Widespread Surprise As Union Leader Denounces Cuts

Any idea who this man is? Until today, I didn't either: but after hearing his name on the radio, I have subsequently found out quite a lot about Mr Len McLuskey, leader of the Unite union. For one thing, he's been a trade union activist for most of his career. He was also heavily involved in the British Airways strikes that occurred earlier this year. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, he's belligerently left-wing. Put these facts together and what have you got? A letter to the Guardian, that's what:

"Britain's students have certainly put the trade union movement on the spot. Their mass protests against the tuition fees increase have refreshed the political parts a hundred debates, conferences and resolutions could not reach.

We know the vast rise in tuition fees is only the down payment on the Con-Dem package of cuts, charges and job losses to make us pay for the bankers' crisis. The magnificent students' movement urgently needs to find a wider echo if the government is to be stopped.

The response of trade unions will now be critical. While it is easy to dismiss "general strike now" rhetoric from the usual quarters, we have to be preparing for battle. It is our responsibility not just to our members but to the wider society that we defend our welfare state and our industrial future against this unprecedented assault."

Preparing for battle? It would appear that McLuskey's advocating violence, as it were. Supposedly Ed should be shouting for Osborne's head on a stick at PMQs and prodding Camilla with a stick in order to get us out of this mess? Of course not: violence solves nothing, and has the unhelpful effect of alienating those who would otherwise side with you. But let's move on to the integral part of this letter...

"A key part must be a rejection of the need for cuts. "What do we want? Fewer cuts later on", is not a slogan to set the blood coursing.

So I hope Ed Miliband is going to continue his welcome course of drawing a line under Labour's Blairite past, in particular by leaving behind the devotion to City orthodoxy, which still finds its echo in some frontbench pronouncements that meet the coalition's cuts programme halfway at the least."

Right. I see. Dear Mr McLuskey, are you Arthur Scargill in disguise? Are you seriously suggesting that overthrowing the Government with widespread strikes will somehow make us more stable as a country? Even the Guardian's editorial thinks you've lost the plot. More to the point, Ed Miliband has subsequently come out and denounced your "overblown rhetoric" as "wrong and unhelpful". He might as well have said, "Stop trying to make me look bad, I'm trying to write a Policy Review here".

So, poor old McLuskey, in a desperate bid to influence the Labour Party's policy on cuts, has simply been left looking rather silly. Maybe he should go on strike until someone takes him seriously...

The Evening Stanners

Labour Need To Smarten Up

Is this, dear readers, what the Labour Party has been reduced to in recent weeks? It would appear so. Yesterday in the House of Commons, a Labour MP decided that what the public really wanted to see a discussion on was the dress code of MPs.

The most controversial issue in Parliament?

According to BBC News, "Thomas Docherty, new MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, raised a point of order suggesting several MPs had been spotted wearing denim in the House.

Later he told the BBC the point had been "semi-serious" but some women MPs had been "rocking up in a mixture of denim and knee length boots".

Deputy Speaker Dawn Primarolo said all MPs knew they should dress smartly.

MPs laughed as she suggested Mr Docherty speak to those concerned directly, adding 'I'm sure they would welcome it'."

The scandal of some coalition MPs, eh? First they hike tuition fees, now they're wearing denim. Clearly we need Labour to stand up to these fashion criminals before the country goes to the wall!

Or, perhaps more helpfully, they could start drawing up some policies. After all, if the Tories can come up with something like this notebook for Christmas, the signs aren't good...

Why a notebook, I hear you cry? Bascially, it all stems from Ed Miliband saying that Labour were going to start with "a blank sheet of paper". Perhaps not the best phrase to have used in hindsight, because the Tories have gone for it like footballers go for scandalous affairs, and are actually selling this to their members as a 204-page notebook for a fiver. The joke being: it's blank.

Admittedly, I've heard better political jokes in my time, but the Tories may well have a point. Apart from proposing the graduate tax as an alternative to higher tuition fees, and rambling about "the squeezed middle", Ed is a man who appears to be big on Clegg-bashing but small on policy. Indeed, for someone who wrote the Labour manifesto, he's having difficulties coming up with new ideas: Labour's Policy Review remains unwritten.

The more pressing issue, however, is that Cameron is having a much easier time against Miliband than he was against Brown, who didn't even get voted leader by his party. Ed frequently tries to score points by painting himself as progressive, but the truth is he can't lay a finger on Cameron at present, and is frequently heckled into a state of confusion and irritation: Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday 1st December being the best example so far. What's more, some progressive bloggers are already damning his current strategy. If he's not careful, the confusion may spread throughout his party: but for now, he appears to be safe. Whether he can win the next election, however, is open to serious debate.

The Evening Stanners

Dead Miliband

"We're part of a new generation" - that makes their brother quit frontbench politics. Hmm. It has not quite been the result people expected: but whilst the outsider winning a leadership contest can be a good thing, it has a tendency to end badly sometimes.

See Iain Duncan Smith, for example. No-one expected him to be Tory leader in 2003, going up against Messrs Portillo and Clarke. As it was, he somehow found himself being the lesser of three evils, and at the top of the pile. However, at that range it's easy to get shot at: and with IDS, the target was painted in neon. The Tories shifted massively to the right, and became so toxic that they became a political joke.

Will Labour become the same thing in the years to come? It's hard to say. The problem is that we don't even know who's going to be in the Shadow Cabinet. Because, for some reason, the Labour MPs are electing their own cabinet.

Quite frankly, this makes no sense. Surely the leader picks his own team? Why does he need 257 people helping him to make the decision? It's surely going to lead to more infighting, and Labour has lost a lot of good and able politicians thanks to that. The most bizarre twist is that, amidst all this, Neil Kinnock has risen again in prominence, mainly due to singing Ed Miliband's praises.

Kinnock? Seriously? This is a man who could not beat John Major in the 1992 general election: which compared to 1997, does not exactly seem difficult. Yes, he was Labour leader for nine years: but he never looked like beating Thatcher. Made her look uncomfortable at times, granted. And a damned sight better at leading Labour than Michael Foot, naturally. But whilst it makes sense to have Kinnock advising you on how to reform the party, it does not make sense to give the impression that he is influencing national policy: because ultimately, Kinnock did not have the ability to convince people that his policies were better than anything the Conservative governments had in mind.

Ultimately, a shift to the left does a lot to gather attention: but battles are won on the centre ground. One piece of possible good news, though: Ed Miliband wrote the manifesto for the party that came second at the general election. The person who did that in 2005?

David Cameron, PM.

Miliband's either destined for No. 10, or destined to end up like his biggest fan Kinnock. At least he's doing better than his brother, eh?

The Evening Stanners

Mr Gordon Brown, Where Art Thou?

(To be sung to the theme of Scooby-Doo, ideally)

Taken from the Guardian, y'all:

Age: 59.

Appearance: The Invisible Man, sans bandages.

The grumpy one who used to be prime minister? More or less. He's the business-friendly son of the manse who helped make Labour electable after 18 years in the wilderness, blah blah. But grumpy? JK Rowling calls him "affable, funny and gregarious".

When I die, I want that woman to write my obituary. So what's Brown doing now? Pretending to care about the Middle East? That's the other unpopular former Labour premier. This one's still in parliament, on the backbenches for the first time since Margaret Thatcher was in power. Almost 65% of the voters of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath still love him.

Are you positive he isn't sorting out the Palestinian Question? He hasn't been on telly. He's been to the House of Commons twice since the election, once to take the oath of allegiance, and once to sit through two minutes of questions to the new environment secretary.

Isn't he right to keep his head down? If he doesn't, the other Labour MPs will only complain he's disrupting their leadership campaign. Whereas if he does, the Tories will complain he's neglecting his duties. On Monday, Cameron told the Commons he wished Brown "could be bothered to turn up to this House". If you're a politician, this is simply hilarious.

Whereas if you're not it's simply pathetic. So how has Brown been filling the hours? Watching every match in the World Cup, according to the cynics. "Working hard in his constituency," according to his wife.

And lovingly contemplating his leaving present? What did the rest of the cabinet give him? An overpriced print of Chequers, like Tony Blair got? Absolutely nothing so far. As one of them explained: "For a while we didn't know if he was going or not." And it is only seven weeks since Brown resigned.

Do say: "Just think of all the time you'll have to catch up with old friends."

Don't say: "That Gillian Duffy's at the door again."

Brown isn't the first to adopt this approach: John Major did something similar in 1997, staying on as an MP for four years but keeping himself "out of trouble"; and Edward Heath stayed on the backbenches for a good 26 years after being forced to step down as leader.

I did also think of Alec Douglas-Home, PM from 1963 until 1964 as a possible example, but Douglas-Home actually returned in 1970 as Foreign Secretary: proof that your Parliamentary career is not necessarily "over" if you get ousted from No. 10. Though it seems unlikely Brown will be taking a job in the Shadow Cabinet any time soon.

Incidentally, if you have a minute, the story about Douglas-Home potentially getting kidnapped as PM in '64 is fantastically British. "You realise if you kidnap me, the Conservatives will win by about 200 or 300?" Classic stuff.

The Evening Stanners

The Real End of New Labour

Rather fitting, this. Taken from BBC News...

The Labour club which played host to many milestones in Tony Blair's political career is to close.

Trimdon Labour Club was where the then MP for Sedgefield said he was standing for party leadership in 1994.

It was also the setting for three general election victory celebrations and his formal announcement that he was standing down as prime minister.

The club secretary said that finances had been hit by the smoking ban and cheaper supermarket drink prices.

After the club closes next month, the premises will be turned into a new pub, not affiliated with any party.

'Can't compete'

The club was opened by former Labour leader Neil Kinnock in 1993, and during Mr Blair's premiership visitors included the then French prime minister, Lionel Jospin.

Paul Trippett, the club secretary, said: "We're all devastated really, but we are losing money quite steadily and there doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.

"The smoking ban did play a part, especially during winter months, but what's really done for us is cheap beer.

"In the club £10 will unfortunately only get you four pints of lager but if you go to one of the big supermarkets, £10 will get you 48 cans.

"Really, you can't compete with that."

The decision to close was made by the committee, following a number of discussions about finances.

"We thought we can do this in two ways," he said.

"We can struggle on until we were forced to close, or we can pay off our creditors and walk out on 22 July with our heads held high."

What I like here is the irony of New Labour: Blair effectively killed off the club that launched him with the smoking ban and encouraging cheap alcohol at off-licenses.

Funny old world...

The Evening Stanners