A foothold for Labour
We targeted four wards and set a target of 12 councillors. One leading member of the shadow cabinet who visited Aldershot and Farnborough said this was wildly optimistic. It was optimistic and yet we came within five votes of becoming a group of 12. We campaigned in our target wards from July to May with regular ward-based newsletters, surveys, surgeries, street stalls and door-knocking. We had regular visits from MPs such as Andy Burnham, Kevan Jones, Toby Perkins and Hazel Blears during the campaign – not organised by the regional office but by ourselves. Our campaign was strongly supported by our partners in the trade unions. Unite sent a letter to every member in our target wards urging them to vote Labour in Rushmoor. Our partners in Progress coordinated a campaign day in Aldershot on the last Saturday before polling day. A dozen Labour party members from London and across the south-east came and joined our campaign and worked with our local members to knock on doors and deliver leaflets in the rain.
Posted by Keith Dibble on 19 June 2012
Unacknowledged success
The Child Poverty Action Group’s new report suggests that figures show 900,000 children were lifted out of poverty between 1998 and 2010, a tremendous achievement by any measure. And even this headline figure underestimates the achievement: as analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, quoted in the CPAG report, shows, without the action taken by the Labour government in the 2000s to reduce child poverty, it is projected that an additional 900,000 children would have fallen into poverty over the decade. The coalition government has been thoroughly unwilling to acknowledge this success, arguing that massive expenditure on benefits and tax credits achieved little in terms of poverty reduction. Clearly the figures give the lie to this assertion, yet increasingly it is gaining currency.
Posted by Kate Green MP on 12 June 2012
Looking less to Whitehall
Labour will need to rethink its own approach to driving improvement in public services to take account of the emerging landscape of devolved accountability. A Labour government may be able to modify or overhaul the worst elements of the Tories’ structural reforms. But it will surely not be able to unravel them all. So Labour will need to articulate how it will bring about change in this new, fragmented world where government has given up many of the levers it has traditionally used to make public services better. The party will need to develop a new account of the role the state, providers and citizens play in driving public service improvement and a new offer to resonate with voters in a world where they may look less to Whitehall.
Posted by David Pinto-Duschinsky on 18 June 2012
Olympian effort
The Olympics has created a new paradigm for how partnerships between the public and private sector should work. It has taught us that when we are spending money on public sector infrastructure every penny has to work harder. This has meant that the £9.3bn spent on the Games will not just regenerate east London, but it has brought new ways of working that will allow the construction industry to be more successful in the future. Rather than being a drag on the cost of the project, this approach can make the delivery operation more efficient and reduce costs.
Posted by Tessa Jowell MP on 15 June 2012
Thinking of England
Labour’s crisis is most acute and most obvious in England, but it is not an English crisis. It is a private sector crisis, it is a small town crisis, and it is a rural crisis. It is organisational and it is philosophical. Our political answers rely on the arm of the urban and industrial state, our footsoldiers are located in our heartlands. These are big and deep-rooted problems. The organisational battle alone is a big one. Even the comfortable solutions will lead to uncomfortable positions: a living wage for farm labourers will mean a more expensive weekly shop for the urban poor. Bromides about Chartists and cricketers won’t do it. Labour has to think hard about England: it should stop talking about ‘Englishness’.
Posted by Stephen Bush on 12 June 2012
Exception, not the rule
Margaret Bondfield was an extraordinary woman. Born into a radical working-class family in 1873, she dedicated her life to trade unionism and the advancement of working women and men in our national politics. And in 1929, she was appointed to the Labour government’s cabinet, the first woman ever to achieve that office. While this achievement is remarkable in its own right, the dispiriting reality is that it remains a remarkable exception to the general rule more than 80 years later. Over the past 24 years, the Labour Women’s Network has taken practical action to give women the skills, experience and confidence needed to achieve their political ambitions. Our roll-call of former trainees includes dozens of female MPs and councillors, as well as women who are playing significant roles in all other aspects of our party and the wider movement. At its heart, this work speaks to the most stark of Labour’s values: that power (as well as wealth and opportunity) should be in the hands of the many, not the few.
Posted by Kathryn Perera on 8 June 2012
Taking the politics out of aid
After succeeding in the private members’ ballot I have decided that my bill will seek to ensure the government’s commitment to enshrine the UK’s spending of 0.7 per cent of gross national income into law is honoured. This pledge was made in the election manifestos of all three parties and the coalition agreement. My bill will also seek to toughen the remit of the independent body established to monitor the effectiveness of aid spending. Andrew Mitchell has stated that the government bill is drafted and ready to go with the only delay being limited parliamentary time. I am giving the international development secretary the opportunity to do this, even offering to use his draft bill as a basis for my own. This will not only reaffirm Britain’s commitment to the world’s poorest but will take party politics out of the debate about aid spending on a long-term basis.
Posted by Mark Hendrick MP on 20 June 2012
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Photo: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport
We targeted four wards and set a target of 12 councillors. One leading member of the shadow cabinet who visited Aldershot and Farnborough said this was wildly optimistic. It was optimistic and yet we came within five votes of becoming a group of 12. We campaigned in our target wards from July to May with regular ward-based newsletters, surveys, surgeries, street stalls and door-knocking. We had regular visits from MPs such as Andy Burnham, Kevan Jones, Toby Perkins and Hazel Blears during the campaign – not organised by the regional office but by ourselves. Our campaign was strongly supported by our partners in the trade unions. Unite sent a letter to every member in our target wards urging them to vote Labour in Rushmoor. Our partners in Progress coordinated a campaign day in Aldershot on the last Saturday before polling day. A dozen Labour party members from London and across the south-east came and joined our campaign and worked with our local members to knock on doors and deliver leaflets in the rain.
Posted by Keith Dibble on 19 June 2012
Unacknowledged success
The Child Poverty Action Group’s new report suggests that figures show 900,000 children were lifted out of poverty between 1998 and 2010, a tremendous achievement by any measure. And even this headline figure underestimates the achievement: as analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, quoted in the CPAG report, shows, without the action taken by the Labour government in the 2000s to reduce child poverty, it is projected that an additional 900,000 children would have fallen into poverty over the decade. The coalition government has been thoroughly unwilling to acknowledge this success, arguing that massive expenditure on benefits and tax credits achieved little in terms of poverty reduction. Clearly the figures give the lie to this assertion, yet increasingly it is gaining currency.
Posted by Kate Green MP on 12 June 2012
Looking less to Whitehall
Labour will need to rethink its own approach to driving improvement in public services to take account of the emerging landscape of devolved accountability. A Labour government may be able to modify or overhaul the worst elements of the Tories’ structural reforms. But it will surely not be able to unravel them all. So Labour will need to articulate how it will bring about change in this new, fragmented world where government has given up many of the levers it has traditionally used to make public services better. The party will need to develop a new account of the role the state, providers and citizens play in driving public service improvement and a new offer to resonate with voters in a world where they may look less to Whitehall.
Posted by David Pinto-Duschinsky on 18 June 2012
Olympian effort
The Olympics has created a new paradigm for how partnerships between the public and private sector should work. It has taught us that when we are spending money on public sector infrastructure every penny has to work harder. This has meant that the £9.3bn spent on the Games will not just regenerate east London, but it has brought new ways of working that will allow the construction industry to be more successful in the future. Rather than being a drag on the cost of the project, this approach can make the delivery operation more efficient and reduce costs.
Posted by Tessa Jowell MP on 15 June 2012
Thinking of England
Labour’s crisis is most acute and most obvious in England, but it is not an English crisis. It is a private sector crisis, it is a small town crisis, and it is a rural crisis. It is organisational and it is philosophical. Our political answers rely on the arm of the urban and industrial state, our footsoldiers are located in our heartlands. These are big and deep-rooted problems. The organisational battle alone is a big one. Even the comfortable solutions will lead to uncomfortable positions: a living wage for farm labourers will mean a more expensive weekly shop for the urban poor. Bromides about Chartists and cricketers won’t do it. Labour has to think hard about England: it should stop talking about ‘Englishness’.
Posted by Stephen Bush on 12 June 2012
Exception, not the rule
Margaret Bondfield was an extraordinary woman. Born into a radical working-class family in 1873, she dedicated her life to trade unionism and the advancement of working women and men in our national politics. And in 1929, she was appointed to the Labour government’s cabinet, the first woman ever to achieve that office. While this achievement is remarkable in its own right, the dispiriting reality is that it remains a remarkable exception to the general rule more than 80 years later. Over the past 24 years, the Labour Women’s Network has taken practical action to give women the skills, experience and confidence needed to achieve their political ambitions. Our roll-call of former trainees includes dozens of female MPs and councillors, as well as women who are playing significant roles in all other aspects of our party and the wider movement. At its heart, this work speaks to the most stark of Labour’s values: that power (as well as wealth and opportunity) should be in the hands of the many, not the few.
Posted by Kathryn Perera on 8 June 2012
Taking the politics out of aid
After succeeding in the private members’ ballot I have decided that my bill will seek to ensure the government’s commitment to enshrine the UK’s spending of 0.7 per cent of gross national income into law is honoured. This pledge was made in the election manifestos of all three parties and the coalition agreement. My bill will also seek to toughen the remit of the independent body established to monitor the effectiveness of aid spending. Andrew Mitchell has stated that the government bill is drafted and ready to go with the only delay being limited parliamentary time. I am giving the international development secretary the opportunity to do this, even offering to use his draft bill as a basis for my own. This will not only reaffirm Britain’s commitment to the world’s poorest but will take party politics out of the debate about aid spending on a long-term basis.
Posted by Mark Hendrick MP on 20 June 2012