Labour's Posh Boys (and Girls)

By Mark Wallace
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Back row: David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, Harriet Harman.

Standing in middle: Hillary Benn, Chuka Umunna.

Front row: Fiona McTaggart, Tristram Hunt, Tessa Jowell.

It's become a regular refrain from Labour ranks that the Tories are posh. The infamous Bullingdon photo, which Carla Millar today mimics above, is used as shorthand to pick at the number of privately schooled men and women in the Cabinet and in the Parliamentary Conservative Party.

The failed attempt by Labour to make class an issue in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, with activists dressed up in top hats and tails, stands out as an example of their enthusiasm for the subject.

Harriet Harman: Help! Help! Theresa May has "dogged my path"...followed me round TV studios...criticised "what we were arguing for"...

By Paul Goodman
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Never let it be said that the Daily Mail is incapable of squeezing every last drop of vinegar from the sponge.

As I highlight in the newslinks below, the paper manages to cram into its headline reporting the Labour Deputy Leader's interview with Total Politics that she is:

• An Earl's niece,

• Attended a £20,000-a-year school,

• And is the daughter of a Harley Street doctor.

And as I highlight in the headline above, the paper also succeeds in reminding its readers that Ms Harman is also:

• A descendant of the 7th Earl of Longford.

• A former pupil of "the exclusive St Paul's Girls' School

• The niece of a lady who was Neville Chamberlain's cousin.

Ms Harman has always had superb comic appeal, and the Mail indispensably reminds us that she sent "her own children to a selective grammar school and a faith school".  Labour's Deputy Leader also does a less-posh-than-thou routine about Samantha Cameron.

She also appears to be paranoid about Theresa May, who she claims has "dogged my path", followed her around TV studios and criticised "what we were arguing for".  The Mail adds: "Mrs May's spokesman declined to comment."

One quarter of voters look at a photo of Ed Miliband and think it's David Miliband...

By Tim Montgomerie
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A photograph of one of the Miliband brothers.

Some light relief...

23% of people see a photo of Ed Miliband and think it's David Miliband and 26% of people think David Miliband is Ed Miliband.

33% of voters correctly recognise Yvette Cooper as Yvette Cooper but 20% think she's Harriet Harman.

30% of people correctly recognise Douglas Alexander as Douglas Alexander but just as many think he's Andy Burnham.

Only 25% of voters can correctly identify Jim Murphy. More voters (30%) identify him as Liam Byrne.

Ed Balls is the most recognisable member of the top Labour team. 68% correctly identify him. Only 64% correctly identify the Labour leader.

And in evidence that the Conservatives are serious about 'knowing the enemy', Conservative voters are more likely to correctly identify the Labour shadow cabinet than Labour voters.

The results come from a ComRes poll of more than 2,000 voters for The Independent.

The American Embassy's view of Labour: Brown was "abysmal", Harman "lightweight", Balls "dull", and McBride "a particularly unpleasant person"

by Paul Goodman

Whatever one thinks of the Wikileaks saga, the American Embassy's view of Gordon Brown, his potential successors (the Embassy doesn't seem to have spotted Ed Miliband) and his aides is irresistable.

Gordon Brown 

"The US embassy in London wrote off Gordon Brown within a year of his arrival in No 10 after concluding that an "abysmal track record" had left him lurching from "political disaster to disaster", according to cables released by WikiLeaks.  In a scathing assessment of the former prime minister, George Bush's last ambassador to London blamed Brown for presiding over a "post-Blair rudderlessness" which prompted senior Labour figures to complain of their despair to the embassy…The diplomatic cables confirm that Barack Obama's allies were irritated by Brown's intense manner: he interrupted a Thanksgiving call to the current president's ambassador to lobby for a Tobin tax on financial transactions in the face of US opposition."

Harriet Harman

"Harriet Harman, the only woman mentioned as a possible successor, is a relative policy light weight but an adept inter-party operator."

Ed Balls

"Balls has shown himself to be less than suited to the top job: his public speaking is derided as 'dull', his slightly awkward manner as 'charmless', and he has many enemies within the party, precisely because of his relationship with the PM."

David Miliband

"Some consider Miliband, whose nickname at Number 10 was 'egghead', as too brainy to be leader."

Alan Johnson

"It is this lack of killer instinct that, commentators note, make Johnson more suitable to serve as a deputy prime minister, rather than for the top job itself in which he has shown remarkably little interest."

Damian McBride

"A particularly unpleasant person based on our own experiences with him."

Shriti Vadera

"Private secretary told us Vadera would regularly scream from her desk, "Get me a cup of coffee" with a string of expletives attached, prompting three scheduling assistants to leave her office in three months."

Harman, Woolas and Labour's north-south divide

by Paul Goodman

Bad news day for Labour, with this morning's MP expenses fraud court judgement, and earlier detailed accounts of Harman's mauling at yesterday's Labour Parliamentary Party meeting.  A lot's been written about why Woolas has so many Labour backers.  He's a long-standing trade union operator with GMB connections.  He's part of the big north-west group of Labour MPs.  The Liberal Democrats have a record of making tackles from behind during election campaigns, and Labour MPs in general are raging at the court decision.  Cherie Blair's a friend of the Woolases, and so on.

But one point doesn't seem to have been made.

Namely, that Labour's internal row over the Woolas affair is part of a north-south divide.  In the south, Labour's few seats - such as Slough (which is worth an article in itself, and a matter I should return to), and the inner London constituencies that they hold - aren't kept red by the votes of the white working class and the public sector interest alone.  The votes of recent immigrants and ethnic minorities can be decisive.  In the north, the white working class is a bigger factor in the mix.  Woolas was feeling the effect in his seat of its alienation from Labour over the immigration issue - hence his maniacal leaflets.

Harman encapsulates perfectly the self-righteous, boosy-boots, knows-what's-best-for-you nature of Labour's Londoncentric network - greatly influenced by lawyers, of which she's one.  Woolas is a good illustration of the kind of north-based Labour MP who'd nothing much to say about immigration until the problems driven by Labour's lack of control of it turned up knocking at his front door.  Harman faces Clegg at Prime Minister's Questions later this morning.  It'll be interesting to see if he tries to exploit Labour's divisions on the issue.  And, if so, whether Harman's response helps to make relations between the two parties even less of a love-in.

Harriet Harman launches massive attack on Liberal Democrats

Harriet Harman's response to the Budget was remarkable for the ferocity with which she went for the Liberal Democrats. The plain text does not capture the anger and loathing she demonstrated for the junior partners in the Coalition but here it is:

"This reckless Tory Budget would not be possible without the Lib Dems.

The Lib Dems denounced early cuts; now they are backing them.

They denounced VAT increases; now they are voting for them.

How could they support everything they fought against?

How could they let down everyone who voted for them?

How could they let the Tories so exploit them?

Do they not see that they are just a fig leaf?

The Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary is just the Chancellor’s fig leaf.

The Deputy Prime Minister is just the Prime Minister’s fig leaf.

The Lib Dems’ leaders have sacrificed everything they ever stood for to ride in ministerial cars and to ride on the coat tails of the Tory Government.

Twenty-two Liberal Democrat ministerial jobs have been bought at the cost of tens of thousands of other people’s.

The Liberal Democrats used to stand up for people’s jobs, but now they only stand up for their own.

Look at the Business Secretary, the right hon. Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable).

The House has noticed his remarkable transformation in the past few weeks from national treasure to Treasury poodle.

They have no mandate for this Budget; this Budget has no legitimacy.

Even if the Lib Dems will not speak up for jobs, we will.

Even if they will not fight for fairness, we will, and even if they will not protest against Tory broken promises, we will."

Graphic from Tom Harris MP.

There is no sign - yet - in the polls that the Liberal Democrats are suffering for being part of the Coalition but I expect Labour's number one aim - once a leader is chosen - to significantly erode Liberal Democrat support in Scotland, Wales (where there are elections next year) and in northern cities.

If the LibDems start retreating badly in left leaning parts of the country I expect Clegg/Hughes/Cable will look for an early opportunity to break free. Once, of course, they have electoral reform in the bag.

Tim Montgomerie

Harriet Harman wants half of shadow cabinet to be women

Honestly. Labour's Deputy Leader wants the rules for shadow cabinet elections to be changed so that 50% of members have to be female. The Press Association has the story.

Tim Montgomerie

1pm: Crunching the maths, FT Westminster blog looks at the current number of Labour women MPs and concludes: "By proposing that half the cabinet should be female, Harman is - ironically - suggesting that the Labour women MPs are twice as talented as the men."

3.45pm: Via Twitter, Labour Leadership contender Ed Miliband has supported Harriet Harman's 50/50 bid:

Labour's Sisterhood (2010 edition)

As I was passing through the precincts of the Palace of Westminster after lunch today, I was met with the sight of (almost) the entire female membership of the Parliamentary Labour Party posing for the cameras.

It was the similar shot taken with Tony Blair after the 1997 election that launched the whole "Blair Babes" concept.

Ironically, acting Opposition leader Harriet Harman - one of the most vociferous supporters of all-women shortlists - was running late, so had not got there in time to make my snapshot above (which you can click to enlarge)...

Jonathan Isaby

Harriet Harman, paedophilia - and double standards

Amazing recent news.

It’s emerged that a very senior Shadow Cabinet member once said that sexually explicit photographs or films of children should be legalised - unless there was evidence that the child had been harmed.

And at the time (the late 1970s), the spokesman was a senior figure in a libertarian group that wanted the age of consent lowered to 14, and incest decriminalised.

Furthermore, paedophile organisations were affiliated to the group - which said that "childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in, with an adult result in no identifiable damage".

Some of you are asking: what's going on?

Where's the Government reaction, you ask?  The Labour backbenchers calling for Cameron to sack the spokesman?  The Labour frontbenchers not going quite so far, but murmuring that he - or she - has “questions to answer”?  The BBC top billing for the Labour reaction?  The Guardian ringing round parents' groups for quotes, hunting down former members of the libertarian group, and straining to give the story legs?  The left-wing commentators who want the Conservatives to lose - and Brown to win - announcing proof "of what we've always known - that the Tories can't be trusted with our kids".  The right-wing commentators who collaborate in wanting the same result denouncing "the culture of moral depravity which taints the top of the Party"?  The Mirror doorstepping the Shadow Minister? The pressure building on him to resign?  The election campaign thrown into turmoil?  The plunging opinion polls?

The rest of you have seen the point.

The story did indeed break yesterday.  (The Daily Telegraph had it.)  But -

• The politician in question wasn't a Shadow Cabinet Minister.  It was no less senior a Cabinet Minister than Harriet Harman, Leader of the Commons and prospective Labour leadership candidate.
• The organisation wasn’t a libertarian group. It was that establishment body, the National Council for Civil Liberties.
• And although Tim Loughton, our Shadow Children’s Minister, judged our reaction to the story well, there was – guess what? – little BBC reaction, no sign of a right-wing media ring-round, no reaction from the conservative commentariat: no sense of a story gaining momentum.  I can’t find anything significant on it in today’s media.

My point isn’t that Harriet Harman wants to ease the legal restraints on paedophile activity.  (It should go without saying that she doesn’t.)  Nor is it that her views during the late 1970s are worth the kind of media rampage that I sketch out above  It’s simply this.  Had a Shadow Cabinet Minister taken the same view in the late 1970s as Harman did, and the Guardian (say) rather than the Telegraph broken the story, there would have been if not a rampage, at least a big flurry of media interest.  But there wasn’t.  Why?

Because Britain has slowly developed a deep, sustained, self-reinforcing anti-right cultural bias – which helps to drive media double standards.

Now there are of course anti-left cultural biases, too.  For example, it’s widely assumed (I think rightly) that the left’s head is in the wrong place – in other words, that the socialist economic model doesn’t work.  The corresponding ant-right cultural bias is that the right’s heart is in the wrong place.  The industrial-scale murder, mass starvation, institutionalised tyranny and economic collapse of communism has done astoundingly little to dent it.  It’s the default setting of the academic establishment, the state-subsidised arts, the license-fee funded broadcaster, and the big charities – the cultural equivalent of “the commanding heights of the economy”.  And it spreads outwards from there.

It’s easy to believe that the two biases cancel each other out.  They don’t – at least, not during the run-up to a close election.  If Labour politicians are assumed to be good people – perhaps with some wrong-headed ideas, but good people none the less – their motives won’t be questioned unless personal gain is involved.  Consider what would have happened had the politician in yesterday’s Telegraph story been not Harman, but a senior Tory.  Isn’t there something in the picture I sketched out earlier?  Wouldn't the double standard have come into play?

It’s certainly done so elsewhere.  Imagine the reporting if the leader of a flagship Conservative council (rather than Labour-controlled Glasgow Council) had resigned after admitting drug abuse.  Or if CCHQ had issued leaflets simply making up stories about Labour - accusing them, say, of planning to end free bus travel and scrap TV licences for the over 75s?  Or if some Tory councillors in a shire county had the same relationship with a fascist group that some Labour councillors in the East End have with the Islamic Forum of Europe?

On this site, we’ll be watching for anti-right double standards closely and flagging them up unsparingly during the run-up to May 6.

Paul Goodman

Jon Cruddas and the Labour leadership race

After interviewing Labour MP Jon Cruddas for this week's New Statesman, the magazine's editor Jason Cowley concludes that "he's in the race" to be Labour leader after the general election.

Iain Dale has pointed out several flaws in this argument, not least the fact that there is an increasingly high chance that he will fail even to retain his redrawn Dagenham and Rainham constituency, where he faces a strong challenge from Conservative candidate, Simon Jones.

One other issue which in any case complicates matters in the Cruddas household is Mrs Cruddas, known in Westminster as Anna Healey.

She happens to be special adviser to one Harriet Harman - who I imagine is currently plotting a leadership campaign of her own...

Jonathan Isaby