Do Labour Need a Better Campaign Coordinator?

There is a very good piece by Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice about poor Andy Burnham MP who happens to the be the Labour Party's campaign coordinator.

Burnham has said:

"It would be a recipe for chaos and confusion if Labour candidates were also supporting AV in their literature."

Yet Pack points out that there was no chaos or confusion across London when a referendum called by a Labour government on the same day as other elections.

On the subject of the Alternative Vote and Labour's stance Will Straw on Left Foot Forward is calling for Labour to campaign for the Yes vote. He gives two reasons for this:

Firstly it belies the spirit of Labour’s existing policy at a time when the party is (rightly) criticising others for veering from their previous objectives. Labour’s manifesto said:

"To ensure that every MP is supported by the majority of their constituents voting at each election, we will hold a referendum on introducing the Alternative Vote for elections to the House of Commons."

Also Ed Miliband during his successful leadership bid said "I support AV for the House of Commons and will campaign for it."

Other reasons, he rules out the chaos, confusion and cost element, quite correctly a line of support on literature is not that difficult. 


The opposition from Labour in the commons appears to be nothing more than political sour grapes for finding themselves on the opposite side of the House. It is time to put aside political sniping and get on with the serious business of getting a fairer voting system. 


I look forward to working with the Labour Party in Northern Ireland on getting further votes for Westminster and everyone who believes in this step.
 
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The Unions Anoint Ed

Well in the end it really was a nail biting finish. It was down to the fourth round of the ballot that decided the result between the Milibands. In the end it came down to:

MPs 53-47 to David;
Members 54-46 to David;
Unions 60-40 to Ed.

Overall Ed 50.65% David 49.35%

Yes I was doing the maths in my head before the result for David was declared first (how much of a geek am I?) even turning and saying it. I knew before that forty nine came out of the Chair of the NEC's mouth which Miliband brother was next in line. But the split is that he lost out in two of the three colleges. The members and MPs/MEPs were not behind him, but the Unions were.

However, Nick Robinson and Laura Kuenssberg were talking over round two declarations and most of round three to tell us that David Miliband was smiling and Ed was looking tense, before Nick 'declared' the result for David. My friend Helen Duffet posted a tweet 'Ed Miliband wins title of Labour's best pokerface. Watch 'im.'

So in honour of the new Labour leader's performance before the count was declared here's this.

The Failings of Andy Burnham

Just what was Andy Burnham playing at yesterday?

I didn't get to see the live coverage from Hillsborough yesterday and still being without Broadband at home* was unable to do more than throw up a few Tweets from my phone as I watched the news coverage. First off I would say that most of the people present at Anfield would have had no problems with the Sports Minister a lifelong Evertonian being present at yesterday's memorial service to the Hillsborough victims 20 years on. After all the grief engulfed the whole city as well as us fans not from Merseyside. The problem came when he opened his mouth on the platform.

In actuality the problem came from whatever clandestine invitation was sent to him to speak, as well as his acceptance of that offer when he had nothing new to add. In the build up to the event anybody who was watching coverage realised two things. First yesterday was supposed to be about remembrance of the 96 lives that were lost as a result of what happened on April 15th, 1989. But also underlying a lot of the coverage was that this anniversary was being used to make calls for an inquiry into what happened after 15:15 on that day, as well as the actual decisions made by individuals from 14:45 up to that point and beyond.

If the Sports Minister didn't have anything to add to that second issue, and he didn't, he should have sat there head bowed like 35,000 others. Then he went unto the News programmes afterwards and spent most of his Time ducking and diving behind the Taylor report. But as I said on Saturday though the Taylor report had gone some way it had not gone far enough.

There is the question of the vetted statements from junior police officers. There is the lies about just how Gate C came to be open which the Duty Officer told and the three letter titled red top took as gospel. There are the 40 ambulances equipped with oxygen that were denied entry to the pitch and may well have saved lives.

Andy Burnham may well have been trying to deflect attention from the email fall out, which I notice is still higher up the Times than Burnham managed today. It does however show that Labour are once again failing to listen to the people.

*Hopefully that will be resolved later today.