UK News

Family drama grips Labour Party conference

Just when the Labour Party thought it had got over the long feud between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, it has been gripped by an even more compelling drama worthy of prime-time TV – the tale of two brothers who reached the top of British politics only to see their ambitions collide.

Delegates at the Labour Party conference in Manchester are just getting over their surprise that Ed Miliband, 40, pipped his brother David, 45, to be Labour leader. David had long been favourite to win and Ed’s shock victory on Saturday brought gasps from delegates.

David Miliband had received the loudest applause when the leadership candidates strode into the hall to hear the results and there were no euphoric celebrations of Ed’s victory. That’s because many in the hall had not backed him.

To have knocked out the former foreign secretary long seen as the heir to Blair and Brown felt like regicide to some.

David Miliband’s wife Louise Shackelton was reported to be distraught at her husband’s narrow defeat, seeing Ed’s decision to stand against him as disloyal.

David Miliband won the support of more Labour activists and members of parliament but strong union backing saw Ed over the line, raising questions over whether he will steer the party leftwards.

Ed Miliband must rebuild Labour’s confidence after it lost the May election and will lead the opposition to the deep spending cuts proposed by the coalition government.

Oona King to run as Labour candidate for mayoral election

Once one of “Blair’s Babes“, former Labour MP Oona King has thrown down the gauntlet to former Mayor Ken Livingstone with the announcement of her official bid to become Labour’s candidate to run for London mayor in 2012.

King served as the second black woman MP in Britain after Diane Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, who was elected in 1987.

Until her defeat by Respect’s George Galloway in 2005, King represented Bethnal Green and Bow in the Commons for 8 years from 1997 to 2005 under Prime Minister Tony Blair’s leadership.

In a 2007 autobiography titled “House Music: The Oona King diaries“, King details her life as an MP, including the challenges she faced after announcing her support of Britain’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

King, currently head of diversity at Channel 4, will have to defeat anti-establishment Labour candidate Livingstone to compete against Conservative incumbent Mayor Boris Johnson in 2012. Last year, Livingstone announced a challenge to Johnson.

Livingstone was the first elected mayor of London. He was elected as an independent candidate in 2000, but in 2004 he ran for the post again under the Labour banner and served as mayor until 2008 when he was defeated by Johnson.

He was leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government abolished it in 1986.

Jack Straw rejects plans to cut MPs

Justice Secretary Jack Straw spared me a few minutes on the campaign trail to explain why he doesn’t agree with Conservative and Liberal Democrat plans to cut the number of members of parliament.

After he quickly downed a bowl of soup in a cafe in London’s legal quarter, he described in this video clip how his plans to half the size of the House of Lords would be a better way to save money.

And he takes aim at Conservative plans to redraw all Britain’s electoral boundaries to an equal size, saying that would usher in an era of gerrymandering because the new constituencies would change frequently, not match natural community boundaries as at present and would break the link between constituents and MPs.

He also suggested he was opposed to offering the Liberal Democrats the promise of proportional representation in return for their support should the election result in a hung parliament, as polls indicate. You can read that interview on our website here.

Labour lavish spending a thing of the past?

Gordon Brown chose a brand new 545 million pound hospital as the backdrop to unveil Labour’s election manifesto but the document signals that Labour’s past lavish spending on infrastructure is a thing of the past.

In these budget-challenged times, the focus will be on extracting maximum value from every pound spent on health, education and other services, the manifesto makes clear.

The Conservatives accused Labour of exploiting the state-run National Health Service by using the immense new, 1,200 bed acute care facility at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Edgbaston for a party political event.

But Brown, who was given a rousing reception by Labour supporters invited to the event, retorted that a construction firm was still in charge of the building and it would be handed over to the NHS in the next few weeks.

In any case, Labour’s choice of the building seemed more like a wistful look back to pre-financial crisis days when cash was plentiful than a pointer to what the future would hold if Labour beats the odds and wins a fourth term on May 6.

“To safeguard the NHS in tougher fiscal times, we need sustained reform,” the manifesto chapter on health says. “We will be tougher in ensuring value for money…”

In recognition of the need to rein in a budget deficit set to top 11 percent of Gross Domestic Product this year, the manifesto included no major new financial commitments.

Political theatre unfolds according to script

There was a big fuss but no suspense this morning outside Number 10 Downing Street. In what has become a typical pattern in the world of 24-hour news, media organisations had been briefed in advance on the content and the choreography of Gordon Brown’s election announcement. This was the ultimate scripted, pre-packaged news event.

A huge pack of photographers, cameramen and journalists crowded behind crash barriers across the street from the famous black door from the early hours of the morning. The place was abuzz with technicians doing sound checks and taping cables to the ground with duct tape. The TV channels had lined up their star presenters in smart suits and ties, while behind the cameras reporters huddled in fleeces and scarves to fend off the morning cold in the notoriously draughty street.

“What’s going on?” joked Bob Ainsworth, the defence minister, as he arrived for a cabinet meeting before Brown set off to see the Queen. Indeed, anyone in Britain equipped with a TV set or a radio had already been given ample warning that the prime minister was about to ask for the dissolution of parliament and to call an election for May 6.

Veterans of previous election campaigns said Brown staged his big announcement very much in the traditional way, the only novelty being his decision to appear flanked by his cabinet rather than by himself. This was interpreted as a way to offset his personal unpopularity by presenting a team of familiar faces. Brown may also have been trying to draw a contrast with the Conservatives, whose leader David Cameron is widely seen as their main electoral asset but whose other senior figures are little known to most voters.

Whether voters will be charmed by the Labour team photo remains to be seen though. Few will have forgotten that Brown has survived several attempts to topple him by members of his own camp — the latest as recently as January.

The announcement itself, full of talk of recession and dire warnings of hardship should the Conservatives win, was not exactly rousing. “It sounded like they’d already lost,” said one correspondent leaving the scene just after the speech, while another described it as “Presbyterian”, a reference to Brown’s austere style and background as the son of a Scottish clergyman.

After the announcement, Brown sped off to start his campaign tour with visits to a supermarket and a printworks. It will all be scripted from now on until May 6 — unless Brown can be prodded into saying something unexpected during one of the three televised leaders’ debates coming up. That’s probably the best hope of those still keen to see a little spontaneity in our politics.

Blast from the past as Blair enters campaign

Tony Blair was back on the campaign trail today, doing what he does best, but whether the voters were happy to see him again is open to question.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was hoping that Blair could still conjure up some of the old magic that helped Labour to victory in the last three elections. But it quickly became apparent that he conjured up a few demons too.

Arriving in his old constituency of Sedgefield on a misty morning, Blair was driven past a line of protesters brandishing placards that read “Bliar War Criminal”. There were crash barriers and a heavy police presence to keep the dissenters at bay as the former prime minister was ushered into the Trimdon Labour Club, scene of his resignation announcement in 2007.

While not all Britons would go so far as to call Blair a war criminal, he simply cannot get away from the issue of Iraq. Blair flies around the globe these days trying to foster Middle East peace and promote various faith projects — as well as making a fortune in lecturing fees — but in his home country he is always under the shadow of Iraq.

In fact, the last time he was top of the news in Britain was in January, when he passionately defended his decision in 2003 to send British troops into Iraq with the Americans, during six hours of televised testimony at the official inquiry into the unpopular war.

Clearly, Gordon Brown must think it’s worth taking the risk of reviving memories of the war. And once Blair was inside the Trimdon Club, safely surrounded by Labour supporters, it was not hard to see why.

Breaking the ice with a few nostalgic anecdotes from his campaigning days as a political newcomer in the 1983 parliamentary election, Blair then launched into an impassioned speech that shunned the sobering talk of austerity and spending cuts that have dominated this campaign so far. Not for him the dour rhetoric of deficit reduction and fiscal retrenchment. Out of the gloom of recession, he plucked messages of hope.

from The Great Debate UK:

Old traditions die hard in UK election campaigning

A study of constituency-level campaign techniques undertaken by Brunel University ahead of a general election expected in early May shows that direct mail is by far the most common method of contact used by politicians to reach potential voters.

Of the 27 percent of the electorate contacted by one of the three main political parties in February, about 90 percent received some form of communication through the post via direct mail, the study shows. Some 92 percent said they had been reached through mailings from the Liberal Democrats, 89 percent from the Conservative Party and 81 percent from the Labour Party.

Although a lot of people have spoken about this being the first new media election in the UK, and there is some evidence of email and Facebook being used, traditional campaign methods are still dominant, says Justin Fisher, director of the Magna Carta Society at Brunel University in West London.

"What we can say about social media is that it may enhance or complement more traditional forms of campaigning, but the idea that it's going to replace traditional campaigning at least at this stage is very wide of the mark," Fisher said.

Just over 1,000 people were interviewed for the study.

The Conservative Party, which needs to gain 116 seats in the election to win a majority of 1, have been most aggressive in their campaigning, reaching 60 percent of those polled, compared to 44 percent reached by Labour and 43 percent by the Libdems.

Overall, Labour are making most use of the telephone, the Libdems are making most use of direct mail and the Conservatives are making most use of email in reaching out to the electorate, according to the study.

from The Great Debate UK:

Tariq Ali on how unions fare under Labour rule

Amid a stand-off between British Airways and the Unite union, the Labour Party's main financial supporter, Prime Minister Gordon Brown called a planned strike by BA cabin crew workers "unjustified and deplorable" last week and said both sides should return to talks.

Rail signal workers in the RMT union are also threatening to strike, but haven't announced a date.

The Conservatives have tried to make political capital out of industrial unrest ahead of a general election expected to be called for May 6, accusing the Labour Party of being in the pocket of the unions.

But how much political leverage do trade unions in Britain really have?

Unions are still burdened by the steps former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took to crush the labour movement in the 1980s, says political commentator Tariq Ali, who has written more than 30 books, including "Rough Music: Blair, Bombs, Baghdad, London, Terror" in 2006 and most recently a novel titled “Night of the Golden Butterfly".

The Labour Party, founded in the early 20th century by trade unions to represent workers in parliament, has done nothing to reverse the consequences of a protracted coal miner's strike under Thatcher which, combined with de-industrialisation and privatisation, weakened the power of trade unions in Britain, Ali told Reuters in a recent video interview at Verso Books headquarters in London's Soho.

"When New Labour was elected in 1997, Tony Blair, the New Labour leader, made it very clear that he wasn't going to change anything that Thatcher had done," Ali said. "They used to boast in those early days -- that not only will we not change, we will go beyond Thatcher."

Webcast: Gordon Brown’s speech at Thomson Reuters

Prime Minister Gordon Brown set out his economic plans during a Newsmaker event at Thomson Reuters on Wednesday. Brown said he believed Britain would maintain its coveted AAA credit rating and announced a pay freeze for senior civil servants and military officers to help reduce a record deficit.

Below is a recorded webcast of Brown’s speech and the Q&A session that followed.

Does Cameron have the X-Factor?

  David Cameron was not the only young contender appearing in Brighton this weekend. While the Conservative leader was addressing activists in a seafront hotel, the fresh young faces  from the latest series of the X-Factor were tuning up for a tour date at the Conference Centre a couple of doors along the road.

Cameron is of course engaged in his own struggle for public affection with Gordon Brown and Labour. And what had looked at one stage like a coronation has now turned into a battle royal for the crown.

The Conservative gathering was billed as the “spring forum”, but that definition seemed a little premature when I woke up on Sunday to the sound of icy rain hammering against the hotel window pane.

 The Sunday Times headline “Brown on course to win election” did little to lighten the mood of party delegates over breakfast.

Seeking to rally the troops, Cameron spoke without notes. What he gained in spontaneity he arguably lost in fluency.

Like TV’s X-Factor hopefuls he told us of his journey – describing four and a half years taking the party towards the centre ground where it embraces green issues, supports the NHS and welcomes candidates from all ethnic backgrounds.

He broke little new ground but said he was confident he had what it takes to turn this country around.