Birmingham University Labour Students

The Dear Leader has requested that his speech from David Miliband’s launch for the Living Wage Campaign at the University of Birmingham from the 28th October be published:

Hello and welcome to Birmingham University Labour Students launch of the Living Wage Campaign with David Miliband. I’m Daniel and I’m Chair of Birmingham University Labour Students.

Many of us in this room are members of National Labour Students, and I hope many others are soon to become members. I believe that National Labour Students are a really important wing of the Labour Party; in mobilising for Labour at elections, hosting national events and workshops, but most importantly National Labour Students proud history of campaigning, against the extortionate rise in tuition fees, in the liberation campaigns, fighting for the rights of women, disabled students, LGBT students and BAME students, rights that other students may take for granted. And now in the Living Wage Campaign, taking place on campuses across the country in Kent, Cambridge, Leeds and Leicester, and today starting here in Birmingham.

The Living Wage is the minimum hourly rate someone has to earn to afford everyday basics like housing, food, childcare. A wage as the name suggests, that you can live on, not merely exist.

In London the current rate is £8.30 an hour. In Birmingham the current rate is £7.20.  £7.20 is a target that is not only morally right, but financially achievable.

I am proud to be a member of a party who when in office introduced the National Minimum Wage. This was a huge step. The Tories said it was economically unsound. It wasn’t. The Tories said it would cost jobs. It didn’t. The same arguments are made against the Living Wage.

It is great to see in the room…

Now, I know David doesn’t need much of an introduction. David was elected to Parliament for South Shields in 2001, and in 2006 was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs where he oversaw the Climate Change Bill, before becoming the Foreign Secretary in 2007. But more important than that, Political Top Trumps gives him a ‘fanciability’ of 84.

Boys and Girls, David Miliband.

I’ve now returned to Birmingham after a week in which the Coalition managed to look incompetent and shambolic as well as cruel. We’ve had Willetts admitting he is content to see poorer students having to settle for a degree at their local sixth form, rather than enjoying the full university experience; Norman Tebbit joining the near-univeral coalition against the NHS transformation; U-turns on defence spending and health to add to the growing list which includes school sports and buildings, forests, and even the Downing Street cat; and of course Nick Clegg. When he hasn’t been complaining that he is the nation’s ‘punchbag’ or facing criticism from his own son, he has been making some interesting comments about social mobility.

I am not going to slam the Deputy Prime Minister for having had a leg-up from his neighbour (a peer of the realm) in order to get an internship at a bank (it had to be a bank), because I challenge anyone reading this – assuming I have a readership – not to have seized the opportunity in the same way if they were in Nick’s position. A Labour party which wants social justice and equality of opportunity from birth should not be blaming someone for a background thay had no control over, and that even includes Cameron who had someone put a word in from Buck House. However, Clegg’s attempts at addressing the age-old problem of the ‘It’s who you know’ culture were embarrassing, coming at the same time this government is slashing Sure Start centres, EMA, univeristy budgets and allowing socially divisive ’free’ schools to blossom up and down the country.

I spoke to people this week in the valleys who have Masters’ degrees who have spent over a year unemployed – young people with ambition, drive and what should be a promising career ahead of them. I overheard sixth form students on the bus complaining that they had not been accepted for any of their UCAS choices, despite the prediction of 4 As at A-level. I have personally had difficulty finding summer placements when I am not lucky enough to be able to work unpaid for six months in central London. Nick Clegg’s diagnosis was correct, but there is far more to it than setting an example to almost-bankrupt businesses by paying interns at Lib Dem HQ.

We need a new cultural shift in this country, brought about by government, where the disadvantaged are caught as soon as possible and at every stage of their lives are helped to gain the same opportunities as the better off. This should not involve positive discrimination or handouts, but should involve investment in our young people which other European countries manage while they bail out their neighbours, but we seem to think is unaffordable. A national internship scheme or national bursary programme, complementing investment in careers education (which at the moment is dire) to inform young people that they are just as talented and ambitious as the more privileged, and what opportunities are out there for the taking, is desperately needed. The underlying factors, such as affordable transport, need to be subsidised so someone who lives in the middle of nowhere with no ‘contacts’ can get work experience in a city near them.

There are important elections coming up in the devolved nations and local councils in England. Young people should be demanding better from the government and their local councils at the ballot box, and should express their dissatisfaction with the Coalition, which just doesn’t get it.

So the eagerly awaited and oh-so exciting AV referendum is now in sight, with Ed Miliband today setting out the Labour leadership’s opinion on one side, and many other Labour MPs and party members saying why they will be rejecting the proposal on the other. It does seem that the party is split down the middle – not a great position for an opposition party reassembling itself after electoral defeat. Incidentally, it is perhaps not the most shining example of ‘new politics’ or maturity when our leader refuses to unite with Nick Clegg because of his new status as Public Enemy Number One – surely there would be less cynicism in the electorate if we as an opposition party took each issue exclusively, instead of pointing the finger at the Tuition Fees Bogeyman.

The arguments for or against the Alternative Vote aside (I’m personally in the ‘Yes’ camp for want of something marginally further down the road to Proportional Representation), what strikes me the most after the disheartening advertising tactics of the ‘No’ camp (I’m sure you’ve seen the baby-in-incubator and soldier billboards) is the lack of interest amongst the wider electorate. Today I asked a friend of mine whether he had yet considered which way he would vote, and the reply was that it would make no difference to the political scene, so why should he bother? I wanted to answer his rebuttal, but found to my horror that I couldn’t. Whether or not we stick with First Past the Post or adopt AV will have little bearing on electoral outcomes on a national scale, only at constituency level (where AV would make elections far more interesting, as those who witnessed the Guild election results will testify), therefore the best we can hope for is the lesser of two evils, while those running for office continue to make vacuous or downright deceptive pledges in their election manifestos e.g. the marketisation of the NHS and tuition fees.

The real question on the ballot paper should not be ‘AV vs FPTP’, nor even the far more deomcratic ‘AV vs FPTP vs AV+ vs STV vs AMS…’, but something which reads less like a mathematical formula and more like a choice between two fundamental democratic frameworks that disillusioned voters can really get their teeth into. We need a choice over whether or not we want to overhaul the House of Lords (a process which has thus far taken a century); whether or not we want to de-throne and de-robe the monarchy; whether or not we want to reduce the stranglehold of the elites over our economy; in short, whether or not we want a new constitution. That is not to say the previous government had a gleaming record on constitutional affairs, although devolution and removal of hereditary peers were a good start. But by throwing a bone for the Lib Dem poodle in the form of a paltry referendum on AV, the Tories have got away with it again, whichever way we vote on May 5th.

Given I’m one of BULS’s token few Northerners, I though it would be appropriate to have a blog on the upcoming by-election. Cautious confidence is probably the best way to describe Oldham East and Saddleworth. Already we have seen a number of polls from ICM and Populus showing Labour having a around 17% lead over the Lib Dems (with a surprising slump in support for the Tories). However, another  polling company, Survation, has recorded the Labour leader being 1&(!!). Labour are the bookies favourite to win, but, I cannot stress any less without doubt, not to slacked the momentum. This is the first time in years that the Lib Dems wont be all masterful in by-elections.

Throughout the entire campaign the Lib Dem candidate and Cleggy have been emphasising that this by-election is about selecting a new local MP. I’d have to agree that this is what it ought to be about, but since when have by-elections ever been about local issues?

Max

In BULS, we’re mature enough to dole out criticism and praise where it is due and with the recent release of Lord Mandelson’s Memoirs “The Third Man”, it seems both are present here to one of the founding architectures of ‘New’ Labour. As business secretary, I personally believe Mandy did a brilliant job, the car scrappage scheme was one of the most successful parts of the economic stimulus package brought in after the wake of the financial crisis. His emphasis on a new high tech industries and manufacturing and his ardent support of the Regional Development Agency were just what the country needed in times of economic hardship.

However, Brown’s former adviser Charlie Whelan said “Peter ran the worst general campaign in Labour’s history,” Whelan told the Sunday Telegraph, “Nobody knew what the message was at all. It was a disaster from beginning to end.”. In this instance, how right he was. Now admittedly, I haven’t paid much attention to previous election campaigns, but the 2010 campaign was abysmal. Yes, we were just emerging from a recession and had a leader with a “radio face”, but frankly the campaign did not help. The press-conferences completely lacked any excitement and it seemed Brown was held back by Mandy. The latter we know given Brown’s firebrand speech near the end of the campaign, after Mandy was relinquished of some duties.

To be frank, there was no clear message, let us hope this is not the case in 2015. 

Max

BULS was on the news following the unveiling of the new posters in Birmingham, Ladywood constituency.

We met and shook hands with much of the cabinet. Tom Duffy even got a thumbs up from the dark lord Mandy himself.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mplc

Skip to 2 minutes 40 seconds in.

Gotta remember tho – it’s not all about grabbing the headlines and meeting the most powerful people in Britain. The hard graft starts now! And we’re back out on the doorstep. 6 days people!

Suzy

Last night saw history in the making in British politics, the first ever televised leaders debate was held on ITV. The main focus of the debate was on domestic affairs covering immigration, cleaning up politics, crime, education and the NHS.

Now in terms of answering the questions, connecting with audience (whether in studio or at home) and expressing his views, the debate was easily won by Nick Clegg. It would have been highly surprising if Brown had won on those particular areas, given his ‘radio face’. However, when it came to substance and detail, Brown was the clear winner as reflected on the likes of Facebook and Question that followed the debate on BBC1 and simply the fact that detail is Brown’s strength.

The less said about Dave the better who mentioned his token ‘black person’ friend, regarded China as dangerous as Iran and completely failed to answer Brown’s questions on comittment to spending on law and order and education.

The next debate is to be held on Thursday the 22nd April on Sky News, which will focus upon International Affairs. I personally will be looking forward to watching Dave receive questions on his allies in the European Parliament.

Max

For the newbies and the forgetful:

- The Midlands is historically the main battle-ground of the general election,  many of the constituencies are swing seats.

- You, yes YOU! Are probably living in either the Edgbaston or Selly Oak constituencies right now!

- This election is likely to prove very tough for Gisela Stuart, who is campaigning for her fourth term in a traditionally Tory area

- UofB’s very own Brigid Jones is campaigning hard for election as a local councillor in Selly Oak

- Steve Mccabe is the other big name to be watching people! PPC for Selly Oak

- If you can spare time for any of these wondeful candidates then do it! Voter canvassing and leaflet delivering is going on at this very moment!

- Only 23 days to go til the election!

Let’s go fourth!

This is Labour’s first party election broadcast of the 2010 general election. Now while I think the message may be a tad on the negative (don’t change at such a fragile moment, which is fair enough though) but does reflect how effectively the collective efforts that have been implemented across the world, supported by most economists and major independent financial bodies (such as the IMF and the CBI) where seemingly opposed by the likes of the Conservatives in such a crucial time. Judgement is a fundamental aspect of government and in the words of Alistair Darling on George Osborne in an interview in the Guardian not too long ago (more or less), “George’s judgement is rather poor. You would have thought a shadow Chancellor would get something right.”

Max

 Today, PM Gordon Brown went to see HM Queen Elizabeth II to request a dissolution of Parliament which she consented to. So begins probably the most important election in a generation. Substance will be pitted against style and judgement against opportunism. Personally, I found it rather fitting that Brown announced the election alongside his cabinet stating he is “not a team of one, but one of a team.” which is in stark contrast to Dave’s oh so modest posters of his airbrushed self.

This has to be one of the most exciting times to be a Labour activist. BULS I can tell is keen to get stuck in with many key constituencies in the West Midlands. Our two local candidates are Giesla Stuart (Edgbaston) and Steve McCabe (Selly Oak).

There are few BULS members still in Brum so if you ever want to help out with BULS just email into committee@bulsonline.org or if you can’t, get out there and get involved in your local CLP!

Max

Today saw Boy George (George Osborne) going to the business school on campus today. BULS was planning to have a protest, but unfortunately, not enough people turned up (only me, Dan and Maise with Kieran and Jake turning up after he had gone). Thankfully though, we did manage to get a little victory, which made our day. After covertly sneaking in, acquiring some discarded name badges as effective disguises (I was called Tom), past BUCF who were wearing suits (again) and managed to catch Osborne himself, where Dan managed to get a photo with him.

Enjoy

Max

As this article shows (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7054655.ece), polling in the key marginal seats is essentially, neck and neck with occasionally Labour pulling ahead to a o.6% margin, while this is certainly not much it is far better than it was about 6 months ago.

But what has gone wrong for the Tories, throughout most of 2009 they were often polling around a 15% lead, this has been drastically slashed to around 6% now and because the FPTP system heavily favours Labour (the great irony of Tory opposition to the proposed AV system) it would mean the Tories would only just be the largest party in a hung Parliament by 3 or so seats. There are a number of reasons I believe for this decline:

Obviously, these past 2 months for Dave have not been his best, Ashcroft non-dom revelation, changing tack on spending cuts, 3 times getting the statistics wrong (crime, teenage pregnancy rates and the number of votes cast at the last election). But, I personally think there is one simple reason, they have got complacent, the Tories believe they will be able to just waltz into No. 10 and in doing so have not made the policies bomb-proof (so to speak) for when the spotlight was turned upon them. Back in 1997, New Labour feared Major and the government and so they ran a highly tight campaign, not leaving room for error. This is the Tory’s greatest failure, underestimating Labour.

Max

Well, it’s begun, for Labour now at least. The slogan “A future fair for all” has come under criticisms that it’s a recycled slogan, but well if you come from the right, “A year for change” is certainly not linked to anything any other political candidate has used in the past oh let’s say…2 years.

A number of BULS made the trip to Coventry to see Brown make his speech (it’s also been heard good old former BUC”F” president DOD was there to heckle the PM) in which undoubtedly they will come back with a greater resolve, particularly given the recent poll narrowing. Brown also said Labour’s “secret weapon” would be its “beliefs” and the election would be won not on “who has the best PR” but on “values”, well hopefully this will be the case as we are certainly the PR “underdogs”.

Max

Over the past term , BULS has been running a campaign on the equalisation of the minimum wage. Our aim is the elimination of the 18-22 age bracket and leveling the wage of those in that age bracket up to the full £5.73 an hour.

We had a fantastic response from all students and managed to collect over 600 signatures with many more too come.

Last Friday , Gisela Stuart MP for Edgbaston, came and spoke at our first public meeting and showed support for our campaign.

Gisela started off the night with a talk on how the minimum wage came into effect and why it was so important. We all agree, the national minimum wage (NMW) is one of our cornerstone achievement as a party and government , it is an achievement that makes us proud to be labour.

Contrary to some economic positions , unemployment is bad, it excludes individuals from making money firstly. As well as ostracising them from the rest of society. This exclusion can lead to a cycle of dependance on the state, social depravation and even poverty. But, a NMW allows individuals to earn more than state benefits , it promote social inclusion allowing them to maintain good mental and physical health. It makes an individual feel part of the wider society.

Yet , how can we still have such an arbitray age bracket that actively discriminates against a worker due to their age?

No benefits discriminates like this, No company or individual would get away with paying over 65′s a different rate, yet if you are under 22 you can be paid at a lower rate to your colleagues over 22, even in the same position.

The next step in the campaign is to bring it too a wider audience, its positive reception at Birmingham alone is proof that this campaign is wanted and with more support we can eradicate this unnecessary age bracket and deliver equality to all those effected.

Ben is the newly elected BULS freshers’ officer- Ed

… and do does campaigning season!

Opportunities abound in Selly Oak, Bartley Green and Quinton. Drop me a shout to labour@guild.bham.ac.uk if you’d like a leafleting round, locally or further afield

I had the honour today of spending a few hours in brilliant sunshine leafleting the lovely Bartley Green with its Labour Party Candidate for the upcoming elections, Mr Thomas Guise. It was a delightful afternoon and we got to see many sights of the ward, whilst bringing the good message to the local residents. (Photos whould be included but Tom Marley still has my damn usb cable.)

Guisey will be out leafleting for most of the rest of this week, and I hope to be joining him for another outing too. We promise it will be at least 42% more fun than staying at home and revising, and there should be plenty of time for a sociable pint afterwards.

Any time you’re free, morning afternoon or evening, a day or an hour, drop us a line at labour@guild.bham.ac.uk or Facebook Tom!

Wednesday afternoons at Birmingham University are traditionally reserved for Sports based activities.  However here at BULS’ head office we prefer to get our exercise whilst campaigning for progressive values. 

This Wednesday we will be heading to Newton Ward in Sandwell, where our Labour Candidate is doing better than expected.  We have been edging away at this seat for a few years and we might actually take it at the by-election this Thursday!

Get in touch with the club if you’re going to be free, without sounding too strict I won’t use the words “three-line whip” but instead I will tell you that it’s rather bloody important!!

One of the essential parts of BULS is campaigning throughout Birmingham.  We’ve got some very important local elections coming up this May so what better time to start grinding the campaign gears than at the start of the New Year.  Today, comrades travelled to Kings Heath to help Labour candidates Nathan Matthew and David Williams in their respective seats of Bournville and Selly Oak.  We primarily did telephone canvassing making over 80 brand new contacts.  Afterwards we were invited back to Steve McCabe’s house for some bloody nice food and a few beers. 

We had a great chat with Steve and his wife, Fiona (who incidentally is the Director of the Political Office at Number 10), talking about a number of issues like neighbourhood regeneration, the race for the White House in America and how to get students involved with the political process in Selly Oak.  Due to boundary changes Steve will become the new MP for Selly Oak, at the next General Election.

Stay tuned for more news from the campaign trail across Birmingham and in other key areas in the country.

Imagine a country whose judiciary is elected on an annual basis by members from across that country.  Sound sensible?  Well, it may sound wonderful to the democrats among us.  But imagine for another moment that the laws of this country are locked away for no one, apart from the country’s executive, to see.  In fact, it is the country’s executive who control the elections to the judiciary.  Imagine that the leaders decided to cancel the last judicial elections because they did not like the candidate, and simply allowed the previous judiciary another term in office.

To add to this, the leaders of the country decided to ignore a few of their own laws when allowing the next set of leaders to be elected.  The process was rife with irregularities, but still the old leaders ensured their successors were elected with ease, and without any intervention from the very friendly judiciary.  The electoral roll is maintained by the executive, and is available for consultation only by people who the executive see fit to view it.  This proves very useful to some “friendly” citizens standing for election, but absolutely disastrous to those citizens who are not friends with the executive.

We’re not talking about a huge country here – its population has been dwindling of late, and looks set to dwindle even more, but most of its citizens are very hard working people, and are absolutely determined to see their country succeed.  But the trouble is that they are subject to rules they are just not aware of, and as the leaders become more and more despotic, the citizens are becoming more and more scared that things just might get completely out of hand.  There aren’t many ways out of this for citizens – they can either move out of the country that they love and would fight for, or they need to work their way up the ladder in the hope that they may, one day, become a leader.  Some try their hand at changing the system to a more democratic one, but they are usually castigated – despite being very proud and some of the hardest working and successful people in their country.

The worrying thing is that no imagination is needed – these are only some of the terrible things actually going on in this country right now.  I take a particular interest in mentioning it on this blog, because a number of citizens of this country are members of BULS, and made me aware of their plight after a brief visit to their country last weekend.

I suggest we really cannot let this continue, and we must change this country for the better, before all of its citizens leave.  Indeed, if there is a real mood for changing things for the better, perhaps we can make the biggest step possible towards ensuring the issue is resolved…

Propose it as a Labour Students priority campaign.

John Ritchie is former Chair of BULS

A week ago we were embroiled in election fever. Now the troops have been called off and I’m curled up on the sofa with man-flu waiting for PMQs to commence. It’s been a busy busy week for BULS. Last Wednesday a couple of us were in Erdington frantically stuffing envelopes all morning, and in Edgbaston stuffing letterboxes all afternoon. This year’s first BULS meeting that evening was fantastically well attended and it was great to meet so many new members. On Thursday, some of them joined us and Gisela Stuart in Bartley Green again to deliver parliamentary reports, and –oh for God’s sake, Cameron is in full pantomime mode today– and then on Saturday, the news came through that there would be no election.

 The Facebook status of friends in the Labour Party ranged from relieved to gutted, but it didn’t stop BULS from hitting the streets of Selly Oak on Sunday morning to deliver our new student leaflet to the community. Having informed the masses of what Labour has done for students and what the club gets up to, we hit the pub. That evening a couple of us headed over to Brandwood to celebrate Mike Leddy’s by-election council victory- a lovely evening was had by all, and The Housemates were very appreciative of the vast amount of food Chris Wilkinson sent me home with (cheers Chris!)

 The coming week should be a busy one, with the Selly Oak ward council candidate shortlisting meeting on Thursday, the BULS annual start-of-year curry on Friday, Comprehensive Future AGM on Saturday, and the West Midlands Young Labour AGM on Sunday. The election might be years away now but BULS doesn’t stop…

… Because there’s a by-election going on in Brandwood! Brandwood is a ward in the South of Birmingham, which is facing a council election this Thursday following the sad death of Cllr Ken Hardeman. Labour’s Mike Leddy has been doing some fantastic work in the area and BULS will be out campaigning for his election all this week.

If you’re around in Birmingham this week and can spare some time after 5:30 Mon-Weds (or any time Thurs!) come along for some pre-term fun! We’ll be sticking leaflets through letterboxes and knocking on doors to remind the electorate to get out and vote and who knows, we might even find time for the pub afterwards…

 Whether you’re a first-timer or a seasoned pro, if you fancy catching up or meeting people, drop us an email on labour@guild.bham.ac.uk and we’ll get in touch with details