Friday, May 16, 2008

From the blog: Now is the time to support Caeser not bury him

    Stan Rosenthal

There can be little doubt that Gordon Brown is on the ropes, if not on the canvass. Every day brings a fresh headline pointing up his weaknesses and failures. The opposition are triumphant. The media pack are in full cry, baying for his blood as they once bayed for the blood of Tony Blair. The Progressive >

Friday, May 16, 2008

Brown's policy package builds on what Labour has done best

'It will be the economy, stupid. Most of all it will be how he rides the storm, and how fairly he is seen to share its effects. Brown's policy package this week is decent enough, building on what Labour has done best. The right to flexible working for 4.5 million more mothers shows an understanding of the difference it makes to juggling children or elderly parents. The right to time off for training could help a million people get new skills, while agency workers - after years of Labour resistance - at last get equal rights. A new sentencing commission will curb the hyperinflation of imprisonment.' - Polly Toynbee, The Guardian

Flexible working

'Modest, consensual, incremental, the policy is recognisably part of Brown's world view: economic efficiency combined with individual opportunity through the good offices of the state. Long-dead Fabian socialists like Beatrice Webb would approve as much as its current champions, Yvette Cooper, Harriet Harman and Patricia Hewitt.' - Michael White, The Guardian

Clarke's progress

'The former Home Secretary, possibly the most liberal politician to occupy that seat since Roy Jenkins, is frequently criticised for undermining Gordon Brown. To an extent, the charge of personal animus is justified. Yet Clarke is right to point out that every time he or others attempt to open a debate on policy, their contributions are interpreted by the media and other politicians as a "gaffe" or an "attack".' - John Kampfner, Daily Telegraph

Field and Brown

'But for Labour to revive, and maybe for Mr Brown to survive, it will take more than a semblance of unity and the odd crowd-pleaser. It will (among other things) require the prime minister to change: his style, his demeanour, the way he treats his ministers-the very things Mr Field apologised for criticising. In fact, beneath the hostility, and perhaps partly explaining it, the two men are oddly similar. Both are hard-working, religious ascetics who care about the poor. Both are (or were) more respected than liked. Both have been thought of as stubborn and prickly.' - Bagehot, The Economist

Age of vitriol

'In America, the extremism is, if anything worse, with both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton the object of ferocious criticism. Mrs Clinton's policies may be anathema to Republicans, and even to some Democrats, but the dislike she engenders goes well beyond the purely political. Those who have referred to her over the past few months as a "monster," "evil", "sinister," "the bitch" "deceitful" and "congenital liar" appear to be suggesting that she has personal flaws that damage her not just as a candidate for the presidency but as a human being.' - Magnus Linklater, The Times

Price of a Tory

'Leading members of David Cameron's shadow cabinet are taking money to run their private offices directly from commercial companies with interests in the portfolios they hold, a report by the parliamentary commissioner, John Lyon, revealed yesterday.' - The Guardian

Caroline Flint profile

'Only Blair himself has purer Blairite credentials. Flint not only supported the Iraq war but was so enthusiastic she went out to visit the troops. Years later, when other ministers would privately admit they had blundered into a quagmire, she would doggedly defend the adventure.' - The Guardian

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Support the trade unionists challenging Iran's reactionaries

    Owen Tudor

It has been said that the media only run two stories about Iran. One is the threat that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons. The other is about women wearing make-up under the chador. In both cases, the subtext is that Iran is unique - a dangerously unhinged anti-western Islamist theocracy where wearing lipstick and mascara is an exotic revolutionary act. read >

Thursday, May 15, 2008

From the blog: Permission to desert

    Robert Sharp

At the After May 1st event earlier this week, John Denham made an interesting point about personalities. In 1992, many people said that they wouldn't vote for Labour because "they didn't like Neil Kinnock". This, in Denham's view, was merely an excuse, and that there were more profound underlying reasons why people did not yet want to vote Labour. The Progressive >

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Left Bank to West Bank: the left's relationship with Zionism

    Colin Shindler

Israel has not been the political flavour of the month for many years. Much of this is attributed to the settlement drive on the West Bank following the six-day war in 1967. Others attribute it to collusion with Britain and France during the runup to the Suez campaign in 1956. It can certainly be argued that Israel has not changed for the better, but it is also true that the British left has changed dramatically since the end of the second world war. read >

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Why free votes are problematic affairs

    Philip Cowley

There have been two issues recently which have made me throw the paper onto the floor and shout at the radio in disgust. While it would be great if I could claim that these were issues of great human import - global peace, perhaps, or at least world poverty - they were in fact merely terminological offences, albeit ones that my pedantic nature found deeply disturbing. read >

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Cameron's lack of policy has left him with nothing to say

'That was a test that Cameron failed, because he did not come up with any policies to help the losers from the abolition of the 10p tax rate. He and the Tory modernisers say the right things, but they have not backed them up with the hard policy work that is required. Labour's record on poverty has its flaws, which Cameron is sharp enough to identify. But he hasn't yet proposed an alternative approach. Until he does, he will make the Napoleonic error of failing to interrupt his enemy when his enemy is putting things right.' - John Rentoul, The Independent

Mini-Queen's Speech

'Dean Acheson, then a former US Secretary of State, caused a storm in 1962 when he remarked publicly that Britain "had lost an empire, but still not found a role". Despite the criticism made of him at the time, his assessment was largely valid. In a similar vein, the Labour Party has lost Tony Blair but still not found an alternative to him or his politics. Is Mr Brown a Blairite with the same agenda but a more sombre style? Is he a neo-Blairite who is also drawn from and to the political Centre but with a different set of issues that he wants to address? Or is he an anti-Blairite in substance as well as style and if so then what exactly is he A draft Queen's Speech, even if packed with exciting ideas, cannot answer such questions.' - Leader, The Times

'Brown must turn his core belief about how government guarantees fairness into concrete, bread-and-butter policies that resonate. That means picking some well-chosen popular fights with the political right, which can both rebuild Labour's coalition and test what lies behind David Cameron's progressive rhetoric.' - Sunder Katwala, CiF

Taking sides

'The Labour leadership appears to identify with the financial sector of the economy and to apologise for its mistakes - at a time when the general public is growing ever more impatient with its inadequate performance and social irresponsibility. I have nothing in common with the deposed directors of Northern Rock other than a mutual inability to run a successful bank. But I have not lost faith in social democracy. Too many men and women at, or near, the top of the Labour Party have. As a result, the government lacks a vision of a better society and - almost as damaging - ministers fail to take the fight to the enemy.' - Roy Hattersley, New Statesman

Smart money?

'I have thought for some time that if Britain ever does join the euro, it will be under a Conservative government - on the well-known "Nixon to China" principle.' - Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian

Tip for the top

'To tip the 38-year-old Work and Pensions Secretary for the leadership now may seem as absurd as tipping the then 38-year-old Mr Cameron seemed three years ago. Yet since he succeeded Peter Hain at the Department of Work and Pensions, his name has started to be factored routinely into the what-if scenarios being played around Westminster. Many laugh this off instantly, regarding him as a smooth lightweight who prefers tailoring to politicking. But those who do know him well regard the prospect as eminently plausible - and believe that he may leap over Mr Miliband's head, just as Mr Blair overtook Mr Brown in the early Nineties.' - Fraser Nelson, The Spectator

Motley Crewe

'With all that in mind, the essential Labour strategy is clear enough: not to concentrate on anything progressive or inspiring but to run instead on a mixture of the Dunwoody bloodline, utterly witless class warfare, and the politics of fear.' - John Harris, The Guardian

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Europe’s energy needs will only be secured by a democratic Russia that respects the rule of law

     Gary Titley

It is no coincidence that Russia’s new president is Gazprom’s former chairman. Whereas Russia once saw its power and influence in stockpiles of nuclear missiles, today it strives to reclaim its place on the world stage as an ‘energy superpower’. Like it or not, Europe is at the centre of this strategy – and it’s high time we woke up to the implications. read >

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Darling's 10p rescue package to be followed by 'mini-Queen's Speech'

'Mr Darling’s statement succeeded in its immediate goal: Labour MPs cheered; Frank Field apologised for criticising Mr Brown; and public sector union leaders competed to praise the move (in itself enough reason to be wary). So harmony returns, but for how long? And at what cost? Mr Darling said the announcement was not only to help the 10p losers but was also “a family tax cut” for those on middle incomes, the main beneficiaries, at a time when oil and food prices have been rising. But such changes were temporary, for this financial year only.' - Peter Riddell, The Times

'Crude, simple and costly, yesterday's tax cut epitomises the brand of economic populism that Mr Brown has, over two decades, defined himself against. The parallel plunge in Labour's standing and the economy might make this tack the government's best shot. Ahead of the general election, nerdy complaints about fiscal rules can be swept aside. There will, however, come a time when the splurge of extra borrowing will have to be repaid.' - Leader, The Guardian

'Today, the Prime Minister will begin a fightback with a draft Queen's Speech promising help for families on "bread and butter issues" such as housing, jobs and the economy. The speech will also address the criticism that Labour has thrown away its claims to be the party of social fairness. "There is a sense out there of unfairness. They think it's unfair they cannot get on the housing ladder, or get jobs and that people coming into this country are not making a contribution. Economic fairness will be the key theme," said a senior government source.' - The Independent

By the book

'When it was put to Ernie Bevin, Labour's post-war Foreign Secretary, that his troublesome colleague Aneurin Bevan was his own worst enemy, he famously replied, "Not while I'm alive 'e ain't". But the books by John Prescott, Cherie Blair and Michael Levy are anything but vengeful. Indeed Mr Brown probably feels lucky to have got off so lightly.' - Lance Price, Daily Telegraph

The choice?

'Now, I'm not one of those looking forward to a Labour defeat in 2010. But in my bleaker moments, I do wonder if it wouldn't actually be better for Brown to lose next time than to cling on for a Majoresque fourth term. It's quite clear that the party now needs to have an internal debate about its very purpose - a debate it missed last year by skipping straight to Brown - and that is precisely what a spell in opposition is for. Besides, a defeat in 2010 would be recoverable: it could be like 1970, with Labour returning four years later. But if the party were to soldier on, as Major did, 2015 would bring a massacre that would exile Labour for a generation - and the Conservatives would be back in for another 18 years. That would be bad for Labour - and worse for the country.' - Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian

Pretty Polyclinics

'With the new health centres in each primary care trust and the extra GP services in underdoctored areas, the NHS is undertaking an open procurement process so that any prospective provider - a group of GPs, a voluntary organisation, a cooperative or an independent provider - can put forward proposals. There is no question of one solution being favoured over another. The voluntary, charity and independent sectors are just as convinced as some GPs are that the procurement process is as biased against them.' - Ben Bradshaw, The Guardian

Hillary sweeps West Virginia

'Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton routed Sen. Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary yesterday, scoring one of her most lopsided victories of the long campaign even as she continued to battle overwhelming odds in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.' - Washington Post

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Values and visibility must be cornerstones of the Labour fightback

    Stephen Beer

We can turn things around for Labour but there is no magic solution that will somehow make things better. It is not a matter of looking for the right electoral buttons to press or grasping at the first populist policy that comes along. New thinking >