Tag Archives: james purnell

Opinion: Reassessing New Labour

By Ed Maxfield | Published 31st October 2011 - 3:54 pm

It is worth buying Reassessing New Labour just to read James Purnell’s short preface. New Labour’s would-be philosopher king pretty much disappeared from view after Labour chose the wrong Miliband as leader. Purnell’s piece highlights perfectly the challenge Labour faces in coming to terms with its 2010 election defeat. It is brilliantly lucid in assessing why Labour lost. It is extremely limited in its analysis of how to recover. In particular it completely ignores the 500lb gorilla in the corner – the economy. I’ll come back to this in a moment.

Diamond and Kenny’s book brings together a range of contributions …

Posted in Books, Op-eds | Also tagged labour party, maurice glasman, michael kenny, new labour, patrick diamond | 4 Comments

LibLink: Nick Clegg – Poverty plus a pound isn’t enough

By NewsHound | Published 10th November 2010 - 1:24 pm

Over in The Guardian, Nick Clegg writes,

All governments promise welfare reform. Very few deliver. In 1997 Labour promised to “cut the bills of social failure” and to “make work pay”. But during its 13 years in office the welfare bill rose by 40% to £87bn. People moving into work can still lose more than 90% of every pound they earn: a punitive tax burden on the shoulders of the poor.

The real tragedy, however, is not the cost of the welfare system. It is the price paid by the most disadvantaged, too often condemned to a life on benefits. Nearly 1.9

…

Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg, tony blair, welfare reform | 70 Comments

Where next for Lib-Lab cooperation?

By Stephen Tall | Published 20th July 2010 - 12:35 pm

Two former Labour leadership possibles-never-contenders have talked in the past week about the future prospects for the Lib Dems and the Labour party forming a coalition at some point in the future. Their differing stances say a lot about the current state of British politics. But what they say about the future?

First up, John Denham, the shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, who made plain his anger at the Lib Dems last week, according to a report in The Independent:

Labour would demand the resignation of Nick Clegg before doing a deal with the Liberal Democrats in a future hung

…

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged john denham | 85 Comments

What Nick told Gordon (according to Peter) when asking him to quit: “Please understand I have no personal animosity whatsoever.”

By Stephen Tall | Published 12th July 2010 - 1:20 pm

The first of the post-New Labour memoirs, Lord (Peter) Mandelson’s The Third Man, begins its serialisation in The Times today.

Those who pay for the paper, in print or online, will have the joy of relishing its every detail. If like me you’re reliant on the Press Association’s fillet, it seems the big splash is what we knew already: that Nick Clegg told Gordon Brown he would have no option but to resign if there were to be any chance of Labour and the Liberal Democrats cutting a deal.

Unlike every other Labour MP except James Purnell, however, Nick did …

Posted in News | Also tagged danny alexander, gordon brown, nick clegg, peter mandelson | 23 Comments

Fight to succeed James Purnell turns nasty

By Mark Pack | Published 14th March 2010 - 9:10 pm

Tameside Eye has the story about the fight to win the Labour selection in Stalybridge & Hyde, where James Purnell is standing down. It has both its serious and its farcical elements.

The serious: a series of anonymous emails have been sent out making a wide number of personal attacks on Cllr Jonny Reynolds, one of those in the running to be Labour candidate. The emails have come from two IP address: one which has also been used by another Labour Councillor, Sean Perry-Parker, to send out emails and a second one which is a local council IP address (and therefore …

Posted in News | Also tagged john potter, jonny reynolds, sean perry-parker, staylbridge & hyde, tameside eye | 2 Comments

Purnell to quit as MP – what does he mean by that?

By Stephen Tall | Published 19th February 2010 - 11:00 am

Well, there’s a turn-up: James Purnell – former secretary of state for work and pensions, the man who almost brought down Gordon Brown, and seemingly a strong contender for the Labour leadership after the next election – has announced he will be quitting Parliament at the general election. Here’s how The Times reports it:

Labour insiders said that he was telling his Stalybridge and Hyde local party that with regret he was standing down to seek new challenges. …

After his resignation Mr Purnell returned to the back benches and has played a big part in running the Demos centre-left

…

Posted in News | Also tagged david miliband, new labour | 11 Comments

The 14 non-Lib Dem MPs who backed the Single Transferable Vote

By Stephen Tall | Published 10th February 2010 - 6:43 pm

The House of Commons yesterday voted by 365 votes to 187 to hold a UK-wide referendum on changing the voting system next year from first-past-the-post to the alternative vote. The Lib Dems reluctantly voted for the alternative vote, as the most modest of improvements on the current, broken system.

But the party, in the person of Cambridge MP David Howarth, also moved an amendment to leave out ‘an alternative-vote’ and insert ‘a single transferable vote’ – in other words, to ask Parliament to approve an electoral system which would at last reflect the votes cast for parties across the country, …

Posted in Parliament | Also tagged alternative vote, electoral reform, house of commons, proportional representation, single transferable vote | 13 Comments

Move over James Purnell, there’s a new photoshopping king in town

By Mark Pack | Published 12th November 2009 - 8:50 am

First, a recap from 2007 for new readers:

You may recall the story of James Purnell and the photoshopping incident - an NHS Trust faked a photo featuring him, the Trust and he then gave differing accounts of how it happened, he then bombed out in a rather funny TV piece trying to defend his line that he didn’t know what was going to happen and wasn’t in any way to blame for the fakery and then Pink Dog got dragged into the whole saga.

Yesterday the Telegraph and today the Mail have unearthed more evidence, and it’s looking pretty bleak for

…

Posted in News | Leave a comment

Millennium’s Credit Crunch Diary… May: Not Just Moral Bankruptcy

By Millennium Elephant | Published 7th June 2009 - 12:04 pm

General Motors, the World’s biggest car company, responsible for the world’s biggest cars, became the World’s biggest BANKRUPT.

As the economic output of Great Britain fell by a confirmed 1.9% in the first quarter, with the biggest fall in consumer spending since 1980, and while inflation was marginally better at a manageable-if-still-above-the chancellor’s-target-band rate of 2.3%, High Street sales fell back after an unexpected rise in April (possibly down to a late Easter), so the worsening recession continued to hold the attention of the news meeja…

…Oh, who am I kidding! There has only been ONE news story …

Posted in News | 2 Comments

Cabinet reshuffle – open thread

By Stephen Tall | Published 5th June 2009 - 9:35 am

It’s going to be a fast-paced day today, with English local election results due to be announced throughout the day, and a simultaneous cabinet reshuffle. On this open thread we’ll update you on the shape of the new cabinet, sans Purnell. What do you think of the new appointments? Is it enought to save Gordon Brown from the chop? Over to you…

Confirmed so far:

Chancellor: Alistair Darling stays
Foreign Secretary: David Miliband stays
Home Secretary: Alan Johnson handed the posioned chalice, takes over from Jacqui Smith
Justice Secretary: Jack Straw stays
Leader of the House of Commons: Harriet Harman stays
Health Secretary: Andy Burnham …

Posted in News | 14 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 5 June 2009

By Stephen Tall | Published 5th June 2009 - 7:00 am

Let me let you into the hidden secret of the LDV Daily View – it’s usually written very late the night before, ready to go live at the crack of dawn for your breakfast pleasure. This poses a problem when, as I am now, you’re writing at gone midnight not knowing whether Gordon Brown will have anyone left in his cabinet by the time you, dear gentle reader, are pouring milk over your cereal. But here goes…

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James Purnell quits cabinet: is this the end of Gordon Brown’s premiership?
The resignation of the work and pensions secretary was a …

Posted in Daily View | 1 Comment

James Purnell quits and tells Gordon Brown his time is up

By Mark Pack | Published 4th June 2009 - 10:06 pm

From The Guardian:

James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, tonight dealt a monumental blow to Gordon Brown’s chances of holding onto office when he dramatically announced he was quitting the cabinet and asking Brown “to stand aside to give Labour a fighting chance of winning the next election”.

His statement, effectively declaring Brown as unelectable, will further weaken the prime minister’s waning authority and takes the challenge to his leadership to a new dangerous level. Purnell made his sensational move after polls closed in the local and European elections, informing Brown by phone tonight.

The prime minister had no inkling that

…

Posted in News, Opposition watch | Also tagged gordon brown | 3 Comments

James Purnell accused of abusing expenses rules

By Mark Pack | Published 3rd May 2009 - 10:24 am

An ironic twist in the latest MP expenses story – this time is it James Purnell, the minister in charge of ensuring that the rest of us don’t claim too much in expenses, who is accused of claiming back more in rental costs than he actually paid out. The Sunday Express writes:

CABINET Minister James Purnell was under pressure last night to explain why he claimed £10,000 more in Parliamentary expenses than he paid in rent for his London flat.

The Welfare and Pensions Secretary, tipped as a future leader of the Labour Party, pocketed £10,143 more than the rent he

…

Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged #MPexpenses, norman baker, vince cable | 8 Comments

What have James Purnell, Geoffrey Howe and Elvis Presley got in common?

By Mark Pack | Published 20th February 2009 - 9:42 pm

Why, they all feature in the same sentence in the excellent piece from Steve Richards on the Labour leadership rumblings of course.

Posted in News, Opposition watch | Also tagged elvis presley, geoffrey howe, steve richards | Leave a comment

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