The Glass Is 80% Full.

We now have the agreement of four out of five of the candidates in the Labour Party Leadership election to issue "Manifestos of Intent". The two Miliband bothers have joined Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham on this. The only person who has not yet replied to our repeated requests is Ed Balls. So I have emailed his wife on the matter. That should do the trick.

We would like to publish all five Manifestos together. This will be done as soon as they are all received, or we can link to them. But we can't wait until after the balloting commences on 16 August. If we don't have a full hand of Manifestos by then, we will publish what we hold and explain the efforts we engaged in to get the rest.

At the moment we hold material from two of the candidates, so we will not finish up being empty handed. Any candidate is, of course, free to publish a Manifesto themselves whenever they wish.



We have asked Yvette to have another word with Ed.

WELCOME ON BOARD DIANE AND ANDY

Diane Abbott (left) has agreed to issue a "Manifesto of Intent" in line with our campaign.

This means that Diane joins Andy Burnham (right) in responding positively to our proposal.

We are still waiting to hear from Ed Balls, Ed Miliband and David Miliband. At least two of these have been approached on the matter at meetings and the third should have been nobbled by a friendly Labour MP.

Perhaps 5 out of 5 is just around the corner. But keep the support coming in, so they can't forget.

Less Blather, more manifesto

See "Though Cowards Flinch".

Questions For The Leadership Candidates

We should have held a Discussion Meeting today, but the World Cup Final has got in the way.

Instead here are some pertinent questions for the Labour Party leadership candidates from one of our regular attenders SNOWY WILLIAMS.


"In your scheme of things -

(1) Will the former Clause 4 be re-introduced into the Labour Party's aims and objectives?

(2) Will words like socialism and socialist appear in your literature?

(3) Will local constituency parties be given greater control over their choice of candidates?

(4) Will you spell out in unambiguous DETAIL the relationship that you aim to establish between the Trade Unions and the Labour Party?

(5) Will Trade Unions be able to offer direct sponsorship to candidates of their choosing for parliamentary elections?

(6) Will you abandon the policy of handing over schools to private bodies for profit?

(7) What are your attitudes towards re-nationalising transport, gas, electricity and the water supply?"

Further contributions from Snowy appear here and here.

Support from the Socialist Health Association

The Socialist Health Association is backing the call initiated on Dronfield Blather which seeks to get the candidates in the Labour leadership elections each to issue a "Manifesto of Intent". This is the first organisation affiliated to the Labour Party to do this. We are seeking support from others. Andy Burnham is the only candidate so far to have accepted this call.

One Accepts. Four Reminded.

The call which appears on the thread below this one, has received a positive response from Andy Burnham (photo) and has the backing of John McDonnell. It is a request for the candidates in the labour leadership contest to issue "Manifestos of Intent" related to the democratic socialist principles contained on the back of Labour Party Membership Cards.


The other four candidates have today been sent this fresh email -

"Dear Diane Abbott, Ed Balls, David Miliband and Ed Miliband,

A fortnight ago I emailed then posted you a request to issue a "Manifesto of Intent" for the Labour Leadership Campaign. Manifestos which it was hoped would be issued widely amongst those with votes in the selection. I also handed a copy of the request to David Miliband that day, at a meeting he addressed in Sheffield.

So far Andy Burnham has responded favourably to this request, so I am sending him and his campaign team a copy of this email.

I hope that each of you will now agree to our suggestion.

Full details of our proposal are provided here, listing those who are backing us -
http://dronfieldblather.blogspot.com/2010/06/calling-those-with-voting-rights-in.html

All the best,
Harry Barnes (Labour MP 1987-2005),
http://threescoreyearsandten.blogspot.com/
(Address, email and phone number also supplied)."