clawsfour

Alex Salmond must be furious at Mason gaffe

News from the Glasgow Campaign reveals that the SNP candidate has called on Margaret Curran to say she'll resign her position as an MSP

Responding to the calls from the SNP's candidate, Councillor Mason, Labour MP David Cairns said:

“Alex Salmond must be furious at Councillor Mason’s latest blunder. This is breathtaking hypocrisy from the nationalists. Will Councillor Mason be calling on Alex Salmond to resign his seat as the MSP for Gordon so he can provide a strong voice in Westminister for Banff and Buchan?

“Margaret is a phenomenally gutsy woman and will be a full-time fighter for the East End. She will be fighting full-time on the issues that really matter: crime, jobs and regeneration.”

A spokesperson from the Scottish Labour Party said:

“Margaret has already made her position very clear. She is taking nothing for granted because she respects the people of the East End. If she wins this by-election, she will become the MP for Glasgow East. She will continue for a period as the MSP for Glasgow Baillieston, which is entirely contained in Glasgow East. She will draw only one salary and, unlike the First Minister, will operate only one constituency office. She will decide when to relinquish her duties as the MSP when she has discussed it with the local party and the wider community.“

Glasgow East springboard to victory

With the speculation that Margaret Curran may now emerge as the Labour candidate for the Glasgow East by-election, the Labour Party may have found itself (by accident admittedly) in the best position to win this seat and go into the summer with a real opportunity to rebuild around values.

Margaret is a well respected Scottish politician and friends at the campaign tell me that the events of the last couple have days have boosted activism and response levels on the doorstep.

If Labour do win, as they should, following the humiliating experience for the Tories over the Haltenprice election then a period of calm should allow a re-energized Party to look forward to the conference season.

And that should be based on re-establishing Labour as the party with the values which reflect those of the majority in Britain. Labour came to power in 1997 with a vision to change Britain. Today we can see many of those changes irrevocably in place.

In 1997 the Tories were threatening to dismantle the NHS. Today no party can go into a general election without trying to demonstrate support for the NHS.

In 1997 the Tories were dismissive of child poverty as a real phenomenum in this country. Today no party can contest a general election without describing in detail their objectives in alleviating child poverty.

In 1997 the Tories said the minimum wage would lose thousands of jobs. Today no party can dismiss the rights of workers to a decent living wage.

We need to get away from detailed policy announcements and back to the big themes which will form the basis of the debate leading to the next election. Food and fuel poverty, climate change and international security.

Tories get lost

Sorry that should really say Tory gets lost - but hey ho!

On her web-site Conservative Candidate for Glasgow East Davena Rankin is captioned as "Davena is a well known local campaigner in Glasgow."

Unfortunately according to the leaflet she is delivering she appears to be campaigning in Cathcart.

Glasgow, yes. Just the wrong constituency. Oops.

Real choices, real votes

The Henley by-election is what it is as I've said elsewhere.

People will make up their mind when there are real choices to make. What Labour has to do is to give people more opportunity to make those choices. And to do that we need to make the Tories choose.

James Purnell in a recent speech made this excellent opening point about the Tories.

I remember Tony Blair being asked what John Major could have done between 1994 and 1997 to make it harder to create New Labour. He said ‘He should have made us decide - each week, in Parliament'. The Tories had the advantage of government and they should have used it to test the foundations of New Labour.

The lesson to draw from the vote on 42 days is identical. When Gordon Brown made the Conservatives choose between policy and positioning, they fell apart. David Cameron wanted to defeat the government. Michael Gove and George Osborne were worried they were on the wrong side of the argument. David Davis just wanted to have an argument.

What's interesting about this is that it is not an accident. It happened because they are in an ideological tailspin. And when asked to pick a direction, they pulled in three different ones. The centre could not hold.

Make the Tories say what they choose. Then let the people choose.

Tories win Henley

Coming fifth behind the BNP is not pleasant, and this was the only time Richard McKenzie (Labour's insufferably cheerful candidate) was thrown off his stride during the whole campaign.

However, in the cold light of day, Labour's result was no worse than the by-election defeats in Winchester and Romsey when Tony Blair was 20 points in front. Nearly saving your deposit in a Tory/LibDem private fight when you are 20 points behind doesn't seem quite so bad.

So although most of the media and some Labour MPs will blame this squarely on Gordon Brown, the Henley by-election is pretty meaningless in the real world. It does keep the momentum up for Cameron and his team, which is to their advantage, but not much else has changed. No-one died.

On the other hand, I suspect the heat is rising a little under Nick Clegg, the soon to be short-lived Liberal Democrat Leader. Having made no impact in the short time he has been leader, he threw the whole of the Liberal Democrat by-election machine (compared to the two staff Labour had working on it part-time) at Henley and visited the campaign personally 435 times (well it seemed like that from the press releases the Libs sent out). And lost.

Incidentally, the real reason that the Liberal Democrats were so pleased to reach a non-aggression pact with David Davis before he announced his resignation was not because they supported him over 42 days (official line), or because the Haltemprice by-election is a mad stunt by an ego-maniac (unofficial line), but because they can't afford to fight another by-election this year having spent everything on Henley (Vince Cable line).

Five reasons to vote Labour today

Shamelessly nicked from Richard McKenzie's site here.

Five good reasons to vote Labour today

1 Vote with your principles.

The LibDems always exaggerate their support. They were miles behind the Tories in Henley last time and have no chance of winning despite their dirty tricks. Tactical voting has never worked in Henley and people can safely vote with their principles.

2 Reject LibDem Dirty Tricks.

The by-election has been marked by LibDem smears and personal attacks on the Conservative candidate. Yet the LibDems did a deal even before David Davis’ resignation not to contest the sham by-election caused by the Tory Shadow Home Secretary because they agree with him on cutting back on CCTV cameras and stopping the police holding terrorist suspects longer.

3 Tories unfit to govern.

The Tories are still not fit to form a government. They have no clear policies. David Cameron has still not expelled those Tory MPs and MEPs who have been siphoning off public money to family members.

4 Labour – On your side.

Labour’s Richard McKenzie is on your side and can get things done for local people as he has shown with this week’s climb down by the Environment Agency over the sale of lock-keepers’ cottages on the Thames. Richard is supporting extra investment for local schools and hospitals, longer GP opening hours to benefit patients and more affordable housing for people and families on low-incomes.

5 The LibDems can’t win here.

They were 13,000 votes behind last time and have only got a quarter of the vote in the last three elections here.

Labour vote not squeezed in Henley

With the Conservatives once again taking the voters of Henley for granted ("Don't know why you don"t fuck off - we weigh our votes" was the helpful comment of a Conservative activist to Labour candidate Richard McKenzie) the only really interest was probably going to be could the LibDems take enough votes off Labour to make a fight of it. The answer appears to be no and no contest.

The lack of interest by the national media has meant little opportunity for the LbDems to build momentum. Coupled with the spirited campaign being run by Richard McKenzie and Labour agent Malcolm Powers, there is even an outside chance Labour will hold their deposit.

Whilst that would not be a story (and neither would be a Tory win) the lack of progress by the LibDms will probably by the end of the Cleggometer.

Labour not contesting Haltemprice and Howden

Labour have taken the principled decision not to contest the quite pointless by-election called to solve a leadership dispute in the Conservative Party. Good.

Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat) has let slip that his party, on the other hand, are not standing because they are skint.

Tory candidate for Haltemprice and Howden

If David Davis is going to contest this seat as an Independent, maybe the Tories could show their true colours and put up a candidate from this shortlist of one.

As I said earlier, I think the Labour Party should boycott this farce, but maybe a pro-42 day detention candidate could wipe the smug look of Davis/Cameron's faces

Every cloud has a silver lining

It is not easy to extract really positive stories from the May Day massacre for Labour - apart from Slough, Hastings, Oxford and so on.

However there is one very bright spot on the horizon. If Southampton FC get relegated to Division 1 in the final game of the season tomorrow it will be the incontrovertible fault of the new Conservative Council.

Speaking of which, the outgoing Finance Chair Peter Jenks is predicting that the Council will need cuts of some £14m in order to make the Conservative budget work. Ho hum.

Brad Roynon, the Chief Executive of the Council is so concerned that he called a meeting of senior staff immediately to discuss the change of administration.

"How many of you," asked the Chief Executive, "have the word policy in your job title?"

About two thirds indicated that was indeed the case.

"Oh dear." quoth Brad.

Tough times ahead in Southampton. Let's hope for a brighter future on the pitch.