The more that comes out about how Tony Blair and Gordon Brown behaved (or perhaps more accurately, how Gordon Brown behaved towards Tony Blair) the more you wonder quite what world they were living in. Here, courtesy of The Guardian’s Nicholas Watt, is one of the latest revelations of the sort of behaviour that would get most people the sack but didn’t stop Gordon Brown getting the Premiership:
During tense negotiations over Britain’s EU budget rebate in 2005, the former prime minister became so exasperated with the Treasury that he kidnapped its man in Brussels.
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. This quote, usually attributed to Abraham Lincoln, goes to prove that some things in politics never change.
After thirteen years of spin, media manipulation and bare-faced lies (don’t believe the rumours folks, Gordon and Tony really do have a very good working relationship), one might be forgiven for thinking that there was no one left who believed a word the Labour party had to say on anything. Nevertheless, they …
Ed Miliband’s campaign chief breached House of Commons rules by sending a Parliamentary letter to voters during the general election campaign, anti-sleaze watchdogs have found…
Mr Khan was reported to the watchdog after it emerged that he had sent a mailshot using Commons notepaper and pre-paid envelopes to inform voters that he could no longer deal with constituency cases during the dissolution of Parliament…
Mr Lyon said that although it was clear Mr Khan had tried to keep constituents informed, one effect of the letter was to appear to be canvassing “support for his
This week saw yet more of Labour’s neverending soap opera, which is even more boring now that the party is no longer in power. The soap opera shows a party refusing to challenge either of the oppositional truths of Old and New Labour and unaware of why Labour lost the last general election so emphatically – and what it needs to do to regain power.
The conference demonstrated that Ed Miliband was right when he called Labour party members “slightly strange”, for they seem to be excited and optimistic about the future of the party under a man whose qualities and …
Saying something highly uncomplimentary about your own party is one thing. Saying it, denying it and then having a recording surface of you saying it is rather different though. Step forward, Hazel Blears and her “wicked and malicious” comment:
So, Labour has a new leader, and as he enjoys his honeymoon the party is experiencing a surge in the polls. This is to be expected; indeed, it would be an odd thing if Labour slumped in popularity in the immediate aftermath of such an event. They experienced the same effect following the elections of Blair and Brown, and a fine thing it can be for energising the activists and uniting the party. It can also be an effective way of repackaging a failing brand. Changing the leader gives the impression that the past is now ancient history and the …
By Iain Roberts
| Mon 27th September 2010 - 9:10 am
There are two different economic debates to be had with Labour politicians these days.
One of them is a sensible debate about how fast, and how far, cuts should go. Alistair Darling, just a few months ago, told us that Labour wanted to cut deeper and longer than Thatcher did in the 1980s, with talk of a 25% cut in public spending over seven years and hefty tax rises.
The Coalition Government takes the view that the pain of cuts should be slightly shorter and sharper than Labour had planned – still 25%, but spread over five years rather than …
The lovely phrase “spray on evidence” was coined in the late 1990s in frustration at the attitude towards evidence shown by many in the Labour government. Though officially the government was determinedly set on a course of evidence-based policy, many of those involved in policy making felt that evidence was being applied as a bit of glitter to justify policies rather than really shaping them.
Spray on history now seems to be the order of the day in much political punditry with the futures of the coalition, Liberal Democrats and Labour often talked about with several nods towards the past. A …
We at LDV Towers know nothing more than anyone else about rumours circulated by Ed Miliband’s campaign team yesterday of Charles Kennedy thinking of defecting from the Lib Dems to Labour.
According to Lib Dem sources, Kennedy has personally scotched them.
The most likely explanation would seem to be that tried and tested Labour technique of spreading unfounded stories about others to cover up bad news about themselves.
Whatever the reality, one thing would be very odd indeed were the story to be true: the timing.
The information clearly hasn’t come from Kennedy, but from the Labour Party. Yet if a party …
James co-founded the Lib Dems’ Social Liberal Forum, and has in the past advocated closer relations between the party and Labour as a progressive force to take on the Conservatives, so he is by no means a natural cheerleader for the Lib/Con Coalition, as his blog-post makes clear.
It’s his take on Labour’s misfiring oppositional tactics, though, which I think are well worth highlighting here:
Over on the Total Politics website they’ve been poking fun at the ‘house party’ instructions issued by the David Miliband campaign. On reading the piece at first I thought it was being a little harsh, because house parties (where you invite electors – Labour members in this case – to a small event to discuss things face-to-face) have a great role in campaigning. And yes, the instructions are a bit detailed at points – but then many people will be hosting this sort of event for the first time ever.
Many Lib Dems are angry: at Labour popularism on immigration and law and order to wrong-foot their opponents . That they’ve left the country in such a terrible financial mess. And that as we engage in the awful process of cuts, they jeer from the sidelines, making political capital out of their own mistakes.
But we need to temper our anger. Labour lost their way, but they may find their way back.
And for all their faults, they have qualities we share. A desire to help the unfortunate. A commitment to the welfare state. A belief in internationalism.
The following three graphs are from the Electoral Commission and show income and expenditure for the three main political parties as reflected in their annual accounts. There are some important exceptions to what they show, such as the money brought in and spent directly by election candidates, though from what I know of these exceptions they paint a similar picture to those annual accounts of the relative trends over time.
As Stephen has often noted on this site when reporting on the quarterly donation figures, the Liberal Democrat figures show a consistently higher level of income in this Parliament than …
Her piece has unreasonably taken flak from our valued community of commenters for asking more questions than she answered.
But housing is one of the thornier issues facing any government, and like so many big problems, of course there are more questions than answers. No-one disputes that were we are now is not ideal. There aren’t enough homes. People are overcrowded. Others are overhoused. Houses cost too much more than most people earn for many people to …
This quote from Jon Cruddas beautifully sums up much of what went wrong with the Labour government – and the dilemma Labour faces working out what to do next:
I’ve known for David Miliband for twenty years, I’ve known Ed Balls for twenty years, but I don’t know what they stand for.
Across Britain on May 6th people voted for the Liberal Democrats because they liked our policies, or they liked our values. Some voted for us because we were not ‘the other lot’. No doubt a goodly number voted Lib Dem because they felt (quite rightly) the party they truly wanted to vote for – the Labour Party – has lost its heart and lost its soul. People voted for us hoping, but never ever expecting they’d get a Liberal Democrat government.
After the votes came in it was clear that the Conservatives had won the election, but without a big …
Labour parliamentary candidate for Gravesham Kathryn Smith has been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving after crashing her car into a roundabout.
The incident reportedly took place in University Way, Dartford, at the junction of Joyce Green Lane, at around 10pm on Monday.
It is understood she was breathalysed at the scene and asked to provide a blood sample…
A Kent Police spokewsoman said: “A 49-year-old woman from Welling has been arrested on suspicion of drink driving following a road traffic collision on April 26.” …
In a statement to News Shopper, Miss Smith denied she had been arrested.
LABOUR’S candidate for South East Cambridgeshire John Cowan has been suspended by his party – after a fresh series of allegations about his conduct.
The latest claims about him, in a Sunday newspaper, say he boasted of his sexual exploits in online forums, and advertised for people to pose naked for his photographic portfolio.
The Sunday Telegraph also reported that Mr Cowan, a former glamour model manager, said he did not want his children to marry a Muslim.
The latest allegations follow revelations that Mr Cowan, 35, sent sexual emails to female figures in politics.
Iain Dale quite rightly has queried why the prospect of Labour finishing third in the popular share of the vote isn’t a big story being talked about in the media.
But actually Iain is too kind to Labour.
Because the voting abyss Labour is teetering on the edge of is more than simply coming third. More than simply doing worse than Michael Foot. It’s on the verge of its worst share of the vote since 1918.
In 1983 Labour scored 28.3% and in 1918 it was 22.2%. (Both of these are figures for Great Britain, i.e. excluding Northern Ireland, as that’s the …
Labour will act ‘and legislate if necessary’ to end ‘unacceptable situation were 3m eligible voters cannot vote because not registered’
Anyone who qualifies to register is already legally obliged to, so what might this reference to possible legislation mean?
It could mean making the punishment for non-registration more stringent. It’s rare for someone to be prosecuted and it would be very much in line with the style of Labour’s approach to other issues to go for tougher punishments. However, whilst the reasons for non-registration have often been …
Here’s Lib Dem manifesto author Danny Alexander’s first take on the launch of Labour’s manifesto:
Every Labour manifesto since 1997 has been full of promises they have broken. They simply can’t be trusted to do a single thing they say. The tax system is less fair than when Labour came to power. The only party that is committed to making Britain fairer is the Liberal Democrats.”
And to support Danny’s comments, the party has today issued a report card self-explanatorily titled Labour’s Broken Promises comparing Labour’s 2001 manifesto pledges with the reality almost a decade on. Here’s what it says:
1. Long-term economic stability – FAILED
• Britain has suffered the longest and deepest recession since the 1930s.
• 1.3 million jobs have been lost since the beginning of the recession.
• Britain’s deficit for the 2010-11 financial year stands at £167bn.
Across the country, election address leaflets from the Labour Party have been dropping through letterboxes – even though the general election campaign has not yet formally started.
These leaflets – delivered free for candidates by the Royal Mail – usually only appear during the campaign itself as candidates make use of the free service which delivers one leaflet from each candidate to each voter.
However, Labour has made use of the special provision which allows leaflets to be delivered earlier, provided the party commits to paying the postage if the candidate in them ends up not being the party’s candidate at the …
Yesterday was the start of the local elections campaign here in London and the fight is already getting dirty.
One such scrap is taking place in ultra marginal Waltham Forest where the Lib Dems are furious at “Labour’s lies” about police numbers.
Labour leaflets claim that the Lib Dems “want to cut the number of police in Waltham Forest” whilst being “in cahoots with Tory mayor Boris plans to cut police numbers.”
The Lib Dems deny this, pointing to their fervent opposition to Boris’s police cuts on the London Asssembly.
I’ve already reviewed two of the titles in the new seven book series from biteback: Why Vote Liberal Democrat and Why Vote. But what to make of the other fives titles – covers Labour, Conservative, Green, SNP and Plaid? (Although a UKIP book was also publicised, it never got published as UKIP failed to produce the necessary copy.)
Both the Labour and Conservative books are ‘unofficial’ in the sense that they are by prominent party members, but ones who have no official role in the party’s policy or campaigning decisions – Rachel Reeves, Labour …
My decision to back the Liberal Democrats in 2010 is based on a more fundamental appraisal of Labour’s record, together with a positive assessment of the Lib Dems’ platform.
Their analysis of the failures of the deregulated market has been consistently, and painfully, accurate. Their tax reform plans, taking 4 million low-paid workers out of tax altogether, are the most redistributive of any party, alongside green taxes, a “mansion tax”
A former US grassroots campaigner, now working in Manchester, has claimed that Labour is an alienating force in our big cities and Obama would never have made it in the Labour Party.
By Stephen Tall
| Sun 28th February 2010 - 3:45 pm
Let’s begin with the positive: Inside Out, Peter Watt’s autobiographical account of his two years as Labour general secretary during the handover from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown, is an entertainingly gossipy book which, at 200 pages, doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s packed with anecdotes and throwaway remarks which cast a new – and rarely flattering – light on Labour’s senior dramatis personae. In short, well worth reading.
But does Peter Watt come out of it well. Hmmm, there I’m less sure. Here are the five aspects of the book which struck me …
Thing 1: Tribalism
The over-riding impression of Inside Out is quite how tribal politics is. And not just tribal between parties – that’s, at least in part, to be expected – but also within parties. For example, the very New Labour Peter Watt boasts of exploiting the rift between Blair and Brown when hacking for the post of general secretary, accumulating a motley collection of votes on Labour’s National Executive Committee from “trade unionists, people on the hard left and passionate Blairites”.
Mr Watt presents the traditional mea culpa at the end of the book (“tribalism turns good men bad”), but it’s easy to be sage after the event: what politics needs is for its participants to recognise this when they’re in leadership positions, not when they’ve shed them.
The Electoral Commission’s report into the November 2009 Parliamentary by-election in Glasgow North East has condemned the Labour Party for breaking the Code of Conduct on postal voting, saying the party repeatedly failed to process postal vote forms promptly.
The Code allows parties to distribute to the public forms for signing up to postal votes and to have them returned to a party address. This makes sense in circumstances such as the forms being in with a mailing which also asks for donations to the campaign where giving two different return addresses could result in items going to the wrong place and council staff having to send on political donations to the right address.
However, to guard against misuse the Code – whose provisions the Labour Party has been consulted on annually and each year said it consents to – requires such forms to be passed on by a political party within two working days of receipt.
In Glasgow North East this deadline was broken by the Labour Party and the Electoral Commission says that, “When the Commission reported the concerns that the party had unduly delayed the return of applications for postal votes to the ERO, his staff undertook a spot-check of those applications and discovered that more than 100 forms had been signed and dated by the elector more than a week earlier, and in some cases, more than one month earlier.”
The Labour Party has however defended its actions, with The Guardian reporting that, “The commission’s conclusions were vigorously challenged by the Labour party, which will be asking the commission to justify its report’s conclusions, a spokesman disclosed. He said the report had ignored the significant impact on the delivery of postal vote applications by the postal strike, which had seriously affected every party’s campaign, despite this being highlighted in meetings between Labour and commission officials.”
The Commission was also critical of the long delay by Labour before calling the by-election. “The procedures for calling a by-election are complex and in this instance led to voters being without an MP for nearly five months,” said Jenny Watson, Chair of the Electoral Commission. “The Electoral Commission believes the UK Parliament should consider how long a Westminster seat should be able to remain vacant to ensure voters can elect a new MP in a timely way.”
Jeff How relevant is this to Trump’s MAGA movement, to Farage and Reform?
Of little to none I would have thought. The political ideologies that came to d...
Nonconformistradical I second Henry's comments about Barrow - this south-eastener has at least, albeit not recently, set foot in the Barrow constituency (visiting friends who lived ...
John Peters I would not have classed Barrow-in-Furness as post industrial. For decades it has had the same major employer - the dockyards. It manafactures the UK's nuclear ...
David Raw @ Daniel Walker, "we should have the cheapest possible democracy".
I didn't say that, Daniel, though what I imply is that the party needs to prove to and mak...
Henry I do get very annoyed by the comments on these by-election posts. The over-exaggeration of our comeback because we won last week and then complain when we finis...
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Jeff 
Nonconformistradical 
John Peters 
David Raw 
Henry 