Miliband Gives Party Vision In Brave Conference Speech

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15082652
http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2011/09/27/miliband-conference-speech-2011-reactions

I attended Ed Miliband's speech at this year's Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, neither expecting too much or too little from it.

Miliband has spoken out well on a number of issues, most notably the hacking scandal.

But he has not stamped his mark on the Party in his first year as leader sufficiently in my view and Cameron almost always has had the upper hand at PMQs.

However, I was pleasantly surprised.

Miliband's second Conference speech as Labour Party leader was, in the main, very well received by  delegates and Party members.

It was his best yet, and an address in which Miliband spelt out very clearly where he stands. It was obvious straight away that he can no longer be justifiably described as 'Red Ed', as he praised some of the Thatcherite policies of the 80s, like the sale of council houses and measures to curb the unions.

These were very bold words from a man who, up until this year's conference had still to explain to the electorate what he stands for, after more than a year as Labour leader.

Despite later criticism from the media and Business leaders, Miliband delivered his vision of a new kind of capitalism, distinguishing between the Producers and Predators, companies that put something back into society and those that abused their financial power and ripped people off.  I thought this was an extremely clever way of taking the Party forward, pledging that a future Labour government would promote more responsible practices when re-elected and was a clear admission that the previous admistration had failed to curb the excesses of the banks which had contributed to the recession of 2008.

Miliband declared that he was his own man, but at the same time, was eager to praise the achievements of  his predecessors Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. It was extremely disheartening to hear boos in the audience at the mention of Blair's name. Clearly these were people who never liked Blair anyway and felt he took the Party too far to the right. But how perverse to heckle someone who to date has been Labour's most successful Prime Minister, leading the party to three successive general election victories. Blair did make very notable mistakes, such as with Iraq, but his many achievements in government should be applauded. The consensus amongst those in the hall was that Labour should embrace their leaders, not disparage them, as this sends a message to the country at large that the Party is disunited. http://www.labourlist.org/lets-talk-about-blair. And of course it allowed Cameron in his conference speech to really take a swipe at Labour for doing so.

Whilst this speech lacked concrete policy announcements, which is not unexpected four years away from a general election, it was about Ed Miliband the man, his beliefs and where he wants to take the Party.

Labour have a very hard task ahead in restoring the Party's credibility on the economy, especially with Gordon Brown's protegee, Ed Balls,  in charge of that brief.

But Miliband certainly has now convinced me that he has what it takes be Prime Minister. He excelled too, in the Q&A session, the following day, in which non-Labour members were invited to participate. It was further evidence of his ability to connect with ordinary voters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2SAkFYgbok

I am sure that he will continue to make a positive impact over the next twelve months. Miliband will no doubt be helped by the worsening state of the economy and the coalition's increasing unpopularity.

What Ed Miliband has to do now is take advantage of  these economic events in carrying his message round the country so that he convinces the electorate as well.

Balls' 5-Point Growth Plan No Quick Fix

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15054705

Ed Balls' answer to the debt crisis was largely welcomed by Labour Party members in Liverpool.

Predictably, the Shadow Chancellor urged George Osborne to change course and alter the speed and extent of  cuts in public spending.

However, despite admissions during his speech that Labour had made mistakes with economic policy, Ed Balls
has come up with a road map that could possibly make things worse before they get better, with more spending of money we don't have and increasing the already-enormous budget deficit even further.

With his strong links to Gordon Brown, Balls is associated with all the economic mistakes of the last Labour government.

I'm firmly of the view that Ed Miliband should have looked elsewhere to fill Alan Johnson's shoes as Shadow Chancellor.

I am not at all sure that Labour can win back the electorate's trust on the economy with Ed Balls in charge of the Treasury.

Clegg Tells Party At Loggerheads 'We Have To Stay The Course'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15008198

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg did his best to rally the Party faithful in his keynote speech at this year's annual gathering of Liberal Democrats in Birmingham.

It was clearly an extremely difficult task for him.

With the British economy in dire straits and teetering on the brink of a double-dip recession and the Lib Dem's popularity at an all-time low, how many of the grassroots could really have been convinced of Clegg's message that they have to stay the course and stick with their decision to join the Conservatives in government?

Party managers did their best to ensure that delegates and ministers alike all showed a united front to the nation.  But it was clear that there are still many members very unhappy at being in power with the Tories and grave concern remaining about the troubled economic waters ahead.

Unfortunately for Clegg, having allied himself so firmly with Cameron in government, and in particular with the manner and speed of deficit reduction,  it is now almost impossible for him to back out of the coalition.

All he can do is hope that the Party does not face what is now widely predicted to be total annihilation at the polls in 2015.

PM Right To Oppose Dorries On Abortion

http://blogs.news.sky.com/boultonandcohttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14745675

The changes to abortion legislation proposed by Conservative back bencher Nadine Dorries have sparked the usual fierce debate.

Dorries' views are typical of many in today's Conservative Parliamentary party - in particular those who entered the House of Commons for the first time at last year's general election.  They reflect the thinking of a growing number of Tory MPs who belong to Christian groups, which also include Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.

She proposes that organisations that provide abortions, like Marie Stopes, should be prevented from providing women with advice before they go ahead with a termination.

Such organisations have long experience of providing impartial counselling women wishing to end their pregnancies in both the pros and cons of doing so. 

In my view, not allowing these clinics to do so in future will make an already extremely distressing predicament even more so for women and almost certainly prolong the trauma for them.

A woman's right to choose should remain paramount and no further undermining of that choice by those heavily influenced by the religious right should take place. We do not need to go down the same road as the United States and espouse the same values as Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.

The current legislation is sufficient and should not be altered further.

The Prime Minister is right to oppose this amendment. 

UK Riots Not Down To Race Or Poverty - We Are Not A Nation In Moral Decline

http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/news/entry/tony-blair-in-the-observer-britain-isnt-broken/

Tony Blair may have largely disappeared from the UK political arena but his occasional interventions are usually astute.

Like most people in this country, I watched in horror as unprecedented riots swept through the UK and people from all walks of life - both wealthy and less so - chose to participate in the violence and looting.

The initial police response to the disturbances was worse than woeful. 

However, the fact remains that in the most deprived areas that were caught up in the disturbances, only a very small minority of people chose to take part. Most of those people stayed away from trouble.  Therefore the theory that social deprivation was the root cause of the riots, is in my view, far too simplistic. As usual, Ken Livingstone was far too quick to blame what happened on cuts in government spending.

By the same token, the Prime Minister's statement from Downing Street in the aftermath of the riots was equally black and white.  Yes, of course such behaviour is totally unacceptable and the fact that so many areas were involved does on the surface give the impression to the rest of the world that Britain is 'broken' and 'frankly sick'.

But rather than running Britain into the ground and using the riots to score political points, I would agree with Tony Blair that a more individual approach is needed to tackle social problems and prevents such events happening in future. His view that we should solve problems family by family is surely sensible and avoids the sweeping generalisation that the entire nation is 'in moral decline'.

The courts, understandably, have come down very heavily on some of those involved. However, I don't believe that the sentences of some will be allowed to stand on appeal. The person who was jailed for stealing a bottle of water will surely have their punishment lessened when reviewed.  And with the prison population already at bursting point, jailing first-time offenders for very minor offences will only make a very bad situation even worse and won't necessarily deter them from re-offending.

The British people are on the whole, decent, tolerant and law-abiding. Mr Blair is right to point out that, instead of focussing too heavily on those who looted and rioted, we should applaud those who came out to clean up.

We would do well to keep this in mind and should remember that such widespread disturbances are thankfully very very rare.

UK Economic Recovery Far Slower Than Government Forecast

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14370681

The UK economy is expected to grow by 1.5% this year, according to the IMF, but slower than the Coalition's predicted 1.7% increase in expansion.

Of course the Treasury has repeatedly said that the waters will be choppy on the journey back to recovery, and certainly the UK has not yet reached the predicament of other European nations and the US in coming perilously close to economic default.

But the Government have tied themselves so firmly to cuts in public spending as the only way to reduce the country's deficit, that I don't believe they are fully prepared what happens if the UK economy does not grow quickly enough. With unemployment still expected to remain high throughout 2011, it is difficult to see the economy growing sufficiently to lift us out of the danger zone.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for George Osborne to dodge Labour's accusations that the Government does not have a Plan B for economic recovery.

And now, with the IMF voicing their worries, the state of our finances is cause for international concern.

Hacking Scandal Rumbles On Amidst New Revelations.

Despite denying all knowledge of hacking activities whilst at The News of the World, Andy Coulson still has questions to answer.

This will no doubt shift the focus back on the Prime Minister come the end of the summer recess, and renew the debate over his judgement in hiring Mr Coulson as his Communications Director at Number 10. 

And with the revelations that Heather Mills, ex-wife of Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, now believes her phone was hacked by journalists at Mirror Group Newspapers, it is clear that such underhand practices were not confined to just one tabloid newspaper. 

Indeed Piers Morgan may have created a rod for his own back by revealing that he had heard details of a phone conversation between Mills and Sir Paul. Does he know more than he is letting on? 

This story is not over yet.