Friday, 12 December 2014

Concern for Young Voters

What worries me though, is that despite people aged 18-24 having the power to shake up the political system, not enough of them are engaged or educated about politics to do so.

The youth vote could swing as many as 200 seats in the next election. That's almost a third of all (650) UK Parliament seats. Yet an increasing number of young voters aren't even registered to vote, due to the recent change in the registration process. Every individual has to register to vote now, instead of every household. In places such as Oxford, registrations in some wards with large student populations fell by 60 per cent since this change from Household Registration to Individual Electoral Registration.

I might have missed the memo, but to my knowledge the Government has failed miserably in telling people about this. How can anyone call young people "apathetic" when the Government doesn't bother to publicise such crucial changes to the registration system? Those who have suddenly fallen off the register will end up going to the polls at the next General Election, only to hear that they're not able to vote.

Imagine if the 5m young people in the UK were registered and turned out to vote. Do you really think politicians could feel that they could easily let us down and shift the debts of the older generation onto us? We're facing the brunt of Coalition’s cuts like no other age group. We're also the least likely to show an "interest in politics" and get registered and vote. This makes us the demographic the age group is least likely to write policies for. So it's not surprising that politicians aren't writing a manifesto for us.

One of the reasons young people tell me they don't vote is because they don't know enough about politics - because no one's reached out to explain how important it is. But it's also because they don't know who or what to vote for; the political parties are "all the same" to them.

Any political party which wants to help the young should start by producing youth manifestos. This would help to make it clear to their younger voters what they will do for them if they decide to vote. Yet so far the Greens are the only party who have led on this simple idea.

But young people also need to be able to engage with our political leaders more. Bite The Ballot is currently running #LeadersLive events, which will provide an opportunity for people to grill the main UK party leaders live. So far, they've already had the Green Party's Natalie Bennett, Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage.

This series of debates is one of the first times that the leaders of the political parties will be telling us in plain English what policies their parties have and why they are after your votes. So if you're a young voter and want to see how your vote might change the way our country works, I'd definitely encourage you to tune in. Although don't forget to register to vote under the new system as well. Otherwise, what's the point?

How to Create New Laws

Labour has a proud record of delivering on political and constitutional reform, and on devolution. Between 1997 and 2010 we brought in freedom of information, created a Supreme Court, abolished most of the hereditary peers and protected people’s fundamental freedoms through the Human Rights Act. On devolution, it was Labour that devolved power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and returned to the people of London their city-wide government. And Labour has led the fight to defend the Union and will continue to do so.

Further devolution to Scotland is now on its way as we honour the vow made to the Scottish people in the referendum campaign, but this is only part of the change we need to see in the way our country is run.

People in England and Wales are crying out for more power and responsibility, and it is up to us to respond. That’s why we will devolve power over skills, transport, and economic development to cities and county regions in England, and we will put Welsh devolution on a new legal footing.

Devolution has been right for the country because it has brought power closer to people, but we know it has raised new questions in its wake about how decisions are taken and by whom. It is right that we ask these questions, but fiddling with the constitution in a fragmented and piecemeal fashion, as the Prime Minister is doing, is the wrong way to go about it.

That’s why Ed Miliband has called for a Constitutional Convention in which members of the public, civil society and elected representatives would sit down to discuss these complex questions and work out a set of proposals. The aim is to break out of the traditional top-down, Westminster-knows-best approach which people are fed up with. We are offering a new and exciting alternative.

One of the questions we need to answer is how Parliament should now go about its work, given that power is increasingly being pushed out from Westminster to the nations, and city and county regions of the UK. We want to replace the House of Lords with a Senate of the Nations and Regions because this would help bind together the constituent parts of the UK and improve democratic legitimacy.

And as Ed Miliband has made clear, we also need to enable English MPs to have greater scrutiny over legislation that only affects England, given the powers that the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly now have. Last year the Government commission led by Sir William McKay looked at this very issue. Their report included the option of a change in the way legislation is dealt with at Westminster; a committee stage made up of only English MPs who would scrutinise and amend legislation that applies only to England.

We should look at Sir William’s approach of an English (or an English and Welsh) committee stage because it is right that English MPs have a key role in considering such legislation. The political balance on this committee would need to reflect English (or English and Welsh) MPs as a whole and ensure all English regions were represented.

Done in the right way, this would be a sensible reform which would strengthen England's voice without ending up creating two classes of MP, and it must now be considered as part of the constitutional convention process. What we must not do is inadvertently undermine the union of nations that is the United Kingdom. Hasty proposals, drawn up in a secret Whitehall committee chaired by a former Tory leader, as David Cameron is doing, is not the right way to go about it. It just won’t wash with the British public.

Nor will we jeopardise the future of the Union for narrow advantage, especially when so many people have fought so hard recently to preserve it.

The truth is that the Tories seem now to have given up any hope of winning a majority of UK MPs at the next election. By contrast, Labour can truly lay claim to be the party of the Union, and only a Labour Government will be in a position to deliver the change we need for the whole of the United Kingdom.

Monday, 24 November 2014

Sadiq Khan to Lead Labour

In recent months, Labour figures have become increasingly concerned by the electoral threat posed by the Greens. The growth of the party, which has polled as high as 8 per cent in some polls and has increased its membership by 45 per cent this year to 26,000, is in danger of creating a split on the left to match that on the right.
Alongside their traditional environmentalist platform, the Greens are promoting policies with strong appeal to Labour voters such as a £10 minimum wage by 2020, a wealth tax on the top 1 per cent and the renationalisation of the railways, branding themselves as "the only anti-austerity party". In close contests with the Tories and the Lib Dems, most notably in London, the level of the Green vote could make the difference between winning and losing.
In response, I can reveal that Labour's election strategy chair Douglas Alexander has appointed shadow justice secretary and shadow London minister Sadiq Khan to lead a unit on addressing the threat. Khan, a leading figure on the left of the party (he ran Ed Miliband's leadership campaign) and a former chair of Liberty, is regarded by party sources as a figure well placed to reach out to a group of voters who lie to the left of most of the public and who were alienated during the New Labour years.
That the party has taken the step of creating this role shows just how seriously it is taking the Green challenge (avoiding the complacency that some Tories demonstrated towards Ukip). After being excluded from the broadcasters' TV debates proposal, party leader Natalie Bennett and her colleagues will cite this as further evidence that they deserve a platform alongside Ukip. The Tories, as I noted yesterday, will certainly hope they are successful.

sadiq khan

Britain is one of the most centralised countries in the developed world. Too much power is focused in the hands of Whitehall officials and too little in Britain's nations, regions and cities. Local leaders with expert knowledge of the economy and characteristics of their area have too little control over the public services that serve their communities. In London for example, the Mayor and Boroughs control only 7% of the taxes raised from Londoners, compared to nearly 50% in New York and 70% in Tokyo.
Londoners face huge challenges, like the growing gap between the rich and the poor and the desperate housing crisis. But London's Government simply doesn't have the levers it needs to get to grips with these problems. We need real change. That's why Labour is committed to devolving significant power over public services and funding to local areas - including London.
Devolution can lead to higher growth, more jobs, better public services and more efficient Government. In London, it will give us the tools we need to begin tackling the growing gap between rich and poor and build the homes we need.
The devolution debate in the UK is often portrayed as 'London versus the rest of the UK'. In reality, devolving more power and responsibility to London's Government is not just good for Londoners, it's good for the rest of the UK too.
The London Finance Commission's call for devolution to London was strongly supported by city leaders in Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Sheffield and elsewhere. They understand that the real debate isn't between London and their cities, but between local government (including London) and national Government. Nobody is talking about giving London a bigger slice of the pie, but about giving London more control over the slice it already receives.
The devolution debate can be complicated. It is focused on intricate funding streams and formulas that are incomprehensible to most people. As a result, the public hasn't always been properly engaged with the issue. But when the benefits are explained simply and clearly, devolution is overwhelmingly popular. Four out of five Londoners support giving more powers to London, and when I've spoken on the topic, either in public meetings or on television debates, our ideas have been met with almost unanimous support.
Last week I launched a new campaign - 'Let Londoners Run London'. Because we shouldn't just impose devolution settlements on local people. Instead, we must engage local leaders and communities in a proper conversation about the future of their area, and actively build support for giving more power to local people.
The conditions in London are right for real change. It's time we kept more of the benefits of our growth, so we can tackle inequality and fix the housing crisis.

Sunday, 16 November 2014

The Squeaky Bum

Labour is going through “squeaky bum time” and some of its MPs need to get on the pitch to start helping win the election instead of complaining from the sidelines, Sadiq Khan, a shadow cabinet minister, has said.

Khan, who is a close ally of Ed Miliband, issued the call to his colleagues after anonymous briefing against the Labour leader from some within his own party.

A ComRes poll shows Labour has recovered a four-point lead over the Conservatives, suggesting Miliband and his team have managed to reverse the narrowing polls after a difficult few weeks.

There was speculation some Labour MPs would like to see the back of Miliband amid his low personal ratings and frustration at a disappointing party conference speech. However, talk of rebellion appears to have quietened down since former home secretary Alan Johnson ruled himself out of any leadership race and Miliband gave a well-received speech attacking what he called a “zero-zero Britain” where some of the wealthy were allowed to get away with avoiding tax while others were forced to work on unfair employment contracts.

Khan said some of his colleagues had failed to “understand the rhythm of opposition” in a fixed-term parliament whereby the leadership was working backwards from May with a plan to win the election.

Acknowledging the threat of division to Labour’s chances of winning the election, he appealed for calm to make sure the party did not “wake up on 8 May saying ‘if only we’d been more united, if only we’d been more disciplined’”.

Asked whether he had seen evidence of unrest in Labour, Khan, a Liverpool fan, used a football phrase to explain how he saw Labour’s current situation: “There’s a great Alex Ferguson saying …where in a season when Man United and Newcastle were neck-and-neck, he said it’s squeaky bum time. And I think it’s squeaky bum time for Labour.

“History tells us that whenever Labour loses a general election, we spend aeons out of office,” he told the Guardian. “We fight among ourselves and often spilt … What we’re trying to do is something not done since 1974 – that’s to be a one-term opposition and bounce back from the second worst result in our history. Some of my colleagues need to recognise there’s no rule of politics that means you bounce back like a pendulum. You’ve got to have the humility to learn the right lessons, be proud of the things you got right and earn it.

“We lost really badly and people forget that. But we’re competitive again, and we’ve great set of candidates and policies. Politics is a team sport. It’s really easy to blame the leader. We’ve all got a role to play … Rather than people complaining on the sidelines, they should get on the pitch and help us win the election.”

He also said people should not be surprised that Miliband, who he said had stood up to the Murdoch press and the Daily Mail editor, Paul Dacre, should be on the receiving end of harsh criticism in the same way as his predecessors as Labour leader Neil Kinnock, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had been.

“Labour leaders on the verge of winning a general election are given a hard time,” he said. “So when people are critical it is worth them asking whose agenda they are following and who it helps, this infighting. United parties win, divided parties lose.”

Polls-of-polls and more detailed analysis of marginal seats still suggest Labour is on course to win a majority at the next election in May. The latest ComRes study for the Independent on Sunday and Mirror puts Labour on 34%, with the Conservatives down one point on 30%.

However, the proportion of those who said they could picture Miliband as prime minister has fallen to 20%, a five-point fall on a year ago, with just 50% of Labour supporters saying they could imagine him leading the country

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Phone Claims

Sadiq Khan to 'co-operate' with any probe into phone claims

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Sadiq Khan: "I will be fully cooperating with any investigation"

Shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan has said he will co-operate with any investigation over claims he used his mobile phone while driving.

Conservative MP Justin Tomlinson has written to the Metropolitan Police after the publication of a photo online by the Guido Fawkes website.

Mr Tomlinson told the BBC that road safety was an important issue and the matter should be investigated.

Mr Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, is a former transport minister.

The MP, who is thought likely to seek the Labour nomination for London mayor in 2016, was given a national award by road safety charity Brake this year.

Mr Khan told the BBC: "Allegations have been made that I glanced at my phone whilst in my car.

"I understand that a Conservative MP has now reported this matter to the Metropolitan police. Of course I will be fully cooperating with any investigation."

Mr Tomlinson has written to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe about the alleged incident, reported to have taken place on Monday.

"I would be very grateful if you could investigate this further - road safety is a serious issue and those who make the laws should certainly not be above them," he wrote.

The Met confirmed it had received Mr Tomlinson's complaint.

A spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that today we have received a letter. We are currently assessing its content."