clawsfour

Can Labour emulate Tories' 1992 victory?

Well yes, obviously.

But here is a nice piece by Will Woodward, the Guardian's Head of Politics, which poses the question quite neatly. And points to a possible answer.

Don't you just hate 'em

Thought I should re-enter the Christmas spirit with a quote. I'm offering this under BBC rules, so no prizes for guessing who said it. But everyone should think it. 

No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party.

Aneurin Bevan, 1948

On the introduction of the National Health Service

Lest we forget. Lest we forget.

On the first day of Christmas - minus a few days

Of course some people would say that the widespread use of central heating means that the chance of there really being a big bloke delivering prezzies by climbing down the chimney is remote to say the least.

I, on the other hand, have been prepared to accept that the fact that Santa now has all his elves working at eBay and Amazon and the reindeer are pastured out for the winter. But I've always thought that Santa would probably be a bit weather-beaten, with port stains and mince pie crumbs giving him a permanently disheveled look. Mucking out the reindeer can't be that clean either.

It comes as a grave disappointment, therefore, to see his red coat and trousers in a parcel on their way to the cleaners in preparation for the staff party. Clearly I can't believe in Santa with a dry cleaned suit - bah humbug.

The Bitteratti biter bit

The Bitteratti Gilligan excels himself in tonight's London Evening Standard.

He accuses Labour's Leader in the London Assembly Len Duvall of - and believe me, I am quoting word for word - "one of the most absurd things I've ever heard."

What crime could this be?

Apparently Len has had the temerity to have formally reported Boris Johnson to the "City Hall Watchdogs" for prejudicing the police inquiry into the theft of information from the Home Office.

The BG reckons there's no point in having an elected Chair of the Police Authority (Boris) if he can't comment about the abuse of police power. But what the BG ignores is what Boris was saying, after speaking to a person who had been arrested, was that there was no case to answer. Absolutely prejudging if not prejudicing the inquiry. Oh, bugger. I've just prejudged the inquiry into Boris prejudging....

If Gilligan really wants to hear something truly absurd he should read one of his own articles out loud.

Oh, but I forgot. The Bitteratti Gilligan is an expert on leaks and their consequences. And not only for himself.

Times gets its times wrong

There is an interestting but flawed report in today's Times - look it up yourself, posting on the run.

'How Labour failed on its pledge to make poverty a thing of the past,' p18.

I've got no particular quibble with the statistics being tracked. What is wrong is to have an arbitrary break point in a timescale so that a new slant can be drawn. The piece in the Times looks at a timescale of 1997-2003 and 2003-2008. This enables the journalist to claim that certain indicators have got worse during the second period and ignore any improvement over the whole of the period of a Labour goverenment.

Even the periods chosen make no sense. They don't look at different Labour governments or Blair v Brown. One can only assume they have been picked in an arbitrary way to illustrate a conclusion already written.

It would be interesting to see how many of the 56 indicators would support the conclusions of the article when analysed over the whole period. I may try to find out.

Update - I have found out

A quick count of the indicators over at poverty.org.uk does indeed show that 32 of the 56 indicators are showing improvement over the 10 year period and 14 have remained unchanged.

The 10 that are worse are:

• Low-income households who are paying full council tax
• Children in working families needing tax credits to avoid low income
• Young adults in low-income households
• 16- to 19-year-olds not in education, training or work
• Working-age adults in low-income working families
• Value of out-of-work benefits for working-age adults without dependent children, relative to earnings
• Pay gap between high-paid men and women and male median earnings
• Pensioners not taking up benefits to which they are entitled
• People aged 75 and over helped by social services to live at home
• Homeless households in temporary accommodation

It difficult to see how these 10 (six of which do not necessarily reflect on the poverty or otherwise of the people concerned) justify the headline in the Times. Hey ho.

DNA held illegally

I may be getting more right wing in my old-age, but if removing the DNA of persons not charged with any offence from the national DNA database means offenders go free, that is just mad. 

A European legal ruling today means fingerprints and DNA samples can't be held unless you are convicted of a crime.

200,000 people would not currently be on the database if that were the case. (That's according to the police who hold the data. The Tories say 1,000,000. God help us if they end up in charge of the economy and have to do proper sums.) 

But because they are on the database, nearly 14,000 crimes have been linked to people involved, including

114 murders
116 rapes
55 attempted murders and
68 sex offences. 

Personally, I would much rather have a national DNA database than murderers and sex offenders at liberty to offend again. You can have a sample from me today. 

And when can I have my ID card

Death by a thousand cuts

Imaginary cuts that is.

I was outraged to discover that the budget for our sportsmen and women was to be slashed in the run-up to 2012.

But not as outraged as I was to find out this was a complete work of fiction by sports journalists who have apparently fallen into the same trap as the politicos - the story is it's Labour's fault, now make the facts fit.

In this case the facts are that the total funding package has gone up 5 per cent to just shy of a quarter of a billion pounds. And because effort and resources are being put into events where British atheletes have a real chance of success, many sports are seeing a substantial boost - swimming +24%, cycling +22%, basketball +137% and so on.

Even so only two sports have seen a slight reduction in their development grant. Athletics down 5 per cent to £25.1m and badminton 1 per cent to £8.6m.

So where did the cuts story come from. The usual fall-back for a journalist looking for a cuts story. It's a reduction in the budget. Last year you spent £1,000 on a holiday. Next year you spend £1,100. That's an increase. Unless you previously told a bitteratti journalist you wanted to spend £1,200. Now it's a cut. Particularly if you are a Labour minister.

Fortunately the real world deals with real money so even more enouraging is the 54 per cent increase for the atheletes competing in the Paralympic Games.

Further comment over at Labour Matters.

All at sea

One of the least remarked bills introduced by yesterday's Queen's Speech was the Marine Bill - the culmination of years of hard work by the Labour government and conservation organisarions to provide safe havens for marine wildlife.

In 1992 the Labour Manifesto declared that the social responsibility of a government could be tested by the way it looked after it's wildlife.

Labour has now gone the extra mile - several miles in fact - drawing up plans for a marine conservation network surrounding our islands. This network will not only benefit critically endangered species, but also allow the regerstion of declining fish stocks, helping the fishing industry and consumer as well.

Mark Avery, Conservation Director for the RSPB said,

The UK's seas are internationally important for marine wildlife, including seabirds, whales, fish and corals.

Hilary Benn, Labour's Environment Secretary hailed the Bill as,

a significant day for our seas and the wonders that lie beneath them.

And a significant day in drawing another dividing line between Labour and the Tories.

A fairer future

A personal message from Gordon Brown. There's a nice thing to find in my in-box, and much more important than minor thefts in parliament.

Each and every day we’re taking action to give real help now to help everyone get through this economic downturn fairly.  

But as we concentrate on bringing Britain through this downturn, we’re also preparing for a future in which Britain emerges stronger and fairer.

Today’s Queen’s Speech was focused on delivering for you and your family with fair chances, fair rules and a fairer future.

We’ll build a fairer future by doing more to help those affected by this economic downturn  from losing their homes through repossession. People will get fair chances through lifelong access to education, training and apprenticeships and an NHS that meets your needs on your terms.  And we’ll enforce fair rules so that those who work hard are properly rewarded – and those who try to game the system will face the consequences.  

The challenges we must meet in today’s Queen’s Speech have already changed from those we faced a year ago.  We are living in a new age  - one where nothing is more important than helping you to protect your job, your house and your savings.

The Conservatives would do nothing to give real help now to families and businesses. It is no accident that they have chosen this course  – it is the same unfair Conservative instinct that abandoned people, families and communities to sink or swim in the 1980s and 1990s.

Our Party has always been about the many and not the few – and this Queen’s Speech is about a fairer future for all, not just some.  
As I said on Saturday, this is the biggest New Labour project of all - giving people the confidence and hope that we can get through this downturn and build the fair society. 

Our test is to whether we can give real help to people on middle and modest incomes now, while making the right long term decisions to prepare and equip our country for the future. 

With your continued help and support, I know that we will bring Britain though this downturn to emerge stronger and fairer than ever before.

Stolen goods are stolen goods

I cannot believe the the extraordinary hypocrisy (tell a lie, yes I can) of the Tory party.

I am listening to bits and pieces of the Speaker's statement and questions about the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green and the search of his offices by the Metropolitan Police.

Most extraordinary of all was the arrested party - one Damian Green. He wants to make it clear that members of parliament are not above the law.

But it seems he's quite happy for parliamentary privilege to extend to getting up and making a speech in the House of Commons while under investigation.

Twat.

It seems highly unlikely that Damian Green was leaked any information that was of any significance - if he was then things will get very interesting over the next week or two - but the mock outrage that parliamentarians should be be absolved from any responsibility for the receipt of stolen goods just beggars belief.

Particularly helpful of Mad Monk Boris Johnson to say as Chair of the London Police Authority that no charges should be forthcoming. After he had a meeting with Damian Green. No political interference there then.

These Tories! They just don't think the rules apply to the Burlington Club and their cronies.