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Articles tagged with Labour Party
The Ballad of David Miliband
by Sadie Smith / 28 Mar 2013 11:47
It’s been over twenty-four hours since the one-time boy wonder of the new Labour movement announced his intention to stand down from Parliamentary politics and head off across the pond. The wailing, gnashing of teeth, renting of garments and laments along the lines that David would have, one day, returned to the front bench to lead the comrades to the sunlit uplands of electoral success, is finally dying down.
So maybe now is
Labour needs to champion small businesses
by Emma Burnell / 08 Jan 2013 11:38
When Labour announced plans for a new guaranteed compulsory jobs scheme - which would guarantee a job to anyone who had been unemployed for more that 24 months - the response from some quarters was as boring and snobbish as it was inevitable. Those horrified at the idea of compulsion usually managed to fit in the phrase “stacking shelves in Tesco” somewhere into their objections.
As if being a shelf stacker (or
Autumn statement: Quotes of the day
by Josh White / 05 Dec 2012 15:22
The state of the economy:
Osborne: “So the economy is recovering. It’s recovering more quickly than many of our neighbours.”
Balls: “The longest double-dip recession since the second world war, now followed by the slowest recovery in the last hundred years.”
The causes of sluggish growth:
Osborne: “If, for instance, lower growth was the result of the government’s fiscal policy, they [the OBR ] would say so. But they do
'Labour for Democracy': treason or reason?
by Josh White / 05 Dec 2012 11:03
Janan Ganesh tells us in his biography of the chancellor that the first time George Osborne and Steve Hilton ever discussed the possibility of a hung Parliament was on 20th April, just a couple of weeks before the general election.
The current opposition, however, does not intend to be so lax in considering the potentially ‘coalitious’ electoral permutations of 2015. This was signalled last night at the hard launch of the new Read more…
Leveson report lands in Commons confusion
by Josh White / 04 Dec 2012 09:44
At times, the illusion of cross-party harmony was almost believable during yesterday's debate, the first opportunity MPs have had to investigate the Leveson report in detail. And matters seemed to be going Labour’s way: both David Blunkett and John Whittingdale announced climb-downs in their opposition to legislation and the unsure Maria Miller admitted in response to an intervention by Jack Straw that the government would initiate statute, if the worst came to the worst.
What do yesterday's by-elections mean for the future?
by Emma Burnell / 30 Nov 2012 09:53
Three Labour by-election holds in three very traditional Labour seats; low turnout on a very cold November day; resentment of the Government reflected in a traditional mid-term kicking. So far, so politics as normal. Looked at through traditional political filters, there’s not an awful lot to see here.
Of course those filters might be right. History is littered with glittering moments for small political parties declaring a breakthrough at by-elections before crashing under
It’s not about posh – it’s about privilege
by Emma Burnell / 15 Aug 2012 15:11
I wasn’t going to write about Benedict Cumberbatch’s complaint that the UK is too ready and willing to “posh-bash” for two reasons – one I quite like him and I think he’s probably badly phrased a sentiment about being typecast.
Two, because this is a quite effort to raise his profile before his new show (about a very aristocratic aristocrat – funnily enough) comes out.
But his comments do raise a
Beware the Incitatus
by Sadie Smith / 25 Jun 2012 12:41
If you listen closely after the words, “And now over to Unite’s Len McCluskey”, you will hear a distant wailing.
That, my friends, is the sound of innocent Labour poll advantages being brutally and horrifically murdered.
What seems like a simple phrase of introduction is actually a sort of modern day equivalent of Thomas à Becket sounding off about an annoying vicar in the presence of a couple of blokes with swords,
The inside line on NEC results
by Emma Burnell / 20 Jun 2012 16:48
The results of Labour’s NEC ballot are in. This doesn’t mean much to anyone outside the party, but it’s an interesting indicator of where Labour is at, and our direction of travel.
Mostly, these aren’t spectacularly shocking results.
The left slate retain three candidates, the right slate retain two candidates (though with one different member, of which more later) and my “slate” has had 100% success rate as I only backed one
What makes a good activist?
by Emma Burnell / 19 Jun 2012 08:08
Tory governments breed activism.
Ok, there were several things the last Labour government that prompted those further to the left to take action too, but not so soon, not so frequently and not from so many disparate quarters. The left is once again on the march, or more often, on the static demo.
Of course now you can be an activist without ever leaving your home. Online campaigns are everywhere asking you
The GMB's discontent goes beyond Progress
by Amber Elliott / 18 Jun 2012 09:03
A little-noted section of the GMB's motion to investigate Progress was not about the New Labour pressure group at all.
It was about one of its donors.
The section read: "Congress notes that the principal Progress patron is Lord David Sainsbury who has been a donor since April 2004 and continues to fund Progress at the rate of £260,000 a year. His donations of over £8.4million to the Labour Party stopped when Ed
The full story on 'expelling' Progress
by Emma Burnell / 12 Jun 2012 09:05
It all started with an anonymous document.
Well no, it all started back in the mist of time. Back when the People’s Front of Judea (Splitters!) decided they would wrest control of the levers of power from the Judean People’s Front. But this latest chapter started with the document.
The document was sent to Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) up and down the country, just as they we starting the process of
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Quote of the Day
"The prime minister has said he does not believe that statutory legislation is necessary to achieve the principles outlined by Leveson."
