George Galloway endorses Labour…

‘I want to see Ed Miliband as prime minister and the sooner the better’

Today Labour are forcing a vote on welfare reform and the strange thing about it is both the Tories and Labour are happy with the dividing line. Labour’s position is that they want a freeze on public sector pay and to raise benefits – hence the Tory attack poster this morning.

Labour argue that welfare reforms will take money from in work benefit recipents – strivers. IDS argued this morning that since Brown made 90% of workers welfare recipients that is inevitable. In an example this weekend the Observer warned that in-work welfare recipients could lose up to £470 per annum. Ignoring that the tax threshold hike will largely cancel out and compensate for that loss. Taking people off benefits and out of tax – ending Gordon Brown’s madly wasteful money-go-round…

Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls will lose their child benefit today, though with a joint income of some £130,000 they should be able to cope. Millionaires Ed and Justine Miliband probably won’t even notice it is gone with their £400,000 plus income. Labour have to sell on the doorstep paying welfare benefits to millionaires and raising benefits higher than workers’ wages. They think it can be spun as a vote winner…

Dan Hodges opines…

“Ed Miliband’s decision to fight the Tories on welfare is the biggest tactical blunder since General Custer said “I hear the Little Big Horn’s looking good this time of year”.”

Red Len McCluskey is driving a secret policy aiming to build up a £30 million war chest to fund Unite’s “struggle for Labour’s soul“. An internal Unite document seen by Guido reveals that the union is planning a huge consolidation of its property portfolio:

The document then shows that Unite will spend the cash on a new political strategy which aims to parachute union-friendly candidates into marginal seats. They seek to:

• “Advance Unite’s ‘policy agenda’ through Labour’s ‘constitutional structures.
• Work with other affiliated unions to secure the adoption of trade union (or union-friendly) candidates in winnable constituencies in particular.
• Increase Unite members’ involvement and participation in local Labour Parties.”

It’s the blueprint to turn Labour Red…

The Sunday papers are grim reading for Ed Miliband, with the Mail reporting the previously blogged criticisms of his newly hired speechwriter Asher Dresner. This morning  Dresner has quietly deleted the entries criticising Ed speeches from his blog to save his new boss embarrassment. As ever, in an effort to be helpful, Guido has restored and uploaded Dresner’s wisdom to the web here for all to read. The web is forever, not just for Christmas…

Dresner once wrote that

I really believe that the reason Blair was so successful was because he spoke to centrist majority….

Something that his new boss explicitly rejects, so Dresner will have to be clever in getting Blairisms into his speeches. Ed Miliband listens to left-wing wonks who think there is a “progressive majority”. Unfortunately the polls showing the Tories ahead suggest the reality is otherwise.

The Indy reports that Labour HQ is to be moved nearer to parliament, as if the 5 minute walk from Big Ben to Labour’s offices is part of the problem. The same article reports grassroots despair from former Ed supporters. The number of despairing former Ed supporters seems to be growing at an accelerating rate.

As Asher comes in and Ayesha goes out Guido has heard more about that much contested story from last week, sources say she fell out with Tom Baldwin repeatedly and that she is suspected of leaking Ed’s media grid as a departing shot. She has previous for negative briefing when she last worked for Harriet Harman,

This of course could be the product of an over-stimulated paranoid imagination. Baldwin himself is looking noticeably rough under the pressure of propping up Ed and getting cut through for his message. It can’t be easy to keep to a single line…

It is the end of the month and the end of a quarter. Britain’s over-taxed small business owners will be worrying about cash-flow. Is there enough cash to make payroll at the end of the month? Will the bank extend the overdraft? Can they find the money for the quarterly VAT bill? Small businesses are the canaries of the economy, the job creators, fast to grow, fast to shrink.

Ed Miliband knows nothing about this, he has never had those worries, profiteering is not a good word for him, it is bad, despite profits bringing jobs and profits paying taxes to support the unproductive. He sits at the top of the table in a shadow cabinet that has not one member who has started or owned a for-profit business. That inexperience is why he prattles on incoherently about business predators.

UPDATE: Exception that proves the rule and it was a government supplier:

Correction: Am told that Liam Byrne launched a software company 'e-Government Solutions' after he left Rothschilds Investment Bank.—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) September 29, 2011

Flogs software to the public sector…

The reaction to the speech from the left should have Labour strategists worried. From The Guardian:

• Resident Stalinist apologist Seumas Milne: ‘The most radical speech delivered by a Labour leader for a generation’
• Julian Glover: ‘To be cruel, Tony Benn has got his party back. Red Ed is back…’
• Martin Kettle: ‘An eloquent restatement of the old-time religion in difficult times’
• Jackie Ashley: ‘I’m no Tony Blair’

Jackie Ashley is right, this was not the speech of a triple-election winning Labour Party leader..

UPDATE: Blairite Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy not happy:

It was rude to boo a former party leader during the leader's speech says @jimmurphymp #progressQT #Lab11—
  (@ProgressOnline) September 27, 2011

Phil Collins in The Times on Ed Miliband…

Labour faces a government with no clue how to grow the economy as the cuts are biting and the third party has been cut in half. There should be no excuse for not winning. But the leader has not yet finished his self-portrait. In a year of his leadership he has not answered the Rolf Harris question: “Can you see what it is yet?” If an outline doesn’t emerge soon, he will end up with my son’s triceratops. Take a bit of green, a bit of red, a bit of blue, a bit of yellow and a bit of purple, mix them all up in a big splodge and what do you get? You get Brown.

Guido is hearing from well placed sources that Chris Lennie, Ed’s preferred, yet unsuccessful, candidate to be the General Secretary of the Labour Party, is set to be made his Chief-of-Staff.  The Labour leader has struggled to fill the position. Lennie, known as “The Tailor” for his ability to stitch things up, lost out to union backed Iain McNicol, yet apparently Ed is ready to bring him into the fold. There have been rumblings amongst party staff who complain that Lennie is “the great survivor” always bouncing back despite a lack of any discernible talent. No wonder Ed loves him so much…

Observer:

• Headline: Was Ed Miliband the right choice to lead Labour?
• Headline: Clock ticking as Labour leader Ed Miliband starts fightback
• Quotes: Labour strategist “If he doesn’t come up with an energetic, memorable speech at conference, it will be a slow lingering death”
• Quotes: Labour SpAd “If Ed has got this plan, then we need to see it now. It is time for him to show us why we are coming to work every day.”

Indy:

• Headline: Brothers at War
• Headline: MPs set deadline of months for Ed Miliband to shape up
• Quotes: David Miliband is ‘waiting for his brother to fail’

Mail :

• Quotes: Labour MP John Cruddas urged David Miliband regarding Ed ‘Why don’t you f*****g punch him? That’s what I’d do.’
• Quotes: Ed Miliband’s ‘dislike for macho Ed Balls was an open secret’.

Sunday Times :

• Headline: Labour big beasts maul Ed Miliband.
• YouGov: Half Labour Voters Don’t Know What Ed Stands For
• YouGov: 41% Labour Voters Think Was Wrong Leader Choice
• YouGov: Two Thirds of Labour Voters Think Ed Ineffective

Pre-order offer “Ed: The Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader“ for £14.39 saving 15% (£2.60) with free delivery. Order today…