Harman’s interview on the Andrew Marr show where she challenges Labour to leave its comfort zone by being shit to welfare recipients is a disgrace and arguing for abstention on the Tories new welfare bill. I am one of many who argue that Labour should come to terms with losing the 2015 election before we elect a leader, but the Harman leadership repeats the mistake of 2010, by having the Leadership election immediately and then in lieu of a debate we have a brutal illustration of the power of Labour’s leader position exercised by someone who only holds the position on an interim basis. This is deliberate, some in the Leadership don’t want to share that power with either the long term membership or its newly energised members. They substitute a personality beauty contest for a rigorous and accountable policy framework which dis-empowers the activists. She’s wrong on policy and wrong on strategy. …
Benefit cap
And if we lost an election on a manifesto that included a benefit cap, why does supporting it in parliament show we’ve listened. …
Accountability
Also need to re-introduce elections to the shadow cabinet.
Coups
Harman’s leadership and the two putative coups in the PLP before the 2010 and 2015 elections shows the Labour Party needs a term limit and transparent recall mechanism for its leadership.
Crypto
There have been a couple of articles over the weekend on the crypto-wars and Cameron’s desire to ban strong encryption to UK citizens. …
Listen
And now Harman, arguing that losing the election is a mandate for austerity. You’re not listening to the Party you lead and your personal mandate is pretty dated; I wonder how many of today’s members were around in 2006. …
Work
Who’d have thought, that the French work harder than we do in Britain. #r4today
Deptford CLP nominates
#LewDeptLabour voted last night to support Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson as Leader & Deputy Leader …
Mandate
Among many pieces of occult magic, Osborne extends public sector pay squeeze for the duration of the parliament; Chris Leslie for Labour agrees with this. WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR MANDATE? …
Belief
To Labour’s Leadership candidates….Do you actually believe in ‘expansionary fiscal consolidation’ or is it just the focus groups speaking?