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State of the Party – Not long left to vote

February 7, 2012 11:39 am

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There’s not long left to vote in our “State of the Party” survey – the number one monthly barometer of how Labour people feel about their party.Polls close at 11pm tonight. Make your voice heard, and vote on how your party is performing.

Our 2011 survey saw support for Ed Miliband declining, and gained a great deal of media coverage. Will Ed bounce back this month?

We also want your take on some of the biggest issues in the party at the moment:

- Was Ed right to focus on Stephen Hester’s bonus?

- Is Labour’s strategy on Tory cuts the right one?

- Is Labour right to back a public sector pay freeze?

And of course we’re asking who is your Labour MP of the month?

How’s Ed doing? And who do you rate in the shadow cabinet? It’s your party, don’t miss the chance to have your say.

Anonymous

I’m going out on a limb here but I predict that Liam Byrne will NOT be Labour MP of the month.
- Anonymous
  
  …or indeed ANY month (except perhaps the 12th of Never – and that’s a long, long time)
TomFairfax

Hi Mark,

A party can be built from the ground up (LibDems until 2010) or it can be undermined at the groundfloor (Derek Hatton and fellow ‘Loonies’ in the 80′s)

Do you know from your contacts if anybody is looking to deal with the me, me, me, generation of Council leaders in places like Barking and Dagenham, before they undermine the PLP? (Difficult, but seemingly possible if it’s a quiet news week and you’re named Liam Smith)
- Anonymous
  
  I bet a few loones in labour might just get it going a bit, Now we see Blair and David Miliband as the way forward.
  - TomFairfax
    
    Maybe, but not ones who appear to bend the rules to favour themselves in inexplicable fashion and reportly rule by intimidation.
    
    Lovely quote from a source.
    
    “A question is an attack, an attack on the Leader is an attack on the Council”
    
    Can you imagine that applying here given the flack dished out to EM?
    - Anonymous
      
      I have to be honest a few of the so called trots are a dam sight better then the bunch we have had with Blair Mandy Purnell, to day we have a labour party lost for words,if ever you have seen somebody who know or thinks they are guilty of something this is the pile we have to day, Burnham talking about the NHS today and yesterday, my god it like watching paint dry he has a voice and a statement which left me thinking he does not really care. Miliband and I know people do not agree who treats the Tories with kid gloves in case the Tories shout at him
      - TomFairfax
        
        I think the advantage of those on the left is they are driven by principle. Case in point is the expenses fiasco. Look at those untainted outside London, and you find the few remaining left wingers in the Commons.
        
        Personally I’m more on the right of the party, but I fully accept legitimacy requires integrity, and that’s something the Blairite faction rather forgot. Still forget it seems. I’ll attack the lack of integrity regardless of if I am sympathetic with the persons aims or not.
        
        I also don’t accept one particular faction has the answer to all issues. Teams win. Gangs of individuals lose. Whether it’s sport, warfare, or simply trying to stop the local library closing. The most effective opposition to the Health Bill hasn’t come from Labour, it has come from medical professionals bodies, and outfits like 38degrees, who have all worked collectively. You can write off uncoordinated complaints one at a time, but 10s of thousands at a time is tricky. Ask My Lansley.
        
        More importantly, in campaigning terms, if the party doesn’t accommodate the left, it is effectively disenfranchising the very people who knock on the doors, deliver the leaflets, and can provide feedback from the coalface about what voters/supporters actually want to see.
        
        As the founder of Sony, Akio Morita, observed, ‘the west will always lose because they only let the managers do the thinking.’
        
        Unfortunately his successors have pretty much proved him right by becoming more like a western company.
        
        By the way I don’t disagree with your comments above, I just don’t think it’s simply a case of Left OK, Right Wrong or vice versa. For the Left it’s rather like shooting fish in a barrel currently, because so many on the right of the party are demonstrably spongers and worse in many cases.
        
        Get the integrity bit sorted, and we escape the ‘all politicians are the same’ pit of shame.
Anonymous

Have done Mark- thankyou for efforts, and always illuminating to hear.

I personally hope things will be a bit more upbeat this time!

Appreciate it’s probably very hard work, but extremely useful
“barometer” none the less….

Cheers, Jo.
derek

It seems to me that time will judge how well labour opposed this new government? from NHS bill too the welfare reform bill but I’m pretty certain questions will be asked about the effectiveness of a dis-unified labour party at such a critical point in history.

Had labour been singing from the same hymn sheet it could have been more effective in stopping the tories ideological moves.The financial crisis doesn’t have to last for ever but the reform changes could be with us for ever and a day?
- Anonymous
  
  It is handy mind to have a long term deficit this way you can hammer the people, and labour is now toscared to say anything in case the Tories say ok tell us how you would do it.
  
  I do not care what anyone say I have been around long enough and have seen many labour leaders, this has to be the poorest labour front bench I have ever seen, when Burnham talks about the NHS is a hushed voice, he should be bellowing out to people to march get on your toes and show the Tories, what you get is this chap who sounds to nice to argue with anyone. Labour has lost it voice it has become scared in case those pesky swing votes do not come back to Newer labour.
  
  What the hell has Miliband either of them said about the NHS, same as the others on the front benches or the back benches, when I look over at Hansards it’s like looking at a party who is in shock about losing an election and cannot yet believe this has happened.
  
  It better find it Ideological roots or gets some blooming fight back otherwise the Tories will not struggle at the next election it might have a land slide because labour will be looking way to weak

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