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Conference news in brief – Sunday

September 30, 2012 9:55 am

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Good morning, and welcome to the first LabourList daily conference brief – a brief round-up of what you need to know at the start of each conference day. For regular updates throughout conference – keep an eye on our Conference Liveblog.

Breaking up the banks – Ed Miliband has said that Banks need to ensure that there is separation between retail and “casino” banks, or Labour will legislate to break them up in the event of a Labour win in 2015. He said:

“Either they can do it themselves – which frankly is not what has happened over the past year – or the next Labour government will, by law, break up retail and investment banks.”

Labour MP Malcolm Wicks passes away – sad news at the start of conference, as it emerged last night that Labour MP Malcolm Wicks has died. Ed Miliband paid tribute to him, saying:

“He was a brilliant energy minister, he was a deep thinker about welfare and pensions, and Labour to his core. Malcolm was also a dedicated constituency MP, always putting the needs of his Croydon constituents first. He was a brilliant campaigner. The way he handled his illness tells you everything about the man. He showed huge dignity and also kept on thinking, writing and advising right to the end. I have lost a wise confidant and, most importantly, a dear friend and the Labour party has lost one of its sharpest thinkers. Our thoughts go to Malcolm’s wife, Margaret, and his family.”

Len McCluskey hits out at “New Labour cuckoos” and commits to kicking them “out of the nest” - Unite General Secretary has hit out at Blairites within the party in an interview with the Sunday Times. McCluskley also says that Unite “should only be supporting those constituencies where their vision of the type of future that we want is in line with ours,” and discusses plans to get 5,000 Unite members to join the party as part of a plan for “reclaiming Labour”.

Shadow Cabinet interviews a go-go – something of a media blitz to launch conference today. There are interviews in today’s papers with Ed Balls, Rachel Reeves, Chuka Umunna and Jim Murphy. Oh – and Ed Miliband. We may even have missed someone (let us know in the comments).

trotters1957

Dreadful performance by Ed Miliband on the Andrew Marr show this morning. I’m generally supportive of him but he was clumsy and couldn’t get his points across.
He’s got a long way to go, I’m afraid.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Smith/516168738 Daniel Smith

What are we going to do about Len McClusky? John F. Smith is my union leader (M.U.) and he doesn’t go around shooting his mouth off.
http://twitter.com/waterwards dave stone

What to do about Len McC?

How about according him guru status?

If New Labour’s vote-losing escapades had been avoided we probably would still be in government. Just to recap a few: betrayal of British armed forces by committing to senseless wars, loss of 1.5 million manufacturing jobs, failure to address housing crisis and i.d. card proposal.

All of these, and more, caused ordinary, reasonable, mainstream voters to desert New Labour. Eventually we were down close on 5 million votes from the 1997 high.

The Unions can provide a ready-made institutional avenue able to lead Labour toward a firmer connection with ordinary people. Len, as a democratically elected leader, can play a part in this.
http://twitter.com/waterwards dave stone

What to do about Len McC?

How about according him guru status?

If New Labour’s vote-losing escapades had been avoided we probably would still be in government. Just to recap a few: betrayal of British armed forces by committing to senseless wars, loss of 1.5 million manufacturing jobs, failure to address housing crisis and i.d. card proposal.

All of these, and more, caused ordinary, reasonable, mainstream voters to desert New Labour. Eventually we were down close on 5 million votes from the 1997 high.

The Unions can provide a ready-made institutional avenue able to lead Labour toward a firmer connection with ordinary people. Len, as a democratically elected leader, can play a part in this.
Jeremy_Preece

I didn’t see this, but really it is all rather part of the depressing picture that emerges time and time again with Ed. So many on these pages say that leadership skills and the ability to communicate are not important it is only policy. However, this sounds like yet another demonstration of how poor performance on the media stage could cost us the election.

Last week we saw the great and good within the Labour Party all talking about the great things he is doing two years into his leadership, while outside of the party the ordinary voter sees this ill at ease, clumsy man, unable to deliver a punch and unable to get his message across.

This is also why Ed had a popularity rating of -29 which made people think that Cameron was better on -21. I sometimes despair that Ed can’t hack it.
Jeremy_Preece

I didn’t see this, but really it is all rather part of the depressing picture that emerges time and time again with Ed. So many on these pages say that leadership skills and the ability to communicate are not important it is only policy. However, this sounds like yet another demonstration of how poor performance on the media stage could cost us the election.

Last week we saw the great and good within the Labour Party all talking about the great things he is doing two years into his leadership, while outside of the party the ordinary voter sees this ill at ease, clumsy man, unable to deliver a punch and unable to get his message across.

This is also why Ed had a popularity rating of -29 which made people think that Cameron was better on -21. I sometimes despair that Ed can’t hack it.
Jeremy_Preece

The answer is to face him down.
His destructive moves on the party must bring deep joy and much ammuniton to the Tories. He talks about reclaiming the party. In reality he could only reclaim the party from the electorate.
I lived through the 1970′s and Labour in the 1980′s and really don’t want to see this happen again.
Jeremy_Preece

The answer is to face him down.
His destructive moves on the party must bring deep joy and much ammuniton to the Tories. He talks about reclaiming the party. In reality he could only reclaim the party from the electorate.
I lived through the 1970′s and Labour in the 1980′s and really don’t want to see this happen again.
Jeremy_Preece

The answer is to face him down.
His destructive moves on the party must bring deep joy and much ammuniton to the Tories. He talks about reclaiming the party. In reality he could only reclaim the party from the electorate.
I lived through the 1970′s and Labour in the 1980′s and really don’t want to see this happen again.

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