Now There Are Five

All five candidates for the Labour Leadership have now responded positively to the campaign run by Dronfield Blather to issue Manifestos of Intent. On Friday we reported that four out of the five were then on board, but afterwards the missing Ed Balls was approached at the close of the final hustings held at Manchester and he accepted our proposal.

It all reminds us of the first of Enid Blyton's books about the Famous Five. It was entitled "Five On A Treasure Island" and as is shown opposite. The cover of the book depicts Enid's missing character being safely brought aboard at the last moment.

However, the drama is not yet over. The five have all agreed to publish Manifestos of Intent. Three have confirmed this by email, one by a letter and the other face-to-face with Blogger Brader at Manchester.

But we only have until 16 August until the balloting commences. So we are keen to gain access to the finalised Manifestos themselves for publication by then. So far we hold some initial material from two of the candidates, although if they wish they still have time to elaborate on what we hold.

Whenever all five Manifestos are to hand we will publish them alongside each other. If anyone falls out of the boat we will, however, publish what we then hold on 16 August which is the date that balloting commences in the contest. We can't wait any longer than that.

Candidates are, of course, free to publish their own Manifestos at any time they wish. If they beat us to it, we will nevertheless stick to the above timetable.

UPDATE AND CORRECTION 3rd AUGUST.
The start of the ballot for individual members of the Labour Party has been changed from 16 August to 1 September. We hope, however, that the candidates will submit and/or issue their "Manifestos of Intent" well before the new date. People need time to examine and discuss Manifestos. So we will still seek to act in conformity with the time-table mentioned above.

UPDATE AND ALTERATION 5th AUGUST.
For what are called logistical reasons, the final date on which we hope to issue the candidates' Manifestos is now pushed back to 25 August. It is a good old fashioned compromise between the two dates mention in the earlier update. At least it shows that we are in communication with the high commands in the various candidates' camps.


Below - the famous five at their final hustings at Manchester.

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)."