fraud
New statistics show that less than one per cent of benefit spending is lost to fraud.
This is a terrific achievement – so why doesn’t the Department for Work and Pensions let everyone know how well its doing?
Yesterday the DWP published a new edition of Fraud and Error in the Benefit System, taking the statistics up to September last year.
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Ed Balls’ speech: Will Osborne the Ostrich fly?
It was a speech about risk that took several risks of its own.
Ed Balls opened his first major speech since becoming Shadow Chancellor in January not by attacking the Osborne plan, or presenting his alternative, but by revisiting the events that led to Black Wednesday nearly twenty years ago.
He went on to accuse the Chancellor of putting short-term political interests (such as a possible pre-election income tax cut) before the long-term health of the economy, and then proposed an emergency reverse to the VAT rise that could potentially lay him open to the same charge.
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How Cameron is ignorant of the real world
So Ed Miliband’s had a good PMQs, and all the Westminster bubble commentators, the Westminster bubble wannabee spin doctors and the Westminster bubble ex-wanabee-but-wanabee-again-soon-spin doctors are really happy that he got stuck into Cameron by exploiting the latter’s weakness in policy detail and implementation.
It’s almost as though that exactly what they thought he should do, although of course last week I think one of them thought the best way forward was to come clean about how Labour rubbish was and how great the Tories’ plans are for everything. continue reading… »
How Liam Byrne could help save his career through welfare reform
Liam Byrne is currently one of Labour’s most important politicians. He combines his role in co-ordinating the party’s policy review with leading for Labour on Work and Pensions. His hobbies include “banging on” about immigration, deficit reduction and welfare reform.
But in fewer than eighteen months, his political career is almost certainly going to be over. Here’s why and how the principles of responsibility and reciprocity could help him save his job, while at the same time helping reform the welfare state for the better.
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The “bad thing” theory of opposition politics
Anybody who has been involved in party politics at the national level will know that many, many hours are spent discussing the minutiae of political strategy, tactics and policy.
The very great part of this is probably generated by nothing more than nervous energy and has a negligible impact on votes.
The truth that few professional politicians and their advisers rarely admit, usually until they have been out of office for some years, is that there really are only three rules in the game of opposition party politics.
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You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed.
» This is Britain’s own Watergate scandal, but we need to push further
» What does Tom Watson know that we don’t, about News International?
» We killed the News of the World! [updated]
» Operation #NotWBoycott – target the top ten advertisers – updated
» People are turning a blind eye to the coming crush
» The right to IVF treatment is not a ‘luxury’ for some
» The campaign for an advertiser boycott of NotW: how you can help
» Should lefties like Tescos?
» Yes, we do need a ‘new patriotism’
» Just to make ends meet now requires around £18k a year
» Nadine Dorries claims backing for her campaign but it’s not there
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