Back to the 1950s

Over the weekend the government minister Margaret Hodge has said that British families should be given priority for council housing, over the claims of economic migrants. Her comments have been supported by that arch-panderer Hazel Blears.

Essentially what Mrs Hodge is advocating is a re-introduction of discrimination in the provision of council housing, taking us back to the dark days of the 1950s when the first large scale immigration from the West Indies, Pakistan and India began. In the days after the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, when West Indian residents were sought out and attacked by white men who had come into the area specifically to target the immigrants, the local Labour MP George Rogers complained ‘that white people in the area felt that they had been subjected to long provocation by coloured people living disreputable lives in appalling conditions’.* In fact, it was the immigrants that were subject to over-charging in housing and were forced to live in over-crowded conditions with several families living in just one house.

This is the situation we are again seeing in Britain. You just have to visit places like Slough, where Polish and other Eastern European immigrants are being forced into the same cramped and over-crowded conditions that were experienced by the immigrants in the 1950s.

No one can deny that the situation isn’t serious and needs urgent government attention. However, all Mrs Hodge is doing is pandering to far-right elements in her own constituency. It was her blunder that legitimised the BNP candidates standing in her constituency in 2006, which led to them winning enough seats to make them the second largest party on the council. And now, instead of standing up to these people she is pandering to those who preach hatred and advocate discrimination.

Only one criterion should be used for providing council housing – need. In the meantime, the government should pull its finger out and build more council houses, perhaps a new chancellor could do something to stop the explosion in house prices that has forced so many people out of the market (so they can get out of rented accommodation), and perhaps, just perhaps, Mrs Hodge (an immigrant herself) can try and take on the racists in her constituency instead of pandering to them.

*Quoted from The National Archives, PREM 11/2920, minute of meeting between David Renton and George Rogers, 4 September 1958.

Six vying for deputy spot.

Six candidates have managed to muster the 45 nominations needed to run for the deputy leadership of the Labour party. Harriet Harman, Hazel Blears, Hilary Benn, Alan Johnson, Peter Hain and John Cruddas have all been nominated.

Apart from Cruddas, there really isn’t much between the candidates. He seems to be the only one saying anything interesting – and he has made it clear that he doesn’t want to be in the Cabinet should he be elected. As a former special adviser Cruddas certainly isn’t a trouble-maker and, if elected, would give Gordon Brown much greater freedom in choosing his Cabinet while freeing him from some of his party responsibilities.

There really isn’t much between the other candidates. Harriet Harman’s sole pitch is that she is a woman, and a woman should get the job. She seems to forget she was a lousy Cabinet minister, sacked from the Department of Social Security in 1998 and has been rattling around junior minister positions since she was restored to office in 2001. She is also completely accident prone. The Labour MP Austen Mitchell brilliant summed up her obsession for political correctness when he called her Harriet Harperson.

Of the remaining candidates, Hazel Blears is the most irritating person in the government, is too close to John Reid for my liking and is a member of the Labour party’s tap dancing squad. Peter Hain has gone from radical freedom campaigner to sycophantic Blairite – plus he is orange. Alan Johnson made is reputation from doing Blair’s dirty work, whereas Hilary Benn is an amiable bloke with a famous father who has done alright as International Development Secretary.

If I was a Labour member I think that I would plump for either Cruddas or Benn. But I’m nowhere close to being a Labour supporter – so I would love either Harman or Blears to get the job.

Happy Birthday Alan Johnston

BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston is 45 today. Mr Johnston was abducted in Gaza 66 days ago. Hopefully he will be released soon and returned to his family and friends.

In the meantime, happy birthday Alan!

Come in Mr Blair, your time’s up.

As Gordon Brown has secured the Labour party leadership he is guaranteed to be our next Prime Minister. This is no great surprise. For thirteen years we have expected Mr Brown to succeed Tony Blair, despite the Prime Minister’s constant attempts to try and block Brown’s succession.

The question now is why do we have to wait for six weeks before Mr Brown becomes PM? For a couple of years now, and especially since the Labour party conference last year, we have had to put up with a lame duck Prime Minister. The government is drifting along aimlessly just to satisfy one man’s vanity. Mr Blair got his wish of passing his tenth anniversary in office (and two days later the voters gave him a good kicking in the polls). But still he is hanging on. Today he is in Washington for a last meeting with President Bush, and then there will be an EU meeting and a G8 summit. These are important meetings, at which this country should be represented not by a lame duck, but rather by the man who will be leading us for the next couple of years.

Go away now Mr Blair, your time is up.

New First Minister for Scotland

Nearly two weeks after the elections to the Scottish Parliament, Alex Salmond has at last become First Minister. It was a very civil affair, with congratulations coming from out-going First Minister Jack McConnell, and Liberal Democrat leader and out-going Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen. However, it was Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie, in a speech lasting just 52 seconds, who stole the show by pledging to keep the new First Minister in order.

Over the last two weeks, though, we have seen a different Alex Salmond. The tough political operator that we have come to know well has evolved a more conciliatory side – pledging to work to build consensus and trust. But more than that, it seems that Mr Salmond has grown in stature, almost as if he has grown into the post of First Minister and already eclipsing his immediate predecessor.

Sweet n' Sour Conspiracy

It seems that Labour MSPs are already conspiring to replace Jack McConnell as leader of the Scottish Labour party. An entertaining article in today’s Herald has reported that a group of women Labour MSPs gathered at the weekend and, over a Chinese takeaway, discussed how to oust Mr McConnell.

Despite their protestations of loyalty, several of the group apparently aspire to Mr McConnell’s job. Wendy Alexander is perhaps the best known of the group, which also includes Margaret Curran, Johann Lamont, Sarah Boyack and Karen Gillon.

However, by far the most entertaining suggestion is that John Reid, soon to be ex-Home Secretary, should be the next leader of Scottish Labour. One of Labour’s recently elected constituency MSPs, it is suggested, should resign their seat and force a by-election that would allow Reid to enter the Scottish Parliament. The suggestion comes from Labour MP Brian Donohoe, who seems to have forgotten the old dictum that the best way to lose an election is to have one.

Mr Donohoe must be delusional if he thinks that John ‘attack-dog’ Reid would be some kind of electoral asset, or that Labour MSPs would welcome him with open arms. But maybe Donohoe just wants to get Reid out of Westminster and thinks that dumping him in the Scottish Parliament is one way to achieve that. Although, I bet Alex Salmond would love the idea.

Fergusson Elected Presiding Officer

Congratulations to Alex Fergusson who was today elected Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament. Fergie defeated Independent MSP Margo MacDonald by 108 votes to 20. What possessed Margo MacDonald to stand against Fergusson is beyond me.

Last week Ms MacDonald claimed that she had no interest in the job but that she would do it for a year to allow the Parliament to proceed with electing a First Minister and Executive. After Fergusson decided to put his name forward for the post, and in so doing received widespread support, Ms MacDonald decided to stand declaring that she did not want an establishment ‘stitch-up’, whilst claiming that she believed Mr Fergusson was a man of integrity. Whereas Margo had the opportunity to establish herself as a Parliamentary elder statesman, this strange behaviour merely serves to undermine her standing and make her look fickle.