Labourhome - Stories by peter kenyon

Labourhome - Stories by peter kenyon http://www.labourhome.org/ Back to the roots... en-us Copyright 2007 - LabourHome.org Tue Jul 8 17:04:35 2008 Labourhome Labourhome Labourhome http://www.labourhome.org/favicon.ico http://www.labourhome.org/ [Blogs] Vote Kenyon and CLGA for the NEC http://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/6/14/4256/56186

Ballot papers for the six constituency places on the National Executive Committee should be sent to members eligible to vote by the end of this week. The last we heard was the planned closing date was 18 July - just ahead of the National Policy Forum.

If you're one of those entitled to vote, I hope you you pick through your post carefully, find the ballot paper (which in previous years has been 'hidden' in other Labour Party material) and exercise your democratic right.

Why vote for me? I only want Labour governments. We all know what's at stake. The Leadership has to be held to much closer account than over the past 10 to 15 years. While those whom we, the members, have helped get elected have been in office, to put it politely, they have tended to neglect us.

The Centre Left Grassroots Alliance brings together members standing for the NEC from across the country who share a set of values, even if they may differ on some policy specifics. As it says on the label 'centre' and 'left'.

Our focus is this:

Gordon Brown on taking over as leader of the Labour Party promised to renew party democracy, rebuild the party itself, and give members more say in shaping policy. CLGA candidates will seek to hold him to his word. This is vital to increase membership and activism, and to win back electoral support for Labour candidates at every level.

Our joint leaflet can be found here. You can see from this blog that it is focussed almost exclusively on exposing how the Labour Party currently functions and the yawning gap that exists between Leader and members. If we want to win the next British General Election, we have got to close that gap pdq.

If you want to know more about me, you can see the CV I submitted with my application for the post of General Secretary here. My priorities are set out in the covering letter I sent to Dianne Hayter, the current NEC chair with my application in the Round Two recruitment after David-Pitt-Watson withdrew..

If you share that vision, then vote Azam, Black, Kenyon, Reeves, Shawcroft and Willsman before 18 July. We are prepared to stand up for what's right.

Thank you.

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]]> 2008-06-14T04:25:06-05:00 [Blogs] See-saw politics by Murdoch's guru http://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/6/4/9925/27848

Irwin Stelzer writing in today's Daily Telegraph concludes:

So when Gordon Brown's advisers grope for ways of using the two years left before a general election to extricate the Government from its difficulties, they have to ask the right question. What were the tipping points that brought us low, and how can we retreat from them in a significant way? As the £2.7 billion tax fix, class warfare in Crewe and the PM's pledges to get on with the job demonstrate, tinkering won't matter.
Only a drastic rollback of the frontiers of the state - on taxes, spending and intrusive regulation - can set in motion a pull-back from the tipping points that Labour has arrived at.
It is not a U-turn of which this Prime Minister is capable.

I beg to differ. In two recent speeches Brown has spoken about the power of communication and the wisdom of the crowd. Late 20th century British politics was dominated by spin. The latest developments in communication technology have condemned that approach to influence public opinion to the dustbin of history. Labour Party members have already shown the way with policy-making. It's very early days. But it is the future.

Brown's destiny and that of the Labour Party are not dependent on a U-turn. They depend on unleashing our capacity to think for ourselves and organise collectively to win electoral support, and shape policy through established institutions; namely, political parties.

Brown has everything to play for. Personally, I just wish he would stop making political life so difficult both for himself, his ministers, his MPs and party members and supporters with delusions of populism, which Rupert Murdoch's own guru recognises are past the point of no return.

]]> 2008-06-04T09:09:25-05:00 [Blogs] Should Blair be held to account for Labour's debts? http://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/6/1/165411/3469 At the end of last week I wrote a 'spoof'' blog about Labour Leader Gordon Brown inviting members to underwrite Labour's debts in return for a party renewal package. It was posted here and on Labourhome. A poll added on my Labourhome blog has shown consistently that nearly 2/3rds of respondents would not help bail the Party out, even if it the help were subject to conditions.

Perhaps, I should have asked whether former Labour leader, Tony Blair, should be held to account for his role in the Party's current indebtedness?

I found this quote in a report of Lord Levy, Blair's chief fundraiser at the Hay Festival today, particularly irksome:

"Tony Blair is a schmoozer par excellence who has managed to schmooze his way through life," he said.

And threatened his party with bankruptcy, he might have added for completeness.

]]> 2008-06-01T16:54:11-05:00 [Blogs] Labour GS shortlist of one! NEC officers back Collins http://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/5/30/7351/55651

A meeting of Labour Party NEC officers yesterday agreed a short-list of one - Ray Collins for the post of General Secretary.

This followed the withdrawal of Mike Griffiths reported earlier in Tribune.

My own application was rejected on the grounds of lack of managerial experience - not an assertion that would stand up to scrutiny. But this appointment is nothing to do with equal opportunities, it's political.

]]> 2008-05-30T07:03:51-05:00 [Blogs] Members to underwrite Labour Party http://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/5/29/4302/54730
This is expected to be the main plank in a radical strategy to win the next election.

Imagine!

]]> 2008-05-29T04:30:02-05:00 [Blogs] Open and transparent Labour Party policy making is live http://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/5/17/102157/638
Please do not copy the link into a blog open on the World Wide Web.

It is intended as a service for members only until we can sort out the mechanics to offer it to everyone.

STLP has issued the following news release.

]]> 2008-05-18T11:44:52-05:00 [Blogs] Brown must dump Collins for GS idea http://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/5/16/95927/5140 Gordon Brown's political authority is inextricably linked to the future of the Labour Party itself. The latest issue of Tribune reports that Britain's largest union Unite's leaders Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson have thrown their weight behind assistant-general secretary Ray Collins, who has also won the support of No. 10. Shame on both Woodley and Simpson, if this is true, for throwing their own reputations as advocates of equal opportunities recruitment processes out of the window, as well as that of the union they have created. If Gordon Brown has any regard for his own reputation he will put a stop to this nonsense forthwith.

If by any chance there are some financial strings attached to the cosy deal, it will not belong before some newshound exposes them, and Brown's tattered reputation will be shot completely.

I set my views out about the process here. Whatever differences I have with Mike Griffiths over the way as chair of the NEC last year he handled Brown's proposals on Extending and Renewing Party Democracy pale into insignificance compared with the way that first David Pitt-Watson and now Mike himself have been treated by No 10 political staff and some NEC members. They were both deemed appointable in an equal ops recruitment process, Pitt-Watson withdrew. Mike should be offered the job, unless the NEC can come up with an water-tight legal case not to offer him the post. I hope Mike stands his ground, and Brown backs him. After all Brown sat through the whole interview panel in March, so he must know the process was beyond reproach.

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