Peter Kenyon

Gordon Brown: Labour Party team player?

Labour Party members might be forgiven this morning for wondering whether Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling wants the party that has enabled him to rise to high office to win the next election. Personally, I appreciate his candour. If it helps reinforce a key message to Prime Minister Gordon Brown then all the recent turmoil about his character defects traits will have been worthwhile.

He will only succeed in getting Labour re-elected if he now speaks, and acts as a genuine democratic socialist team player. Not long to wait for PMQs.

Tory toffs in extremist diversion to protect own wealth

Cities of London and Westminster CLP voted in favour of the abolition of leasehold as a form of property ownership at its GC on Tuesday. I'm kicking myself for having failed to alert the No.10 Political Unit to add this to the armoury of measures for the Manifesto to cement the differences between Labour and Tory over wealth, income and privilege before yesterday's false allegations that Labour in government was funding extremism in schools.

The Labour Party's targets should include absentee landlords - symbols of our class-ridden society. This is not just an issue in Mayfair and Marylebone, but throughout many of our industrial cities too where absentee landlords are also profiteering. While prominent parts of the media continue to give air time to Tory toffs seeking to divert attention from their real policies, congratulations are due to the Mirror for highlighting personal gains for the Shadow Cabinet from their inheritance tax proposals, if the Tories won the next election..

Shame on the BBC for giving so much airtime to Tory education toff Michael Gove's poorly researched claims as evidenced eventually here, and here .

Ed Balls deserves a slap over the wrist for failing to make sure his boss was properly briefed before PMQs. But that should not detract from the extreme measures the Tory toffs are now going to protect their wealth and privileges.

The Labour Party has a simple calculator anyone can use to work out how much they could benefit from the Tory's flagship tax proposal to distort Inheritence Tax. We now need one to calculate how little it could cost to buy out your absentee landlord with leasehold reform. Why anyone with a leasehold property would want to vote Tory is a bit of a mystery to me.

UPDATE: I see Luke Akehurst has also featured the Greedy Tory Shadow Cabinet.

In defence of saving the world...banking system?

Apparently Labour's Gordon Brown is alleged to have made a gaffe in prime minister's questions today. Conservative members of parliament rolled about laughing. In the light of what we know from the Governor of the Bank of England, the state of the world banking system was extremely fragile despite US efforts to buy up toxic assets until GB stepped in with a bank recapitalisation plan. So I have no problem with his remarks. The Tories should be ashamed of themselves. Schoolboy antics in the House of Commons should not mask the deadly seriousness of the situation the world banking system was/is in, nor the Labour Party's commitment in government to do whatever is necessary to held the economy through. And yes, Mr Cameron that will involve borrowing now and paying money back later. Grow up.

(Today's Hansard when published tomorrow will no doubt be read very closely to see how a broken sentence has been recorded for posterity.)

BTW I was sorry I missed the live broadcast, but I was lobbying trade unions about the London Living Wage ahead of a Corporation of London Joint Consultative Committee. The Corporation has declined to apply to be a London Living Wage employer, which has some of us wondering, when City firms are signing up.

Brown finds feet at PMQs, Cameron/Cable slither

BBC's Daily Politics host Andrew Neil wonders if our Leader is finding his feet at Prime Minister's question time. Political corro Nick Robinson thinks he is. So do I. Cameron and Cable were nowhere. Pity about Brown rabbiting on about Hayden Phillips. But if it serves its purpose to wrong-foot the Tories over election spending, then it might just be understandable. To gain the moral high ground (difficult to image in the light of recent events), but worth a try, Labour must drop the idea of increased state-funding for political parties. Let's hope the White Paper promised yesterday by Jack Straw in the Opposition debate on Party funding is firmly based on the need to regulate spending, and eschews financial aid from the taxpayer. A Labour Party policy commission will be meeting later today to consider its stance.

Brown rides out first wave of PMQs

Gordon Brown rode out the first wave of PMQs today with welcome calm. Harriet Harman was at his side and Brown made a robust sounding defence of Jon Mendelsohn, the Labour Party's volunteer Director of General Election Resources. He issued a statement which is here in full. More later.