Sep 3rd, 2010by Jon Lansman
Compass has voted overwhelmingly to back Ed Miliband with 55% of first preferences in a surprisingly small turnout of 626. It may be too late to have any effect on the outcome but it does reveal something about where Compass members stand.
Only one in eight members backed Jon Cruddas’s stance of suppoprt for David Miliband, fewer than the one in five who backed Diane Abbott. This showws that it may well be difficult for Jon Cruddas to rely on the backing of Compass members in future, and for Compass to promote him so heavily. Continue reading →
Sep 3rd, 2010by Billy Hayes
This year’s Annual Labour Party Conference should commence with the important step of restoring the right of CLPs and the affiliated trade unions to submit contemporary resolutions for voting at Conference. This may be modest, but it is significant. Conference should be the party’s internal, annual parliament, where we can debate all the key political issues facing the Labour movement and society at large. Continue reading →
Sep 2nd, 2010by Jon Lansman
“By this week-end, three quarters of the votes in the 2010 Labour leadership election will have been cast. The contest will effectively be over.” So Dan Hedges at Labour Uncut points out. And the effective end of the contest neatly coincides with the announcement of the result of the Compass ballot on who they’re going to back. Or would have backed had they decided in time. Continue reading →
Sep 2nd, 2010by Mark Seddon
As ballot papers for Labour’s leadership land on doorsteps this week, those electing the next Leader of the Opposition, namely party members, MPs and affiliated trades unionists have a duty not only to consider their party’s best interests, but the country’s best interests too. Continue reading →
Sep 2nd, 2010by Michael Meacher
It is true of politicians (as of others too) that their enemies never do as much damage to them as they do to themselves. Blair is a living proof of this observation. His diaries abound with his self-righteousness, his constant spin to gloss over his real motives, his inability (or dogged refusal) to admit to his own considerable failings, his lust for wealth and global self-promotion, his contempt for his party and for all others apart from those with power he couldn’t cross, his obsessive obsequiousness to Bush and all things US. Continue reading →
Sep 1st, 2010by Jon Lansman
Labour’s future direction isn’t only about who is its next leader. The ballot papers landing on members’ doormats from today include those for Labour’s national executive and national policy forum. With many new members and a turnout that is likely to be higher than usual because of the Leadership election, this will be a crucial test of the mood for change from the party membership, with the centre-left poised to do well if nominations are an indication of support. Continue reading →
Aug 31st, 2010by Michael Meacher
So Blair, possibly the most unpopular man in British politics, and Mandelson, the second most detested man, think Ed Miliband would be a ‘disaster’. It takes some gall for the architects of Labour’s ruin to think they have any right to give us lessons on Labour’s prospects when their own record was – well, disastrous. Continue reading →
Aug 29th, 2010by Michael Meacher
So David Miliband would pose the greatest threat to the Tories? How convenient for DM that this alleged private remark of David Cameron’s has hit the headlines, via an unidentified ‘well-placed source’, just 4 days before voting starts for the Labour leadership. It is of course the oldest trick in the political book, ever since the children’s story of Brer Rabbit and the Fox and the briar bush, to pretend when one is under threat that the one thing the political enemy fears most is X (in this case a vote for DM) in order to get gullible supporters to do precisely that, only then to find that it was just a ruse for DM to escape the threat of losing. Continue reading →
Aug 22nd, 2010by Andy Newman
The Trade Union Liaision Organisation, the group of unions affiliated to the Labour Party, has sought confirmation from all leadership candidates that they will robustly defend the party’s links with the unions. A review of funding of political parties is a likely objective of the Con-Dems, as the Liberals are particularly keen on the idea of state funding though state funding for politicians might be a hard thing to sell when financial austerity is leading to job losses in the real world. Continue reading →
Aug 20th, 2010by Mark Seddon
Westminster sources are claiming that the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, has been discussing defecting to the Labour Party, along with four or five Liberal Democrat colleagues. The reports have been confirmed by three separate sources, including one close to Ed Miliband’s Labour leadership campaign. Continue reading →
Compass has voted overwhelmingly to back Ed Miliband with 55% of first preferences in a surprisingly small turnout of 626. It may be too late to have any effect on the outcome but it does reveal something about where Compass members stand.
