Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for 10 years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
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Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
Someone who has made his name on the back of spiteful, malicious and hurtful gossip and innuendo has the brass neck to complain about... spiteful, malicious and hurtful gossip and innuendo.
I have no time for Paul Staines brand of muck-raking garbage, whichever political complexion it takes on. But for a Conservative blogger who has been happy to host a site littered with references to Labour politicians as crooks, corrupt, and suffering from mental illnesses to throw a hissy-fit over someone else printing salacious gossip about a Tory politician... is truly breathtaking hypocrisy.
The second thing was the potential political gain of one of the key recommendations - to allow every working council tenant to purchase their home at their existing rent under a new revamped Right to Buy. This could create swathes of Conservative voters in urban working class areas – the very areas that they often failed to capture last time.
Yes... it will go down like a lead balloon with all those swathes of working class folk who find their sons and daughters have absolutely no chance of ever getting access to reasonably priced rented housing.
Of course, in fairness to Policy Exchange, they point out that they also advocate a programme of mass house building to open up the housing market and thereby reduce house prices (which will do wonders to build morale amongst those working-class home-owning Tory voters sitting on piles of negative equity) and providing affordable housing opportunities for new buyers. But that in itself presents a whole series of challenges.
Exactly what is 'affordable' housing when banks and building societies are reigning in borrowing and reintroducing earnings limit of two-and-a half times annual salaries is an interesting question. I wonder how many £100,000 homes would be built in the areas of most need in the South East of England, for instance, other than pigeon-loft sized little boxes. With an economy about to be turned upside down, massive job uncertainty for everyone in industries dependent on public sector spending, and in the public services themselves, the prospect of creating a whole generation of young people saddled with 25-years of debt doesn't seem that attractive.
And with no social housing to provide cheap rented accommodation for people to fall back on, we can get back to a time when Tory housing ministers romanticised about having to step over the homeless on the way to the opera.
Peter Mandelson is wrong, we must confront New Labour's errors
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I understand from the news this morning that Peter Mandelson, in a barely concealed warning about Ed Miliband, is issuing warnings that any attempt by a Labour leader to "roll back" New Labour would be disastrous. As it appears in The Times behind their paywall, I stress, I have not read the actual article.
However, I think Mandelson not only over estimates the sense of regard in which he is held by Labour and trade union activists (something he has consistently done, incidentally) but he is also just plain wrong.
When Margaret Thatcher was thrown out of Downing Street on her neck by her loyal colleagues, it became an unbending rule in the Conservative Party that new leaders should pay homage to the blessed Margaret. It was essential that any new leader had to ensure they were photographed with her as often as possible, and that there could be no hint of deviation from the furrow that the Great Leader had ploughed for 18 years in government. John Major, William Hague, IDS and Michael Howard all tried gamely (albeit unsuccessfully) to stamp their own character on the Conservative Party, but never once could they be heard to criticise the achievement of the venerable Thatcher.
Needless to say... it didn't work. The reason being the reason the Tories knifed her in the back in the first place. They knew that if she continued in office, they were doomed to defeat. The voting public, whilst still rating Thatcher right up their with the best Prime Ministers ever, didn't think she was flawless. Her cruel and inhumane treatment of the miners and the mining community, her unbending attitude towards the hated Poll Tax, and her regressive social outlook, were all major negatives, and they were driving the political narrative.
David Cameron, helped no doubt by a substantial period in opposition, was the first Conservative leader to question the Thatcher doctrine. He was prepared to confront the Tory backwoodsmen by admitting that there was such a thing as society (and five years later turned it in to a central theme of his Party manifesto). He was prepared to risk the wrath of Le Tricoteuse at the Tory Party conference that not only was homosexuality not a sin, but that gay people would be welcomed in to his party... and black, Asian and other minority ethnic people too. He was prepared to admit the heretical notion that under the Leadership of Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party had made mistakes, and they needed to change.
And that is why Peter Mandelson is wrong. Any new leader of the Labour Party has to be prepared to hold up their hands and admit that the three time victorious leader was wrong about a number of crucial issues. Iraq, the reliance on the market to resolve problems in the public services, cosying up to the wealthy, over regulation in the public sector and under regulation in the financial sector, and an authoritarian attitude to the role of the state, are just some of the things that spring readily to mind. Labour Party members know that is true. Labour party voters, and just as importantly former Labour voters also knew it was true.
Any prospective new leader of the Labour Party also has to confront the errors of the past. If, as Mandelsomn seems to be hinting, we are expecting David Miliband to come riding forward on his white charger as Tony Blair reincarnate, unable to recognise the things that drove 4-5 million people away from the Labour Party over a thirteen year period in office, we will be doomed to repeat the mistake of those Conservative leaders I mentioned earlier, and had better be prepared for a long spell in the wilderness.
The details are all up over there, but suffice to say: Ben has been in prison for 30 years. He does not deny that he committed a terrible crime when he was 14 – murder. However, Ben has been trying to rebuild his life from inside prison, in particular by pursuing education.
As Ben admits, this is partly to improve his meagre job prospects when he is released. But as he himself says, it is also part of his felt duty to atone for his crime, by making of himself a valuable member of society that can contribute to the wider good.
Ben has been unable to pursue his PhD studies for the past year because the prison where he is currently held has made his educational pursuits impossible. However, he needs to find the money for his next year’s PhD study but cannot go back to the private donors and charity organisations that have so far funded him because he has nothing to show for the last year.
Ben is trying to raise £1,650 within the next 30 days to secure his PhD funding, with the hope that his scheduled move to a less constrained prison will allow him to resume his studies.
I would, therefore, like to echo Paul Sagar's request asking if readers would consider visiting Ben’s blog and chipping in with a few quid to try to help him continue his studies. You can make a payment via PayPal at Ben's Prison Blog.
Luke Akehurst has written an interesting piece on the Labour leadership election and what he refers to as the 'kaleidoscope of alignments' across the party around the leadership issue. It shows the strange nature of these alignments when you discover that both Luke and myself are likely to support the same candidate, although I suspect I will do so with somewhat less enthusiasm than Luke. Certainly one thing we can agree on is the need for Labour to attack the Lib Dems, rather than smarmy up to them in the hope that they will help to prop up a future Labour-Lib Dem coalition.
Some aspects of Cruddas' endorsement I just plain disagree with "Cruddas warns that it's a grave mistake for Labour to attack and disparage the Liberal Democrats. "David is not just attacking the Liberals, as some of the others have been."". Run that past me again Jon ... a rival party that has been trying to steal votes of us by presenting itself as to our left suddenly goes into coalition with the Tories and backs savage cuts to public services and a regressive budget and you don't think we should attack them for it? We shouldn't just be attacking them we should be trying to destroy them as a viable political entity. If that view reflects David Miliband's view then in itself it is reason enough why his brother should be leader instead. Whoever becomes leader, if I get on the NEC I will be pushing for attacking the Lib Dems to be a major part of our electoral strategy.
"...application forms on the Tory Party website make it clear that business leaders prepared to spend £1,000-a-head can guarantee that they dine with at least one serving government minister.
The platinum tables are guaranteed to be "prominently positioned" near the top table, where Mr Osborne is expected to sit, and the diners will also get access to the VIP Lounge at the party conference and reserved seats in the main hall for Mr Cameron's table.
Because the fee for a seat is below the legal limit for declaring donations, the identity of guests does not have to be made public.
In 2006, Mr Cameron pledged to clean up politics, proposing new party funding rules to remove "the impression, now deep in the public mind, that influence, access and honours can be bought by wealthy institutions . . . and individuals".
When Mr Cameron took office in May, he promised a "new politics" that would restore public trust. During the campaign, he promised to reform party funding to "clean up our messy politics"
The institute's report will come as a blow to Clegg who reassured anxious Lib Dem MPs on the night of the budget that he and his ministers had ensured that it would be fair. He told his MPs that he and Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury, had worked hard to guarantee the budget would not follow the path of most previous fiscal consolidations which have tended to hit the poorest members of society hardest.
Much as folk may have got orgasmic over whether or not Chuck Kennedy was thinking of crossing the floor and joining Labour over the weekend, it was largely irrelevant. Ok, if he had there may have been a couple of other disaffected Liberal Democrats who also find an alliance with the Tories to be nauseating, but as I have written here before, these things are largely PR exercises, and in any event I think that if they switch parties they should be required to submit themselves for election in their new colours.
No, the real task is to attract not the headline-grabbing MPs... but the hundreds of thousands of Lib Dem voters who feel betrayed by the decision to form a coalition with Cameron's Conservatives. But Ed Miliband wants to be very careful what he is saying when he writes...
Leaving your party is the most honourable course when your party leadership leaves you.
...because there a hell of a lot of Labour Party members who have stayed in the party despite the antics of a Leadership who deserted us a long time ago.
Yesterday's drubbing of Aston Villa by a very ordinary Newcastle team seemed like a tragedy at the time.
This afternoon I heard that a very, very great man who lived just a few hundred yards away from my home died in his sleep on the cross channel ferry to France. You can call lots of people great, and lots have no doubt caused a much bigger splash in the water than Dick Marsh, but in terms of commitment to his neighbourhood and the people who lived in it, no-one could have done more. His passing will be a major blow to the many voluntary groups and community organisations that Dick devoted his time to helping out with. Whether it be the Sandwell University of the Third Age where he was the Chairman, the Warley Woods Community Trust just opposite his home and where he devoted untold (and unpaid) hours to, or the Sandwell Mental Health Trust where he was a prominent and respected Governor, or the many other organisations he brought common sense and hard work to... Dick Marsh will be missed immeasurably. Dick knew what volunteering was before it became a glib platitude on the lips of politicians. His passing is a real tragedy for his family and many friends, and this whole community.
Yet another good piece from Labour Uncut, which has improved immeasurably under it's temporary editor.
Labour’s new programme must not be imposed from the top but fed and informed by people in communities across the country who have something to tell us and hold our fate in their hands. Never again must we allow ourselves to become so aloof and out of touch. This means listening to and engaging with our councillors, activists, trade unionists, rank and file members and, above all, those who either deserted us in the polling booths or didn’t bother to turn out at all.
of course, it is not just the policy issues. The party leadership made the same mistake with the party as it did with government... confusing discipline and authoritarianism. We don't just want more say in policy (let's face it, we could hardly have less) but we want to end the dictatorial attitudes of party officials, remind MPs that they are our MPs, rather than their misconception that we are their members, and end the farcical situation where candidates are foisted upon local parties.
The rub will come after the current leadership jamboree, when we will see whether the promises to re-engage with the party members has any real substance to it... After all, wasn't that Harman's pitch for Deputy Leader. Can't say I noticed any changes after the ballot boxes had been taken away.
It is a brilliant example of the timidity and reticence of the Blair-Brown years. Of a government blowing around like a leaf in the wind, buffeted here and there by a desire to please, or at the very least not upset, a conservative media hierarchy. As Jenner observes, not bad on sex, pathetic on drugs, and wasted opportunities on culture.
The Labour government was a tribute to timidity and lack of imagination, combined with an obsession for short term political point scoring. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll are not all that my soul and body need, but they are popular and could have been great for the economy. But no one was willing to risk it. If we had, we might have realized that there were more important things than tomorrow’s headlines and cosying up to powerful people in politics and finance.
Thirty years ago this month, I sat in Days of Hope bookshop in Newcastle, being lectured by super-Trot Alan Milburn on deviations from correct Socialist thought. Now he's a Tory adviser. He was a pillock then, he's a pillock now. A Tory pillock.
The next time you hear someone spouting off about East Europeans, and "Poles coming over here taking our jobs" you might just want to remind them that there was a time when people were bloody glad to welcome them. The people at Philosophy Football t-shirts remind us that during the Battle of Britain Polish aircrew made up the second largest nationality among the fallen, and proportional to their numbers, Polish battle successes and losses were higher than for any other nationality.
Anyway, one of their 'Battle of Britain' commemorative t-shirts recognises the Polish contribution. Good for them, I say.
I understand from the news this morning that Peter Mandelson, in a barely concealed warning about Ed Miliband, is issuing warnings that any attempt by a Labour leader to "roll back" New Labour would be disastrous. As it appears in The Times behind their paywall, I stress, I have not read the actual article.