The Unions Anoint Ed

Well in the end it really was a nail biting finish. It was down to the fourth round of the ballot that decided the result between the Milibands. In the end it came down to:

MPs 53-47 to David;
Members 54-46 to David;
Unions 60-40 to Ed.

Overall Ed 50.65% David 49.35%

Yes I was doing the maths in my head before the result for David was declared first (how much of a geek am I?) even turning and saying it. I knew before that forty nine came out of the Chair of the NEC's mouth which Miliband brother was next in line. But the split is that he lost out in two of the three colleges. The members and MPs/MEPs were not behind him, but the Unions were.

However, Nick Robinson and Laura Kuenssberg were talking over round two declarations and most of round three to tell us that David Miliband was smiling and Ed was looking tense, before Nick 'declared' the result for David. My friend Helen Duffet posted a tweet 'Ed Miliband wins title of Labour's best pokerface. Watch 'im.'

So in honour of the new Labour leader's performance before the count was declared here's this.

Campaign Diary: The Leader, The Press and The Poster

Today was one of those days that will be easier once the Bathgate to Airdrie extension in completed later this year. The word had gone from Andrew Reeves for us all to available at 9:30 this morning for the launch of the Scottish campaign for the general election. For me that means either going into Edinburgh and out or hoping on the X14 bus at 7:20 to head into Buchanan Street. I took the first option, it is quicker, even the time for mishap is smaller. So I planned on the bus hoping the M8 wasn't too congested this morning.

Last night while many of us were out campaigning we got the details sent to us. We were to turn up at Pacific Quay, Glasgow. For those of you who don't know that is the location of the new headquarters for both BBC Scotland and Scotland Television; in other words the hub of the Scottish television world. We were to be joined by Tavish Scott, Charles Kennedy and the leader Nick Clegg himself. The event was to unfurl the new poster campaign.

And what a campaign it is. Yeah a little bit retro but hoisting the Tories by a petard of their own previous making.



The Tories are actually going to increase your tax burden by £389 in VAT. Because of course George Osborne’s great idea, possibly while in the bathroom, on the eve of the chancellors debate was to half Labour’s future increase in National Insurance. He's going to have to pay for it somehow. No doubt in another of his trips to the bathroom he came up with that eureka moments.This is against the Liberal Democrat promise to rise the personal allowance for income tax to £10,000, lifting 3.5 million of the poorest paid out of tax altogether and giving people £700 back.

The Liberal Democrats tax cut is paid for by closing many of the loopholes that allow the richest to pay proportionately less than the cleaner in their offices on minimum wage, green taxes on polluters. The other thing about National Insurance and VAT is that they are regressive taxes which affect the poorest far more than the richest. Income tax being a progressive system an be made fairer to the poorest by differential tax rates or raising the limit at which they start paying it. Currently you get taxed on the £6746th pound you earn. Something that Alistair Darling didn't increase in his budget last month. Something that the Conservatives didn't notice until long after Nick Clegg had mentioned it in the debate; if only they’d been bothered to stay in the chamber to listen.

However, back to the event, before his arrival the press core that was travelling with Nick turned up, including that other Nick, Mr Robinson. Then from around the corner Nick and Charles headed towards Tavish who greeted him. Then with a parting of the press core the trio strode towards where we candidates were waiting next to the billboard. Nick said a few words and there were press questions to him often as one on ones at various locations around the area. The first journalist to actually come up to the hoard of Scottish candidates for Nick Robinson, his opening words were you’re just standing here getting ignored. He then went to grab his overcoat, while he joked about him being a soft southerner. Of course Nick Robinson is from the north, just the north that is south of Scotland.

There were a few press pictures as Nick came back to us to wish us luck and say his goodbyes, for now, then by the time our commitment was over, I’d missed one X14 back to Bathgate but had time to do a delivery for Katy Gordon in Glasgow North before catching the next bus. See even when your transport arrangements get messed up there is still a time, a place, a fellow candidate who is more than willing to use your services.

So home for a quick lunch before heading out unto the streets of Linlithgow.

***Breaking News*** Nick Robinson Names Cabinet Names

Nick Robinson has just named the names of those in Cabinet that were standing by as Geoof Hoon and Patricia Hewitt too the heat for their letter.

Harriet Harman

David Miliband

Douglas AlexanderJack Straw Jim Murphy Bob Ainsworth The dirty half dozen who were waiting to pounce.

Was their intended successor a Miliband?

Nick Robinson said that you can expect their offices to be issuing denials immediately. At least a lot faster than the statements of support for the Prime Minister earlier in the day.

Nick Robinson Doesn't Quite Get It

In his latest blog piece the BBC political editor Nick Robinson says:

"Another half-empty conference hall this morning. It's been like that most days at all the major party conferences. Thousands of people there but few of them willing to sit through the pre-packed, made-for-TV, corporate-away-day-style presentations that the parties have substituted for what we used to call debates."

For starters was he at Bournemouth where the one party that does have debates on policy still, well, debated? For seconds I'm not sure about the other parties but at the Lib Dem conference it was a key time for training and other opportunities. This was the last full week before the general election ahead that all the party will be gathered for so long in one place. I'd be shocked if the other parties didn't also have some training for candidates, agents, councillors, activists etc going on along side the main event.

So yeah there is a pre-packed, made-for-TV, corporate-away-day-style element to party conferences, but when the inevitable is just around a corner, a General Election there are other things just as pressing for the typical conference attendee.

Of course Nick is quite right that the main stage at the Labour and Conservative conferences does lack the drama of actually debating something, anything of substance. The Liberal Democrats though can still be seat of your pants stuff as someone else lays into another element of the party, or the leadership. Or if somebody suddenly turns out to have changed their view on nuclear power, or Europe or heaven forbid the type of electoral reform we need. It gets all the more interesting if speaker after speaker from the Policy Committee speaks against parts of their own motion, then you know that something is afoot.

But then the BBC called that wrong. When they see real debate they call it division. You see the BBC really want to have the stage-managed, pre-packed, made-for-TV, corporate-away-day-style presentations that Nick complains about. They then know what is going on in the main hall and can wander off elsewhere and try and trip up PPCs (although the Tories will keep stoom), create their own news, try to find a leadership battle (lacking in Brighton to their dismay), or whatever. The problem with the Lib Dems is that we could through a spanner in the works with their careful planning. Andrew Neil, Nick Robinson et al, may be away looking for something to do when a vote goes unexpectedly (for the media) in the hall, the body politic has spoken.

Jennie wrote at the time of our conference that the media didn't get Lib Dem conference. Now we have Nick Robinson complaining, yet compalining about just what they didn't understand at the Lib Dem conference as being missing. Looks like facts can really never get in the way of a good BBC moan.