Peter Kenyon

Does the ASA's remit extend to the Labour Party +1 scheme?

Tomorrow, time permitting between a whistle stop trip to Birmingham and a double Prom, I'll be asking the Advertising Standards Authority whether its remit extends to political parties and their recruitment literature.

Unelected Labour Party deputy chair Tom Watson asked earlier on hisTwitter feed whether I would be his Labour Party +1 (hint, hint - if every Labour Party member recruited a member membership would be doubled). It's a long while since the Labour Party sought to recruit members, except while electing a new leader.

What worries people like me is the bare-faced lie about membership here:

As a Labour member you'll be able to have a clear say in our future policies and direction, as well as being able to stand for elected office in your area.

Excuse me. Which/what cosmic power filled the black hole that is Labour Party policy making?

Awaiting the piss-up in Brewer's Yard

Crikey, it's four and a half weeks since I last posted a blog. Was it the weather? Was it the moon? Was it a branch in my constituency labour party that must remain nameless? Was it the polls? Whatever, it was has passed. At last news about those six director level appointments at Labour Party HQ and a lot more. They were first advertised in early January here. They are due to move shortly from Victoria Street further west of Parliament to Brewer's Yard. (You couldn't make it up!). 

I can reveal that some high-placed Labour Party sources see these appointments as a litmus test of Iain McNicol's grip as General Secretary. There was a three-way power struggle between Iain, his outgoing Deputy Alicia Kennedy and the Leader's officer. Iain you will recall was not Ed Miliband's candidate for the job. His election in favour of the well-oiled machine hand, Chris Lennie, followed the elevation to the peerage of m'Lord (formerly Ray) Collins.

Alicia Kennedy, de facto General Secretary under Ray Collins, whose role as Deputy General Secretary has been written out of the new structure, is appointed to a new post as special advisor to the appointed Deputy Chair Tom Watson. Chris Lennie, the other former Deputy General Secretary, will continue to assist in external relations and fundraising. Now the transfer window has closed, we must ask: is it possible that the Leader's office will be pulling the strings leaving McNicol wondering whether his move from the GMB was wise?

Update: News of skirmishes from the Leader's Office (aka Eastern Front) on Left Futures : Leader’s office oversteps mark with Labour Party HQ http://bit.ly/wQ3WEk

Update: A different take here Vive la résistance la rue Victoria! « Labour Uncut http://bit.ly/wCRLgC which reports:

In the words of one staffer on Friday, “Iain [McNicol] is basically now a glorified head of HR”.

Update: The whole debacle is reduced to an even baser level in the Telegraph: The Labour Party is tearing itself apart, and Len McCluskey is preparing a silent coup  http://soc.li/guJfMZK

Labour Party Fresh-Ideas - Help! Your views option disappears

Never let it be said that the Labour Party's new media offering stands still. Oh, no - after a few days getting on with the rest of my life and testing the resilience of the public transport system London to Poole and back without incident, and hey ho - the 'Your views' option has disappeared from the Menu bar on the Fresh-Ideas site.

As @Sarah_Hayward mentioned on Twitter in reply to my earlier post on this black hole method of seeking views on future policy:

They [Head Office] have got it so wrong and it would've been better not to do at all.

There was a possible ambiguity so I checked we were on the same page @Sarah_Hayward replied:

of course. A website is a good idea, but depressing we are getting so much of our online campaigning wrong at the mo.

Just to check I'm not barking up the wrong tree I've been in touch with @jonworth about Labour's web-offering and Membersnet, he said:

Don't even mention that to me at the moment. I'm very, very raw as a result of how the firm doing Labour's web work is behaving

So the question is who is going to have a quiet word in the General Secretary's ear to get a grip? I see Tom Watson has managed to retain a place as a frontbench representative on the National Executive Committee (despite not being a member of the front bench (to the best of my knowledge)). Perhaps he could help save our new Leader from further embarrassment?

 

Parliamentary seat engineering: Hunt for Stoke Central - update 2

Longlisting for Stoke Central to decide who will replace sitting MP Mark Fisher as Labour's candidate is expected to take place today.

Word has is that Tom Watson MP (who mysteriously sits on the Labour Party's ruling (sic) national executive committee as a government representative even though he's been out of government since July last year) has been stopped from chairing any more of the three-member selection panels. 

The baton to ensure a particular outcome may have been passed to Deputy Leader Harriet Harman, it is alleged, who, since husband Jack Dromey won the All Male Shortlisted ballot in Birmingham, Erdington, is free once again to take part in parliamentary seat engineering, as I call it. Her name is being linked to a private understanding with m'lord Mandelson in a bid to secure seats for favoured candidates.

I can't attest to the voracity of these suggestions. But knowing those who are making them, I consider they must be aired in the hope that sanity will prevail. An open and transparent process could have avoided these suspicions, which are extremely damaging to member morale, and to Labour's electoral prospects.

A shortlist for Stoke Central that offers local members genuine choice in the ballot that will take place shortly will be a real test for the Labour leadership. Is it focussed on winning the election or more concerned about positioning ahead of a leadership contest that would follow defeat?

UPDATE: 0903 Friday 26 March - Harriet Harman is not on the three-member panel that will be interviewing and shortlisting candidates on Monday afternoon, which I understand will comprise Keith Vaz MP, Cllr Ann Lucas and USDAW's Paddy Lillis.

Choice for local members has already been compromised by the omission of Mark Seddon, former editor of Tribune and NEC member from the long-list. Given their full right's would Seddon have got some nominations from members? But in the faux democracy deeply engrained in the upper echelons of the Labour Party, those members' rights now count for little, if anything at all. Shameful.

Tom Watson's short-list for Leyton and Wanstead?

When the ballot papers are despatched to Labour Party members in Leyton and Wanstead they are likely to be seen to carry the fingerprints of Tom Watson MP. According to my sources he chaired the interview panel(s) conducted yesterday to reduce the longlist said by some sources to have numbered 12 (out of some 103 applicants) to a shortlist of six. Bizarrely at least one candidate was interviewed by a different panel from the rest, but for continuity's sake, I suppose it might be argued, chaired by the same Tom Watson. I can not think of a single instance in my whole life of shortlisting for a position being conducted by different panels of people. But I suppose there is a first time for anything, especially in the equal opportunities conscious Labour Party.

Tom's presence on the Labour Party National Executive Committee itself has been a bit of a mystery to me ever since he resigned from the government. Why? Because he still sits on the NEC representing....the government. Be that as it may, much more relevant to members in Leyton and Wanstead is Tom's alleged closeness to No 10 Downing Street, and his alleged association with a shadowy organisation, or is it an eMail list, called Labour First. Yesterday he sat with Cllr Ann Lucas, alleged by some to also be associated with,,,,Labour First, who sits on the NEC representing local government, and Paddy Lillis, an NEC representative from the leadership loyalist shopworkers' union USDAW. USDAW along with Community were the only trades unions to vote at Labour Party Conference 2009 against one member one vote for constituency section representatives to the National Policy Forum. 

What is beyond doubt is that a shortlist produced by members in Leyton and Wanstead would not have been the same as that decided by Tom and friends yesterday.

Tom's list now goes to an all-members ballot to decide who will be Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate to campaign to retain the seat held by the disgraced incumbent, Harry Cohen MP. A strong local candidate might have helped.

Tom Watson's New Labour Charm School

I was passing through a bar at the Hyatt Hotel in Birmingham last night when I saw the dear chap and went over to say hello. Much to my surprise I quickly learned first hand of Tom's charming ways:

1. Greet heretics abusively

2. Rebut challenge more forcefully

3. Feel smug

I would like to hear from other Labour Party members with similar experiences of the blogmeister's personal touch.