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[Blogs] Euro election manifesto adopted

2008-12-01T18:10:05-05:00

I have just got back from Madrid, where the Party of European Socialists (PES), the EU grouping of Social Democrat, Labour and Socialist Parties, adopted the manifesto which the Parties have agreed will form the basis of the campaign in each country. Each country party can add their own additional element, so it may not be the final document that will hit the streets here in the UK.

The key points, each of which is elaborated in the document are:

Relaunching the economy and preventing new financial crises
New social Europe – giving people a fairer deal
Transforming Europe into the leading global force against climate change
Championing gender equality in Europe
Developing an effective European migration policy
Enhancing Europe’s role as a partner for peace, security and development

There is a real effort to reach out to activists in member parties, under the banner PES @ctivists. This is the first event I have been to, which I found out about through Compass (Youth, though I'm not strictly youth). By signing up as a PES activist you can be kept up to date if this is something you are interested in, apparently more events are likely, targeted at all ages not just to youth as has been the case up until now.

Caroline Flint represented Labour, and most other parties sent their leader, although many are currently in opposition. But recent elections in Slovenia and Romania suggest this could be changing. There was a big press room, but probably not much UK press interest. Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, PES President, and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister, both gave very good speeches.

The manifesto was developed through an interactive process, in conjunction with the formal committees with representatives from each member party. There is discussion for the 2014 euro elections having coordinated, transparent selection processes for MEP candidates, which at the moment is controlled by the individual parties, and a named candidate for EU Commission President.

[Blogs] Labour back in business!

2008-12-01T17:51:06-05:00

New poll puts Labour almost level with the Tories

http://www.comres.co.uk/page190624540.aspx

Finally the nasty, do nothing Tories are being seen for what they are by the electorate.

Roll on 2010 and a fourth labour term!

[Blogs] Jacqui Smith is an embarrassment

2008-12-01T17:43:59-05:00

It really has been quite ghastly to see Jacqui Smith's evasiveness when questioned as to what she knew about the police investigation of Damian Green.

Her repeated statements that she was not aware in advance of the intention to arrest Green may be true, but they certainly don't appear to be the whole truth.

It was particularly telling to see her attempts to avoid answering a persistent Channel 4 reporter who asked her a simple and reasonable question - whether she knew an MP was under investigation: Channel 4 News at Noon (see from 6:40 onwards)

Doesn't she realise (a) that where serious constitutional issues of the kind raised by the Green affair are involved it is vital that she is open and honest and (b) that the truth will out in the end and her prevarication will then bring both her and our party into disrepute?

Is there any hope of dumping her (and the authoritarian baggage of ID cards etc) before the next election? And, if so, who would be the best replacement?

[Blogs] Membersnet reborn

2008-12-01T17:14:15-05:00

The admins of Labour membersnet are currently doing a survey on how to improve the service. As one of the many activists who spends much of their day raging with impotent fury about the deficiencies of the system, I've decided to focus my bloodlust by engaging with the process to make things better.

Below is my submission, I'd encourage others to take time to complete the survey too. It's on the membersnet frontpage (where they normaly advertise all the youtube stuff).

Q. What do you use Membersnet for?

A. Advertise campaign events, updating membership details, finding out & signing up to campaigning events

Q. What do you think is the most useful feature on Membersnet?

A. The Campaigns advertising feature

Q. What would you like to see improved on Membersnet?

A. The campaigns advertising feature- we should be able to post events to facebook and create recurring events. We should also have the option of viewing just the events in our CLP- having all the key seats from miles away in my calendar is just clutter and puts people off using the system.

Also, in general the way the map and calendar works is very clunky. Postcodes are often not recognised. It's often a chore to have to find the right postcode for the right bit of road we're planning to meet on- why not enable a street search function like on facebook?

In cities like Southampton with multiple CLPs, I should be able to see all the events happening near me without switching my postcode around.

Finally, we need to ensure campaigning events are visible on the day of the event itself, and do not disappear the day before like at present. Many people only go to print off their map and directions on the day of the event itself, and on more than one occasion I've been left unable to find out the details of a door-knocking session I'm supposed to be attending.

Q. Are there any new features you'd like to see added to Membersnet?

A. No- in fact I think it would work better if many of the features are removed. There is currently too much clutter. Less is more.

[Blogs] Please, no more boring white men!

2008-12-01T16:20:46-05:00

Take a look at this list of new Labour candidates selected in winnable seats (below) - 36 so far. Of these, only 12 are women, and to the best of my knowledge only 4 are from ethnic minorities. The rest seem to be unremittingly white, middle-class, middle-aged males. Could we get any more dull? To pick some at random - Martin Eaglestone is a planning officer; Sam Townend a barrister; Gregg McClymont a politics lecturer; Karl Turner a barrister; Alex Cunningham a businessman. I could go on.

Is this really the kind of party we want to see? Do we really want to be the party of lawyers and professional politicians, or do we want to be the people's party? There are only 600-odd MPs in parliament: in my view, every single one should be an exceptional individual. Not necessarily bubbling with charisma, but with a proven passion and track record of fighting on the side of ordinary people.

There are literally thousands of fantastic, feisty community activists, mothers, and normal people out there unengaged from party politics who would do ten times as much good for their constituents as the non-entities who pad out the PLP. Let's get them involved, and stop selecting boring careerist suits. Where are the nurses, the healthcare assistants, the cleaners, the playworkers, the shopworkers? There are so many ordinary people out there with the skills to be fantastic advocates for their communities, so for pity's sake let's get them on board!

There are 10 Labour-held seats which are yet to select - let's make sure when they do select they move us closer to a representative parliament, filled with down-to-earth, feisty individuals who'll work their socks off to improve the lives of their constituents. And, if we're honest, female MPs do that a lot better than men. So let's have a few less barristers and a few more nurses - maybe then our political priorities will shift towards ordinary people and away from elites.

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/guide/labour-candidates

[Blogs] Current Parliamentary Selections

2008-12-01T08:06:31-05:00

Current Parliamentary Selections Seat: Bromsgrove
Held By: Con
2nd Place: Lab
Majority: 10,080
AWS: No - open shortlist
Closing date for aspiring candidate: 28 November
Hustings and count: 8 January 2009

Seat: Chesham and Amersham
Held By: Con
2nd Place: LD
AWS: No open shortlist
Closing date for aspiring candidate: 30 November
Hustings and count: 1 March 2009

Seat: Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
Held by: SNP
Closing date for aspiring candidates: 18 Dec
Hustings and count: tbc
OPEN selection

Seat: Bolton West
Held By: Labour
2nd Place: Con
AWS: YES ALL WOMEN SHORTLIST
Closing date for aspiring candidate: 19 Dec
Hustings and count: 28 Feb 2009

Seat: Keighley
Held By: Labour
Maj: 4,852
2nd Place: Con
AWS: Yes - ALL WOMEN SHORTLIST
Closing date for aspiring candidate: 5 Jan
Hustings and count: 14 March (tbc)

Seat: Wycombe
Held By: Con
2nd Place: Lab
AWS: No OPEN
Closing date for aspiring candidate: 15 December
Hustings and count: 3 February

Seat: Wealden
Held By: Con
2nd Place: Lib Dem
AWS: No - Open shortlist
Closing date for aspiring candidate: 9 Jan
Hustings and count: 29 Jan

Compliance Unit
020 7783 1498

[Blogs] Tories guilty of treason for debasing currency?

2008-12-01T07:35:41-05:00

I'm grateful to a dinner guest on Saturday who is not a member of the Labour Party for raising this issue. We were discussing the cost of the economy of Conservative opposition to the government's plans to rescue the banking system and try and ensure the recession is as shallow and short as possible.

By carping on about debt levels, the Tories are both increasing the risk of higher import prices and hence domestic price levels by talking the currency down, and adding to the debt by increasing the level of interest rates and risk premia to be paid to lenders.

Let's be clear, as the reluctance of private investors to finance increased capitalisation of the banks is illustrating - no government knows with certainty how much money will have to be borrowed to ensure the viability of the banking system.

CHX Alistair Darling set out how prudence can be sustained in his Pre Budget Report a week ago. Faced with the very real threat of a collapse of the banks, what on earth was a Labour government going to do, other than what was necessary?

Any politician that continues to whinge about debt levels is debasing the currency. Rather than focussing on Conservative shadow home affairs spokesman Damian Green and the hamfisted way in which the police handled their investigation into a possible serial leaker of government documents, I'm much more concerned to see Conservatives in the dock charged with treason for undermining sterling.

Wikipedia helpfully states:

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or nation.... A person who commits treason is known in law as a traitor.

Quite so. It is about time all those media outlets that claim to be so concerned about the pound in our pocket named and shamed the Conservative leadership as such. Public money is allocated to support Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, if any one can think of a better way of bring the Tories to their senses, I'm all ears.