A freak storm strikes the Fabian Society library, scattering gobbledegook in its wake - it's David Miliband's Wonknado

By Mark Wallace
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Last night, one of the greatest so-bad-it's-good films ever made hit British television screens. In Sharknado, a freak tornado tears through the sea off Los Angeles, scattering sharks across the city.

It's even worse than it sounds, but it's ok because the special effects are awful, there are several washed-up former stars and the love scene involves characters cutting their way out of a Great White. With a chainsaw.

Never one to pass up a commercial opportunity, David Miliband has produced a sequel impressively quickly, though I'm not sure it will prove as big a hit.

In his latest New Statesman article, it seems a freak tornado has torn through the library of the Fabian Society, scattering technical gobbledegook across Westminster. In short, it's a Wonknado.

Andrew Gimson: The fighting speech Miliband should have made when Cameron denounced McCluskey

By Andrew Gimson
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Ed Miliband’s attitude to the trade unions is hopelessly confused. He has not defined himself, and proved to Middle England how sound he is, by picking a fight with them in the manner of a latter-day Tony Blair. The present Labour leader owes too much to the unions for such a pose to carry conviction.

But Mr Miliband also shrinks from showing pride in Labour’s links with the unions. He treats them as if they are embarrassing relations from an earlier generation. He knows he owes them a lot, but takes care not be seen very often with them in public, and hates it when unkind people point out that he still relies on them for financial support.

In his recent speech on union funding, Mr Miliband attempted to finesse these difficulties. His plan is to distance himself from the unions, while becoming closer to union members: “Men and women in trade unions should be able to make a more active, individual choice on whether they become part of our party.”

According to Mr Miliband, this “could grow our membership from 200,000 to a far higher number”. It is a pleasant dream, but unless it actually happens it will remain no more than a dream. As so often, by trying to find a subtle way through a problem, Mr Miliband has ended up sounding weak, indecisive and desperate to be all things to all men.

To Tory eyes, this is curious. The country is no longer wracked by strikes. The unions have lost their legal immunities, and are no longer strong enough to bring the country to a halt. In 1979 they had 13 million members and now they have 6.5 million.

Europe, public spending, union power grabs...Labour have plenty of splits of their own

By Mark Wallace
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The media is intent on a "Tory splits" narrative. Given the obsessive focus on any hint of disagreement on the blue side of the House, it is surprising that there has been so little reporting of Labour's splits.

They do have them - three in the last four days, in fact. Here they are:

The EU

Yesterday, various figures from the left and right of the Labour Party launched Labour for a Referendum - only days after Ed Miliband publicly rejected the idea of giving the people a say on Britain's EU membership. The rebels aren't just eurosceptic "usual suspects" like Kate Hoey, they include Brussels fans like former Europe Minister Keith Vaz.

Who do Labour MPs represent? The party, the voters or the unions?

By Mark Wallace
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Oh dear. It seems that having bailed out the Morning Star, a paper which has coincidentally been very flattering about him of late, Unite's Len McCluskey now expects other left wing news outlets to dance to his tune.

Guido has revealed a letter sent by Len to the Editor of the New Statesman raging against "confected" reports that he wanted Ed Miliband to sack the Blairites in the Shadow Cabinet.

In fairness to the Unite leader, the quotes in the article don't show him calling for sackings. They say if Ed is "seduced" by Blairites "then the truth is that he’ll be defeated and he’ll be cast into the dustbin of history." All very measured, I'm sure you agree...

Blair is finished in Britain. He should move to America.

By Paul Goodman
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I published the article below over a year ago. Here it is again - in the wake of Tony Blair's recent articles on Syria, and the report of his views about it in today's Sun.  Whatever one's view of intervention or indeed Blair himself, his support for it is a curse for the cause: see also Jesse Norman's piece on this site today.

There will still be a support base for Tony Blair among voters - displeasing though this is to most Conservatives (excluding the very senior Tory Cabinet Ministers to whom he is simply "The Master").  Whether we like it or not, Mr Blair will still be seen, by a stubborn section of the British people, to be a) moderate and b) strong.  This combination is the philosopher's stone which some other politicians, David Cameron among them, search for more often than they find it.  Perhaps this residual strength explains why Mr Blair began campaigning for a comeback in the spring and his critics are opposing it this summer.

But whether so or not, I am surprised that neither Mr Blair's friends nor enemies seem to see the obvious, namely that there will be no Blair comeback.  Or to put it even more starkly: Blair is finished in Britain.  (Speaking at the odd big Labour dinner and acting as a sporadic adviser to the party does not consitute a comeback, at least to my mind.)  Although I am not exactly a fan of the former Prime Minister, I write this less as a cry of Tory triumph than as a statement of the bleeding obvious.  For although Mr Blair has the perhaps wide, though not deep, respect of one group of voters he also has the very deep and fairly wide emnity of two more.

Labour's NEC election results: Red Ken, Karl Marx, and the "extreme left"

By Matthew Barrett
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The results of the recent elections to Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC), the Party's governing body, were announced yesterday. While the results cannot reasonably be said to represent a "lurch to the left", since five out of six of the NEC members were simply re-elected, and the sixth, a Blairite, replaced another Blairite, it's still worth considering the very left-wing ideals and activities of the members of the NEC.

The most popular candidate, with 31,682 votes, was Ken Livingstone. There's been enough written about Livingstone over the years for me not to have to revisit much of it here, but suffice to say his council tax rises, flirtations with dictatorships like Cuba and Venezuela, and mismanagement of City Hall mean he is unlikely to be the one to tell Ed Miliband to take a sensible policy option. 

The second most popular candidate was Ann Black, a trade union member since 1979, with policies to match the era. She is sceptical about Trident, and has a list of unaffordable, unrealistic, and out of touch policies:

"Personally I support properly-funded public services, comprehensive education, better employment rights, freedom from discrimination, joined-up transport, environmental sustainability, respect for local government, pensions and other benefits linked to earnings, and a positive role in Europe."

Black also recently wrote:

"We must tackle the tabloids on welfare, crime and immigration: people who want to be really nasty to scroungers, yobs and foreigners will vote Tory anyway, so we might as well take the moral high ground and give ourselves something worth fighting for."

How has Ed Miliband's sixth re-launch progressed so far?

By Matthew Barrett
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A week on from Ed Miliband's sixth re-launch, it would be timely to review his progress. Has he managed to persuade the public of his credibility at last? Has he managed to thrash the Coalition in the polls? Is his Party settled and united behind his leadership? It seems not. 

• Ed Balls' big policy speech hinted at Labour wishing to earn economic credibility: "In a speech to the Fabian Society on Saturday, Balls said he accepted every spending cut being imposed by the coalition and endorsed George Osborne's public sector pay freeze, adding that it might need to continue beyond the end of the current parliament."
• Ed Miliband then supported this stance: "Ed Miliband has backed his shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, saying he cannot promise to reverse any spending cut at this stage, and dismissed criticism of his own leadership as "part of the gig"."
• ...But at the same time, Miliband said Labour opposes the cuts the Coalition is making: "If Labour was in power now we wouldn't be making those changes. We wouldn't be cutting as far and as fast as the government."
• Perhaps this best explains what Miliband's position seems to be: "Labour's newly calibrated position is that it opposes some spending cuts, on the basis they slow recovery, but cannot promise to reinstate any of them ahead of an election."

Although Ed Miliband is less popular with Labour supporters than David Miliband, he insists his leadership is "winning the battle of ideas"

By Joseph Willits 
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In today's Sunday Times (£) there were yet more unnerving polling results for Ed Miliband, receiving his lowest (negative) rating so far as Labour leader from the party's supporters. 49% of those who vote Labour felt that Miliband was doing badly, compared to 46% who believed he was doing well. The YouGov poll gave Miliband an overall rating of -3, compared to Cameron's positive net score of 91.

Polling those of all voting intentions, David Miliband topped the survey with 21% holding the view that he would be a better party leader, compared to Ed Miliband's 7%. Interestingly, Alistair Darling was second choice with 9%. However, there was a marked difference in favour of David Miliband amongst Labour support, with 34% compared to 12% for his brother.

Speaking on this morning's Andrew Marr Show, mainly to defend the Labour party's new stance on cuts, Miliband was full of defiant soundbites, stating that Labour was "winning the battle of ideas."

Although Miliband told Andrew Marr that "if Labour was in power now, we wouldn't be making those changes, we wouldn't be cutting as far and as fast as the government", he said it was right to support the Government's pay freeze for public sector workers:

"It's a hard choice, but when you are faced with the choice between protecting jobs or saying the money should go into pay rises I think it's right to protect jobs."

Labour Shadow Education Minister argues for the abolition of private schools

By Matthew Barrett
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Stephen Twigg, a Blairite reformer, was appointed to the Shadow Education brief in Ed Miliband's last reshuffle. As a former Education Minister who helped the drive for academy schools in the New Labour years, it was hoped his appointment might signal Ed Miliband's support for the Coalition's Free Schools programme. 

Indeed, Twigg said earlier this month:

"On free schools, I am saying that we need to apply a set of tests, that we are not going to take an absolute policy of opposing them. The tests should be: will the school raise standards for pupils and parents, will it contribute to a narrowing of the achievement gap between rich and poor and what is the wider impact of that school?"

Unfortunately, any credibility that Twigg may have in his brief will be undermined by the class war, anti-rich sentiments of his deputy, Kevin Brennan (pictured above), who last night spoke in favour of abolishing private schools - a proposal last seen in Labour's 1983 manifesto, aka the "longest suicide note in history".

Brennan was speaking at the Oxford Union, where he proposed the motion "This House Would Abolish Private Schools". Brennan had previously spoken in favour of the same motion in his debut speech to the Oxford Union - as a student.

In a new autobiography, Ken Livingstone claims Boris threatened to punch his lights out

By Joseph Willits 
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The Boris vs Ken battle has always added some colour to political life in London, and it seems that more is yet to be revealed in Livingstone's upcoming autobiography. Although Decca Aitkenhead in the Guardian has described it as "an exhaustive account of internal local government machinations, city hall bureaucracy, transport policy memos" having "more psephological detail than even the nerdiest anorak could conceivably want", certain revelations are likely to reignite tension as 2012's election campaign gears up.

Through humour, Ken admits, Boris has the knack of "getting away with it", diverting attention away from tough decisions, but during 2008's election campaign "the mask slipped". The example he cites is as the camera faded after the two men appeared on Questiontime:

"After Question Time the cameras were still on us as a smiling Boris draped his arm around my shoulders and said, 'If you carry on talking about my great-grandfather I'm going to punch your lights out.'" 

The comments were made after Ken's insistence that Boris' Turkish grandfather was a British spy.