Next leader of the Labour Party should be.....

[drat01]

Yes he is a twunt - your liking of the bloke is borne more out of his Tory party embracing of the past few months rather than any sort of admiration for a misguided view of him being a "a genuinely decent politician of the left. "

"Frank Field was named as the 100th most-influential right-winger in the United Kingdom by the Telegraph" - says a lot for his left wing political thinking?

He was a member of the Young Tory party - again not exactly the left wing idealist you make him out to be?

Yup I think he's a twunt

[Richard]

Frank Field? - you are kidding me surely - the bloke is a complete and utter twunt. Me thinks your liking of him is the fact that he was happy to work with the phone hacker

A twunt? First MP to campaign for a national minimum wage (one of the last Labour Governments' unquestionable triumphs); over 30 years experience as a respected constituency MP (and still going); 10 years directing the Child Poverty Action Group; a far-sighted commitment to Wefare reform and more. He embodies the best bits of Labour without any of the idological trotskyism that make the far left of Labour such spanners.

He voted for Iraq and ID cards which imo opinion count against him, but in terms of a new Labour leader we're fishing in a very shallow pool of talent. He's head and shoulders above the existing candidates and I suspect your dislike of him is driven by his willingness to offer his undoubted knowledge to assist the current Government in bringing about much needed reform. Conversely it's his pragmatic approach and commitment to do what is best for the country (above party tribalism) that I admire.

One of the most intelligent MPs in the houses of parliament as well.

[Awol]

June 8th 2009: Awol wrote about Frank Field

He's probably the most sensible guy in the PLP imo.

Yes he is a twunt - your liking of the bloke is borne more out of his Tory party embracing of the past few months rather than any sort of admiration for a misguided view of him being a "a genuinely decent politician of the left. "

Fail.

"Frank Field was named as the 100th most-influential right-winger in the United Kingdom by the Telegraph" - says a lot for his left wing political thinking?

He was a member of the Young Tory party - again not exactly the left wing idealist you make him out to be?

Large: I said pragmatist, not idealist. However,

First MP to campaign for a national minimum wage (one of the last Labour Governments' unquestionable triumphs); over 30 years experience as a respected constituency MP (and still going); 10 years directing the Child Poverty Action Group; a far-sighted commitment to Wefare reform and more.

So that doesn't indicate a left wing attitude? Give over.

[drat01]

:-) -Oh how this made me laugh

Cameron screws Field and ignores his views - so does this make him a clever man?

David Cameron to bury poverty report in clash with Frank Field

David Cameron will this week bury a key report by Frank Field, the former Labour minister he charged with "thinking the unthinkable" on the fight against poverty.

Mr Field will submit an interim report to Downing Street on "poverty and life chances" within days – but Number 10 has told the maverick MP there are "no plans" to publish it.

The decision follows a growing irritation among senior members of the Cabinet, including George Osborne, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Gove – who believe Mr Field is trampling on their Whitehall turf and coming up with proposals which could never be implemented.

The Labour MP used a weekend interview to float ideas including abolishing the extended summer holiday for schools and paying women up to £25,000 in advance child benefit payments to allow them to stay at home and look after young children.

A Coalition source said: "How on earth would these advance payments ever get off the ground? They'd cost the earth and apart from anything else would be a magnet for fraud."

Mr Field has also suggested that child benefit payments, which are made to around seven million mothers, should stop once a child reaches 13, rather than at 19 as at present.

However, reports this weekend suggested a "compromise" move stopping payments at 16 would be brought in instead, cutting around £3 billion from the annual £11 billion cost of child benefits.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed in May how Mr Cameron had appointed Mr Field, who was welfare reform minister in the early years of Tony Blair's government, as his "poverty tsar" as he put the fight against deprivation at the heart of his agenda.

This week Mr Field will send Mr Cameron what he described as a "detailed report outlining what some of our main recommendations are likely to be".

Mr Field carefully timed the interim report to land at No 10 as ministers draw up plans for the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), which will set departmental spending levels for four years and be announced on 20 October.

The interim report will give details about efforts to construct an "index of life opportunities" and suggest a "range of intelligent interventions" to focus on children between the ages or five and 10, to try to improve the life chances of those from less well-off families.

However, whereas most government-commissioned interim reports are published, this one will not be. A source close to Mr Field admitted last night: "We are submitting it on Monday – but we don't know whether they'll publish it."

Mr Cameron is understood not to want colourful proposals by Mr Field to be debated in public at such a sensitive time as the announcement of the CSR, which sees Whitehall departments facing cuts to their budgets of up to 40 per cent.

The decision not to publish Mr Field's report is another blow to hopes that the Coalition would embark on a truly radical overhaul of welfare.

Mr Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is already locked in a struggle with Mr Osborne, the Chancellor, over plans to restrict benefits to middle-income families and moves to "make work pay" for those currently on benefits.

With no deal yet on the table, Mr Osborne last week revealed that the welfare bill will be cut by another £4 billion on top of £16 billion of savings already announced as he seeks to limit the "lifestyle choices" of those who prefer to stay at home on benefit rather than work.

Mr Field was appointed to "work alongside" Mr Duncan Smith – but Coalition insiders claim he has instead followed his own agenda, as he did as a Labour minister and then a prominent backbencher.

Mr Cameron has repeatedly insisted that tackling poverty would be a key priority of his Government as he ordered ministers to get a grip on what he has claimed is Britain's "broken society".

In his speech to the Conservative Party conference last year in Manchester he accused Labour of having "failed" the poor and added: "It falls to us, the modern Conservative Party, to fight for the poorest who [Labour] have let down."

[snowychap]

A government not wanting to put its name to/follow up on a report by Frank Field - what will they think of next? The sun rising in the east?

[Gringo]

A government not wanting to put its name to/follow up on a report by Frank Field - what will they think of next? The sun rising in the east?

But this is completely different. This time it's the PM ignoring the report, last time it wasn't blair but brown who ensured field's findings found their way into the bin.

[tonyh29]

Oh how this made me laugh

which MP's in the article you posted are running to be leader of the labour party :confused:

anyhow back on Topic :winkold: Ed seems to think it's in the bag and he is leader so can I be the first to congratulate David Cameron on being re-elected PM in 2015

[Gringo]

torygraph"]David Miliband has angrily denied that his allies have taken to referring to his younger brother Ed as “Forrest Gump”.

And he got quite stroppy about it when questioned yesteday on the beeb.

So 'call me' Dave vs Forest. Run Forest Run.

[snowychap]

Michael Crick on Newsnight reporting that a poll in some 'paper has Ed M slightly in front of his brother (and thus everyone else).

[tonyh29]

Question time leaders debate has to be the funniest thing I've seen on tv in years

Love how Blair is now the anti Christ , Burnham is probably the only one acting with any dignity up there

But Is their a more loathsome man in politics than Ed Balls ?

[bickster]

But Is their a more loathsome man in politics than Ed Balls ?

Anne Widdecombe?

[avfc89]

I love EB, he will tear a Tory verbally.

[tonyh29]

Apart from Goves who ripped him to pieces in Westminster the other week

[avfc89]

Apart from Goves who ripped him to pieces in Westminster the other week

Yes, sure he did.... Stop living in delusion Tone.

[tonyh29]

:shock:

It's delusion like yours that cost your party the election

Goves calling Balls the PM's mini me

And Balls face during the Ed Balls cookbook speech in parliament , Priceless

Let's face it you must be shit if Goves can score points off you

[avfc89]

:shock:

It's delusion like yours that cost your party the election

Balls Scored more own goals than Liam Ridgwell in his attack

Goves calling Balls the PM's mini me

It's the lack of cogency that cost your party a majority at the General Election. I remember Gove being forced to issue an apology; I personally believe that to be the most humiliating position for a newly elected member of Government, thus I will actually say the biggest mistake made was from Michael.

[tonyh29]

Or you could argue it takes a big man to apologise .... If I ever make a mistake I'm sure I'll be humble about it as well :winkold:

But apologisng was something Brown refused to do .. And Blair to though to be fair Blair never **** an economy single handidly

Probably why the labour party is doing everything in it's power to pretend the two of them never existed

Burnham won't win but he was the only one not to act like a hypocrite tonight in that regard

[drat01]

Disagree with you Tony - you came into that with pre-conceived ideas. Balls was not humiliated by Give at all, and you know it.

The leadership contest is an interesting one especially as the polls are now showing that the Labour party are on a par with the Tory and the LibDem's are in free fall. This is despite not having a leader of the party and shows the Tory party in a very bad light to be in such a weak position so quickly.

This is not a acrimonious leadership battle as they go, and for politics that is a pretty rare occurrence. Obviously there will be some sparring and they all want to win, but whoever does get the job aint then going to have an internal battle to deal with - well not straight away again this is politics.

The ConDem is killing itself off with daily issues, gaffes and policy changes - a lot of this is borne out of Clegg and his Tory party ideals. More and more Libdem's are joining the Labour party on a daily basis. Its going to be an interesting few days ahead

[tonyh29]

and shows the Tory party in a very bad light to be in such a weak position so quickly.

talking of preconceived ideas .. how much has the Tory party % changed in that poll ... Down 1%, 5% ,10 % ... nope it stayed exactly the same so when you consider the difficult decisions the government have had to make and not lost a single % point I'd say that shows them to be in a strong position.. Camerons personal approval rating is at the highest it's ever been , but I'm sure you knew that as well and just chose to omit it from your post.

I guess the positive thing for Balls is once he's lost his leadership battle , he always has a career in cooking to fall back on .. that is probably where Brown went wrong and only sold 120 copies of his last book , he should have given away his book like balls did rather than expecting people to pay for it

[drat01]

Tony of course its a weaker position. They have been in power for such a short time, they really should still be riding on the crest of a wave, but because of gaffes, controversies, breaking of policies etc they are doing badly all around. Labour have gained 7 points a 3.5% swing to Labour. This is within such a short time of the Tory party taking power - with a little help from Tory Clegg.

There are some major factors in that poll. Outside of the South east the Tory support is crashing, the LibDem's also.

Cameron's personal rating with Tory voters is high, as you would expect it to be - I really do not see that as a point worth debating because it would always happen. Considering the gaffes and mistakes he has made so far, that is probably due more to the Tory voters being happy that they are ripping up the constitution, looking after the own interests and screwing the state rather than the main causes of the economic problems.

more are dissatisfied than are satisfied with the government; 43% are satisfied and 47% dissatisfied with its performance, resulting in a net satisfaction score (those satisfied minus those dissatisfied) of -4.

Clegg is more popular with Conservative supporters than supporters of his own party (net score of +66 among Conservatives).

I have no idea what relevance the comment is about books.