Tag Archives: david miliband

Ed Miliband ahead in Pink Poll

9:33am Sun September 5th

Ed Miliband is the favoured candidate of LGBT Labour members, according to an exclusive poll by Pink News. Despite having the backing of high profile Labour gays like Ben Bradshaw and Chris Bryant, as well as many prominent LGBT activists, David Miliband is 11-points behind his younger brother. The news comes after the elder Miliband was shown to have a 28-point lead in a YouGov poll of general voters.

According to the poll Ed Miliband has the backing of 42% of LGBT members, with David Miliband on 31%. Diane Abbot, though ranked third with 16%, is the most popular candidate amongst LGBT non-members squeaking ahead of Ed Miliband with 36% to his 35%.

Team Abbott might well be scratching their heads wondering why their candidate is so popular with the broader gay community but not amongst the LGBT fraternity.

Perhaps Diane should have listened more closely to the homophobic lyrics of Buju Banton before chosing him as one of her ‘Desert Island Discs’.

Shadow Cabinet update: Alan Johnson to run

11:14pm Thu September 2nd

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Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson has declared he is to run for the Shadow Cabinet in the forthcoming elections. It had previously been thought that Mr. Johnson would follow top-cabinet colleagues like Alastair Darling and Jack Straw in stepping back from the political front line.

Johnson’s decision could potentially scupper the Shadow Cabinet plans of leadership contenders as it would be hard to sideline such a high profile and popular figure. Since Scrapbook last covered the Shadow Cabinet elections it has become increasingly clear who the major players are and what jobs they fancy.

In the event of a Miliband (D) victory Douglas Alexander is being lined up as a potential Shadow Foreign Secretary, with fellow Scot (and campaign organiser) Jim Murphy being considered for either Defence or Work and Pensions.Harriet Harman is rumoured to be getting the Justice brief regardless of who wins, and though he fancies the Shadow Chancellorship speculation is rife that Ed balls is being lined up as a Shadow Home Secretary – a prospect that may have been scuppered by Johnson’s announcement.

Currygate: Lily Allen teases David Miliband over restaurant choice on Twitter

11:27pm Fri August 27th

9 comments

The leadership campaign took a turn for the surreal this evening as David Miliband found himself being chided on Twitter by Labour-voting muso Lily Allen. [Yes, honestly!] When asked in today’s Evening Standard as to the “best meal you’ve had in London”, the shadow foreign secretary said:

“I had a fantastic takeaway from Masala Zone in Camden recently. When you spend lots of time away from home, which I am at the moment, it’s a rare treat to stay in, relax and enjoy a curry.”

The response had Allen choking (with laughter) on her Jalfrezi:

With Allen’s 2.3 million followers (more than the membership of the UK’s biggest union Unite) Mili-D rose to the challenge and upped the stakes with an invitation to a fundraiser at his favourite takeaway:

But he fell foul or the maxim to never work with children or animals (or popstars) as it all seemed to deteriorate from there:

“@DMiliband I’ve eaten there myself and while the food is perfectly nice, I very much doubt that it is the BEST meal you’ve had in London.”

“@DMiliband quite a well considered answer for a campaigning labour politician though. MOR.”

“@DMiliband hang on, are you getting free curries for mentioning them?”

“Why did David Milliband cross the road ?”

“To get to the middle…….#VoteEd“

The closing hashtag left hacks scratching their heads as to which Ed she had endorsed. The constituency most pleased by this episode won’t be the Edwards, amused Tweeters or even the proprietors of Masala Zone but gossip-starved Sunday newspaper diary columnists.

That’s one story sorted then.

David Miliband cannot spoll

9:49am Fri August 27th

18 comments

You can always spot the tweets from David Miliband himself because they’re sent via text message. And he can’t spell anyone’s name right. First up, Dianne [sic] Abbott:

The next victim of David’s deed poll service is John [sic] Cruddas:

Suffice it to say the International Brotherhood of Jon were not impressed:

See me after class.

Jack Straw to declare for David Miliband in Labour leadership contest

5:18pm Wed August 11th

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UPDATE 21:40 The Guardian have the story, with quotes from Straw: “[David Miliband] has the strength and the depth to stand up to David Cameron at prime minister’s questions week after week, and he can stand up for the people who will be most badly hit in our communities by the policies of this Con/LibDem government.”

Where the Labour leadership contest is concerned, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to establish where Jack Straw’s sympathies might lie. With the frantic eleventh-hour push to get Diane Abbot on the ballot, our analysis of her nominations in June tracked the flow of support from two sources: splinters from the John McDonnell camp and other backers “donated” by the older Miliband. Unless the great survivor of Labour politics was, unbeknown to the Westminster village, a secret sleeper agent for the Socialist Campaign Group, Jack would be backing David.

With any announcement of substance amplified by the news vacuum of parliamentary recess, this Animal has heard whisper that an official statement may be forthcoming, possibly before the weekend. This brings into relief some canny tactics from MiliD: anyone nominating Diane Abbot could be held back for a subsequent announcement of genuine support at a time of the campaign’s choosing.

Clever boy.

Miliband and Livingstone "on the wagon"

7:55pm Tue August 10th

2 comments

Some very good looking men enjoying a drink. Not unlike the Scrapbook team on a Friday night.

The Scrapbook team loves a good pub. Indeed we can regularly be seen setting the world to rights over a pint or ten of heavy. Therefore the demise of the British pub is a matter of some concern to us here at Scrapbook, and it would seem we’re not the only ones.

Politicians have been queuing-up of late to “Save the Great British Pub”, with Labour leadership front-runner David Miliband and London Mayoral Candidate Ken Livingstone the latest to jump on the bandwagon. So as polticians of all hues have decided to champion the cause of the British Pub, let’s look for a minute at some of the things they’ve done to help them:

Year on year increases in beer duty, with some products experiencing a rise of up to 25% in just 2 years;
Ban smoking in all pubs and clubs;
Stand idly by as landlords and supermarkets engage in anti-competitive practices.

In fact the one bone that was thrown to the licensed trade in the past 10 years, the liberalisation of license hours, looks set to be repealed.

Luckily there at least a handful of inner London pubs that look unlikely to close any time soon!

Labour Students nomination generates twitterstorm

2:27pm Mon July 26th

11 comments

Labour Students is notoriously right wing. During this blogger’s time as a student the story of the Scottish contingent’s journey to national conference, where they abandoned a group of Trots at a service station in Carlisle and then affixed an icepick to the front of the bus, was regularly (and boastfully) recounted.

Today the left in Labour Students are altogether more subdued, being quite content for the organisation to be controlled by a Progress-dominated group of centreists. This Animal was hardly surprised therefore to learn that Labour Students’ National Committee will be recommending its members vote David Miliband for Labour leader.

This decision, however, has not gone down too well with the twittersphere. While some have been complaining about a lack of transparency, others have argued that NOLS should have remained impartial.

Twitter has given the left in Labour Students a voice – better get the icepicks out!

Milibands tighten their grip on leadership race

4:31pm Thu July 15th

3 comments

With slick direct mail from David Miliband hitting members’ doormats in the past few days, Ladbrokes have cut his odds to seize control of the party at conference in September.

Spokesman David Williams said: “It increasingly looks like a family affair. The Milibands have an iron-grip on the race to be Labour leader and David is the one with all the momentum. His odds continue to shorten.”

2/5 David Miliband (from 4/9)
5/2 Ed Miliband
12/1 Ed Balls (from 10)
25/1 Andy Burnham (from 20)
40/1 Diane Abbott (from 33)

Either Miliband 1/14
Not a Miliband 6/1

It’s not all bad news for Miliband Jr, though. Research by Left Foot Forward indicates that Ed will strongly benefit from second preferences under the alternative vote system.

This could go down to the wire.

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