This blog will remain neutral during the Labour leadership election. But we want to ensure that the contest is about the future of the party's policy & organisation.
Left Foot Forward is looking forward to the splinters. Yep, we’re sitting on the fence in the forthcoming Labour leadership election.
We’re clear that the process should be months, rather than weeks, culminating in hustings at the Labour conference in Manchester. We want to see as wide a range of candidates as possible. And, critically, we want a genuine debate about the future direction of the Labour party in relation to both policy and organisation.
To kick off this process, we propose here five questions that we think should define the leadership contest. But these are very much initial thoughts and we’d welcome our readers’ views in the comments section as to whether these are the right points to address. This time next week, we’ll publish a revised list of questions and use it to frame our analysis of the leadership election ahead.
1. Economy: Public spending was 36 per cent of GDP in 1999 and has risen to 48 per cent (partly the result of the recession). Net receipts are currently project to reach 38 per cent by 2011-12? What does the Labour party believe is the right size of the state? How do we pay for that? And what is the state’s role once that level has been set?
2. Environment: Tackling climate change is more critical now than ever before. In the face of fierce lobbying by vested interests, and mounting public scepticism how do we inject a sense of urgency into addressing the problem? How would you take steps not just to build a clean energy economy – vital as that is – but also to dismantle the old, unsustainable economy in order that Britain can deliver on the targets set out in the Climate Change Act?
3. New politics: The coalition government is now committed to a referendum on the Alternative Vote, House of Lords reform, recall, and fixed terms. The Labour government arguably failed to deliver on its promises in these areas. What explains our inability to deliver full constitutional reform? How can we ensure that Labour pushes the new Government further on constitutional change and campaigns aggressively in a referendum on AV?
4. The election: Polling suggests that Labour support among skilled manual (C2) workers fell from 45 per cent in 2005 to 23 per cent. Support from 18-34 years olds fell from 41 per cent to 32 per cent. What explain this? Where else has support been lost? How should Labour try and win it back?
5. The party: Across parts of the country – particularly London, Birmingham, and the northwest – good local campaigns helped increase some majorities, hold ultra-marginal seats, and win back councils. How should the party reform to embrace this local action? How should Labour learn from the “respect, empower, include” mantra of the Obama campaign?
What do you think?
46 Responses to “What should Labour’s leadership contest be about?”
Mags W
RT @wdjstraw: What should Labour's leadership election be about. Share your thoughts http://bit.ly/cbUQqJ
Mags
1. Some the issues below address the future economy.
2. Climate/Environment – Go nuclear. Go electric. Go green. Instead of spending money & using time to develop technology on what might and might not work – go for what we know works. France seems to manage… By all means encourage other green technology but not at the cost of being held to ransom by gas and oil exporters. We are an island and we need to be as self-sufficient as we can in energy and technology. More use should be made of vertical tidal power not wave energy or in line turbines. The tide is natural – lots of power – when it rises it provides free energy as it floats – use that to power a turbine. Marine friendly too.
Coastal erosion, changes in weather patterns, the effects of flooding, the price of energy, the efficiency of our homes are all going to have a fundamental effect on the way we live our lives over the next 25 years. Invest in caring for communities – employment for people there – for graduates AND C2s.
Communications and business links need improving to prevent unnecessary costs, pollution and inefficiency in the way we work and travel. It is perfectly possible to conduct a business meeting over the internet using video-conferencing and file-sharing technology even now and development of universal fast broadband will bring this facility within the reach of everyone in business.
On the environment greater use needs to be made of improved farming technologies such as hydroponics (growing food without soil – plants grow in water with nutrients feeding in). It would greatly reduce the need for expensive and often dangerous fertilisers and of course weed and insect killers which have devastated the productivity of much of our farmland. Another linked absurdity is the scandal of waste of energy (fuel, refrigeration, heating) involved in transporting foods throughout the year often over tens of thousands of miles – foods that we could grow here with imagination and technology. Again, this would help us become more self-sufficient as a nation and provide jobs.
The key words to all this are new technology, efficiency and self-sufficiency.
3. We take the lead on AV and make proposals that the coalition government would find difficult to accept in view of Nick & Dave having to sing from the same hymn sheet now ! Goodness knows why we didn’t reform the House of Lords in our first term… we had the biggest mandate in history to do what we had promised in our manifesto…. one example of why perhaps the electorate didn’t vote our way. We made promises that we didn’t fulfil.
4.People want to feel that the Government is looking after them. We weren’t socialist enough. What relevance did Government give to ordinary lives ? Big business and banks ruled ! They still do. We need to make the banks accountable to their customers – not the other way round. They are there to serve us – when did the rules change ? And ordinary banking should be split from investment banking so our money is not at risk! They are just huge profit-making institutions which risk too much and give little in return. They call the tune and that needs to be changed.
Maybe we should start a People’s Bank. The Government could do banking – poss via the Post Office or a subsidiary of Royal Mail which the country still owns… When we do something good we should fly the flag from the rooftops (others might be doing that shortly!)
Paid lobbying -v- ordinary people – who wins the ear of those who make decisions ?
Crime – the victim is often treated more like the perpetrator. Some of the recent cases where police have ignored residents’ complaints prove that.
Too many people on benefit.
Immigration – people must contribute to our nation – similar to the Australian system.
Pride and respect has been lost in many areas and needs to be restored. That starts at the top – trusting politicians!
The awards system should be more transparent – regional panels of people who again give their time to making such decisions and then feed recommendations to the newly elected second chamber which would be more representative.
Tax evasion should be addressed as well as benefit cheating.
A Tory press didn’t help !!
5. The party ! Where do I start ? Too out of date in it’s local organisation. More internet participation such as this – great !
Regional or city meetings – large events – speakers, debates and workshops.
Be professional. Maybe UNI labour clubs could help organise ?
Countrywide labour party branch meetings I gather are not all the same.
The Obama campaign was fantastic. I was an ‘overseas friend’ and I still receive emails and updates probably twice-weekly. During the campaign I knew where every meeting/husting was being held and I felt that I could just register and go. And since elected there might have been times when I’ve been better informed about what was happening within the US Government than my own British Government…
There was a genuine desire to reach out to people… there was talk of ‘hope’. There was so much positivity.
Last of all people need to feel worthy not worthless.
The Election Blog
RT @wdjstraw: What should Labour's leadership election be about. Share your thoughts http://bit.ly/cbUQqJ
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