This is one of the stupidest things I’ve read in a news report for a long time:Labour has defended its leadership election rules amid evidence some people can cast multiple votes. Labour MPs, MEPs, party members and members of affiliated trade unions and socialist societies are all entitled to take part in the contest. But people can register for more than one vote by joining different bodies.…Research by the BBC found it was possible to join a number of unions or societies - more than 30 of which are affiliated to Labour - and secure separate votes in the leadership contest.“Evidence”? “Research by the BBC”?The leadership election rules – last changed in 1993, if I remember rightly – state that this is so very...

Labour leadership contender says he wants to lead 'a government not a gang'Labour leadership hopeful David Miliband today sought to distance himself from the party feuding reignited by Tony Blair's new book, declaring that he wanted to lead "a government not a gang".As ballot papers went out to eligible voters, Miliband sent an email to all party members in which he said he was "sick and tired" of seeing the leadership race characterised in terms of a choice between rejecting or retaining New Labour.Instead, the shadow foreign secretary pledged to "change the way we do politics" and said he was "ready to lead".Miliband dispatched the email to members after the publication yesterday of Blair's autobiography, which charted the former PM's deteriorating relationship with Brown.Urging members...

As so many other Liberal Democrats that I know have tried Vote Match, I thought I should.  It’s the questionnaire that shows how closely you match the views of the various Labour leadership contenders.  Also, like many Lib Dems I came out as closest to Diane Abbott. The full figures were: Diane Abbott – 71% Ed Miliband – 49% David Miliband – 37% Ed Balls – 29% (Andy Burnham doesn’t get a comparison as he didn’t provide Vote Match with the relevant information in time) I suppose Diane is reasonably liberal on some things, (although I still always remember her controversial comments about Finnish nurses) and we would also agree on some key issues like Trident, academies and student tuition fees, to name a few.  But unlike Diane I would never...

It is striking that David Miliband is trying hard to play down his former closeness to Tony Blair, but no one holds his brother or Ed Balls's closeness to Gordon Brown against them.This suggests two things.The first is that Blair has become the new Harold Wilson: someone who won multiple general elections for Labour but has now been written out of Labour's history.The second is that Labour clearly has little idea of what it has to do to regain an appeal to the wider...

David and Ed Miliband distance themselves from former PM's statement of support for coalition's deficit strategyCandidates for the Labour leadership moved tonight to limit the impact of politically explosive remarks in Tony Blair's memoirs in which he backed the economic strategy of the Conservative-led coalition government.Blair shook the party with his backing of David Cameron and George Osborne's economic strategy to cut the financial deficit. Blair also backed the government's decision to raise VAT, which Gordon Brown vehemently warned against throughout the election campaign."If governments don't tackle deficits, the bill is footed by taxpayers, who fear that big deficits mean big taxes, both of which reduce confidence, investment and purchasing power," Blair wrote, in sharp...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 1st September, 2010 The Middle East Peace representative for the Quartet for the last three years and three months Tony Blair arrived in Washington yesterday for the first meeting of Israelis and Palestinians for over two years. But first, with regard to the “journey’s end” jibe – the anti-Iraq war Independent’s choice phrase – today Mr Blair is, correct me if I’m wrong, the only European at the Washington peace talks Perhaps, dear Indy, his journey is NOT yet over. Watch a clip of tonight’s interview with Andrew Marr I managed to see it in the end. It was fine. Not...

New Labour dogma pervades Tony Blair's biography. Bringing it into the leadership race is a depressing mistakeNearly over now, then – so let us count the cliches used to decry the Labour leadership contest. "Interminable," claims the Daily Telegraph. "The least inspiring contest ever," says a columnist in the Independent. "A bunch of clueless clodhoppers," reckons the characteristically emollient Mail. Now, the hysterically received Blair memoirs add another commonplace to the noise: that beneath the alleged tedium lurks grave danger – and if it isn't careful, Labour will stray from the New Labour path, and lurch into irrelevance.I dutifully bought my copy of A Journey today, and eventually reached the postscript, in which Blair sets out his vision of the future. What awaited was a...

I have to say I agree with Iain although isn't it interesting that there is silence on this on the Tory blogs. If it were a Labour cabinet minister in the old days they'd be quick to spread the story around.Admittedly the story is a bit weird, but it comes to a sad day when men cannot share a hotel room without people making innuendos, although there have unfortunately been rumours about William Hague before and this is clearly grist to the Mill. It does no good to speculate and make assumptions from it though....

What the hell is wrong with everyone? I am desperately trying to find something, anything, about the Blair memoirs in the media, but no: all the papers and airwaves and blogs are full of ‘actual current events of real significance’. Pathetic.The worst of it is that the one possible source of precious information on this, Blair’s BBC interview tonight, has been ruined by Channel 4’s deeply irresponsible decision to schedule its so-called Labour leadership debate to clash.I really don’t know how any of us is ever going to find out whether Blair thinks exactly what we all already know he...

Yesterday on my way to Liberal Drinks in Belfast I read a story that really got me seething, sadly I couldn't get signal on the train or it would already have been written up.Apparently the coalition government has used its European opt-out not to sign up to a directive that includes a common definition of trafficking which makes it easier to convict people across the 27 member states....

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 1st September 2010 Martin Kettle’s World Exclusive Interview: ‘… he felt “sick, a mixture of anger and anguish” when he was asked by the Iraq inquiry chair, Sir John Chilcot, in January if had regrets over Iraq. “Do they really suppose I don’t care, don’t feel, don’t regret with every fibre of my being the loss of those who died?”‘ BLAIR MEMOIRS  – HE FEELS, CRIES AND DRINKS WOW! You don’t expect us to believe he’s HUMAN? EXTRACTS FROM TONY BLAIR’S WEBSITE DEDICATED TO HIS MEMOIRS INTRODUCTION: (2 pages) “The...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 31st August 2010 ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY? THEN HE’LL BEGIN Only 15 minutes to wait, kiddies. According to the dedicated website here – http://www.tonyblairjourney.co.uk/Exclusive_extracts_released – it shouldn’t be long before the press are at it hammer and tongs. The papers and the broadcasters have already leaked a little. One, on Gordon Brown, and two on Mr Blair’s appearance in January at the Iraq Inquiry. On Gordon Brown it is said by one of the leaking papers that Tony Blair has accused Mr Brown of “trying to blackmail me.” Even without the present soul of the...

I'm quite depressed and pessimistic about the prospects for the Labour Party at the moment. As far as the leadership contest goes, I'm almost-but-not-quite adopting the Derby County v Leeds United approach (hoping they all lose). Mil perfectly encapsulates my view on this here. Likewise, I don't think that pyramids are a very sustainable management model for political parties any more, and I don't think the Labour will sustain one very successfully for very long.I keep getting e-mails saying 'Join my campaign against....' this and that and I made a mental note early on not to vote for anyone who imagines themselves at the head of some parade with the rest of us just anonymously plodding on behind. This only leaves me with Diane Abbott to vote for as far as I can see and - with all due...

World exclusive: As he publishes memoir, ex-PM urges party not to shift to the left• 'I've got something to say' – exclusive Tony Blair interview• Blair on Brown: 'Emotional intelligence: zero'• I didn't see Iraq nightmare coming, says BlairTony Blair came to the view that Gordon Brown would be a disaster as prime minister and that Labour could not win the 2010 general election, he reveals in his long awaited memoirs."It was never going to work," Blair writes of Brown's three years in No 10, arguing that the former chancellor had "zero emotional intelligence" and fatally abandoned the New Labour formula.Blair's memoir contains a passionate defence of the war in Iraq and of New Labour's public service and welfare reform plans, which the former prime minister believes his successor...

'Soap opera' moves on to talk of close-run contest to be settled by second or third preferencesDavid Miliband enters the home stretch of the Labour leadership race claiming the support of more than half the shadow cabinet amid speculation that the contest will be so close it could be decided by second and third preferences.All candidates were attempting to move the contest away from the "soap opera" of sibling rivalry and the politics of old versus new Labour after interventions from senior party figures.Ballot papers will be sent to Labour party members with up to 80% expected to return them within the week. The result will be announced on the eve of the Labour party conference on 25 September.The shadow foreign secretary, bookies' favourite, made a peace offering to his brother Ed...

The Milibands' fight has highlighted their flaws but left many in the party asking: why can't we have the best of both?You wait a lifetime for a Miliband, then two come along at once. Not my joke but one cracked by Miliband the younger, sympathising with the plight in which he and his brother have landed the Labour tribe, inflicting on them a dilemma that comes to a head this week as ballot papers drop through millions of letterboxes, demanding that Labour members and affiliated trade unionists finally make their choice.Behind the quip is a recognition that if just one of them were in this contest, it would have been easy: current form suggests either one, David or Ed, would have left his rivals for dust. Instead, by fighting each other, they have turned this into a nailbiter, a contest...

So today they've sent out the ballot papers for the Labour Party leadership fight. It looks like Vote Match is telling me I'm a strong Abbott supporter, but truth be told none of them get me very excited.It's absolutely true that I share a number of political positions with Abbott, and she's likable enough, but I just don't think she'd be a very good leader.When it comes to war, privatisation, racist immigration policy or a refusal to take the environment seriously the Labour Party is in the grip of the right, and there's no immediate prospect of that changing any time soon.Of course there are some Labour politicians I respect a great deal, admire even, but right now all the leadership contest has drawn out is how far Labour has to go before it seriously reassesses where it's going. Nor...

I think the political positions being adopted by Ed and David Miliband are a lot closer than the current sniping suggests – and both possessed of more depth than merely marking points on a left-right axis. Labour’s history is also a good deal more complex than ‘old’ versus ‘new’.A fine case in point is Peter Mandelson. He says [£]:Ed... is wrong when he describes new Labour as a comfort zone. On the contrary, it was about some difficult choices and some tough decisions on policy. There was nothing comfortable about many of the issues we had to face up to. … I think that if he or anyone else wants to create a pre-new-Labour future for the party then he and the rest of them will quickly find that that is an electoral cul-de-sac.…I understand that people of a certain age...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 31st August 2010 SHUT UP – YOU WINNERS!!! After Peter Mandelson‘s warning (video) about the leadership of Labour (aka as New Labour) and the sadly inevitable response to the Dark Lord’s words, Iain Martin puts it succinctly here. “At last, the Labour leadership race has come alive. The Dark Lord (Mandelson) has clearly got sick of it being a mealy-mouthed affair and has criticized Ed Miliband — saying he wants to hark back to an age before New Labour rather than reaching out into floating voter land. It was a perfectly fairly worded critique, the normal stuff of healthy, robust...

This morning I had a debate with John Prescott on Twitter regarding NHS Direct. I reckon we both fought our respective corners and fought them hard. Figurative punches were being thrown much to my relief. Me pointing out the lack of money to do everything and the rational for looking at what was essential and therefore needed to keep being funded was what was important.The fact that...

Lady Toynbee, fresh from Summer in her Tuscan villa, returns to the Guardian to excoriate Blair and Mandelson as 'vain, venal has-beens' for voicing anti-Ed opinions. But no condemnation, not even a hint, of those public pro-Ed opinions from those other 'vain, venal has-been' Labour dinosaurs Neil Kinnock and Roy Hattersley. Thus demonstrating again that Polly's idea of equality has always been to boost one faction at the expense of another regardless of balance and fairness. Meanwhile Balls is complaining that he's not getting any column inches at all. Or would be if there were any journos attached to his campaign to write it down. The press have decided it's a two-horse race and Labour will never miss an opportunity to create a deep factional split in the Party, so expect more...

Labour leadership contender seeks to distance himself from endorsement by Blair's closest allyDavid Miliband moved last night to avoid the grave threat of being portrayed as the heir to Tony Blair when he slapped down Lord Mandelson hours after the former business secretary endorsed his campaign for the Labour leadership.On the eve of a series of appearances by the former prime minister as he publishes his memoirs, Miliband rejected the intervention by Blair's closest ally with a warning that Labour members were "sick and tired" of past battles.In a pointed statement, he said: "Party members, including me, are sick and tired of the old battles of the past being rerun. It's time to move on." The statement by David Miliband was designed to ensure that any support later this week from Blair,...

I've taken to trolling New Labour Boot-boy and Gordon Brown lickspittle, Grima Wormtongue Ed Balls' supporters on Twitter. Normally along the lines that if one of the myrmidons to the creepy brownite homunculus says "isn't he brilliant at fighting the cuts" I'll reply "so why is every Tory hoping he's the one to win. He's ghastly, everyone can see it, it seems, but you."Sometimes it develops into a discussion with an interesting, if wrong person; more often, New Labourites give something away about themselves in their responses and reveal their tribal bigotry. The "cuts" are bad because the Tories are doing them. The same cuts under Labour would be "the right, tough choices for the country" or something. (There are people on the Tory side that do exactly the same - I'm talking about the...

Party must not drift towards US-style capitalism: more unequal, more brutish, more unjust, says Ed MilibandThe increasingly bitter "battle of the Milibands" reaches new heights today as younger brother Ed dramatically ditches New Labour and calls for an end to the party's drift towards "brutish" and "unjust" US-style capitalism.As the two brothers enter the final lap of the Labour leadership race, David Miliband, by contrast, declares New Labour to be "living and breathing in every community" as he announces himself "ready to lead" its renewal.All five candidates will step up campaigning this week as ballot papers are sent out to some 200,000 Labour supporters. The winner will be announced on 25 September, the day before Labour's annual conference in Manchester.Writing in today's...

PM boosts David Miliband's hopes in the Labour leadership contest after comments made in private are revealedDavid Miliband poses the greatest threat to the Conservative party of all the candidates in the Labour leadership contest, David Cameron has said in private remarks that could change the dynamic of the campaign just days before millions of ballot papers are posted.To the likely delight of the older Miliband, who enters the final stages as the frontrunner, the prime minister has made it clear he believes the shadow foreign secretary stands the best chance of reaching out to middle Britain.A well-placed source told the Guardian: "David Cameron said the candidate he hoped for was Ed Miliband, and the candidate he most feared was David Miliband."Ed Miliband, who is thought to be...

As this has come up lately during the Labour leadership campaign, I thought I’d look at the socioeconomic status (or ‘class’ as I believe some people quaintly call it) of voters abandoning the party.I’ve used MORI’s ‘how Britain voted’ data going back to 2001, the last time Labour won convincingly. To focus on political shifts rather than changes in the population, I’ve assumed a consistent electorate for all three elections of 2010 size and social structure: 44.4 million people, of whom 27% are social group AB, 29% C1, 21% C2 and 23% DE.Over the two parliaments, Labour lost about 80,000 ABs, 560,000 C1s, 990,000 C2s and 650,000 DEs.I’m not saying ‘therefore we must elect X’ or ‘therefore we must move to the Y’. These are just the...

Truce between brothers breaks down as 'comfort zone' comment and radio interview spark accusations on both sidesIt was always an ambitious hope. Two loving brothers would maintain warm relations even as they both challenged for one of the greatest prizes in British politics.But the seemingly friendly contest between the two Milibands for the Labour leadership has come to an abrupt halt as the sons of one of Britain's greatest Marxist thinkers turned their fire on each other.Tonight accusations were flying as Ed's supporters accused his older brother of a patronising approach. David's supporters warned a victory for Ed would consign Labour to opposition for a decade.The truce between the two brothers, who remained on genuinely warm and affectionate terms when they worked separately for...

Elder Miliband brother says Labour must do more than simply attack Liberal Democrats to build electoral supportA public split between the Miliband brothers will open up today when David warns that the Labour party must abandon its comfort zone and do better than simply attack the Liberal Democrats.In a direct swipe at his brother, Ed, who used a Guardian article on Monday to lambast Nick Clegg for selling out Liberal principles, the shadow foreign secretary will criticise what he calls a patchwork approach to building electoral support."The decision of the Lib Dems to join a Conservative government creates a big opportunity for the Labour party to realign the centre-left of British politics. But for me, that's not enough. I see the primary task for Labour as shifting the centre ground of...

Congratulations to Jude Robinson, Labour PPC, for 1) supporting the territorial integrity of Cornwall by opposing the creation of a Cornwall and Devonshire parliamentary constituency and 2) providing an excellent example of Labour Party validated double speak. In all seriousness I hope all those who care about Kernow can pull in the same direction to prevent our little country from being homogenised out of existence into some artificial Devonwall, South West or West country region. I couldn't let the following slide though. Jude writes: "I am not an isolationist or a nationalist when it comes to Cornwall" Jude, by 'nationalists' I assume you are referring to Mebyon Kernow and their supporters? You are aware aren't you that MK only want for Cornwall what Labour gave to...

Writing on Liberal Democrat Voice, Norman Lamb tells us about Facing the Future. This is the party's new policy review that will "build on our existing and widely respected statement of Liberal Democrat philosophy, It’s About Freedom, and like the similar exercise that we carried out at the start of the 2005-10 Parliament, Meeting the Challenge ... set out the areas where the FPC will commission further work through this Parliament, and the approach it will take to developing policy in those areas". One point about the article: I do hope Norman will stop talking about the "balance" between liberty and security. He is a better Liberal than that.Carl Minns - Thoughts from Hull finds proof of Labour's "reckless behaviour" in its last year of office.The contrast between Leicester's "trophy"...

The Daily Telegraph today has an article entitled 'The Liberals have a History of Splitting'.It says that: "Most Lib Dems chose Charles Kennedy as leader. Most chose Sir Menzies Campbell. Most chose Paddy Ashdown. And most have just chosen Simon Hughes to be the party's deputy leader."Of course the last part in inaccurate as only the majority of Lib Dem MPs chose Simon as Deputy...

Political parties received £26.3m in the runup to the general election, according to the Electoral CommissionDonations to political parties reached their highest level on record around this year's general election, it was disclosed today.A total of £26.3m worth of gifts were reported by 16 parties as having been received in April, May and June, the Electoral Commission said.The main beneficiaries were the Conservative party, which got £12.3m; Labour, with £10.9 m and the Liberal Democrats, with £2m.The three main parties also took a share of more than £1m of public funds and owed more than £31m between them at the end of the period.Labour had the highest borrowing at the end of June, with £16.6m, followed by the Tories on £13.1m and the Lib Dems on £1.6m.The previous record for...

The former climate change secretary on why New Labour must be consigned to the past, why he is the person to lead the left's revival - and why he'll never say anything bad about his brotherParty leadership races are generally much less interesting than pundits tend to hope. In the current contest, everyone always knew David Miliband would run – and everyone knows by now that three of his challengers are very unlikely to beat him. Thus it fell to Ed Miliband to provide the excitement.The young pretender is certainly a sexier part to play than the dauphin, but when I heard Ed Miliband speak back in late May, he seemed so manifestly awkward about fighting his older brother that it was hard to see how the contest was going to work. Remarkably, the pair's pledge to say nothing bad about one...

Vocal activist vows to fight push for alternative vote systemConservative activists today fired a warning shot across the bows of the Lib Dem-Tory coalition when Matthew Elliott, combative chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, was appointed to lead the no campaign against the adoption of the alternative vote in next May's referendum.Elliott, who will stand down as the TPA's spokesman in October, has always denied charges that the alliance – which takes a vocal, populist stance against higher taxes, state activity and the EU – is a "Tory front organisation". But both he and key TPA colleagues have close personal links with the party and with the Tory tabloids."The key democratic principles of accountability and transparency have always been at the heart of my work at the...

Labour leadership contender appeals to core vote as companies are urged to guarantee £7.60 an hourEd Miliband steps up his bid for the Labour leadership today by promising substantial tax cuts for any company prepared to guarantee a "living wage" of at least £7.60 an hour. The commitment is designed to appeal to the party's core supporters who believe New Labour took insufficient measures to combat low pay, despite having introduced a legally binding minimum wage that now stands at £5.83 an hour.A company that agreed to set the "living wage" as its minimum rate – as opposed to the legal minimum – would pay lower rates of corporation tax.All five candidates to replace Gordon Brown are preparing to sharpen their messages before ballot papers go out to party members at the...

It's all very intriguing and it is tempting to do a Private Eye-style Apology in response, assuming there is a defection about to take place.But why the lack of clarification over the weekend, and why in August. My suspicion is that a defection was planned for the end of August/early Sept and the news leaked. Kennedy may have been uncertain and right now the Lib Dem hierarchy are leaning on him and he his busy mulling over what to do next. A bit sordid, but time will tell as to what has happened...

Charles Kennedy and Nick Clegg on campaign trail in GlasgowYour writer is just to the left of shot with other candidatesYesterday evening as we were travelling the rumours of a Charles Kennedy defection to Labour started to circulate.Charles Kennedy was one of the early SDP success stories taking the Ross, Cromarty and Skye seat in the 1983 General Election: just after a young Liberal,...

Ed Miliband says if he wins Labour leadership contest his strategy is to make Lib Dems 'extinct'Labour stepped up its attack on the Liberal Democrat wing of David Cameron's coalition government by hinting Charles Kennedy, the former Lib Dem leader, has been in talks to defect to Labour and take several of his party colleagues with him.Senior Lib Dems and allies of Kennedy were quick to dismiss rumours that he is poised to rejoin Labour – the party of his pre-SDP youth – as dirty tricks by rightwing bloggers seeking to destablise the coalition, though some MPs, also unhappy with coalition policies, admit "Charles is in a funny place at the moment."Labour confirmed its ambition to woo any disaffected Lib Dems and claimed to have talked with Kennedy, who later dismissed the rumours as...

Quaequam Blog! wakes up and points out the ridiculous position Labour has got itself into on public services: "Labour pledged at the last election to halve the deficit within four years; the coalition plan to half the deficit within three years. Labour planned a 70:30 cuts:tax rises package and conspicuously didn’t rule out raising VAT; the Coalition plan a 77:23 cut:tax rises package which includes raising VAT. While the Coalition’s cuts are undeniable steeper than what Labour intended, Labour has made it clear that they oppose number of cuts to non-frontline services that the Coalition is introducing – specifically by scrapping the National Identity Register, ContactPoint and prison places. These ringfenced spending plans would have to be paid for out of increased cuts to...

Former deputy prime minister is campaigning to be elected treasurer of the Labour party, which he says is £20m in debtJohn Prescott today warns the Labour party that it is £20m in debt, "on the verge of bankruptcy" and must learn to campaign in smarter and more cost-effective ways if it is ever to restore its battered finances and take on the cash-rich Conservatives again.Crucial to this reform is the need to boost the role of the party treasurer, "not only to hold the leadership to account in unnecessarily spending money we don't have, but to make sure we have the campaign capacity to deliver", says the newly ennobled Lord Prescott, who is the underdog candidate for the post at the age of 72.Though implicitly critical of Tony Blair's way of handling Labour's three traditional sources...