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Articles tagged with Labour Conference 2011
Faking it at Labour Party conference
by Martin Shapland / 30 Sep 2011 13:49
There seems to be three ways to get a round of applause at the podium of the Labour Party conference these days. Shout out ‘savage Tory cuts’, say ‘You can’t trust the Tories on the NHS’ or mock the only leader to win general elections for the party in nearly 50 years.
The overwhelming feeling I’ve had from this year’s Labour conference is one of pretence. Fakery.
I’ve
Labour waves to middle England
by Gráinne Maguire / 29 Sep 2011 09:31
The late September sun is shining flintily over the conference courtyard and after Ed’s big speech there is already a feeling of things quietly shutting down. Yesterday the crowd with tickets for the main hall snaked around the building, while the less fortunate and organised joined me in a half-full conference hall to watch it on a giant screen.
His speech began with a message from Burman civil rights leader Aung San Suu
Andy Burnham attacks Gove’s Back to the Future education
by Amber Elliott / 28 Sep 2011 17:31
Andy Burnham has always been likeable.
“What do you think of my home city?” he asked conference.
“Brilliant isn’t it? Welcome to Liverpool – or at least it was last time I checked before the Boundary Commission.”
If you haven’t picked it up before – say, in the Labour leadership competition when Burnham chose to base his campaign outside of London – the shadow education secretary is a proud Northerner.
Was Miliband’s speech a denial of electoral reality?
by David Skelton / 28 Sep 2011 16:41
There were a number of immediately striking things about Ed Miliband’s speech to Labour conference. The first is that he has clearly ignored the experience of Labour since the 1950s and forgotten that elections are won on the centre ground of politics. There was little in the speech to appeal to aspirational voters and very little to reassure voters that the Labour Party is a moderate party on the centre ground of British politics,
'Doing a Hague': the teen conference stars of today
by Holly Smith / 28 Sep 2011 15:07
The saga of Rory Weal, the teenager who addressed Labour party conference on Monday, continues today after the Daily Mail probed his claim that he owed his ‘entire well-being and that of my family to the welfare state’ a little further. Private schooling aside, Rory certainly made a splash at conference, and he’s not the only teenager to have wowed a party conference. Here we look at other teens who’ve made their mark in
What next for Labour?
by Tom Scholes-Fogg / 28 Sep 2011 12:44
Now is the time for a real debate about the future of the Labour Party and its decisive role in British politics. Labour needs to restore trust, build confidence and reconnect with voters - particularly the five million who abandoned them between 1997 and 2010.
The way to achieve this is to provide an objective critique of Labour’s record in office and consider openly and honestly what the future for Labour is. So
Labour’s appetite for charisma
by Caroline Crampton / 28 Sep 2011 11:29
I was in the conference hall for 16-year-old Rory Weal’s speech on Monday. He spoke passionately about how the welfare state had saved his family from ruin.
Many in the hall were awaiting Ed Balls’ big speech, and were only listening to the preceding debate with half an ear. So when a sharply-dressed, eloquent teenager started to speak about the impact of the cuts on his family with fervour and passion, people were
Solving the Middle East crisis with cheesecake
by Gráinne Maguire / 28 Sep 2011 09:30
Day three and conference is beginning to feel like Glastonbury. My guide is battered mess of ringed events I’ve missed, I keep losing my friends and I’ve started using wet wipes. I’ve still to see any speeches in the main hall, the conference equivalent of the pyramid stage. I had planned on going to see Ed’s big speech today, but it transpires, political events are not like queing for Westlife tickets. You can’t just
Ed Miliband on Labour Politics 101
by Amber Elliott / 27 Sep 2011 17:14
What’s the number one rule in British politics?
According to Ed Miliband, it’s “don’t mess with Rupert Murdoch”.
And what’s “the oldest truth in politics”?
“You can’t trust the Tories on the NHS,” replies Ed.
I’m not sure how many would agree with Miliband’s Politics 101 analysis today. Especially if he thinks the oldest truth in his profession came about in the 1940s.
The Labour leader’s second conference speech
The speech you aren't supposed to remember
by Caroline Crampton / 27 Sep 2011 15:32
"You can't trust the Tories with the NHS!"
The longest and most sustained round of applause during Ed Miliband's speech to the Labour Party conference came in response to this phrase. Conference speeches, especially at this point in the electoral cycle, are all about setting out who the enemy is and Ed did just that.
Until he arrived at this section, though, the reception for his speech was relatively cold. Earlier passages
Politics is just stand-up comedy really
by Gráinne Maguire / 27 Sep 2011 12:40
My first ever political speech begins very much like my first ever comedy gig; me dumbstruck, quietly panicking about the potentially humiliating experience my ego and need for attention have got me into now.
Sitting waiting to speak I almost become nostalgic for a rowdy audience. The talk, for Labour Youth, is taking place in the back room of a pub away from the conference centre. I know grubby rooms above pubs -
Ivan Lewis’ push-pull relationship with Sky
by Caroline Crampton / 27 Sep 2011 11:20
Ivan Lewis has just finished delivering an impassioned speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool, in which he sought to move Labour further away from Rupert Murdoch and News International. In what he called a “message to Mr Murdoch,” he said:
"Your newspapers and Sky TV are popular with millions of British people. Some people in our movement might find that uncomfortable but it's true.
"However – and yes conference we should
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