The inside track since 2003

There’s a report in today’s Sunday Telegraph that’s inaccurate. I wasn’t asked to verify the story, particularly the statement that I was excluded from the campaign:

“By contrast a number of Mr Brown’s most trusted advisers – including Tom Watson, the former Cabinet Office minister, and Charlie Whelan, the Prime Minister’s former spin doctor who is now the political director of the Unite union, have been effectively excluded.”

For the record: I was asked on at least two occasions to play a role in the national campaign. I declined because I wanted to spend the month of the election, campaigning in West Bromwich and larking about with my kids. For the Watson household, annual elections would be a joy.

Also for the record, though I disagreed with parts of his Digital Economy Bill, I have the highest regard for Peter Mandelson. No-one could lead Labour’s election campaign better than he. He has my total support in this campaign, as he has done since I was his photocopy boy in the 1987 general election.

It’s more than a quarter of a century since I took my first job as a trainee library assistant at Labour HQ. If I’ve learnt one thing in those years it’s that whoever you appoint as an election campaign manager is the boss. They make the calls. And thank heavens we have Peter running our operation.

The news that Lord Adonis and his colleagues are getting to grips with the effects of the Icelandic volcano is to be welcomed.

Less good is the entirely predictable announcement by the Conservatives of their “8-point plan to address the flight crisis”. Have they learnt nothing from the reaction to the TV debate last week?

If you want to look at the election issues resulting from this unprecedented event, you have to have a deeper analysis than cooking up an 8-point plan on a Sunday Morning. People expect a grown up approach not a silly press release designed to get a page lead in Monday’s Sun newspaper.

So what are the issues?

The volcano could have an impact, hopefully intermittent, for the next 2 years.

Aircraft have proved unable to deal with the immediate impact, how will the rest of the transport infrastructure cope over the next few years?

As Nick Clegg would say, I don’t have all the answers but how the political parties stand on infrastructure investment, public services, regulation and European Union are going to be key determinants of success.

We have a transport system built on the just-in-time, capital maximisation model that doesn’t seem to be able to cope with natural events. And all three political parties are looking to reduce public sector investment, the Tories dramatically so.

I would argue that the Tories lean public sector infrastructure philosophy, part of their post bureaucratic age narrative, is more prone to break down, when something unusual happens.

Pressure will be felt greater on companies with distribution, logistics, advisory services, product sourcing and production spread across continents in order to chase price gains. These companies are going to need a government that maintains, enhances and re-enforces transport networks.

The sort of company that would benefit from this approach is Marks and Spencer. They increasingly source their materials abroad and they require a reliable distribution network. As we have seen, their Chairman is rather vociferous when the government takes decisions to maintain a basic level of public sector investment. Governments sometimes have to take decisions that upset the narrow, short term interests of business leaders in order to protect the wider, long term interests of business leaders. That’s life.

Right now, there could be up to 1 million people in the wrong place 72 hours after the event. In some parts of Europe, public transport and public services looked close to breaking point. If this is going to be a regular event in future years, who do you want to deal with it?

There are always lessons to be learned. But history has already taught us a few. Strip back public services to the core and our quality of life suffers.

One final, completely partisan point. Thank heavens Lord Adonis is in charge and not the hapless Theresa Villiers.

Forget Clegg mania, the Watson household is full of Dalek mania.

After last night’s Dr Who (written into my campaign schedule by my son), Junior Watson is voting Dalek. When promped, he did say that he’d support the new Labour Red Dalek. Small mercies and all that.

Nick Clegg’s success in the TV debates on Thursday has already had a positive effect in West Bromwich East. People are now talking about the election, and it’s wonderful.

In the last 48 hours I’ve taken phone calls and emails from people wanting to know about my detailed stance on dozens of policy positions – from child care and schools to international aid, tax, euthanasia, drugs, immigration, crime, litter and trains.

And if we can get this election re-calibrated, to end silly media and advertising stunts and start talking about policy, then all the better.

I’ve been on a journey these last nine years, so a debate about how we can build a progressive future is to be welcomed.

There are still issues on which Labour and the Lib Dems profoundly disagree. No doubt they’ll come out in the next few weeks. There’s no point in being churlish though. Nick Clegg has opened up this election.

Let the debate begin.

After the passing of the Digital Economy Act last week and before the political parties each launch a manifesto next week, I wanted to ask your advice on my own Internet pledges.

I want to stand on a platform that is avowedly supportive of the generation that seek to use the Internet to make the world a better place. To do this I have to be able to draw authority from an electoral mandate from electors in West Bromwich East. So I’d like to produce a leaflet that sets out what I stand for. It will be delivered to as many homes in West Bromwich as my campaign team can manage. Friends will also help me get it out onto digital platforms for wider discussion as soon as the pledges are finalised. I only have a few days to do this.

It’s clear to me that the British political class as a whole (like others round the world) struggles with getting these principles right. I’ve had a stab here but I’d grateful for all honest attempts at improving them. It’s a healthy thing for Internet experts, like everyone else, to get into the habit of asking for what they want. You never know, you might end up getting it. That’s how politics works sometimes.

To give you the best chance of getting your ideas into me, I would appreciate comments to the pledges below both on this blog but also over on the uservoice site I have set up to help structure feedback a little.

As I say, we need to act fast so while I’ll leave comments open indefinitely, I am looking to create the initial list of pledges this week so ideas by the end Wednesday 14th April would be really appreciated.

My (draft) Digital Pledges

1. I will support and campaign for more transparency in the public and private sector.
2. I will oppose measures that unjustly deny people’s access to the Internet.
3. Whilst noting the acknowledged limitations, I believe people have the right to free speech on the Internet.
4. I will support all measures that allow people access to their personal data held by others. I further support restoration of control over how personal data is gathered, managed and shared to the individual.
5. I will use my role as an MP to support international free expression movements.
6. The Internet shall be built and operated openly and without discrimination.
7. I will support all measures to bring non-personal public data into the public domain.
8. I will support all proposals that lead to greater numbers joining the digital world and oppose measures that reduce it.
9. I believe that copyright and software patent laws should be reformed to reflect the needs of citizens in the Internet age.

P: Your wife got mired in a political correctness storm as well about telling a joke.

NW:  Yes at a rugby club. Well if you can’t tell what I describe as amusing in some people’s minds, in others not, risqué jokes at a rugby club, where can you tell such jokes.

P:  Were you thinking what’s it come to when a member of parliament can’t tell a joke about Pakistanis at a rugby club?

NW:  Well I mean I bet they tell jokes about honkies and others … you know … about us. I don’t object to jokes at my expense and I don’t think people that come here should worry about jokes at their expense. It was said with no malice. I wasn’t there by the way but it was said with no malice and the rugby club itself was thoroughly embarrassed by the whole sad saga.

Reviews the papers. Falls for spoof. Argues for signs in Mandarin. Listen to Colin.

NC: Now, later in the programme if I may before you go, we’re hearing a claim that the fox hunting ban is being flouted more than another law. Are you going to repeal the ban?

DC: Well we’re going to have a free vote in the House of Commons.

NC: But what are your instincts?

DC: My personal view is the ban has been a, is a mistake. I always opposed the ban…

NC: You’re a hunter though aren’t you you’ve been hunting?

DC: I have in the past. I always thought that the ban was a mistake because I think it is very difficult to enforce. I think it’s somewhere where the criminal law shouldn’t go and I think that the mess we have now pretty much proves that. But it will be a free vote. There are, MPs take different views, there are Conservatives in my party who support the hunting ban, it will be a free vote in the House of Commons and if the ban if kept it’s kept and if it’s repealed it’s repealed.

NC: And will you go hunting again if it comes back?

DC: I personally have got other things I’m hoping to do.

NC: No but if you had any spare… what is it, you’ve been hunting, for those who don’t understand it because it’s a tremendously divisive issue, explain the joys of hunting.

DC: Well I was born, I’m a country boy, I was brought up in the countryside and I love walking in the countryside and riding in the countryside and every aspect of growing up in the countryside. I was taught to fish by a wonderful grandfather. I was taught to shoot rabbits by my dad. You know and I’ve always been a country boy and I went hunting as well.

NC: And was it for pest control or was it just for the fun of chasing the fox?

DC: Well people like, if you like riding and people like riding across the countryside and it’s an opportunity, and lots of people do it together, it’s an opportunity to see parts of the countryside you never see before. That’s a lot of why people go and it’s part of something that happened, something that happened in the countryside for a very many years.

NC: People against it would say you can do that without killing an animal.

DC: Yes of course that’s true and I do, I like riding. But the point is that the fox population has to be controlled – every farmer will tell you that and every farmer will also tell you that the methods now being used in more case gassing & shooting and trapping and snaring, are as the Burns inquiry itself found, very very cruel and the case on animal welfare grounds for the hunting ban I’ve always thought was very very weak. But as I say it’s a free vote issue. This is something I would never whip any party members to have. It has you’re right been a divisive issue, I think the right thing to do now that the ban’s been in place to have a free vote and to see whether people want to keep it or not.

Interesting approach from Labour HQ in light of the total catastrophe in the political billboards market. To save their ad agency the humiliation of getting their billboards hacked, they’re going to first base by asking people to design Labour’s next political advert. Like the crowdsourcing methodology. Here’s the two design briefs:

1. Labour’s pledge to protect frontline investment in key services

Objective
Highlight Labour’s pledge to protect frontline investment in key services
What single thought should people take away from your poster?
Labour will protect frontline investment in policing, schools, childcare and the NHS, with a new guarantee of cancer test results within a week
Why should they believe us?
Labour has always valued the public services on which mainstream families rely. In 1997, when the British people entrusted us with the job of protecting our public services the task facing us was clear – to rebuild and restore them after decades of neglect. Standards have risen and now we need to give guarantees of high standards to everyone – not just the lucky few – at the same time as delivering value for taxpayers’ money and services which are tailored to everyone’s personal needs.

2. Highlight David Cameron’s lack of substance
Objective
Let people know about David Cameron’s lack of substance. He’s boasted about being a good salesman – he’s not the conviction politician we need for these tougher times.
What single thought should people take away from your poster?
Running the country is a serious matter and David Cameron doesn’t have the substance to take on that job
Why should they believe us?
All David Cameron’s focus has been on changing image – airbrushing posters, sledding at the North poll or being photographed cycling. Because of this he seems to think that it’s easy to get away with the same old Tory policies – telling people he’s for fairness when promising a tax giveaway for the wealthiest and cutting Child Trust Funds and Child Tax Credits when families need them the most. Instead of taking on the old fashioned, hardline Tories in his Party, he has appeased them by giving in on the issues they are obsessed about like foxhunting, grammar schools and Europe.

Here’s the new pledge card:

scene from west bromwich east

I’ve been testing the new iPhone application, hipstamatic. It takes beautiful, sixties style images.

Wow. I’ve just seen what Conservative education spokesman Michael Gove said about Lord Ashcroft:

KW:  Joining me now is the shadow schools secretary Michael Gove. Michael Gove I want to read you something: “The party’s unhealthy reliance on Ashcroft puts its entire electoral strategy at risk. Move over Jim Davidson, there’s an even more high-profile comedian backing the Tories. Let’s give a big welcome to the king of the one-liners, self-made millionaire, self-style [inaudible] Lord, I was just taking the Michael Ashcroft”. Michael Gove you wrote those words in 2000. Do you stand by them now? 

MG: I wrote those words when I was a columnist for the Times and I was paid to entertain… 

KW:  Were you not paid to tell the truth? 

MG:  Well I was paid to entertain and the column was designed to amuse and to provoke. The critical thing is that Lord Ashcroft has I think taken notice of what his critics have said, rather more substantial critics than me…