The agreement by Unite, Britain’s biggest union, by a vote of 34 to 14 of its elected executive, to nominate Jeremy Corbyn represents a turning point in this leadership contest. It is important not because of the extent to which Unite wields direct influence in this election: trade union members may comprise less than a third of those eligible […]
Posts Tagged ‘Andy Burnham’
“What are your top priorities for Labour?” asks Andy
Jun 17th, 2015 by David Pavett.Like all other Labour Party members I received an email from Andy Burnham a few days ago: I know that if Labour is to win again, we have to change … I want you to be part of that change. I have a strong vision for how our Party needs to change. About how we […]
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What should we look for in choosing a new leader?
May 15th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.Some of the reasons put forward in the papers for supporting leadership contenders are just plain daft: ‘he can look the part’ or ‘he’s up to the job’ – not even ranking style over substance can justify such silly comments. But it’s all part of the digital age that presentation in a 1-minute television clip […]
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Labour’s united against NHS privatisation (well, almost)
Aug 7th, 2014 by Jon Lansman.At last Labour is united against privatising the NHS: Andy Burnham has attacked “the sheer audacity of the [Tory] plan to treat the NHS as another utility to be broken up and privatised.” He is clear that “the market is not the answer to 21st century care.”(Andy is not top of the shadow cabinet rankings by a […]
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Conference report: Health
Sep 26th, 2013 by Gaye Johnson.This much anticipated debate, held on the last day of Conference, began with a whimper and ended with a bang. It was given a low key introduction by UNISON’s officer Keith Birch. He started by saying that he NHS was Labour’s greatest achievement but that its future is now at stake. The Con Dem Health […]
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Andy Burnham on the Westminster bubble
Aug 10th, 2013 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.This about sums it up for me: We’re the professional politician generation, aren’t we? I was schooled in this, kind of, how do we make a press release today that embarrasses the opposition? That’s the kind of politics that everyone was doing, and the kind of culture developed where you’re scrabbling over a bit of […]
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After Hillsborough: how do you scrutinise the rulers?
Sep 22nd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The Hillsborough Panel performed a wonderful service, extracting the truth which 2 judges, a coroner, the police and several ministers failed to do. Is this therefore the prototype for the future? The reason the panel succeeded so dramatically was that they concentrated on getting access to and publishing key documents rather than the adversarial legalisms […]
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YouGov Poll on Leadership: treat with caution
Jul 30th, 2010 by Jon Lansman.The YouGov poll for the Sun on the Labour Leadership election provides the best detailed data on the election to date. Above all, this poll demonstrates conclusively that this is ultimately a race between the brothers Miliband. The headline findings are that David Miliband leads on first preferences amongst party and trade union members as […]
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Livingstone comes out for Balls
Jul 5th, 2010 by Jon Lansman.Ken Livingstone has given his backing in the Labour Leadership contest to Ed Balls. In his latest campaign leaflet, launched today, amongst other declarations of people saying “why we’re backing Ed“, Ken says: “I was impressed that, more than any other Minister, Ed was in command of his civil servants and was able to drive […]
