ED MILIBAND BY A WHISKER.....

I should be at work today but I am dosing myself up with antibiotics and paracetamol in a bid to ward off a disgusting lurgy which came from nowhere to knock me for six.

Bugs or no bugs, I will be in Manchester tomorrow for Labour Party Conference and I plan to be in the conference hall when the announcement is made re next Leader.

Not because I am a gung-ho supporter of either Miliband, but because it is an Occasion and one which should be very interesting. A journalist is never off duty.....

Reading between the lines in today's papers, it is clear that the David Miliband camp is already briefing for defeat. Mandelson's poisonous interventions at the weekend probably put the last nail in the coffin.

But even had he stayed quiet there is no mood in the Labour Party for Blairism Mark Two.

The media are already sharpening their claws and risibly suggesting Ed Miliband's politics are closer to Ralph's than his brothers. If he does get elected no doubt the Mail will be tagging him as a Marxist. Not so. To put it mildly

Ed Miliband represents a strand of social democracy which is firnly in the centre. Under Blair, we moved so sharply to the right it can be painted as far more radical than it is.

However, I have long said it was a key task to stop David Miliband and see off the Mandelson Campbell cabal . I cannot for the life of me fathom what the likes of Dennis Skinner were doing when they endorsed him.Cruddas, showing his increasing disengagement from the grassroots, also chose the wrong horse.

Could be of course I am utterly wrong and the elder Miliband will storm to victory. But somehow I doubt it.....

KEEP THE PRESSURE UP!

There are few Mps who can now be unaware of the heartfelt wish of ordinary Party members that we do not have a debate neutered by MPs - but a full and frank discussion of where Labour is heading. The three front-runners are now on the ballot so do not need any more nominations. David Miliband has said he is happy for MPs to "lend" nominations so the outsiders with backing from the grassroots at least get their chance at the hustings.
My maths is not very good. But as things stand the votes of 75 MPs who have not yet voted would ensure Andy Burnham, John McDonnell and Dianne Abbott all make it to the starting-block. Over 90 still have ti make their mind up.
Nominating MPs who are already there is a slap in the face for the thousands who are now saying they want eveyyone on the ballot paper. It is crucial that over the next few days Party members keep the pressure up. As indicated here
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7139735.ece

TRIBUNE LENDS SUPPORT TO THE GRASSROOTS CALL FOR A SIX-STRONG BALLOT

Thanks to editor Chris McLaughlin for the support- but time is running out.........

http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2010/05/28/the-leadership-debate-needs-all-six-contenders/

ARE THEY GOING TO COMMIT HARI-KARI AGAIN?

24 hours on from the original deadline for PLP nominations and only Ed and David Miliband have made it. Ed Balls likely to follow at 5.30pm
Which leaves Andy Burnham in at fourth , and John McDonnell and Dianne Abbott still way short of the 33 needed. At a rough count, there are just about enough MPs left to make sure all of them get on the ballot. So why don't they do it? Tribune , the Fabian Society, Compass and the LRC rarely agree 10 per cent. On this one, we are in unison
The following letter is an adapted version of one I have sent to a Labour MP I have known for many years. I am hoping he will listen and knock some sense into MPs currenntly ignoring what we are saying
If the PLP does not listen, they have clearl'y not learned from the mistake of Gordon Brown's coronation. Why are they seemingly incapable of understanding that a contest with disparate candidates of different backgrounds and beliefs would be anything but divisive. There is still time for them to see sense........ just


I'm e-mailing you because as I'm sure you aware there is a growing campaign to allow all six leadership nominees onto the final ballot. and find the means necessary to do that There was a letter in today's Guardian jointly signed by the Fabians, LRC, Compass and Save The Labour Party - which must be a first!
The point is we as yet have only two candidates who have made the ballot and three - at least - are finding it hard to make the cut.
This is not because they do not have support in the wider party and trade union movement. Far from it.
Yet thanks to an onerous system agreed in very different times it is likely thousands of party members will not be able to vote for their first choice as MPs have the first say on who gets on the ballot.
Many are calling for a re-think of the rules and I think that is something which should be done but in the meantime a myriad of groups and many MPs are saying we need to work together to achieve a full, fair and wholly democratic debate involving the whole Party.
Around 18,000 people have joined Labour in the past three weeks which is marvellous. But that enthusiasm and commitment ro re-building Labour may well dissipate if we are seen to needlessly exclude people from taking part in the debate.
Gordon Brown once talked of a Government of "all the talents" Well, I think it's time for a contest of all the talents, too.
For many of us, this is not about who wins. It is knowing that after a long time the Party is finally ready to acknowledge its mistakes and include us all in a broad church where we can work together as much as possible and agree to disagree when we have to.
A hustings with Ed and David miliband, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham, Dianne Abbott and John McDonnell would not be divisive but rather a unifying event which will inspire people and send the message out that we are not Old or New Labour - just Labour people who, whatever our differences, are a genuine "family." - and a diverse one too.
Our goal in aiming for a wider voting constituency is to make sure there is only one winner in the long-term - the Labour Party.. The rules were waived on the nominations period. Now it's time to do the same on the nominations theshold.
Yours, Susan Press Calder Valley CLP

AND NOW THE GUARDIAN!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/27/mps-candidates-ballot-labour-leadership

TELEGRAPH PICKS UP ACTIVISTS' CAMPAIGN

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/7769231/Labour-activists-try-to-avoid-a-Miliband-contest.html

THIS IS A DISGRACE!

I have just had an e-mail from a Labour Party member to say his MP is not nominating anyone for the leadership because she "doesn't know" any of the candidates.
Now i am not on first name terms with Ed Miliband myself but the notion I would not want to vote is unthinkable. The fact is that many MPs are blatantly ignoring the wishes of thousands of members and treating us with contempt.
However I am glad to say Tom Harris MP has joined the growing chorus asking for a lowering of the nominations threshold to 5 per cent of the PLP . More info about it over at Labour List and on the John4Leader Facebook group - which now has nearly 1700 members

NOMINATIONS PERIOD TO BE EXTENDED?

My reliable comrade Peter Kenyon reckons the NEC may, in the wake of wide dismay at the ridiculously short time given to garner nominations, extend the period when candidates can earn support. Let's keep our fingers crossed . Whoever wins, a debate with all six declared candidates - and then a nominations tallly - would engage the Party and give everyone a platform,. Let'a hope they listen to commonsense........to end the debate before it even starts would be a great loss to Labour activists. Update: Apparently the deadline has indeed been extended to June 9 so how about some TV debates between ALL the candidates.

TWO LEFT CANDIDATES......

Dianne Abbott has unexpectedly thrown her hat in the ring for Labour Leader. And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out there is not room for two lefts on the ballot.
I'm disappointed Dianne has done this. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
Unlike John McDonnell she does not have grassroots support in the trade unions or much support in the CLPs across the country. If she does make the ballot, I fear a bad result for the left.
But we will just have to see what happens.
All I will say is this. That for the past 24 years I have fought in the Labour Party for socialist policies. And splitting the votes in this way will not be helpful for any of us.

29 NAMES TO GO

A big big thanks to Sunny Hundal over at Liberal Conspiracy for launching a determined bit to get a proper debate going for Labour's leadership and future direction. More info here and thanks to new MP Graeme Morrice from Robin Cook's old constituency who is apparently backing John. MPs need to understand we don't want a non-contest with the same old politics.

There is only one left candidate - please do what you can to get him nominated.

http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/05/19/getting-john-mcdonnell-nominated-for-labour-leadership-we-need-your-help/

WHAT A B****UP!

I truly have no agenda against Ed Balls. He is one of several Labour leadership candidates who are more or less indistinguishable. But, if his interview on PM is anything to go by, the lad doesn't stand a chance at any hustings.
If I was embarrassed on his behalf what on earth must his supporters have thought as he froze dead on PM. Asked to outline his disagreements with Gordon Brown, he clearly couldn't think of any. It was so bad I felt seriously sorry for him. But far more sorry for the Labour Party members who look likely to be denied any left candidate at all in the forthcoming election

LET'S FIGHT THIS SHOO-IN BY NEC!

I don't think anyone, whaetever their political persuasion, wants to see a fraternal contest with just two candidates. Even if Balls and Andy Burnham join in they are ALL the same age, same politics, same backgrounds. It's ludicrous. The 10,000 people who have re-joined Labour surely deserve a choice and a contest representing all wings of the Party. At the moment we just don't have it.
Labour now has an opportunity to re-build and recruit on the basis we are a democratic broad church. If the NEC refuses to reverse its barking decision to allow only four days for nominations this contest is a farce which once again excludes grassroots activists and CLPs. . It looks as though, again, we might not have that choice, So please lobby your Labour MPs to give us a voice..... Give socialists in the Labour Party a chance for once to get their message across with hionest debate and discussion by candidates . Support John McDonnell and tell the NEC what you think about their timetable - now slammed by everyone from Ed Balls to Cruddas and Ed Miliband

http://unionfutures.blogspot.com/2010/05/press-notice-labours-national-executive.html

ANOTHER SHOO-IN?

Today, the papers report Jon Cruddas's announcement he will not be running for Labour Leader. The news will come as a surprise to some and a disappointment to many.
Actually, I am not surprised as it has been clear for some time that Cruddas is going to be supporting David Miliband. And running against him would not have been helpful to his chances.
There are many already, including trade unions and MPs, re-inventing Ed Miliband as the candidate of the left. It's nonsense.
I have just been reading the column written in his name in the Sunday Mirror and it is, to be honest, reactionary stuff. Two twin planks of his campaign appear to be clamping down on immigrants and tougher measures on welfare benefits. Yes, I appreciate it was a tabloid piece but why the same old mantras about "hard-working families" and other platitudes from the New Labour songbook.
Sure, if you asked me to choose, I would probably vote for the younger Miliband, He is more personable, less geeky, and not quite so tainted with the Mandelsonian mantle. But what a choice!
In his Sunday Mittor piece, Ed Miliband says he wants a contest with a broad swathe of candidates. Now Jon Cruddas has ruled himself out, how is that going to be likely?
The only other candidate so far, Ed Balls, is of exactly the same ilk as the Milibands. But, with a Parliamentary majority of less than 1500, also eminently vulnerable at the next election.
The idea that a choice between three fortysomething , middle-class males of roughly the same politics bears any relation to the broad church Labour Party of years gone by is a nonsense. The left should have a candidate. And, as Cruddas is not going to stand, the PLP should listen to the many members who want to see John McDonnell on the ballot paper. A woman candidate would be helpful too. But if it ends up in a Milband v Miliband race, frankly why bother spinning it out until September. Might as well toss a coin.......

WHY IT CAN'T BE DAVID MILIBAND...

As the dust settles, and the vile reality sinks in, that we have been conned into a Tory Government, the runners and riders are starting to emerge for Labour Leader.
I'm not sure the news that Charlie Falconer and John Hutton ( who?) are backing David Miliband will exactly boost his chances. But yes at this stage he's favourite to win
However, I have been reading some of the testimonies from people who have re-joined Labour after being hoodwinked by the Liberal Democrats.
Most have expressed their disillusion and disbelief at the duplicity of MPs like Clegg and supposed "leftie" Huhne, saying a perfunctory goodbye to his anti-nuclear power and anti-Trident position and waving hello to a fat salary and limo.
In recent years, many voters were understandably seduced by the Party's holier-than-thou presentation of itself as to the left of Labour. Many, understandably given New Labour's appalling record on civil liberties, believed it. They fthought us foolish for staying put and sticking with it despute being in the minority.
But now the leaders of their Party have done a disgusting volte face and with jaw-dropping arrogance and lack of judgment expect their own not to be dismayed.
Which is why 10,000 more people ( most Lib Dem supporters) are Labour Party members one week on from May 6. Welcome to all - however, it's just not enough to take the subs and carry on with the status quo.
The Party - from top to bottom - must recognise that its policy agenda and the way it treats its membership has to change if any gains from LibDem anger are to be permanent. Because let's face it one of the reasons we lost was so many things could have been so different.
Labour, too, had its cuts agenda. Threre is no point in pretending otherwise
But there is now the chance to start building an alternative.socialist policy platform
The savage and immediate £6 billion in cuts coming from the loved-up CamClegg hypocrites must be opposed and we must defend with all our might the frontline services which now are going to be attacked. Trade union rights must be defended and jobs defended.
That kind of radical change cannot possibly hapen with a Leader still signed up to cuts and privatisation, a Leader tainted by support for war in Iraq, and above all a Leader who is the elite's agreed heir to Blair. They may be nailing their coliors firmly to the mast. It is our job as ordinary activists to burst the David Miliband bubble.

THE LEFT AND THE LEADERSHIP ELECTION

At what point exactly did Ed Balls become a candidate of the Left? Having scraped into his new Leeds constituency, Brown's former henchman is allegedly the candidate who will be backed by UNITE. This mammoth union has traditionally been kingmaker for Mps and Parliamentary candidates. Isn't it time the grassroots had a say?
Last time we tried, in 2007, UNITE swung its mighty weight behind Gordon Brown. Effectively stopping a contest. We are now living with the consequences.
Our friends in the media now want to do the same and have already decided that Miliband D is the only choice. But they, thankfully, are not the ones who will decide.
Jon Cruddas, rumour has it, is prepared to stand on a dream ticket with Miliband to ensure no-one else gets a look-in. Or Cruddas may, of course, stand himself in a wrecking move to stop a true left candidate.
Last time round, John McDonnell put up a brave fight - securing 29 nominations from the PLP - 16 short of the 45 needed and an impossible task given the machinery which was wheeled out to stop him.
This time round, it will be 32. The task will be no easier. But already there is a groundswell of support from activists for John which I hope he will consider in the next few days.
If we are to build an honest, renewed Labour Party in Opposition, the PLP needs to listen to its core supporters and give them a socialist voice in the contest - faux lefts like Cruddas and Balls are not the only option. Whatever they say in the Guardian - and after the debacle of the Lib-lab padt, who in their right minds would listen to them

GRIMMER FOR GORDON IN MANCHESTER....

The political situation could not be worse for Gordon Brown. Capitalism is in crisis, there is a global credit crunch. And thousands of people look set to lose their jobs in the wake of the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB. So it's nice to know that Andy Hornby, the man who brought HBOS to the brink of collapse as chief executive is to keep his £2million-a-year job.
Amid this chaos - and the worst ever polls in Labour's history - leading figures in the Labour Party like John Prescott are sticking to the "steady as she goes" script and even launched a campaign this week for a fourth term. What planet are they on, exactly?

Gordon will survive the Labour Conference. The cheerleaders will see to it he gets a standing ovation. Voting has been abolished so there will be no embarrassing defeats. The trade union leaders will rally round him. But outside the parallel universe of Manchester Central the real world is waiting. Personally, I will be to-ing and fro-ing between the Conference and the Convention Of The Left , which is already attracting national attention from papers like the Guardian which normally eschew any left events. I urge others to do the same.

Once Conference is over , and our hangovers have been thoroughly nursed, the real world will still be waiting. In the shape of the Glenrothes by-election. If Labour loses, there is no way that Brown will survive. Many on the centre-left are running scared and say he is better than any alternative. That is only true if he gets up in Manchester and ditches his New Labour ideology. I don't expect that to happen. Another by-election loss and Gordon is out. If that happens, I hope he goes with some dignity. We will then be able to have a leadership contest which under current rules will need 45 names to get on the ballot paper. Let us ensure that if that happens this time round we have a truly representative contest - and put John McDonnell on the ballot paper. Now I'm off to Manchester......

CLARE SHORT IS RIGHT ABOUT MILIBAND

Clare Short has made lots of mistakes in her time - not least not resigning over Iraq. And she was utterly wrong to abandon the Labour whip. Nevertheless, she makes some very salient points re Miliband in today's Independent. She shares my ( widely held) view that Gordon Brown's biggest mistake was not shifting left and sticking with the Blairite agenda. And that Miliband, far from being the answer to anyone's electoral prayers, would be an unmitigated disaster.


http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/clare-short-how-can-miliband-be-the-answer-to-labours-ills-885219.html

MILIBAND -TOO CLEVER BY HALF?

David Miliband has apparently cancelled a trip to India in September. Is this significant? I neither know nor do I particularly care.What I do know is that he shows all the hallmarks of someone bing egged on by whispering cohorts in the Palace Of Westminster. It's all good stuff for the lobby hacks and will go on ( and on and on ) but the left should stand aside from all this posturing and stress again andagain that it's policy which is hammering Labour at the polls.
Gordon Brown did not choose his Cabinet wisely. He packed it full of Blairites, perhaps in the misguided notion that having them in the tent was better than without. But they were just biding their time.
The irony is of course that had Brown included a broader spread of MPs in his Government then much of the coals heaped on his head would not now be there. Same goes for Brown's inexplicable decision to take the Party further to the right. But we are where we are.In short, he listened to the wrong people.
Some are questioning a decision to start lobbying for support for John McDonnell for a leadership contest. I don't really understand why. To my mind, a statement signed by thousands of ordinary members and trade unionists - and it's thousands already - is a rather better indicator of principoled support than the covert scurrying and scuttling around giving off-the-record briefings to journalists. Even Ed Balls ( et tu Brute?) is apparently trying to position himself as the "left" answer to Miliband.
My feeling is that all hell will break looose in September. We need to be ready to act. An honest statement of intent - based on policy - is preparing the ground for that. In choosing to stay in the Cabinet and snipe from the sidelines, Miliband may already have cooked his goose. I sincerely hope so .

GORDON CALLS FOR BROWN 'S RESIGNATION

One of our local MPs, Pendle's Gordon Prentice, has just called on Gordon Brown to resign. Though not aligned to any Parliamentary grouping, Gordon has consistently and admirably supported left policies - and was one of the few MPs who last year did not nominate Brown as Leader. I applaud his typical outspokenness but am sure he would also agree that, without a change in policy, a change in leadership will be a fruitless exercise.
The way things are, Gordon Prentice will sadly be one of the first casualties at a General Election. We simply cannout afford to lose MPs like him. In fact, we need more.

IT'S NOT THE BLOODY X FACTOR- IT'S THE ISSUES

Idly trawling the internet to come across Political Betting's "runners and riders " for the next Labour Leader. It may surprise you to learn that the giants of the political stage on the list include Frank Field and Tessa Jowell. They even include Ken Livingstone and he's not, er, an MP. As things stand, under the present debacle of a system, this is the reality. We're likely to end up with another right-winger, another New Labourite, another nightmare from which this time the Party will not be able to recover. And talk of the next Leader is a distraction anyway. There could still be time to turn to turn things round. No, I'm not optimistic. But if the PLP used issues like the continuing nightmare in Iraq and the end of the 10p band, which is causing outrage on the doorstep, to bring Brown to heel If the soft left put its money where its mouth is and started working with the left, there could be a tranche of 100 MPs who WOULD make a difference. Andy Burnham? James Purnell? They are but minions and slaves to an orthodoxy which has all but detstroyed the Labour Party. Let's not put another nail in the coffin.....