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News that the police have dropped their inquiry into the Falkirk selection because of a lack of evidence does not come as a surprise to me. Having spoken at length to people who had read the Labour Party’s internal investigation and to a…
Such is the increasing unthinking, banality of much of the Metropolitan media, that two significant contributions to the debate over Labour’s links with the unions were lost over the weekend. The first came from former MP, Minister and…
Britain’s increasingly hysterical media caravan pitched on to new territory, hoping that the Falkirk row, and Ed Miliband’s ‘mend it – don’t break it’ speech would presage an incipient Labour civil war. It hasn’t, so far, and I suspect that…
Over the weekend, Ed Miliband drew a line in the row with Unite, whose flames had been fanned all week by the Tory press, which one would expect, but also from others, most notably The Guardian newspaper, whom one wouldn’t. He did so in an…
In recent days an assortment of Labour peers, ex MPs and commentators have all sought to pronounce to pronounce at length on the Falkirk selection. All did so without having ever seen the internal report commissioned by the Labour Party…
I have noticed over the years a general rule of thumb that governs part of the historic relationship between the trade unions – and the party they founded. It is that over the decades millions of workers have paid into and voted for their…
Shortly after Labour’s landslide victory in 1997, for some perverse reason I invited Ken Clarke to attend one of our monthly Tribune dinners in the Gay Hussar restaurant, that old canteen of the Labour Left, in London’s Soho. Clarke…
Last week Labourlist helpfully published a series of polls that showed public support for a range of policies that Labour nationally needs to be shouting from the roof tops. That included a majority for the re-nationalisation of the…
The latest lobbying scandal follows barely three years from the last one. Then, three former Ministers, Geoff Hoon, Stephen Byers and Patricia Hewitt were caught out by journalists claiming to represent lobbying companies. Exactly the same…
Foreign Secretary, William Hague appears to have got his way. Britain and France have successfully lobbied for the European Union not to renew its arms embargo on Syria. Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, immediately announced that…
Lord Mandelson, or Baron Mandelson of Foy, as he should be referred to since he was packed off to the House of Lords by a small cabal, recently accused the Unite union of ‘manipulating selection procedures’ in the Labour Party. He went on…
When Dennis Skinner interrupted flunkies going about their business during preparations for the Queen’s Speech with the words; ‘Royal Mail to be sold off; Queen’s head to be privatised!’ he wasn’t joking. The planned sell off is not only an…
