I admit to overdosing on news. I absorb it through multiple mediums. I like differing perspectives on it. I want to understand.
One of the advantages of this approach is that it helps filter out bias. Not completely, of course, but to some degree, at least. And certainly makes it clearer who is making the news and commenting on it.
One thing that is abundantly clear as a result is that Labour is not making the news. Nor is it commenting on it. For all practical purposes Labour appears absent from the news agenda right now.
This is a serious failure on its part. Let's just look at the economics agenda as example and note its omissions.
Where was its comment on inflation?
What about comment on the role of the Central Bank?
Has it an opinion on falling exchange rates? Who knows?
Interest rates are under potential pressure. What does it think the impacts on its investment plans are?
Where is its comment in the write down in the value of RBS? Does it have a better plan?
This week is the 50th anniversary of 'Cathy Come Home'. What is Labour's view on housing investment now?
Has Labour got a view on voting on Brexit?
Is it in favour of hard or soft Brexit?
What is the Labour position on plans to support the City to get EU access but no other part of the economy?
Top end house price sakes have collapsed according to new data. What has Labour to say?
If inflation reaches 3% Tesco think many people will be in deep trouble in making ends meet. Why has Labour said nothing that I have seen on the issue?
There has been a lot of research on the possible impact if interest rate increases on fragile household economies but this week I have heard nothing from Labour on this issue. Why not?
I am sure I could think of a host of other issues to raise question on. But the above is enough to make my point.
What isLabour doing? Why is there no effective opposition on such key issues?
Labour decided not to engage with the referndum because it thought the Torirs could harm themselves without its help. Has it now decided to do the same again now?
If so, when might it think behaving like an opposition could be of use again? I wish I knew because right now it's failing badly and that delivers an appalling impression of inability to face up to big issues on which it has a duty to have an opinion. And that is dangerous for democracy.
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Is Seumas Milne still playing for Team Corbyn? It’s been rumoured he’s leaving.
I do not know
He would not be a loss
I rather hope the Guardian decide not to gave him back too: he has not been missed
Well, if he is leaving there will be the obvious book about his experience won’t there?
I couldn’t agree more Richard. I spent most of the last year thinking that the mainstream media had simply decided to deal with Corbyn.by ignoring him, unless it was something on which they could stick the boot in.
But no, I increasingly think it’s more that the party lacks a clear message or has forgotten how to communicate it. Milne’s tenure has been unimpressive to say the least, but what are Shadow Ministers doing?
I genuinely don’t know
I agree it is a huge gap but then again where is the rest of the opposition?
A clue to part of the problem is in the media coverage of them too?
But within Labour too many of them just wish to go on disagreeing with themselves if recent reports on the latest bust ups can be believed.
Some in Labour have the courage to challenge Corbyn but not the way the world is ran it seems. It’s a shame.
Labour? Sod ’em.
You make an issue of not dealing with racist parties, and fair enough.
Where do you stand with the Labour Party on recent alarming issues with anti-Semitism? Corbyn claims to be principled on the issue, but idly stood by while a Jewish MP took appalling abuse. It would seem to have crossed a line in my book.
I am not working for Corbyn and doubt I will be
And who was the abuse from? Why is Corbyn responsible for everyone including rightwing anti-Semites?
Please note criticism of Israeli government action in Palestine does not equal anti semitism – something the media is very happy to conflate.
I note the point
I do not think that is the issue
What appalling abuse?? He simply said to Ruth Smeeth that she’s conspiring with the media. How is that abuse??
The guy has been thrown out the party(s) anyway. Read from all sides of the story instead of relying on the corrupted media!!
She was not conspiring with the media
She talked to the Telegraph
That she is perfectly entitled to do
Your language is wholly inappropriate
These are turbulent times. You can make as much commentary and promises but will it change much? No. Would help if we have a government that actually cares for the common man and doesn’t play on BNP rhetoric.
And wait until PMQs. Have you not been watching parliament over the week? You’ll find your answers there. Not the Sun or these other newspapers.
Everyone is in shock right about now. Including the Tory government. Stop claiming to be left and bashing the left when you don’t hear what you like. And there are loads of typos in your write up.
Apologies for typos
Writing on an iPad is never the easiest thing
But as criticisms go that’s lamer than your defence of Labour
Triangulating a response takes too long…. 🙂
Can competence only be shown by loads of false promises? If you want loads of comments watch parliamentary shows, stalk their twitters or truly left wing news. Didn’t hear from Milibands bunch much either.
Almost totally agree with you. Would be total agreement if it weren’t for Keir Starmer…
“Because right now it’s failing badly and that delivers an appalling impression of inability to face up to big issues on which it has a duty to have an opinion. And that is dangerous for democracy”
Couldn’t agree more with this.
The party looks unfit to be the opposition let alone a prospective party of Government. It’s embarrassing that there is no proper co-ordinated, joined up approach and no effective lead from those whose job it is to provide it.
When an organisation is failing you need to look no further then those at the top of it.
It is all stunningly depressing. There really is so much happening in government today and not just to do with Brexit that really needs critical opposition to provide accountability. The May government is acting as if they have a massive majority and Labour are hardly making a tiny squeak. At least we have the US elections as a temporary distraction but even they will soon be over. And then where will Labour be?
Like you, I’m a bit of a news junkie, Richard. It comes with the job as much as anything else. And I totally agree. Indeed, I frequently see a headline on a topic reported by this or that source and then do a search for anything from Labour. Before the party conference it came up blank roughly seven or eight times out of ten, which I put down to the distraction of the leadership contest. I thought it would improve afterwards, when Team Corbyn had a free run at things but no. In fact, given the substance of many policy issues are now clearer than they were before the Tory party conference this is an even more shocking situation. However, I’m told by an ardent Corbyn supporter I know that a lot is going on a grass roots level – meetings and forums and such like, which those involved seem to much enjoy so I suppose it’s a case of bugger the bigger picture, our social movement is alive and well and participatory democracy is thriving. No doubt they’ll get round to the bigger picture closer to the next election.
According to a Times email this morning Corbyn was in no national paper for anything he had said or done today – which is staggering
‘Staggering’
No. It’s the new nornmal.
What should interest us is Why?
Is it incompetence within Corbyn’s circle to manage the press?
Or some sort of nod and wink to ignore him in the MSM?
Or a bit of both?
No doubt Labour is formulating new policies, or something.
Housing and homelessness remain important issues, but on a point of detail, is it the 50th anniversary of “Cathy Come Home” this week? I thought it was first broadcast in November 1966, so the 50th anniversary is next month.
However, it is the 50th anniversary of Aberfan this week. If anyone complains about “health and safety gone mad” just remind them that this is what happens without it. 116 children killed in a foreseeable and preventable accident.
I relied on a BBC report
If you want my opinion, it’s that following Corbyn’s re-election and new appointments to the Shadow Cabinet, there is a lot of work to do before they can get back on track. It would be very easy for them to respond to every bit of stupidity coming from the tories but they could just end up being hostage to fortune.
To illustrate what a dire situation Labour is/has been in since June:
I attended the Economy policy seminar at the LP conference a couple of weeks ago (only delegates allowed into closed session). The panel answering questions consisted of Becky Long-Bailey (Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury) and a man whom I’ve never heard of, plus Margaret Beckett chairing. John McDonnell did not make an appearance. I have been to many of these seminars in the past where there were 6-8 (shadow) ministers, and always the Chancellor at some stage, answering questions. I really don’t know how John and Becky have managed to put together any solid economic policies. Becky’s speech in the conference hall included preparing a much needed industrial strategy. This has now been taken over by Clive Lewis at Business. They have a long way to go but will, hopefully be ready by the time of the Autumn Statement.
One more thing to add. Your last positive news story came from when you were working with Corbyn, which is why you received so many followers. Why not let bygones be bygones, accept the situation and try your best to influence/ win power like the rest of the ‘moderates’?
I still think you’ll be a great addition but you need to accept the situation and work with it, the best you can, making your issues discreet and being content when you’re defeated or ignored. Your way of thinking favours the left so be a true champion for the left instead of fulfilling a safe space the doesn’t exist in the current climate.
You need to sit down with McDonnell and Corbyn some how.
Tell me why I would want to work with a liar who leaks false stories about me and maligns me in the Commons?
John McDonnell would need to do a lot of grovelling if he wants me to work with him again
And he’d also actually have to do soemthing – right now he isn’t
And for the record I have more followers and more reads this year than last – probably because I am to the left of McDonnell on economics. I just don’t do the posturing
Because I believe you both don’t truly hate each other and I became interested in you because of your support for their mandate. Would love to see you working with them again somehow. Your partnership would accelerate the takeover!
I don’t hate anyone
But nor do I greatly trust the current Labiyr leadership, fir a number of really quite good reasons.
To what extent is Labour an opposition party?
This week’s assent on the Surveillance bill enacted policies introduced by the last Labour government.
Selling the NHS wholesale is the natural progression of the last Labour government’s healthcare policies: one of the leadership contenders was the minister who signed off on the Hinchingbrooke hospital privatisation.
Driving the sick and the disabled off of benefits, and using profit-driven private companies to do it, was a Labour policy: another one of the leadership contenders was the minister who brought in ATOS.
Workfare was introduced and implemented by Labour.
The corruption of HMRC and the collapse in corporate tax compliance began on Labour’s watch: they were in power for the Vodafone write-off, and stood by when Boots brass-plated their taxable activities to Switzerland.
Europe is the great issue of the day, but the hard left – or what remains of them – have been anti-Europeans since 1974, and loathe the single market; others pander to the Daily Mail and fear the UKIP voters in their no-so-safe constituences. Worse, they think – perhaps correctly – that being ever such a little bit racist will play well in focus groups and real elections.
Looking at it from that angle, Labour are quite right to not oppose the policies that they do not, at heart, oppose; or would not oppose wholeheartedly because substantial parts of Labour see these policies as Labour policies.
…And it’s not as if the opposition leader and his Front Bench can score points off the government’s ineptitude.
Not all of that is true
Vodafone was a Tory deal, for example.
Which Vodaphone deal? Vodaphone-Verizon in 2010, estimated £5Bn foregone tax, or Vodaphone-Mannesman?
The latter is the £6Bn failure reported by Private Eye in September 2010, and I recall that you were approached for comment when it turned up in the mainstream press over the following months.
That case dates back to a long round of tribunal and court and appeal, ending with apparent victory for HMRC in the Vodaphone-2 case in June 2009.
At which point, a senior figure in HMRC stepped in and formed a special commission or committee for the express purpose of bypassing this ‘black and white view’ of the law and settling the issue with a gross underpayment.
A Cabinet-level decision – definitely involving Osborne and probably agreed by Cameron – closed the issue conclusively shortly after the election.
So yes, there was a Tory acquiescence to the deal: but that deal was done in 2009 and early 2010, before the 2010 election – and the decay that led to such a thing becoming possible was definitely well advanced on Labour’s watch.
We are both well aware of who left HMRC for the other side in 2007, and of their involvement in this case, and others. That departure, or ‘ascent to heaven’ as the Japanese would call it, marks the point of no return in the decline of HMRC.
However, Vodaphone-Verizon was a Tory deal from start to finish; and far worse things occurred – and continue to occur – long after the senior figures in Vodaphone-2 found their position to be untenable, even under Tory government.
Untenable, or unprofitable compared to the salaries available in tax consultancies who take the other side in these affairs.
I was referring to the deal with Vodafone of June 2010
Isn’t that exactly the problem that Corbyn has. At least half the current PLP supported / implemented those polices and continue to support them, and that is why they don’t support Corbyn but undermine him at every opportunity.
Presumably, one hopes, as many shadow ministers are very new in post they are getting to grips with their brief and will be speaking out loudly very soon. The latest sell off of the NHS (http://www.thecanary.co/2016/10/18/tories-just-tried-sneak-biggest-ever-privatisation-nhs/) is shocking, and the largely unreported Labour demand that there should be an enquiry into the private company Integral Medical Holdings and its very dubious financing.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37656059
You’re very positive!
You ask:
What is the Labour position on plans to support the City to get EU access but no other part of the economy?
John McDonnell hit out, warning that Labour would not back any plan that sought to divide one British industry from another
“British taxpayers should not be expected to foot the bill for special privileges in accessing European markets solely for the financial service sector alone,” he said. Britain has voted to leave the EU, it has not voted for paying huge fees for special favours for bankers.
“We support access to EU markets for financial services, but it is crucial for the British economy that the government insist on full, tariff-free access to the Single Market for all our industries, to protect jobs and livelihoods in the UK.”
HuffPost UK has been told that McDonnell believes it is unwise to aim for ‘sector-by-sector’ deals on individual industries because the UK was more likely to get a better deal by negotiating goods and services together in one package.
“Britain has voted to leave the EU, it has not voted for paying huge fees for special favours for bankers.
“We support access to EU markets for financial services, but it is crucial for the British economy that the government insist on full, tariff-free access to the Single Market for all our industries, to protect jobs and livelihoods in the UK.”
Wow, it got to Huffpost
Sorry I missed it
I suspect as usual the story was issued too late for the MSM to use
OK, so your complaint is about competence and getting the message over rather than having the right policies?
We have seen what lack of opposition really looks like, saying “sorry, there is no money left”, accepting that Blair over-spent, agreeing with imposing austerity and misery, Chris Leslie instructing MPs not to oppose Tory cuts.
Without John McDonnell that is where we would go back to. I can’t see any likelihood of us getting another potential Chancellor as close to your views.
McDonnell wanted to sign Osborne’s fiscal charter
He believes in balanced budgets
And so in austerity
And has no real understanding of tax and money
I am happy to wait because right now he is not a good compromise