Gordon’s Alive!

Labour MP Simon Danczuk on his party’s hard left:
“This is the politics of the madhouse and should be viewed in the same way as we view the views of the BNP. The hard right threatens social cohesion and sows ugly seeds of division. The politics of the hard Left does much of the same – while threatening to make sure Britain’s race to stay competitive in a global economy is over.”

Not Dan Hodges says:

July 7, 2013 at 11:23 am 

Owen Jones walks into a bar, and finds it staffed by a dinosaur. “Bloody hell, shouldn’t you be extinct!?” says the dinosaur.

Miliband Tries to Make Friends | Speccie
Miliband Clears Up Union Mess, Or Not | Michael Deacon
Trevor Kavanagh Slaps Down Brian Cathcart | Speccie
The Second Most Humble Day of His Life | MediaGuido
Ex-German Leader Buys 38,000 Menthol Cigarettes | The Commentator
UKIP Not Just a Party For Disgruntled Tories | Telegraph
Schools Should Be Free to Opt Out of Curriculum | Douglas Carswell
Just Who Are Justice Across Borders? | The Commentator
Miliband Speech Raises More Questions Than Answers | ConHome
In Defence of IPSO | Index on Censorship
Ed Targets Tory Lawyers | City AM

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

Gordon’s Alive!

Perfectly timed as Ed goes for MPs with second jobs, the Prime Mentalist will speak in the House this evening for just the third time in the last year:

ADJOURNMENT DEBATE
Until 7.30pm or for half an hour (whichever is later) (Standing Order No. 9(7))
Dalgety Bay radiation: Mr Gordon Brown

Always an occasion…

Unfortunate Indy Picture Choice

Just what was the Indy picture desk trying to say about Stephanie Flanders with their choice of picture to accompany the story about her dating both Ed Ball and  Ed Miliband, eh?

Watson Endorses Wee Dougie

First Labour Uncut pulled its piece alleging Tommo plotted to get Douglas Alexander deselected in Paisley, after heavy pressure from Unite’s learned friends. The Guardian have not withdrawn the allegation though. Now all of a sudden Watson is backing Wee Dougie to be his successor:

“Douglas is our most experienced front line strategist. He has worked for both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and is the natural choice to take forward Labour’s positive message to rebuild our country after the 2015 election. It’s obviously not my choice who Ed chooses replace me but if it was Douglas, he would have my full support. There are millions of people wanting Labour to win the next general election. A unified labour party is an essential component of our plan. I want party members on the ground to be in no doubt that in Westminster, we are completely unified in our desire to win for them in the Euro elections in 2014 and the general election in 2015. Douglas, with his characteristic humility and razor sharp mind can refocus the campaign on the issues that matter to people facing a huge fall in living standards.”

Of course he is…

Via @labourlist

Ed Fudges as Len Smiles

When Miliband wasn’t getting the names of his“friends in the journalistic community” wrong in the Q&A after his speech, he was fudging a series of questions about how his union reform will actually work. Crucially he would not give an answer on the key question of timing. Will the reforms happen before conference? Before the election? Ed wouldn’t say. He also dodged questions about Gordon’s other jobs and whether he would resign if he cannot convince the unions to come on board.
Len McCluskey’s smile and praise for the speech tell Guido he thinks the reforms won’t really dilute his power. “One Man One Direct Debit” is very simple: if money goes direct to Labour Party, the reform is real. If it goes via the unions, it isn’t. Follow the money…

27 Further Redundancies at Indy

The cull was always coming at the loss-making Independent, now Guido hears 27 members of the team will lose their jobs. Guido’s source optimistically warns: “this is the end”.
Quite…

FLASHBACK: Ray Collins Helped Plan to Set Up Red Rag

Almost farcically, Miliband has chosen former Unite assistant General Secretary Ray Collins to lead the party’s trade union review. Back in 2009 Collins denied knowledge of the Red Rag* attack site that sought to smear Tory MPs. Despite him being at a planning meeting held at Unite’s HQ with Damian McBride and Derek Draper.  On the Unite side were Charlie Whelan and Andrew Dodghson. Collins did not know of the specific intended smears, he did however know of the intention to launch the anonymous attack site. He can hardly claim to have no responsibility for the site  just because he didn’t know which particular smears were going to be used. He still helped plan and facilitate the setting-up of Red Rag…
*Unite now funds the PoliticalScrapbook blog, which is tamer than the one originally envisaged by its union backers.

Harriet Baldwin Gets Paxo’d

Tory spin doctors have noticed a change in their coalition partners, believing that the LibDems are deliberately dodging tricky interviews. Last week junior minister Esther McVey was put up for an early morning Today mauling over the so called “bedroom tax”, despite being responsible for the disability brief. Last night a PPS to DWP was put up to face Paxman for his standard performance. It wasn’t pretty for Harriet Baldwin, but it was a tough gig. Not having the right figures in front of you is never a good idea though. Watch from 35 minutes in.

JP: Do you know how many single bedroom homes were released last year?
HB: Well of course, what we need to take into account…
JP: Do you know or not? Do you know? Do you know?
HB: I haven’t got that number with me.
JP: It’s 85,000.

So where are all the Ministers? Well mysteriously Steve Webb, a LibDem, refused to go on the air last week and was absent again last night. This could become a running source of tension as the LibDems try to distance themselves from their own actions in government…

WATCH: Blair on Miliband

Uncle Tony says Ed’s speech today “is a defining moment. It’s bold and it’s strong… I should have done it when I was leader”.
The photo of himself on the mantelpiece behind him is a nice touch…

New Leaked Unite Briefing Details Plot to Stitch Up Seats

Joey Jones has a private and confidential briefing note that was handed to Len McCluskey in March. It outlines, explicitly, Unite’s plot to stitch up seats.

“The central task of the Political department since the last EC has been to maximise the possibilities of working class and progressive candidates in the Labour Party Parliamentary candidate selection process… Selections are now commencing in a number of seats – and the rest of the selections in the marginals will be completed at least by the end of the year.
 Our expectations are realistic, but we campaign as hard as possible for victories.  A key part of our general political strategy involves winning more Unite members to join and become active in the Labour Party. This has been particularly urgent in those constituencies with forthcoming selections. Indeed it is also readily understandable if you want a progressive working class Labour candidate, join and work for one is the simple message. As soon as the boundary review was abandoned, we accelerated our member development programme. Only members joining prior to six-months before the commencement of the CLP selection process are eligible to participate in the process.
We are working with other Unions to ensure general agreement around candidates in selections. With some give and take broad agreement has been reached across the main trade unions involved. Regions have been asked for their preferences – and in the main have produced comprehensive proposals – usually following regional discussions with TULO or, Big Four unions.
Future Candidates Programme: Our second Future Candidates Programme took place in February. We now have 30 potential candidates on the programme, and will be inducting a further 20 after Easter.  This is a serious long-term training programme, aimed at developing Unite Activists so that they can become candidates for public office.”

They go on to express disappointment at the Labour policy review and plan greater union involvement in setting party policy:

“The Labour Party policy review is proceeding in two ways.  Jon Cruddas is directing the Policy Review, involving Shadow Cabinet groups, and with a number of meetings at Westminster. This is not developing as well as we might like – and we are seeking to get bigger trade union involvement in this.”

You can read the document in full here. Caught red handed…