A Tribute To Alan Johnson

As Alan Johnson becomes an early Minister to leave Ed Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet, there is no shame for anyone in the Cabinet. This is quite rare when a high profile Minister resigns. However, Alan Johnson leaves with the Government and the public’s respect intact.

Alan Johnson, leaving with his reputation intact

He is a good politician, a good man and someone people can associate with. There is no sign of privilege in his background. He’s the sort of guy who is genuinely working to make life better for the rest of us.

Much has been made of the fact that he used to be a postman. However, not many have mentioned his orphaned status as a child, being raised by his elder sister in a council flat. Attending a comprehensive school, stacking shelves in Tesco. He worked his way up through a union, clearly not a career politician.

If the rumours about his wife’s affair with a bodyguard are true then he will clearly be devastated and have many problems in his private life. But his public life will not be called into question and potentially his position could be strengthed.

I therefore hope, and expect, to see Alan Johnson return to the Shadow Cabinet in the foreseeable future. But for now I wish him, and his successor the economic expert Ed Balls, all the best

Fighting For The EMA

Michael Gove and his fellow Tories are trying to get ride of the EMA across the UK. This will affect hundreds of educational faculties and thousands of students/pupils across the UK.

Michael Gove admitted live in the House of Commons today that he had only visited one faculty, and that was in his own constituency (Which, being a Tory is a wealthy one). For the Secretary of State for Education to have really no idea about education is a scary state of affairs.

Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Andy Burnham

Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham took on Gove in the Commons today and proved himself to be far more knowledgeable in the topic area.  Gove seemed to struggle to fight Burnham’s accusations and facts.

Labour’s EMA program has been vital across the UK for aiming to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor across all levels of education.

Gove also asked Burnham what the change was between 2009 and 2010 for underprivileged children going to Oxford or Cambridge. The figures read as such: a 4% decrease, which is none too surprising under a Tory government. If this was Gove’s best form of a defence, it was pretty dire.

Burnham also was able to quote Gove on comments he made in his newspaper column in the last couple of years. The quotes were entirely elitist as he attacked the idea of working class people going to university. Even Gove’s wife made comments in the paper, embarrassing her husband as she claimed that all working class mothers must have a cleaner. I personally don’t know anyone with a cleaner.

The Tories, as ever, decided that their only form of defence was to make random noises and shout. This would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact they’re meant to be running the country.

Andy Burnham continues to enhance his reputation. He’s a man who I’d have been happy with leading the Labour Party so it is excellent to see him performing well in a high position in the Cabinet and in the Chamber.

Removing EMA will cause at least 78,000 people this year to fall out of the higher education system, a huge loss. This will in return lead to more people turning to the benefit system and in turn will lead to more money being spent on benefits than the money saved by getting rid of EMA.

Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove

The Tories of course made an election promise to keep EMA in place, so this would be ANOTHER election promise broken by the ConDem government. As Andy Burnham said: “This time it’s not the yellow Tories, but the real Tories who are breaking their promises.”

Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes then stood up to speak and stated that he would be happy to work with Andy Burnham as well as working inside the government with Michael Gove. The more support Burnham gains in this issue, the more likely that Britain’s young people will be able to continue to attend university without fear of further debt.

Gove began to improve later in the debate and showed some knowledge and debating skills, being able to talk about various issues of educational policy. However, he still used the famous cliché of talking about the deficit the government inherited from the previous government. It’s not that this is untrue, it’s simply the fact that every ConDem member feels the need to mention it whenever they’re backed into a corner by their own inability to defend policy.

I don’t claim that Michael Gove is a poor quality Minister, as it happens I don’t believe that he is. I simply wish to put across that on the particular issue of EMA Andy Burnham fought the better fight today.

Ed In The Game

The first few months of Ed Miliband’s reign as the leader of the Labour Party were pretty low key publicly. He was getting used to the job and presumably trying to work out party policy on certain matters.

More recently though, it appears to me that Ed’s been doing very well and is increasing his own popularity whilst keeping the Party on the right track. He’s made what I believe have been several important moves to win over support.

Ed's had a few things to smile about recently

Early on in his reign he decided to appoint Alan Johnson as Shadow Chancellor, a move unpopular with some. I had personally expected, as many did, that Ed Balls would be given this post. However, looking at it now I think Ed made the right choice. He needs to distance himself from the unpopularity of Gordon Brown. To put Balls in that job would seem too much of a Brownite move. Whether Johnson is right for the post or not remains to be seen but it was wise to make a move such as this, especially with Johnson having support David Miliband in the leadership campaign. This helped prove Ed would not put only his friends in positions of power but would act in the interest of the party.

Alan Johnson (Coincidentally showing the size of the Tory vote in Oldham)

Recently came the Oldham by-election. Labour won a thumping majority of 3,500 roughly which can be seen as a big victory for the party and a sign of support for Ed. This was his first real public challenge and it was a massive success.

Even more recently Ed was interview by Andrew Marr about the potential strikes on the day of the Royal Wedding. Personally, the wedding isn’t something I’m interested in but Ed definitely made the right move. He condemned talk of a strike action and said he would not support it. It would have been electoral suicide to do the opposite. ‘Red Ed Backs Unions Over Royals’ papers would rage, and that’s something to be avoided.

Overall, he’s done pretty well I’d say and long may that continue. Also I should explain that I call him Ed rather than Miliband for the obvious reason that his brother is also one of Britain’s best politicians, and will hopefully come back to the Cabinet in the future.

The Magic Of Malcolm Tucker

Last night I finally got to see my favourite character of the small screen in his firt performance on the big screen, albeit on the small screen.

I refer of course to Malcolm Tucker (played by Peter Capaldi) from Armando Iannucci’s masterpiece The Thick Of It.

The all-swearing all-threatening Tucker transfers brilliantly and is every bit as good in the film. The film would be very good anyway but the brilliance of Capaldi takes it to another level with Tucker undoubtedly the star.

In tribute to this wonderful character I thought I’d relay a few of my favourite Tucker quotes from the film. (Beware, this isn’t for you if you can’t tolerate swearing)

"This is the minister of international development here, he should be talking about... food parcels... not... fucking, arse-spraying mayhem!"

“Just fucking do it! Otherwise you’ll find yourself in some medieval war zone in the Caucasus with your arse in the air, trying to persuade a group of men in balaclavas that sustained sexual violence is not the fucking way forward!”

“Well, it is out there, it’s out there now, lurking like a big hairy rapist at a coach station. You know, if I could, I’d punch you into paralysis!”

Malcolm Tucker: “Fucking hung up, haven’t you? You fucking hoity-toity fucking… ”
Tourist: “Hey, buddy? Enough with the curse words, all right? ”
Malcolm Tucker: “Kiss my sweaty balls, you fat fuck.”

“Why didn’t you say? He asked you. Fuck, of course, that explains it. If he’d asked you to fucking black up, or to give him your PIN number or to shit yourself, would you have done that?”

“Christ on a bendy-bus. Don’t be such a fucking faff arse.”

"Fuckety-bye-bye then"

“You say nothing, okay? You stay detached. Otherwise that’s what I’ll do to your retinas.”

Keep in mind, this is all from one film. And that’s not even close to all of them. Just shows what a veritable feast The Thick Of It is.

Lord Young – Typical Tory

I’ve possibly missed the boat on this one, I should really have made this blog yesterday. As you may, or should know, Lord Young – one of Dave’s chief advisers – made a ludicrous statement recently.

He essentially discarded the notion of a recession.

In the current economic climate (recession climate) this certainly isn’t a wise thing to say. Young stated that people had never had it better and essentially told them to stop moaning.

Akin to ‘Let them eat cake’ anyone? Hmm, yes.

This is why he’s a typical Tory. This is the Government we’ve got now. Not caring people. Millionaires who genuinely don’t give a horse’s toenail about the people of Britain.

Let Them Eat Cake

David Miliband Takes A Back Seat

Only days after the Labour Party and British politics in general recieved the huge announcement that Ed, not David, Miliband had been elected as the new party leader David has decided to take a back seat, politically speaking.

David (right) was marginally defeated by Ed (left)

In spite of the fact that many papers and media sources will have you believe that Miliband has ‘stepped down from politics’ that is nonsense.

Have no doubt about it, he’ll be back. He is, after all, only moving to the backbenches. He isn’t leaving the house.

And this by no means that he will never become a member of the Cabinet, or indeed the leader, in the future.

Some will see David’s decision as wise, some will view i as him ‘taking a huff’. We may not know until he publishes a book of his memoirs in 20 years’ time!

Either way, the man definitely has a future within the party in my eyes, and this certainly gives his brother a clear shot at winning over the public without distraction.

Labour Leadership Looms Large

On the 25th of September, this coming Saturday, the new leader of the Labour Party will be announced.

I personally believe there are four very good candidates for the job, and Dianne Abbott.

Diane Abbott, not the right choice

I simply think that Abbott is not a credible electable option for the party. Whilst some people may see an appeal in the fact that she offers something different to her opponents the simple fact remains that she would be the least likely to beat Cameron in a general election. This is not to say I dislike her, as I do like her left-wing tendencies.

However, she has spent too much time in the comfort zone of a TV programme alongside long-term Labour enemy Michael Portillo.

Where I’d like to see her: On the backbenches

Ed Balls, excellent but unfortunate

Ed Balls faces two problems in his candidacy. Firstly, his name. Petty as it sounds there is a lot of immaturity and pettiness in the British media and you can imagine the headlines they’d have lined up if a man named Balls was elected. Secondly, he is well known to have been one of Gordon Brown’s closest allies. Considering how unpopular Gordon was, this could work against him.

This is all very sad as he is in fact an excellent politician with good forward thinking ideas.

Where I’d like to see him: Chancellor Of The Exchequer

Andy Burnham will not be a well known name to any people like some of the others. However, he had held important roles in government for years.

Andy Burnham, potential to grow into the role

I see him as someone who would have potential as a leader. He has lots of good ideas, but also has a personality the public could warm to and has no obvious drawbacks. If my preferred choice does not come into power I would certainly be happy to see him get the job.

Where I’d like to see him:

Home Secretary

Ed Miliband is tipped by many to become the new leader of the party. And it must be said that I like him. He has many good ideas and policies and a passionate belief in these.

Ed Miliband, a credible choice

As with Andy Burnham and Ed Balls I feel he could do well as the leader of the Labour Party and I would happily support him if he is elected.

I do believe though that, sad as it is, there are people who would decide they were not keen on Ed due to his, some would say, unusual accent.

I personally do not see this as a problem at all as I am able to focus on the fact that he is an able and commited politician.

My worry would be that members of the public would not be as discerning.

Where I’d Like To See Him: Deputy Leader

This leaves one more contender, David Miliband. I feel that Ed’s brother is the man to lead the party back to power.

David Miliband, the man for the job

He has huge experience within goverment, having played influencial roles in several regimes.

He already appears very confident in debates and would be able to defeat opposition leaders with these skills. He has in the past shown these skills by proving a more capable speaker than leaders of other countries, never mind parties.

Some would argue that David is less left-wing than some of his counterparts. Whether this view is true or not I believe this perception could help him win a general election where a public may be wary of a radical jump to the left. I just hope this doesn’t prevent him winning in the more left-wing Labour contest.

Where I’d Like To See Him: Party Leader