Let’s get things straight. This is not a make-or-break speech (very few are, as John Rentoul recently pointed out). Only a small number of people, apart from the political media and the usual political anoraks, may even pay this speech much attention, for reasons which are, to be fair, not Ed’s fault at all. To… Continue reading Leader’s speech: holding our breath
Category: political strategy
The seven-year itch: a cautionary tale of tax, cuts and debt
There was this bloke. And there was this girl. They met, fell in love, got married, usual story. It was a big, special wedding – everybody went. A match made in heaven, everyone said. People came out of their houses to wave as they went to the church. Kind of wedding that fills everyone with… Continue reading The seven-year itch: a cautionary tale of tax, cuts and debt
The boy Miliband done good
So, Ed got boos and catcalls at the TUC – as it happens, catcalls which are, rightly or wrongly, likely to be very useful indeed for his standing in the country, as Jack McConnell points out, showing as it does that he is standing outside of what is likely to be a very unpopular and… Continue reading The boy Miliband done good
Brand the Tories right wing? I Woodwouldn’t
Oh dear. To read the Observer report of Shaun Woodward’s leaked memo on how Labour should attack the Tories, the question which springs to mind is not so much, is this going to be genuine Labour strategy as, what on earth was he thinking? The thrust of the piece is that Labour should attack the… Continue reading Brand the Tories right wing? I Woodwouldn’t
Hard choices (reprise)
Nearing the end of the Mandelson memoirs: love or hate the Prince of Darkness, they are essential reading for those who want to understand Labour’s last twenty years, and the Brown years in particular. Memoirs must always be read with the caveat that you view the world through the author’s prism. However, at their best,… Continue reading Hard choices (reprise)
Labour’s riots response: wrong on tactics, wrong on strategy
It was a mere few days ago that we were praising the willingness of a reinvigorated Ed Miliband to make hard decisions. The dumping of the Shadow Cabinet elections. The explicit non-backing for an unpopular strike. Most striking of all, two occasions on which he had gone out on a limb against powerful interests –… Continue reading Labour’s riots response: wrong on tactics, wrong on strategy
Two kinds of brave
The Indie’s Steve Richards, it seems like an age ago but in reality only last Thursday, defended yesterday’s Labour politicians from the easy criticism that they should have acted against Murdoch (as my business friends would say: Harry Hindsight – the greatest trader of them all). Oh how Blair and Brown bowed and scraped, some are… Continue reading Two kinds of brave
Cuts, pensions and the wrong side of the argument
As you read this, union leaders are meeting and discussing, moving seemingly inexorably towards industrial action over the summer. And you know what? It’s entirely understandable. After all, as Dan Hodges points out, what on earth do we expect them to do? If organisations largely representing public sector workers did not take some retaliatory action,… Continue reading Cuts, pensions and the wrong side of the argument
Much obliged, m’lord Ashcroft
On discovering, via Tim Montgomerie’s Saturday piece, that Michael Ashcroft (former Tory Deputy Chairman has commissioned a report into the future of the Labour Party, one’s immediate reaction is that it was exceptionally kind of him. After all, as Montgomerie points out, the party is not exactly awash with cash at the moment to do… Continue reading Much obliged, m’lord Ashcroft
The Lib Dems: Readiness To Govern, 101
For the nth time in the last few days, the Lib Dems have shown themselves thrown by the basic politics of government; as opposed to opposition, where they were supremely comfortable. Whilst our own reaction to scandal, in cases such as Phil Woolas, has sometimes been unnecessarily brutal – throwing someone out of the party… Continue reading The Lib Dems: Readiness To Govern, 101