Tim Montgomerie Labour (and most of the Right) always thought of the Liberal Democrats as a left-wing party. Most LibDem activists still do and, earlier this week Jonathan Isaby wrote about the success of "Coalition-sceptics", like Tim Farron, in internal elections. On LabourList today, Anthony Painter has written about the end of the budding LibLab […]
By Jonathan Isaby I am just catching up with the news from last night that my friend, Labour MP Tom Harris, has given up blogging. He writes: "The blog has become a burden. It’s taking up too much time (though not as much as some might think – I am a very fast writer), it’s […]
By Jonathan Isaby Small signs of discontent about the Coalition from within the ranks of grassroots Liberal Democrats, as reported in this morning's Guardian: Liberal Democrat candidates who called for their party to move away from Tory policies triumphed in internal elections for its two ruling bodies at the weekend. Nick Clegg has been at […]
By Paul Goodman "Within five years, both Civil War parties are likely to have been brushed aside by a hard right, anti-Europe, anti-Traveller party that, inconceivable as it now seems, will leave us nostalgic for the, usually, harmless buffoonery of Biffo, Inda, and their chums." Very few articles from the Irish papers are tweeted and […]
by Paul Goodman Bad news day for Labour, with this morning's MP expenses fraud court judgement, and earlier detailed accounts of Harman's mauling at yesterday's Labour Parliamentary Party meeting. A lot's been written about why Woolas has so many Labour backers. He's a long-standing trade union operator with GMB connections. He's part of the big […]
By Jonathan Isaby Great timing for this year's Labour North West Regional Conference, which is taking place this weekend in Southport – to coincide with the election of one of the region's Labour MPs being declared void. After some hours' prevarication, Phil Woolas was suspended from the Labour Party yesterday afternoon in disgrace and Harriet […]
By Jonathan Isaby Harry has noted elsewhere this morning the confused position the Labour leader in Camden is taking on housing benefit reform. And confusion reigns supreme this morning too as to what the national Labour Party position is on the issue. The Labour manifesto from April this year (written by one Ed Miliband) stated […]
By Paul Goodman Harriet Harman was, until recently, Labour's acting leader. She's just said that the Party won't support Phil Woolas's challenge to this morning's court ruling, which ruled that the Oldham and Saddleworth seat must be re-fought, thus depriving him of his Parliamentary seat. (He has since been suspended from the party.) It is, […]
By Paul Goodman The point of LeftWatch is to watch the left. This leaves me in a dilemma about whether the subject of this piece fits the bill. Any sensible observer would conclude that the campaign that he's involved with – the Local Schools Network (LSN) – is, broadly speaking, of the left. A clue's […]
By Jonathan Isaby As David Cameron is in Brussels trying to persuade fellow national leaders of the folly of a 5.9% rise in the EU Budget, it's worth noting how Labour have actually acted on the issue. Last Wednesday, MEPs voting on a resolution setting out the European Parliament's position on the EU Budget were […]
By Tim Montgomerie Yesterday morning I noted Tristram Hunt MP's belief that David Cameron wanted to take Britain back to the ethos of the Victorian workhouse. Last night I blogged Polly Toynbee's argument that the Conservatives were planning a "final solution" for the poor. In today's Mirror, Labour MP Jon Cruddas accuses the Tories of […]
By Tim Montgomerie Earlier Tristram Hunt argued that Tories wanted the poor in Victorian workhouses. Polly Toynbee thinks we want a "final solution" for the poor… Hat-tip: Guido Fawkes.
By Tim Montgomerie It's been a while since I nominated a Labour politician for the Order of the OTT but Tristram Hunt certainly deserves recognition for his ridiculous piece in today's Daily Mirror: "Not far from where young David Cameron went to school at Eton, there used to stand a workhouse for the poor of […]
By Jonathan Isaby Alan Johnson admitted that he would need a "primer of economics for beginners" the day he was appointed Shadow Chancellor by Ed Miliband and his weakness in that role was exposed on Wednesday afternoon in his reply to the Spending Review (and George Osborne's response to him at the Despatch Box makes […]
By Jonathan Isaby Still no reaction, let alone action, from Ed Miliband or anyone else in Labour's leadership team over Ken Livingstone's campaigning for the Independent candidate – against Labour's nominee – in Thursday's mayoral election in Tower Hamlets. However, the two Labour MPs in Tower Hamlets, Jim Fitzpatrick and Rushanara Ali, have condemned the […]