Peter Kenyon

'Tis the season to be merry: rift between Brown and Mandelson?

Just before I go and deliver my last batch of Christmas cards I spotted this story in my headline skimmer service from News Now for Labour news. I know I shouldn't believe everything I read in the newspapers, especially the Daily Telegraph. But the most difficult domestic political issue in the New Year is likely to be the need to settle the dispute between Royal Mail and the CWU. And, of course, we all know who was responsible for getting the Labour Party into the mess it is in over this. Yes, m'lord Mandelson. Personally, I hope m'lord has the humiliity to accept he made the wrong judgement call on receipt of the Hooper Report, and Labour can get on with the business of winning the next election. Royal Mail firmly established as a wholly government owned public service early in 2010 would indeed be something to be merry about.

TV debates: will Brown repeat you are voting for your future, not mine?

Confirmation here of the details being finalised for three TV debates between the three mainstream political party leaders offers Brown a great political education opportunity. Will he take it? There was an excellent line in his 2009 Labour Party Conference speech.

And so I say to the British people the election to come will not be about my future – it's about your future.  Your job.  Your home.  Your children's school.  Your hospital.  Your community.  Your country.

Or are we going to be bombarded with more - I, I, I, me, me, me?

In the UK the electorate votes for Members of Parliament. Political Parties choose their leaders. It's a small detail, a constitutional nicety. But one which in the wake of Chilcot's grilling of Blair could be well worth developing. In the meantime, there is a campaign-a-day job to be done to link leadership back to party policies that define our values.To mobilise opinion that means Labour has to redirect its paid staff to retention and recruitment, and halt command and control - regional directors and general secretary, please take note.

Labour Party NEC: declarations of interest

Correction on Thursday 17 December Today, the Labour Party National Executive Committee's Special Selection Panel is due to meet to consider the latest crop of pending candidate selections. Any member of the Panel who has a particular seat with a vacancy under discussion is obliged to declare an interest and leave the meeting. But in the interests of avoiding any doubt, shouldn't any member of the Panel resign forthwith if  s/he plans to apply as a possible candidate for the 2010 General Election? That would, of course, apply, to any partners ro relations on the SSP too.

Suggestions that the following story have influenced my decision to blog about this today would be entirely correct.

So apologies, Jack and Harriet. But there is no time 'to feel my way on the NEC' about this issue.

Perhaps a declaration of no-interest in being a Labour Party PPC for the 2010 General Election would be the better way of helping to consolidate trust in the fast-track selection process.

Observer/Guardian wakes up to Tobin tax story

Good to see that the Grauniad's Sunday stable-mate, the Observer picked up on the Tobin Tax story in its editorial column today

I chided the Economist for missing it on Friday,

I'm not sure that I share the Observer's rather unimaginative conclusion:

The real obstacle is the endurance of the ideology that believes in deregulated, untaxed, ever-expanding global capital markets as an end in themselves. It is clear from the past two years who wins and who loses when such a creed is allowed to dictate government policy. It is also clear, from his endorsement of a Tobin tax, that Mr Brown is no longer taking that dictation.The conversion has probably come too late in domestic political terms. It is derided by many Conservatives as cynical City-bashing ahead of an election. But if Mr Brown secures global agreement on a Tobin tax, his motives are irrelevant. The policy is a good one; it would make a worthy legacy.

As a member of Labour's National Executive Committee representing grassroots members, I think its my job to help develop a different political narrative. We want the vast majority of the electorate to appreciate what's going on here when it comes to deciding where to put their cross on the ballot paper whenever the General Election comes in 2010.

I hope my avid readers among 'the powers that be' will remember the 'X' goes against the person representing 'The Labour Party', not Gordon Brown. He has merely been won round to an idea whose time has come. 

Remember that quote from the back of Labour Party card.

[The Party} believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few.’

Economist newspaper reveals political bias, misses story

The Staggers blog has picked up the cover of the latest issue of the Economist newspaper and concluded that it's running with the the rest of the right-wing press as far as the next British general election is concerned. I think the Economist goes to press late overnight Thursday/Friday, but surely that is no excuse for missing the real story.

Was the Editor so pre-occupied with the cover design that s/he missed the significance of the Anglo-French bilateral meeting in London between Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Nicholas Sarkozy?

There they were meeting less than a mile from the Economist's offices possibly laying the ground to make sure the bankers really do pick up the tab for the crisis through a 'Tobin tax' on transactions.

What will the Economist say if the US Treasury Secretary is won round, the IMF falls in line and the bankers are obliged to pay up?

I look forward to much grovelling in St James's.

 

Brown initiative to tax financial transactions wins EU support

Watch this space

This is another initiative which British Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Gordon Brown can take credit for.

It's significance?

As the report notes:

A Tobin Tax, named after the Nobel Prize winning economist James Tobin, was originally designed to raise funds for developing nations.

However, following the financial crisis, the tax is now seen by many as a possible way to help insure against future crises.

Quite so. Widening the tax base to help reduce the deficit?

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Labour Party council seat wins from Tories, Lib-Dems and BNP

What are the stories behind this crop of excellent results for Labour Party candidates posted on Labour Matters?

Labour Party election strategies would do well to explore the details of local campaigning for General Election lessons.

I suggested to Labour Party leader Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the last National Executive Committee meeting that he got a briefing from the General Secretary on how many wards based on electoral boundaries (c. 10,000 voters) still have active Labour Party branches.

An active branch in every electoral ward should be a central party objective if we want to re-establish Labour as the party of government.

In the public interest? Straw vetos publication of more Cabinet minutes

Labour's Justice Secretary Jack Straw has been reported by the BBC as having vetoed the publication of yet another set of Cabinet ministers. I have already blogged about the contrast between Cabinet minutes and those of the Bank of England monetary policy committee here. Can anyone explain what conceivable justification there is for this convention other than to cover up contributions (or not) to Cabinet debate and resulting votes that are embarrassing to particular members of the Cabinet?

Not good on a day when there are further suspicions about the reluctance of MPs to publish full details of their expense claims, and a Labour minister Quentin Davies, and former Tory, features prominently for claims allegedly to pay for bell-tower repairs!

Political language: Why is an NIC increase a tax?

When my critical life insurer ups my cover and hence my premium do I call it a tax, write 'yours disgusted' to the Editor of my daily newspaper, or follow George Osborne's example in his closing remarks in his response to the PBR and brand the company as untrustworthy?    

So what are all these headlines about? I'm glad we have a National Health Service, I wish we had a genuinely comprehensive national education service, I'm glad we such an extensive array of collective provision. There is lots more to do. But a modest increase in NIC except for those on less than £20K a year - a tax. Surely this is better described as a premium?

Can Labour maintain the poll squeeze thru PMQs and the PBR?

Not long to wait now.

UPDATE 1345: City indicator suggests confidence is up. Why? Gilt yields (price of government borrowing) fall.

UPDATE 1530 Left leaning assessment here with instant poll

UPDATE 1645 BBC News 24 reporter in House of Commons says that the Tories will not oppose the proposed Bankers' Bonus tax

UPDATE 1700 Mike Smithson hedges his on Political Betting asking; "Will defering the pain save the votes?"

All of which leaves the question just what would the Tories do? As Gordon Brown said at PMQs they are "all wind and no turbines", further reinforcing my view that he's getting the hang of the weekly ordeal, leaving the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition floundering again.

UPDATE 1845 For a four point guide from the Man with a Plan click here