labour party Archives

Friday

27 Sep 2013

Take it from a teenager: 16-year olds shouldn’t be able to vote

Like Charles Moore in this week’s Spectator, I am inclined to wonder whether there is ‘any conceivable good reason’ why 16-year-olds should have the vote. As a teenager interested in politics, I found not being eligible to cast a ballot until this year frustrating but reasonable. The idea that, at 18, I would become an adult, and as an adult I would be able to vote, made perfect sense. Departing from this principle by picking an arbitrary voting age is, as Moore points out, a slippery slope: what about all those politically oppressed 8 year olds? It is never argued that 16-year-olds should have the vote as part of a

Thursday

26 Sep 2013

Damian Mcbride

Damian McBride: Why I clutched at my trousers in front of Jeremy Paxman

They say nothing beats the feeling of seeing your book in print. But for me, the proudest moment was presenting the first copy to my Mum. She’s been ill recently and I read her most of the chapters in draft while she was convalescing, albeit leaving out the nasty bits. I sat with her that evening, reading her more of the book and feeling quite pleased with it. But the nervous feeling kicked in the next day when I saw the first extracts in the Daily Mail, and heard some of the reactions from the media and Labour folk. It strikes me as bizarre that people would reach conclusions and

Steerpike

Gordon Brown’s gossip girls

Brown’s boot boys had a reputation for political assassination, karaoke, and curry and lager. But if Damian McBride is to be believed, they’re really just a gaggle of gossiping girls. ‘How much of an appetite for gossip does Ed Miliband have then?’ Fraser Nelson asked of McBride for this week’s Spectator podcast. ‘He’s a bit like Gordon Brown,’ replied the repentant sinner/spinner: ‘He wouldn’t declare that he was interested in that kind of thing. But if you started saying to him ‘well I think so and so is going out with so and so’ amongst his officials he would go ‘really’ and want to hear about it. …the worst of

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22: Fraser Nelson interviews Damian McBride + Labour conference review

How well did Damian McBride know Ed Balls ? Is he surprised at the scale of interest and hostility towards his book? How strong was his relationship with Ed Miliband? Did journalists ever suspect he was feeding them untruths? Fraser Nelson puts all these questions to the former Labour spin doctor on this week’s View from 22 podcast (21:00), in light of his memoirs Power Trip, published this week. Labour conference is now over and three of Westminster’s top political commentators give us their opinion on how it went. Mehdi Hasan of the Huffington Post thinks it was ‘flat, flat, flatter than a pancake’, Dan Hodges of the Telegraph thinks Miliband’s speech

Wednesday

25 Sep 2013

Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband’s second conference message: ‘bring it on’

If you’re looking for two phrases to summarise this year’s Labour conference, they’d be ‘Britain can do better than this’ (in case you missed its fleeting reference in Ed Miliband’s speech) and ‘bring it on’. Ed Miliband has decided that even though he doesn’t poll above his party like Cameron, or have a history of impressing in broadcast and question-and-answer performances like Nick Clegg, he can still enter a presidential-style 2015 election without fear. Yesterday he told delegates that he would ‘relish’ a battle about character and leadership, today he told his conference during a question-and-answer session that he wanted TV election debates in 2015, saying: ‘It’s time for David

Ed West

The insanity of ‘votes for children’: who cares what adolescents think about politics?

Should people who comment under YouTube videos be deciding the fate of our country? That’s the frightening scenario proposed by Ed Miliband, who wants to give 16-year-olds the vote because, as he put it, it will make them ‘part of our democracy’. Or, in other words, the electorate’s opinion is no more important than a child’s. There is nothing progressive about allowing children to vote, any more than it is progressive to allow kids to sit on juries or take out mortgages. These things all involve the ability to make judgments, which is not sufficiently developed in adolescence. Voting isn’t just a right that makes you feel ‘part of democracy’;

Isabel Hardman

The three groups helping Miliband drive his conference message home

The Labour party held a briefing this morning for party campaigners on how they can follow up Ed’s speech on the doorstep. Activists had arrived at conference hoping for a simple message that they can sell to a voter in a dressing gown with their arms crossed and a sceptical expression on their face, and now they’ve got one: frozen energy bills. They were told that campaigning on energy bills wasn’t just something they can use on the doorstep this weekend, but a major digital and ground war campaign that is going to go on for months. The idea is to demand that David Cameron freeze bills now, using petitions.

James Forsyth

Ed Miliband has done politics a favour. The election will finally see philosophies compete

The next election is going to be the big, post-crash debate that the country didn’t have in 2010. Ed Miliband, as his speech yesterday demonstrated, believes that radical state intervention is needed to deal with the ‘living standards crisis’. His answer to the fact that there’s no money left is to get companies to pick up the tab for redistribution. There’ll now be clear red water between Labour and the two other main parties at the next election. This raises the question of how the Lib Dems fit into all this. Miliband barely mentioned them in his speech yesterday and has steered clear of attacks on them this conference season.

Steerpike

Damian McBride’s book Power Trip trips up its first victim

Damian McBride’s book has bruised many Labour conference delegates, and reopened old wounds. Now I can report that it’s claimed its first physical casualty. Telegraph journalist Matthew Holehouse had been tipped off that copies of the book were selling out fast at the Waterstones stall inside the conference zone. He ran across a road to get a copy, but was hit by a car and broke his leg. Sadly, Holehouse will be out of action for weeks, though at least he will have some good reading material.

Sebastian Payne

Ed warns energy firms: don’t reinforce perception you are the problem

Following the announcement of his plan to tackle rising energy prices — and the accompanying backlash — Ed Miliband has fired a warning shot at energy providers this morning, suggesting unless they get on board with his proposals, they will be seen as part of the problem, not the solution, by their customers. Here is the full text of his letter: ‘In recent years we have discussed the need to rebuild public trust in the energy market many times. I think we all agree on the importance of that objective if we are to build a market that both delivers for consumers and underpins the investment in future clean energy

Sebastian Payne

Labour conference: Wednesday fringe guide

Every morning throughout party conference season, we’ll be providing our pick of the fringe events on Coffee House. It’s the last day of Labour’s conference (but don’t worry, gabfest-fans, only four days to go until the Tories’ starts off in Manchester). You know the drill by now: here’s the definitive list of the day’s can’t-miss fringe events. See you there. Title Key speaker(s) Time Location A new localism – the future for world-class schools Stephen Twigg 12:30 Preston, Hilton Metropole Britain’s populist movement? Stella Creasy, Peter Kellner, Owen Jones 12:30 Lancaster, Hilton Metropole BAME Labour – 50 years from Martin Luther King Chuka Umunna, Sadiq Khan 12:30 Edinburgh, Hilton Metropole

Tuesday

24 Sep 2013

Fraser Nelson

Ed Miliband’s speech: the backlash begins

In his Guardian column tomorrow, Jonathan Freedland writes that Ed Miliband reckons he’ll “get a kicking from the Daily Telegraph” for his lurch to the left, but his ‘gamble’ is that he’ll survive it. The Times and the Daily Mail have not given his remarkable speech much of a better reception (above). All three newspapers can see what’s at stake here: a very dangerous principle, dug out of its 1970s grave and held up for applause at the Labour Party conference. It is now okay for a PM to govern by issuing edicts to private companies and having them do what he wants. Today, Miliband has said his government would issue

Isabel Hardman

Jack Dromey: Labour let Thatcher become the champion of aspiration

When Margaret Thatcher passed away and the broadcasters, newspapers, and casual drinkers in pubs picked over what her legacy really was, one of the key policies mentioned – and praised – time and time again by those from all sides of the political spectrum was the Right to Buy. It was an iconic housing policy that helped people who would never have had a chance of making it onto the housing ladder realise the dream of owning their own property. It was an empowering policy (the detail, of course, is slightly more complicated: the way the policy was designed led to a reduction in the overall size of the social

Sebastian Payne

The confessions of Damian McBride

The first copies of Damian McBride’s book dropped in Brighton today, and the former spinner has been explaining not just his actions in government but why on earth he decided to write about them. Here are the highlights of his confessions: Nearly everything the former spin doctor has said so far suggests he is quite contrite about his actions. On Newsnight last night, McBride said of his ‘victims’: ‘I do feel ashamed, I do feel sorry to those individuals whose careers I affected and even more so to the sort of innocent bystanders who were caught in the way’ listen to ‘Damian McBride defends his memoirs on Newsnight’ on Audioboo

John O'Neill

Labour conference: Tuesday day, in audio

It may have happened last night, but Damian McBride’s interview on Newsnight was responsible for a lot of talk today, not least because it led Jeremy Paxman to say ‘McPrickface’ live on air. listen to ‘Damian McBride defends his memoirs on Newsnight’ on Audioboo

Steerpike

We’re alright! we’re alright!

Mr Steerpike was tucking into half a dozen oysters in the Grand Hotel in Brighton when none other than Lord Kinnock tottered by. What did the old socialist firebrand make of his ideological son’s big speech? ‘I thought it was magnificent,’ the former leader turned EU millionaire peer gushed. ‘Practical patriotism, practical patriotism!’ Like father, like son. I’m also happy to report that his lordship has managed to keep his derrière out of the sea on this trip to Brighton. Well done, sir!

Alex Massie

Ed Miliband: You Are The Quiet Bat People And I Am On Your Side

Ronald Reagan once quipped that “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” As was so often the case the Great Communicator was only half-joking. He knew government had important jobs to do, jobs only government could do. What was needed was a rebalancing. Government had become too invasive. It needed pruning. (Never mind that not much pruning took place; the rhetoric and the positioning was what mattered.) I didn’t watch Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour party conference this afternoon but no-one, I think, would say he possesses a Reaganesque delivery. But he was in Brighton to tell

James Forsyth

Authentic Ed Miliband is left-wing and passionate

Today we saw why Ed Miliband ran for the Labour leadership. This was not a speech that his brother could have delivered. It was the most left-wing speech I’ve heard from the leader of a British political party. It was, without a doubt, authentic Miliband and delivered with passion. Politically, I suspect the speech now turns on the freeze on energy prices that Miliband announced a Labour government would introduce. The Tories are out to ‘kill it’ rather than ‘adopt it’, warning of the lights going out if it is introduced. The energy companies, whose profits would be hit hard by it, are also up in arms. The issue for

Isabel Hardman

Ed’s tough message to the unions?

If Ed Miliband wanted to use this speech – rather than the one he gave two weeks ago to the Trades Union Congress – to set up a confrontation with the trade union barons, then he’s got a funny way of doing confrontation. His section on party reform, which he rather built up by joking ‘here’s the bit you’ve all been looking forward to – party reform’. Everyone laughed, expecting a lengthy section on why the union link needed to change. But it wasn’t particularly lengthy or enlightening. He said: ‘Now let me say to you – change is difficult and uncomfortable. Let me explain to you why it’s so

Isabel Hardman

Dr Miliband finally trusts his instincts and prescribes socialism to make Britain better

For three years, though we’ve been told all about who Ed Miliband is, we’ve often wondered whether we’re getting his real thoughts when he speaks. The Labour leader has often given the impression that he doesn’t trust his instincts, that he thinks that he should be speaking from the centre ground rather than as ‘Red Ed’, and that his forays into tougher welfare and immigration policies are things he’d rather not do. But today the Labour leader decided to embrace what he truly believes in: big government. Big socialist government. He announced price controls – ‘if we win the election in 2015 the next Labour government will freeze gas and