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By Jack Straw ( view all posts) My wife and I spent our honeymoon in India. It was the late seventies.
Our family thought we were being very adventurous – and I’m not sure that we would even have made the trip if we had not had friends living in New Delhi at the time.
We went right round India. Bangalore, the capital of the south eastern state of Karnataka, was then just another provincial city, with wonderful gardens, good air, and – by Indian standards – a tranquil feel about it.
I went for my customary jog, and felt great after it.
I went out again for a run in the city – from the very same West End Hotel – 14 years later, in 1992.
I choked.
There had been a mushrooming of industry in the intervening years, and with it serious atmospheric pollution.
The last time I visited the city, five years ago, it had changed again.
The air was better, but that wasn’t all. Large parts of it looked like Silicone Valley, in California.
Bangalore had become not just the high-tech centre of India, but one of the technological powerhouses of the globe.
It is now ranked alongside cities like Geneva, Copenhagen, and Boston, in studies of city life.
Bangalore’s transformation to world class is a parable for what has happened to India in the last two decades – since the then Finance Minister, now Prime Minister Manmoham Singh, began India’s entry into the world economic system.
In two more decades, India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country, and in slower time may overtake them in the size of its economy too.
The Prime Minister who appointed Singh as Finance Minister in the early nineties was Narasimhha Rao.
The founder of Venky’s, the poultry business now poised to take over Blackburn Rovers, was Dr B V Rao.
I’ve no idea whether they were related – Rao is quite a common name in India. There’d be a nice symmetry if they were.
For Venky’s growth, from next to nothing, is another story of the explosion of entrepreneurship which is turning India into a global power.
Britain was the pioneer in world economic dominance, as the first country to move from an agricultural to an industrial economy in the late eighteenth century – and East Lancashire was at the heart of this.
Napoleon correctly described us as “the workshop of the world”.
We exported far more goods than we imported, then used the surplus to invest abroad.
India, among others, is now returning the compliment – and we should welcome it.
Rovers’ great benefactor Jack Walker realised his fortune by selling his steel stockholding business to the then recently privatised British Steel.
They became Corus; more recently bought by the Indian giant Tata, who also bought Jaguar Land Rover, and are now investing heavily in the UK.
Even top-flight soccer was once entirely local. Its supporter base, of course, remains local, and nowhere more than in the UK.
But it’s now global too. If the Venky’s deal for Rovers passes the remaining hurdles, then in my view it will be good news for the club and its loyal fans.
And it may too have the bonus of encouraging a trend already there, of seeing many more folk of Asian heritage at Ewood Park.
By Kate Hollern ( view all posts)  Are they sharing the pain? The 30+%,cuts to local government announced in the recent spending review will hit the most vulnerable in society. Be under no illusion the ConDem Government is undertaking a vicious attack on our communities that will be felt for years to come and are driven by discredited ideology, not fiscal prudence.
As we await more details of exactly how much money will actually be cut from the funding we receive we can be forgiven for being sceptical about what Con Dem ministers say about local control and local decision making. It is all very well for the government to devolve power to local government, but if they do not fully devolve budgets at the same time, they simply spread the blame for the deficit without responsibility.
Let everyone be aware, there is a sting in the tail of the cuts package that will only fully hit home over the next few months. We fully expect that by the end of the year Blackburn and Darwen will lose out much more than others because of the nature of the problems in our area.
We also need to highlight the weaknesses of the Governments argument in favour of cutting public spending in the way they propose. Their flawed principle of the Private Sector creating employment for those from the Public Sector losing their jobs would be a joke if it wasn’t so devastating for those who are going to lose their jobs.
A first year student studying economics can see that people employed in the public sector contribute with their spending power to growth in the private sector. In addition the Government totally ignores that many local firms benefit and rely on work from Councils and other areas of the public sector.
Despite the recent damaging announcements in the weeks and months ahead, here in Blackburn we will try where ever possible to protect front line services and the most vulnerable. It won’t be easy but we will do our best.
By Jack Straw ( view all posts) I’m free! It’s only taken me 30 years, but I’m out now. Off the front bench.
Today is my fourth day of freedom, and so far I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I thoroughly enjoyed my 30 years on the front bench too – indeed it was, as I’ve often said, a huge privilege to have had the chance to have the Opposition posts I held, and still more the four senior posts I held in Cabinet when Labour was in power.
But my first love (professionally speaking!) has always been the House of Commons itself.
I’ve never understood the psychology of those MPs on both sides who spend years trying to get into the House, only to back away from embracing its virtues and its role once they are elected. Despite our 24-hour media the Chamber of the Commons remains the cockpit of British politics.
This is not to be sentimental about the place. It’s just true. Happily, many more of the record new intake to this Parliament do understand the importance of the Chamber, and its debates have been a lot better attended and more vibrant than for years.
My first outing from the back-benches was on Monday – my very first day – in the sombre statement by Foreign Secretary William Hague about the murder of the British aid worker Linda Norgrove.
Something evidently did go wrong in the course of the rescue attempt.
But I felt it important, as one of Mr Hague’s predecessors who had faced similar situations, to offer him my full support, and understanding for the brave US special forces who carried out the rescue effort, who have to make split-second decisions in the most dreadful of circumstances.
My second outing was Tuesday, on the very important report by former BP Chairman Lord Browne about the future of university funding.
His group proposed an increase in tuition fees to £7,000 – with the possibility of higher fees.
They tempered this by recommending that repayments of loans should not take place until a graduate’s income reaches £21,000 a year, rather than £15,000 as now.
When Labour first raised the tuition fee from £1,000 up front (set in the late nineties) to £3,000, we faced a storm of opposition – from the Conservatives and Lib Dems combined, and some Labour rebels.
We only won the key vote by five.
Later the Conservatives came to accept our approach, but the Lib Dems carried on opposing right through the last election – with Nick Clegg describing the prospect of a £7,000 fee as a ‘disaster.’ Since his erstwhile deputy Vince Cable was making the statement, I thought I’d tweak his toe by asking why his leader had so suddenly changed his mind.
Lord Browne’s report is thorough and impressively argued, despite the controversial nature of some of its recommendations.
Our principal concern is whether the additional income from the higher fees will be used simply to offset cuts in the public funding of higher education, or whether a good proportion of it will to help resource the sector.
We won’t find that out until next Wednesday, when George Osborne, the Chancellor makes his long expected statement on spending cuts – when I hope to get in again.
By Jack Straw ( view all posts) There are six prisons in the county of Lancashire, with just over 4,000 total.
If we jailed a similar proportion of the population to the United States, that figure would not be 4,000, but 20,000.
There’d be a prison in every town in the county – including Burnley, Accrington, and Blackburn – and some would be huge.
So much for the nonsense which is now becoming a commonplace on radio and television, that the UK has among the highest jail population in the world.
It is untrue.
The United States has a prison population of close on 2,300,000 at the most recent count.
That’s 756 prisoners for every 100,000 – not far short of one in every 100 people being in jail (and a much higher proportion if you happen to be young, male, and black).
Great Britain has around 93,000 in its jails.
That’s 153 prisoners for every 100,000– almost exactly one-fifth of the United States’ rate.
Were we at US levels, there’d be 465,000 inmates in jails in England, Scotland and Wales.
So where did this nonsense come from?
For ‘the world,’ read ‘most countries in Western Europe.’ Our prison population is, proportionately, about half as big again as that of France, and Germany.
But it’s not the case for all western European countries.
Spain, for example, jails a slightly higher proportion – and many of the new members of the EU, in the East are way above us.
So what about the ‘old Commonwealth,’ whose systems and cultures are closer to ours?
Canada jails fewer than do we, but Australia’s prison population is close to ours (129 inmates per 100,000 population), and New Zealand’s above (at 185).
Apologies for these numbers, but I like to be accurate, and to provide readers of with the facts so they can make their own minds up.
I do not want to see any more people in jail than is necessary, but a sensible debate about the use of prison should be an informed one.
What’s going on at the moment, as part of a smokescreen to disguise and then justify severe cuts in prison budgets, is a campaign to convince the public that our prison population has somehow gone through the roof, and – in the current jargon – is ‘unsustainable.’ It hasn’t, and it isn’t.
When I took over as Justice Secretary in 2007 I worked hard to try to moderate the increase in prison numbers.
Three years ago the ‘medium’ projection suggested that the population now would be 5,000 more than it is; and that by 2014 it could reach 102,000.
Partly the rapid rise did not happen because the significant reduction in crime is now feeding its way through to fewer criminals – (fewer young people involved in crime, for example).
We are also getting better at diverting people from crime through the cheaper, and where appropriate, better method of punishing them in the community.
But such an approach does not work for all offenders.
And the next time someone claims that there are a number of people in jail for ‘petty anti-social crimes’ ask them to say which criminals precisely now in jail they would release – and to spell out the crimes they are in for.
They are far from ‘petty’ for the victims.
By Katie Haworth ( view all posts) As I write this blog it has been a week, almost to the hour since I stood on the platform at the Labour Party conference. I was so nervous and said to myself as long as you don’t fall over or be sick you will be fine! I had decided to talk about ASBOs, something that I am very passionate about. You can view a video of my speech by clicking here.
This was my first conference I was a little bit apprehensive as what to expect. When I arrived on Sunday I checked into my hotel at Salford Quays (sadly it overlooked Old Trafford, but we can’t have everything!) and got the tram into the centre. My first task was to vote on the contempory issues ballot – this sounded very confusing. However, I quickly picked up what it meant and placed my X next to the ones that I agreed with.
Monday morning 9am start. You could feel the buzz outside whilst walking passed various different cameras trying not to be caught by their lens! Outside the main doors I saw John Prescott. I saw Prezza earlier this year at a rally in Manchester – I think he is such a great speaker! Then I had my photo taken with Harriet Harman who is the current Deputy Leader of the Party. We then went to a fringe event at the Radisson that BBC Radio 5 live was holding. This included Alistair Darling, Diane Abbott, a trade union representative and some Tory journalist called Fraser from The Spectator. It was fun and I really wish I had seen Diane Abbott more prior to the leadership voting.
On the Tuesday I gave my speech – I didn’t think that there were that many people in hall. After leaving the stage, Chris from Regional office asked me if I would like to sit behind Ed Miliband whilst he gave his first speech as Leader. This was brilliant! Although my hands have not hurt so much from clapping. On my way out that day everyone was being stopped by people with what looked to be mobile phones interviewing them, they stopped me and I didn’t think anything of it. I logged onto the Labour Party website and there I am. That night I went to the CWU fringe event, where a random man came up to me addressing me as “the lady who did the speech on ASBOs”, he said that he thought I was brilliant and would love a picture. I was shocked!! This continued over the next few days.
Wednesday morning I went it to the main hall, another 9am start and received a text saying that I was on the front page of the Independent. I shot out to get a look and there I was! I then got another text to say that I was in the Lancashire Telegraph (thank you Tom!). In the afternoon I got my picture taken with Ed Balls and one of our councillors asked him if I could have a kiss – he kissed me on the cheek! That night I attended the Unite event – brilliant night! I got to dance with Ed Balls, who I must compliment and say he is a very good mover.
To anyone who is thinking about joining the Labour Party, do it! I love that I am part of a team that has values. I have only been a member for less than a year (I don’t think that I am supposed to admit that!) but I feel that I have achieved so much. Join the party and get involved!
To view my pictures please click here.
By Damian Talbot ( view all posts) The last few weeks in Blackburn with Darwen have been eventful to say the least. And having taken over as the Executive Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport I’ve certainly had a busy time grappling with the difficult issues facing the department. During the Summer the Labour group supported local residents in enthusiastic campaigns to stop the closure of Shadsworth Leisure Centre and a number of the Borough’s community centres, so it was important that once we came back to power we acted as quickly as possible to re-open the Leisure Centre and stop the Community Centre transfer.
Today I was pleased to be at Shadsworth on the day the pool re-opened to the public. This is a vital facility in the Borough and the 220,000 visits during 2009/10 show that it is needed. However, the coalition decision to close the pool has done a lot of damage. The Labour Government, through Refresh, had put large sums of money into increasing sporting activity within Blackburn which had amongst the worst fitness levels in the UK. As a result of the scheme activity is now up to the national average – a fantastic achievement. But when a leisure centre closes history shows that rather than going to a different centre people just stop altogether. And with the obvious effects on health that a possible further recession will have it is vital that people have low cost leisure facilities available.
So I hope you hear the message loud and clear – Shadsworth is back in business – come down and use these great facilities.
By Jack Straw ( view all posts) The last time we chose a new Leader was in 2007.
Gordon Brown was elected unopposed.
There were vocal complaints that there had not been a proper contest.
There can’t be that complaint on this occasion. We had a contest and a half.
Five candidates. Four months. Scores of hustings.
The candidates were dropping by the end. The result a cliff-hanger.
An exhaustive ‘alternative vote’ system meant that it went five rounds – and suddenly the younger Milliband, Ed, had won. A gasp went round the hall.
I gave my first preference to the elder Milliband, David; my next vote to the North-West’s own Andy Burnham, former Health Secretary, and MP for Leigh.
But four of the five candidates were each capable of doing the job; and any doubts I might have had about the winner, Ed Milliband, were lifted by the speech which he made to Labour’s Conference in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon.
Whatever the party, the post of Leader of the Opposition is the worst in British politics.
You have huge responsibilities – above all to lead your party to victory – and none of the power and authority which naturally comes with government.
The Leader’s speech at a party conference is the most difficult he or she will make in any year.
At least in normal times the Leader has the summer to work on it.
Ed Milliband had three days. In my view he pulled it off.
Critically he confronted three demons the party has to face. First was the deficit. He was right to say that in Government Labour would have had to make uncomfortable cuts in spending; that we wouldn’t oppose all cuts – but we did oppose the scale and the pace of the cuts now being planned by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
He was right to spell out that he would oppose ‘overblown rhetoric’ and ‘irresponsible strikes’.
And he was right above all to say that it was not the fault of the British people, but of Labour that we had lost five million voters since those heady days of the 1997 General Election.
Unsurprisingly I do not share Ed’s view about Iraq.
He said – and I believe him – that he was making no criticism of those who made the decision.
It was horrendously difficult. The problem with decisions is that you never have the luxury of hindsight.
I set out in my evidence to the Iraq Inquiry why I believed that we made the right judgement at the time.
Ed also made me sit up when he said that when the new Justice Secretary says we should look at short sentences in prison because of high re-offending “I’m not going to say he’s soft on crime”.
I’m open to look at any issue.
But re-offending by short term prisoners is high not because prison is a failure, but because these offenders have been tried time and again on probation or other community punishments – and have still gone on to commit more crimes.
96 per cent have seven or more convictions – often for scores of offences.
But overall I’ll give it eight out of ten. For me – it was my last platform speech. For Ed, the start of a long journey.
I wish him luck.
By Kate Hollern ( view all posts) In May of this year, despite losing the General Election, the Labour Party in the North West, and in particular locally in Blackburn and Darwen performed well and showed its policies were supported by the majority of the electorate.
In Blackburn Labour made significant gains and is the largest party on the Council with 31 seats. Despite this, the rag bag of other parties including the Tories and Liberal Democrats managed to coble a coalition by agreeing a number of back room deals and engaging in the usual “pork barrel” politics that has become their trademark. Those of us in the Labour Party predicted it wouldn’t work and that it wouldn’t last and we have been proved right.
In the last few weeks after hundreds of ordinary Blackburn citizens took to the streets in protest of the Coalition’s policies to slash services including closing Shadsworth Leisure Centre and our Community Centres two members decided they had had enough and have resigned from the Coalition.
Although these two members have chosen to sit as independents the Labour Group is faced with a dilemma. Should we wait till next year when we are likely to win a majority of seats ensuring we can take overall control of the Council or should we act now?
All members of the Labour Group entered politics to protect their communities and make things better for the people who take the time to support and vote for them. We have seen in the three years that the Coalition has run the Council the damage they can inflict on our communities and neighbourhoods. They have cut vital services, increased fees and charges, withdrawn bus routes and cancelled popular events enjoyed by all such as Arts in the Parks. They are closing Shadsworth Leisure Centre and the Community Centres and they are undertaking a number of reviews that we know will lead to scaling back in key area such as libraries, social services and education and are cutting the valuable PCSOs who protect our communities.
That is why we must try to act and act now.
The Labour Group has agreed that once everyone returns form their summer holidays the Council should meet and a vote of no confidence in the policies of the Tory led coalition will be debated. If, as we expect, the motion is carried the Labour Group is prepared to take control of the Council in order to sort out the mess we find ourselves in.
We know it won’t be easy but we owe it to the people of Blackburn and Darwen who voted for us in their thousands to take responsibility and represent their interests including trying to protect the most vulnerable who rely on the Council’s services.
We are sure the vast majority of Blackburners and Darreners will support us in our endeavours.
By Jack Straw ( view all posts) As you will be aware, I did make a nomination for Leader of the Party. That was for Diane Abbott, because like other colleagues in the Parliamentary Party I wanted to see the widest possible debate and choice for Leader, not that I had made up my mind before the contest started who I thought was best for the Party.
The Leadership campaign has now been going for nearly three months. The five candidates have published their own manifestos, attended scores of hustings and other events around the country, and taken part in countless appearances on radio and television. If the contest has not dominated the headlines in the way that some leadership contests have in past (for all three parties), that is a tribute to the civilised way in which all five candidates have conducted themselves.
I have during this period been reflecting on who in my opinion is best placed to lead the party through the next nearly five years of this Conservative/LibDem government (and it will in my view be five years), and then lead us to victory at the 2015 General Election.
All the candidates have strengths. In my view, however, there is one outstanding candidate with the qualities necessary both to be Leader of the Opposition, and then Prime Minister. And don’t forget, the post of Opposition Leader is probably the most difficult and exposed of any in British politics. The Conservatives got through three Opposition Leaders before they elected one who could achieve even half a victory. Only three Labour leaders (Attlee, Wilson, Blair) in our post-war period have won elections.
In my judgement it is David Miliband who without doubt should be our next Leader. He will get my vote. Here’s why:
- He has the strength and the depth to stand up to David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions week after week, and he can stand up for the people who will be most badly hit in our communities by the policies of this Con/LibDem government.
- He an excellent communicator. Those of us who attended Blackburn CLP’s Sunday organisation meeting during the election had the privilege of seeing and hearing how well he came across. Indeed the Blackburn CLP has since endorsed David’s candidacy.
- He knows that we won’t get anywhere if we stand on our heads and start undermining what we achieved in government. Our record was overall a terrific one. Look at what we did. We can see it in Blackburn – with exam results at GCSE more than twice as good as they were in 1997; with a brand new hospital and dramatic improvements in health care; with the best record of any post-war government on crime and anti-social behaviour – balanced by the greatest advances in civil liberties of any post-war government, through the Human Rights Act, Freedom of Information Act, Equality Act, legislation to outlaw discrimination on grounds of race, religion, gender or sexuality; on overseas aid, and in many areas of foreign policy. And we can now see that the measures taken once the world financial crisis was upon us have worked to keep unemployment from rising anywhere near as much as predicted.
- At the same time as standing up for our achievements, David has not been afraid to learn from the mistakes which, inevitably, all governments do make – not least in the style of leadership that did not give sufficient prominence to the Party, or to Parliament.
- However, in my view David recognises more acutely than any the fact that elections are about change, the future. We have to defend what we did, of course. Without that, we will damage our own credibility. But we have to set out above all a clear vision and set of policies for the future. David has spoken passionately about the need to invest in industry to provide the sustainable jobs we need, in both the new green technologies, and in more traditional manufacturing; about strengthening our engineering base, of how we should close the gap in educational achievement.
- Yes David is very bright, and went to Oxford. But his secondary education was at a large inner London comprehensive, similar to the one my children attended.
- David is tough. He won’t pick fights – in my experience he always works very hard for a consensus. But sometimes as a Leader you have to tell folk – including within the Party – what they don’t want to hear. David won’t flinch from doing this if he thinks it is necessary.
Every party member and eligible member of an affiliated trade union will be able to vote in this election.
Ballots begin to drop on 1 September and new members can still join the Party and vote right up to the 8 September (so tell any Labour supporters you know who aren’t members to join by this date).
I hope very much you will carefully consider voting for David.
Best wishes
JACK STRAW
By Jack Straw ( view all posts) Shimon Peres, the 87-year-old President of Israel, comes from Belarus, in eastern Europe.
His immediate family were lucky.
His father emigrated to the then British-controlled protectorate of Palestine in the early 1920s.
The rest of his family stayed in Belarus.
All perished in the Nazi mass-murders in the 1940s.
Virtually everyone of Jewish ethnicity has a similar family history to Shimon Peres’s.
The idea of a defined State of Israel, a homeland for the Jewish people, pre-dates the Nazi Holocaust by many decades.
But it was the Holocaust which made the world-wide Jewish community determined to have their own state whatever the opposition to it, and it is the Holocaust, the worst-ever genocide human kind has ever known, which continues to define Israel’s attitude to itself, and the rest of the world.
I support the State of Israel, and the right of its people to live in peace, with secure borders.
But I also support the right of the Palestinians to enjoy the same rights of property, and freedom, as the Israelis.
I strongly condemn Israel’s theft (for that is what it is) of Palestinian land, through Jewish settlements across the West Bank, its continued incursions into (Palestinian) East Jerusalem, and its brutal and inhumane treatment of Palestinians, and those of other Arab nations too.
There was and is simply no justification whatever for Israel’s killing in Gaza of at least of 1,400 people, many of them women and children, as a response to the deaths of 20 Israeli civilians from rockets from Gaza; nor for much else that they have done allegedly better to secure their state.
In 1994 Shimon Peres was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhah Rabin, and Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat for his work, as Foreign Minister, in the ‘Oslo Accords’ for peace in the Middle East.
I worked with him when I was British Foreign Minister.
But he has now changed his tune.
In an astonishing outburst he said a few days ago that England was ‘deeply pro-Arab…and anti-Israel’, ‘they’ve always worked against us’.
He added ‘our next big problem is England.
There are several million Muslim voters.
And for many MPs that’s the difference between getting elected and not getting elected.’ Don’t judge others by your own standards, President Peres.
Such remarks are wholly misplaced.
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was unpopular across the UK, but nowhere more so than with those of the Muslim faith.
My backing for the invasion greatly taxed many (white and Muslim) in Blackburn.
In the 2005 election the world’s press came to Blackburn to watch me lose.
In the event the swing against me was half the national swing against Labour.
It is simply insulting to Muslim (as well as white) voters to make such sweeping, and inaccurate claims on no evidence.
President Peres would be better advised to abandon his paranoia about Britain.
Instead he might start examining why it is that Israel is now so isolated internationally, and then do something about it – namely see that at long last Israel acts justly towards the Palestinians.
He might too recognise that our horror at the Holocaust cannot mean a blank cheque to the Government of Israel to do as they please.
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