A day in the race: August 19th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

A Scottish themed day in the race today, with three of the five candidates campaigning north of the border today, on a day of meetings, a funeral and exam results.

Last night, DIANE ABBOTT attended a meeting in Luton of nearly 100 people from surrounding constituencies. Kelvin Hopkins, MP for Luton North, who had invited Diane said he ‘was absolutely delighted with the meeting.’

Today Diane has taken her campaign north, as she meets party members in Scotland for the next couple of weeks. This evening, Diane is at the Scottish Trade Unions Congress in Glasgow, speaking at a debate on ‘Women and Politics’.

Diane also took time out of her tour of Scotland to comment on today’s A-Level results:

“I’d like to congratulate all those students who achieved their grades and managed to secure themselves a university place.However, along with today’s record grades come record levels of young people who will have their dreams dashed as they are denied the opportunity to go to university.Our A Level students are performing better and better every year, but instead of rewarding them, the government is limiting university places and sending them into a downtrodden job market. We should be celebrating our students and encouraging them into further education. A government that does not consider education a priority has clearly got its priorities all wrong.”

Diane’s arrival in Scotland today was marked by an exclusive interview with the Herald, where she offered her support to the Scottish government’s decision to release Megrahi, saying:

“It is not for me to second-guess the Scottish government but I have every confidence that they made the best decision, the right decision, under Scottish law in relation to the evidence that they had before them.”

ED BALLS was also in Scotland today at the beginning of his UK tour. He had always planned to start in Scotland, but it also allowed him to attend the funeral of the great trade unionist Jimmy Reid which took place today. Balls described the service as “powerful”.

Ed was interviewed for the BBC News channel, where he reacted to today’s A level results:

“Those people who come along and say well you know these exams are getting easier, it is not true. The fact is it is happening because of great teaching and hard work from our students. We have an independent regulator who is there to say we’re maintaining standards, so let’s not have any of this nonsense which I had to put up with and students have to over the last few years about dumbing-down and it being easier. It is not true. Celebrate the successes, we’ve got some brilliant young people doing great stuff, but if you haven’t quite made it don’t give up.”

Interviewed by Radio 4 this evening, Ed talked about the contest, and how he couldn’t have won “under the shadow” of Gordon Brown:

“I have a number of people who have come out to support me since [May] who nominated other candidates at the time.”

“People had to make their decisions as members of parliament about who to nominate early on and I think the reality is in those first couple of weeks after the general election where people were looking backwards and thinking about the past.”

“I was under the shadow of the previous government, I’d obviously been closely associated with Gordon Brown. At that time people were thinking well do we need to move on, at the time I think they thought I was somebody who’d find it hard to move on.”

ED MILIBAND is the third leadership candidate in Scotland today – tonight he’s in Glasgow North for a meeting. Earlier today he wrote a post for his website criticising the actions of the government on the environment, saying:

“At the weekend we heard about cuts to support for nature reserves and water ways and plans to sell off the MET office which provides vital research on climate change.”

“The government’s policy reflects a coalition of damaging dogmas – the dogma of the Liberal Democrats against nuclear power, and the dogma of a Conservative Party who see no role for active government in fostering growth and jobs for Britain’s future.”

“These dogmatic objections mean they are ill-equipped to deal with the challenge of climate change and the government’s approach risks undermining the UK’s growing reputation round the world for diplomatic and industrial leadership in this field. Climate change is the ultimate market failure and requires active government to shift our overall economy towards growth where the planet no longer pays the price. Instead they say they can’t afford to support those industrial efforts to make that shift. Future generations will not thank them for their short-sightedness.”

“The coalition claimed to be the greenest government ever but they are turning their backs on green jobs and green industries.”

DAVID MILIBAND wasn’t in Scotland today, but was in Milton Keynes, Northampton and Stevenage. Reacting to the A level results on Twitter, Miliband said:

“All those getting A levels today: don’t believe the nay sayers abt standards. Doomsters complained same way when As brought in.”

David Was interviewed by the BBC, and said that the government is “raiding poor and vulnerable” people.

ANDY BURNHAM continued his battlebus tour today, and added a few more stops to his journey – Ilkeston, Wirral South & Stroud. He’s keeping to his commitment to visit anyone who can get more party members together for a meeting if you’re on/near his route. If you think you can, then get in touch with him.