Happy united party

 

A day of remarkable harmony.

Much as it will annoy the Mail/Telegraph the Labour Party is more united than at any time in my life. Even in the halcyon days of 1945-51 there was a bitter divide between Bevanites  and the party establishment. Later things became so bitter that Bevan called Gaitskell a 'desiccated calculating machine'. In the sixties the divide between Left and Right was so toxic they used separate lifts in the Labour HQ. We now know all about the Blair-Brown poisoned relationship.

It was good to have a chance to celebrate party unity on the  Politics Show today. Both Blair and Mandelson tried to extend their legacies by urging Labour to cling to the useless husk of 'New Labour versus Old Labour' self-indulgence.' It's already dead. That bitter division should now be decently buried with a three foot thick slab of concrete placed over it so that it can never again emerge from its disgraced grave.

Not once today did I hear a single voice regretting the election of Ed Miliband. Certainly no one complained that he was not 'New' Labour. That's gone. The 257 Labour MPs are united in their determination to expose the absurdities of the coalition pantomime horse.

I did a recent tweet saying 'Next Labour will learn from our past mistakes, not repeat them.' Neil Kinnock said something very similar this morning. One of my backbenchers ten commandments is ' Attack your opponents only when they are wrong.' Ed Miliband said something very much the same today. That's a rare and productive unity.

As an old party lag, I feel a thrill of exhiliration and excitement at the prospect of a fresh generation of brilliant idealists leading the party.

This will be a good week.

 

Comments

[Kay Tie]

"Apparently I have acquired a rare distinction without seeking it. I am the only MP who placed Ed Miliband 5th out of the five candidates in the election."

Red Ed will have you on a train to Siberia for that disloyalty. Well, maybe Rhyll.

[DG]

I've been alternating between being amused and sickened at the way the media has been trying to manufacture a dislike of Ed Milliband. And exchange between Jack Straw and BBC reporter asking "what [he] didn't like about Ed" put me in mind of the classic pub-thug refrain: "Oi, are you looking at my missus? No? Why not, what's wrong with her?"

[Paul Flynn]

Apparently I have acquired a rare distinction without seeking it. I am the only MP who placed Ed Miliband 5th out of the five candidates in the election. Not expecting my vote to be re-distributed (it was not) the placing of my votes were of no importance - except David Miliband as number one. Believing they needed a tiny boost I put Andy Burnham and Dianne Abbott in second and third place. It's intriguing to see the excitement this has caused.

[Paul Flynn]

You are in for a bitter disappointment Eva, I am delighted to say.

[Eva Stone]

"Happy united party" - surely that should read Unite Party....

Assume this professed happy unity will see you and your colleagues accompany Ed en masse when he appears at the strike-obsessed unions' anti-cuts rally in Westminster in October, per his TUC statement ?

That should be some spectacle, some association - some political death sentence.

So forward in the best traditions of Michael Foot - left, left left, left left

[rwendland]

Kay Tie, like you I look forward to the time photovoltaics become very cheap. But given thier current enormous cost (about 10 times wind or nuclear), that has to be at least a decade away for economic Morocco + HVDC-back-to-UK deployment.

Currently wind power is approximately the same cost as nuclear power - remember the CEO of Exelon evidence I posted here a few months back supporting that?

Anyway wind produces power at night, but photovoltaics don't, which will give it enough utility so the generator units will be replaced when worn out rather than left to rust.

For these reasons I think you are viewing photovoltaics far too optimistically.

And with the current privatised generation business politicians could not stop cheap power being transmitted to the UK, even if they wanted to!

[Kay Tie]

"I'd bet on Britain's ability to generate electricity from wind (and rain, if only it were possible) over its ability to generate it from sunshine any day of the week."

You won't be doing it like that. Morocco etc. will be generating the power and sending it to Spain and France who will sell it to us at far less that we can make it from wind.

Of course, we won't be allowed to buy it because politicians like Paul Flynn will have to save face and pretend that they picked the winner. So you'll hear things like "energy security levy" to make the price up.

[DG]

I'd bet on Britain's ability to generate electricity from wind (and rain, if only it were possible) over its ability to generate it from sunshine any day of the week.

Photovoltaics will reduce in price for sure due to upscale efficiencies, but so will wind turbines.

What happened to the Lib Dem idea of turning old shipyards into turbine manufacturing plants? Sounded like a good one to me.

[MH @ Syniadau]

That doesn't really make sense, Paul. If Ed was originally your first choice, but David then said something that made you change your mind (which is fair enough) surely Ed would then have become your second choice. But you made him your last choice.

[Kay Tie]

"Have a look at the cost of each 'New" nuclear jobs KayTie. The Green jobs will be be successful and good value for the environment."

I didn't advocate nuclear power, I criticized wind power. What logic is it that being against one thing is automatically for another? That's a false dichotomy.

The Stern report produces a figure for what it is worth spending per ton of CO2 saved. Wind power comes nowhere near that low and therefore it is not good value for the environment. You are going to look pretty stupid in a few years when photovoltaics go below the cost of coal, and the windmills rust. We will still be paying for them, of course.

[Paul Flynn]

The division that did so much damage was between Blair and Brown. The self styled Third Man occasionally added fire to the troubles.

[Paul Flynn]

Have a look at the cost of each 'New" nuclear jobs KayTie. The Green jobs will be be successful and good value for the environment.

[D.G.]

"That bitter division..."

Do you mean Blair or Mandelson?

[Kay Tie]

"We are all next Labour now."

Is that Real Labour? Or Continuity Labour? The political wing of the trade union movement, that bilked the taxpayer out of ten million quid am year, straight into union and party coffers. Without the slightest shame at such corruption.

Let us see how Next New Labour does when it has so few paying members and can't raise cash from millionaires in return for favours. Better hope that JK Rowling writes another hit novel..

[Kay Tie]

"It will constantly have its New Labour behaviour and policies thrown back at it."

Oh yes. I will do so, for a start. And so will everyone else who can see what New Labour has done to this country. It will take a decade to unpick the damage to society, let alone the economy.

Fortunately, Red Ed taking the Party back to the 1970s will ensure that it isn't in power for some time to come, long enough to undo the damage.

[Kay Tie]

"Ed's main attraction was what he did with 'feed-in tariffs."

Ah, exactly why he is totally unsuitable for office. At several million per "green job" we will be bankrupted as a nation (assuming Gordon Brown hasn't already done enough to tip us over the edge).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8025148/The-Thanet-wind-farm-will-milk-us-of-billions.html

[Paul Flynn]

Ed Miliband was my first choice. I changed to David after a breakfast meeting in e Commons. Ed's main attraction was what he did with 'feed-in tariffs.'. David has a clear view on how an Afghan Exit can be achieved with least pain. Left and right are dead concepts. We are all next Labour now.

[MH @ Syniadau]

Paul, I noticed that you put Ed Miliband right at the bottom of your list, with every other candidate above him. No other MP in Wales put him last, although Chris Bryant and Mark Tami put him 4th, and Ann Clwyd only put down her first choice.

Do you care to tell us what you found so objectionable about him? It can hardly be a matter of left vs right, since you put probably the most left wing candidate, Diane Abbott, third.

[HuwOS]

New Labour may be dead Paul, and I'll believe that only when I see it.

But the party is tainted by it and will have a very hard time providing any kind of decent opposition as it will constantly have its New Labour behaviour and policies thrown back at it.