By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter It is difficult to say how anyone could regard the Labour leader Ed Miliband's speech to the TUC this morning as a triumph. How wasn't cheered enough – the reception was lacklustre. So he could not claim to be inspiring and motivated his core supporter. But now was he booed […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. Ed Miliband's increasingly dysfunctional relationship with the unions has many facets: the potential perverting of democracy, the gloomy prospects for Labour's finances, the insights into Miliband's weak character and weaker authority, the list goes on. Left wing optimists would argue that in the long run it makes little difference to the […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. The deal seems to be that Karie Murphy is reinstated as a Labour member (which pleases Len McCluskey), that she withdraws from the contest for the Party's Parliamentary candidacy in Falkirk (which pleases Ed Miliband) and that Labour says that there is no proof of wrongdoing either by them […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. It has now been two months since Ed Miliband made his big speech intended to nip in the bud the crisis over Labour's trade union funding. We still don't have any answers to the many questions about how his reforms will work in detail – most notably whether he will reject […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter How would Tony Blair have voted on Thursday night had he still been an MP? Given his article in The Times one can only conclude that his only objection to the Government's motion would be that it was not stronger. Several have noted that Mr Blair damaged his own cause […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. “No 10 and the Foreign Office think Miliband is a f****** c*** and a copper-bottomed s***…" said one Government source. So reports the Times, about the Labour leader's decision to go back on his earlier agreement with the Government's strategy on Syria. It's not every day the Government brief newspapers that the […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. Remember Ed Miliband's "laser-like focus on welfare spending"? Or Ed Balls' sudden conversion to "iron discipline" on the budget? How about Miliband's repeated insistence that his party wouldn't commit to reversing any cut in spending unless it was "fully funded". I do, if only slightly, but it appears the Labour leader has […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. As Tony Blair marched inexorably on towards his 1997 landslide victory, I and fellow members of the Daily Telegraph's leader writing team clung to a pathetic last hope, like the bedraggled remnants of a Native American tribe holding fast to its ghost dance. No British political leader with less […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Part of the horror of Opposition is that one is pronged by a Morton's Fork. Make no policy commitments, and you've nothing to say. But make policy commitments, and the Government will merrily tot them up and reach some terrifying total.
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. Last night, one of the greatest so-bad-it's-good films ever made hit British television screens. In Sharknado, a freak tornado tears through the sea off Los Angeles, scattering sharks across the city. It's even worse than it sounds, but it's ok because the special effects are awful, there are several washed-up former […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. 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 […]
By Andrew GimsonFollow Andrew on Twitter Ed Miliband’s attitude to the trade unions is hopelessly confused. He has not defined himself, and proved to Middle England how sound he is, by picking a fight with them in the manner of a latter-day Tony Blair. The present Labour leader owes too much to the unions for such […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. Today's Times contains an awkward revelation for Ed Miliband – despite turning a surplus last year, Labour managed to organise its tax affairs so efficiently that the party paid no corporation tax whatsoever. Of course, there's no suggestion they did anything illegal, but given Miliband's regular drum-beating about the immorality of […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. Guido reported a few days ago that Labour are seeking to hire a lobby journalist to become their new Deputy Director of Communications. Now the job advert has gone online, and it reveals a few things about how Labour view the state of their operation at the moment: Among the responsibilities […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. Last week, writing up Ed Miliband's speech on Labour's trade union scandal, I raised a number of practical questions about how the reforms will work. Len McCluskey's interview in today's Guardian helpfully answers the first of them I asked: "Len McCluskey told the BBC Miliband is not calling for an opt-in […]