Launch of Labour's Campaign Pledges

Alongside the national launch of Labour's pledges in Nottingham today, the Stengthen Fairness in Communities Pledge was launched in Birmingham with party members from across the West Midlands joining in a day of discussion with Alan Johnson and David Miliband. Nice to see politicians looking relaxed and happy - a really upbeat mood. Only downside - pledges are better when they are tighter and more specific. What we shouldn't do is see them as the equivalent of the pledges in 1997 that were drummed into us by the Prescott battle bus. They are however sensible themes that help us get a consistent message about Labour's priorities, and a more consistent narrative. Even Alan Johnson agreed with me! A consistent narrative is something we've needed for the last few years. An upbeat day.

Time for Job-share MPs?

Yesterday I was asked to join a cross-party roundtable discussion facilitated by the Fawcett Society on Women in Parliament – Implementing the Speaker’s Conference recommendations. The Speaker’s Conference reported recently after a year-long inquiry into how we increase diversity in Parliament. It was a fascinating debate reviewing recommendations the Speaker’s conference has made around what political parties could do more, what needed to change in terms of how Parliament works, and whether we should move to a discussion around quotas if the number of women MPs doesn’t significantly improve. A high number of countries use quotas in some form – and sometimes for a fixed period of time. It is interesting that finally Parliament is set for a nursery – incredible that it should be a controversial concept (see Private Eye “political correctness gone mad”) - when all three main political parties supposedly support a better gender balance in parliament, and measures to help keep families strong. Perhaps one of the most interesting possibilities to support more women in Parliament not yet getting prominence – which was one of the suggestions in the Fabian Women’s Network’s evidence to the Speaker’s conference – is the idea of job-share MPs. For some reason we celebrate when Parliament passes laws around flexible working options and then balk at the idea of Parliament implementing some of those measures itself! Perhaps also finally we’ll start to see a better discussion around moving Parliament’s hours to a more 9-5 structure – in line with most of the rest of society. Some interesting stats though. The Centre for Women and Democracy suggests that the number of women MPs looks set to increase from a fifth to up to a quarter of MPs – a step in the right direction but still woefully low on the international league table of women in parliaments. And the challenge remains stark when you also hear that there are 200 constituencies where all the candidates are male, with only ten that have all female candidates – all of which are in marginal seats.

A Labour Budget - and a budget for Britain

Against my own expectations, I actually found myself quite excited and optimistic following Alastair Darling's budget today. It was a Labour budget - and a budget for Britain. I was particularly listening out for what Labour will do to support small businesses and entrepreneurship. Not least because SMEs are the real backbone of our economy, and have continued to suffer through the recession through lack of credit and variable speed with which Government backed support has reached them. Not to mention the gender aspect - women are increasingly the drivers of small business growth; the small businesses of today that may well break through to be the big businesses of tomorrow. And the Budget indeed did not forget small businesses. Just some of the measures include a £2.5bn package for small business to boost skills and innovation, a one year business rate cut from October to help 500,000 companies, a doubling of the investment allowance for small firms to £100,000 and a doubling relief on capital gains tax for entrepreneurs. However Labour's challenge - and indeed the Government's challenge, will be that this support reaches SMEs - as indeed does bank lending - as fast as possible. And not just the businesses that shout the loudest, but the entrepreneurs from diverse communities who may be less connected to Business Link and other networks with less understanding of how to access the support available. The Government must ensure that it monitors how funds are being used, and that businesses in more deprived areas which often do much more to skill up the local population do not miss out.

Nawas Ali and Lynnette Kelly PPC launch campaign for South Yardley ward

Another impressive young Bengali talent makes a political debut today. I was delighted to join Nawas Ali from Birmingham as he kicked off a campaign to win back South Yardley ward for Labour. Meeting with community leaders from the Bangladeshi community as part of the campaign kick off, he and Lynnette spoke passionately and inspiringly about aspirations of new communities, the desire of families to succeed and for parents to see their children grow up with a better quality of life than they had themselves. Lynnette held the audience captive with a moving account of her experience working with Muslims in Bosnia, how they were attacked for being Muslims, but how the desire to stay as part of a multicultural community rather than seek separatism remained important to them. I've no doubt she'd make a fantastic MP - and Nawas a hugely impressive councillor. Birmingham will benefit from his energy and entrepreneurialism.

Gloria De Piero selected to stand in Ashfield

A friend from university days has just been selected to fight the safe seat of Ashfield - vacated by Geoff Hoon. Probably the best thing Geoff has done for the Labour Party in the last week is hand over his seat to a woman who I've no doubt will be a fantastic MP. She's done a fabulous job of being a reporter of independent mind, whilst knowing where her roots are and what she believes in. She now joins the 186 women candidates selected so far to stand in the General Election. Sure, some are in non-safe seats. But many are in winnable if not safe seats. Still not enough though - as a male member of the Labour Party who was a union official negotiating for equal pay for women in the sixties (before Labour's Equal Pay Act) said to me yesterday, we need to see a better gender balance in parliament. For the full list of Labour's women candidates, take a look at
http://www.labourwomensnetwork.org.uk/lwn.html.