What Labour loves most - a big internal fight
Well it’s a new year. Time for a new start for the Labour Party? Sort of. Next week the ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) will set out the rules for the leadership contest that is set to take place over the next three months.
At the moment it’s all about the horse race. Who’s up? Who’s down? Who’s running? Those either declared or discussed include Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy, Clive Lewis, Ian Lavery and Jess Phillips. These represent the whole of the party from the moderate to Corbynite wings and everything in between.
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Who speaks for Labour?
Last week, one of the major Corbyn cheerleading sites — Sqwarkbox — lost a libel suit against (now former) Labour MP Anna Turley. That Turley had to be embroiled in this during the election is bad enough. The Unite union has said it is going to fund an appeal on behalf of Sqwarkbox.
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Activists from across the Labour Party have been gathering gloomily with one question on their minds: what next?
So far, somewhat predictably, all the conversation has been around the question: “Who next?” Who will be leader? Who will be deputy? Who won’t run, who should? Who will run who shouldn’t?” Everyone is picking a side, usually based not on the merits of the candidates themselves, but on their perceived closeness to or distance from Corbyn. Whether you love him or hate him, all thoughts on Labour’s direction still run through Jeremy.
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Labour must learn from this defeat - or it's finished.
The Labour Party is now faced with a stark choice. Does it learn or does it die? It is as simple — and as existential — as that.
There is so much to learn. Facing the worst defeat since the end of the war there won’t just be one answer, though those who have made their living denying Corbyn’s many, many flaws will try to blame Brexit alone. Meanwhile those like me who voted Remain will have to also listen to why we failed to convince people of Labour’s position on Brexit.
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Stepping back from my tribe means I can be honest about this election
Elections make people more partisan than they are normally. They’re a time of heightened politics where the country is talking about and thinking about taking sides. We are forced to make a choice and then defend it — if only to ourselves.
For the vast majority of people this time around that seems like a hard decision. None of the main parties are particularly appealing to ordinary voters. All seem to be running a core vote strategy that appeals to their hyper-dedicated activists but is leaving everyone else uninspired.
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UCU 'fighting fund' hits £100,000 as university strikes end
The University and Colleges Union (UCU) has raised over £100,000 fighting fund as their current round of strikes comes to an end.
The fund supports those in hardship due to lost wages during strike action.
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9,300 Met police staff cut under the Tories say GMB union
Since 2010 more than 9,300 jobs have been shed at the Metropolitan Police says the GMB union.
This is based on analysis of Home Office headcount data. The numbers are separate from cuts in the number of police officers. These staff roles include custody officers, 999 call handlers, scene of crime investigators, and technical and administrative support jobs.
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Admit it - none of the parties are offering you what you want at this election
It was something of a contest as to who had the worse time last week, the Labour Party or the BBC. The correct answer is probably the Lib Dems.
Jeremy Corbyn had a “car crash” interview with Andrew Neil, and shortly after that it was revealed that Boris Johnson didn’t want to face the same forensic grilling. He turned up on the Andrew Marr show instead, where the interviewer did his best, but it was nothing like the Neil interview.
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Honourable Ladies Volume 2
I am delighted to be the author of three essays in this book on the women of Parliament. I have written about Rosie Duffield, Thangam Debbonaire and Jo Platt.
The book can be bought here.
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It’s not too late for Labour to close the gap by riding a wave of hope
Labour’s campaign was hoping for a big boost last week. It didn’t quite happen. As the party launched its manifesto and Jeremy Corbyn achieved a draw in the TV debate with Boris Johnson, supporters hoped that the kind of radical turnaround seen (but not believed) at about this point during the 2017 campaign would happen again.
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Both the media and audiences alike have a responsibility when it comes to tackling 'fake news'
Yesterday, Labour launched a manifesto that promised an inquiry into "fake news".
The day started with Jeremy Corbyn telling off his supporters for booing the BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg. Them the London Evening Standard had to retract a seemingly false quote attributed to Corbyn on anti-Semitism.
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Labour has the right principles on welfare, now we need the detail
At the last election, Labour were criticised for having very little to say on welfare. The sharpest end of Tory austerity has always been felt by those who rely on the state to live a decent life. And, increasingly, more and more people who do so are living in the most awful circumstances. In-work poverty has risen from 13 per cent to 18 per cent. An estimated 500,000 more people are in poverty due to the benefits cap and two-child policy (where families that have two or more children, including one born after 6 April 2017, see the child element in Universal Credit and tax credits limited to the first two children). People with disabilities represent 48 per cent of all people who live in poverty. The use of food banks has increased dramatically.
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If Brexit is going to be so easy, why can't Boris Johnson talk about anything else?
Boris Johnson wants you to believe two contradictory things simultaneously. Firstly, that Brexit is going to be easy and be done and dusted within a year. At the same time, Brexit is all-encompassing and the only thing that must be discussed at this election.
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Canterbury: fighting to keep the anti-Tory vote together as the election approaches
In 1997 I voted for the first time, in the constituency of Canterbury. Even in the landslide of Tony Blair's first win, it wasn't a seat that was going to go Labour. But 20 years later, in 2017, it did. By fewer than 200 votes, Rosie Duffield won the seat for the first time in history, ousting the 30 year incumbent Julian Brazier.
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It's time we stopped obsessing over the power of political 'gurus' like Dominic Cummings - they always make mistakes
The Tory election campaign is not – so far – going well. Kicking off with a Boris Johnson editorial in the Telegraph that looked like someone forgot to remove the hyperlink from the front page and continuing with an ongoing row over Tory MPs insulting the memories of the victims of Grenfell.
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