Yesterday Mark Ferguson suggested that it might be the time to bring Alastair Campbell back to Labour. He’s right that we need someone with Campbell’s skills, but perhaps not to guide Labour’s social media strategy, as Mark suggests; rather, someone who will reliably raise their hand and get involved, whenever there is a potential media… Continue reading “Miliband booed.” How many more times do we want to see that headline?
Category: party
A pretty good conference Ed, but neglect your party at your peril
It’s been a pretty good conference. It started on Sunday with both Miliband and Balls saying sensible, pleasingly non-contradictory things on splitting the banks and a bottom-up spending review (if only Harriet Harman had got the memo). If we merely smile patiently at Len McCluskey’s “throw out the Blairites” sabre-rattling, and nod appreciatively at Miliband’s firmness… Continue reading A pretty good conference Ed, but neglect your party at your peril
This voter registration drive. Why, exactly?
High turnout is good. It is an unequivocal Good Thing. In fact, it is perhaps the only social good to which all democrats – at least technically – aspire, because it affirms our faith in our chosen system; a metric for the distance we stand from chaos. In other words: reach a turnout of zero,… Continue reading This voter registration drive. Why, exactly?
Stand firm, Ed
Unite’s Len McCluskey Let’s get a couple of things straight first. This is not a post arguing to somehow “break the link” between Labour and its affiliated unions (a thing, by the way, which no sane activist would want – the party would self-evidently collapse without it). So, whoa there, those standing ready to defend… Continue reading Stand firm, Ed
Labour needs to get back in touch with business
This month, Alex Smith’s pamphlet, Labour’s Business, is being published online, chapter by chapter. Today is the turn of my own chapter 3, Reaching out: engaging with business at every level of the party. To mark the occasion, I posted this at the Huffington Post, and you can read the chapter online here. In all the furore… Continue reading Labour needs to get back in touch with business
To boldly go… Ed’s relationship with enterprise
It’s been an eventful couple of weeks. So, the ship has now set a course and we’ve done the crew changeover. It may be a course that not everyone’s happy with, but let’s face it: they never are, are they? And at least there is a course. The Tory conference wasn’t a failure, but it… Continue reading To boldly go… Ed’s relationship with enterprise
Labour must never be allowed to get this broke again
Yesterday the Guardian reported that proposed new rules for party funding could result in the Labour Party being “ruined“. But this is only a metaphorical straw landing on a camel with an already decidedly poorly back. Peter Mandelson’s memoirs are interesting for many reasons, but one of the most important is as the first insider… Continue reading Labour must never be allowed to get this broke again
In the hands of the many, not the few
So, we are having a debate about the role of unions in the Party. Perhaps Ed, as my Uncut colleague Peter Watt suggests, is on a hiding to nothing: he is paddling against a strong current of realpolitik that dictates that this cannot change, at least whilst the party is taking ninety per cent of… Continue reading In the hands of the many, not the few
All who oppose quotas are not knuckle-scrapers
Sexism is undoubtedly alive and well in modern-day Britain. Wherever it is to be found, it is a blight on our society; it lowers people’s horizons and expectations. An indisputable social evil. Obviously not like it was a hundred, or even twenty, years ago: but there. Arguably, its most persistent manifestation is in the workplace:… Continue reading All who oppose quotas are not knuckle-scrapers
Credit where credit is due
Regular readers may be shocked at this, but I just want to register my approval – no, my delight – at reports that Ed Miliband wants to dump the odd tradition of Shadow Cabinet elections, which allow MPs to vote for who they want to see at the top table. For years they have been a… Continue reading Credit where credit is due