With very little fanfare, and very little follow up in the media, the coalition has announced how it plans to frame its strategy on an issue which affects one in four of us – not that we like to talk about it very much.
Our guest writer is Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham. Here he outlines his reasons for supporting Diana Holland as Labour Party Treasurer.
It may be an understatement to say that the environmental movement is going through a rough patch. In the wake of the Copenhagen summit climate change scepticism shows little sign of going away.
Conspiracy theories are often dismissed as the humorous, yet mainly harmless preserve of a lunatic ‘whacky’ fringe. Bizarre they can be, but they are no laughing matter. They are a serious, widespread and influential cultural habit, and in certain social contexts they can be harmful.
So, the Labour Party’s most popular politician, a man respected for his honesty and outspokenness, Jon Cruddas, is backing David Miliband for the leadership. Many are surprised; some are elated – citing it as proof of the that David represents a ‘board church’; some disappointed.
Though four weeks remain till the result of the leadership election is known, there are a few things of which the Labour Campaign for International Development (LCID) can be certain. No matter who wins on 25th September the party will continue to be a passionate supporter of development issues.
Ed Miliband writes to tell Left Foot Forward readers about the speech I made earlier today to an audience of Labour activists that sets out the choice that the party faces about the changes that we need to make.
Poorer families are in fact paying nearly five times more than the richest to bring down the budget deficit at a speed and value greater than anything tried before. This comes on top of evidence from the House of Commons Library that women will bear 73% of the impact of the budget as tax credits and child benefit and scaled back.
Given the fiscal situation, the coalition is right to look for savings from this billion-pound drug budget – indeed many inside the Labour Government felt that, while we had been right to expand this budget a decade ago, we should have found more savings in this area ourselves during our last year.
David Miliband, through his Movement for Change, has identified people who are passionate to change their communities and then paid to train them in community organising.
