The Budget: Gordon’s Child Poverty Challenge
Thursday, March 13th, 2008Well the Budget was a bit of a non event. A few extra tax raises here or there were to be expected. As for innovation, well this can hardly be called a green budget - I suspect what they’ve done is just trailed a few things to see what the public reaction would be. The [...]
Electing the General Secretary?
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008The General Secretary-ship was hot topic of conversation at Spring Conference. Everyone new that the shortlist had been narrowed down to three and it wasn’t difficult to find out who the three were.
Inevitably this was a topic close to the heart of Party structure anoraks (like myself) but I was surprised to hear the [...]
A New General Secretary
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008So, the Party has a new General Secretary David Pitt-Watson. Although Pitt-Watson has worked for the Party his a very different kind of an appointment, which may not altogether be a bad thing.
These days Pitt-Watson is better known for his work in the City - he can for example be heard regularly in the Financial [...]
Swearing What?
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008Lord Goldsmith was a somewhat strange Attorney General - a man who was unlucky enough to hold the post when the government decided to go to war on very dubious legal grounds.
I thought Goldsmith had gone, but no here he turns up again as a the author of a special report on citizenship which recommends [...]
Reflections III: The Ministers
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008There were many other Ministers at conference and they were very visible in seminars, workshops and fringe meetings. In contrast to the set speeches these appearances and performances were far more encouraging. It seemed to me that they were in listening mode, and quite genuinely so. For a while it reminded me of another time [...]
Reflections II: The Ministers
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008So if Brown wasn’t sparkling, what about the others?
Some delegates - and bloggers - have got very excited about Ed Milliband’s speech. Much of this acclamation comes as a result of Ed being able to speak to conference without using an autocue This is a skill that I’m rather good at - but it doesn’t [...]
Reflections I
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008Well, I suppose I should start by reflecting on the conference’s leadership speeches.
Brown’s speech on Saturday seemed to completely divide the membership. Some were very impressed with the speech while others felt it was lacking. Others still felt it was a very poor speech. Not only did the speech divide the audience but those divisions [...]
Reflections on Spring Conference
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008It always takes me a few days to work out what I think of Party conferences. Last week I wrote that it would be interesting to gauge where we were -and where the Party leadership thought we were.
The most obvious thing about the conference was how few people were there. Using a venue in a [...]
In the middle of a Labour Part…
Saturday, March 1st, 2008In the middle of a Labour Party conference and I feel so alone !!!
When will the party realize th…
Saturday, March 1st, 2008When will the party realize that a room full of 300 people does not constitute a consultation seminar!
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