Tag Archives: Labour leadership election 2010

Cypress Miliband? The Labour leadership rap!

7:49pm Thu September 16th

If you’re one of the 25% of Labour members who intends to vote for both Milibands, but still can’t decide whether to give David or Ed your first preference, fear not – help is at hand with this informative “How To Pick Between Milibands” rap song!

The track, work of “geeky rap artist” Dan Bull, is a reworking of the Cypress Hill song “How I Could Just Kill a Man” (although it seems to owe more to the Rage Against The Machine cover) and will surely wrangle for “Best internet political hip-hop song of 2010′ with the Keynes vs Hayek rap battle.

Scrapbook reckons it would Take A Nation Of Milibands To Hold Us Back.

Ed Balls rocks

4:07pm Fri September 10th

12 comments

It’s been doing the rounds for 24 hours now but this video of Ed Balls on the drums with guitarist David Evans makes for strangely compelling viewing. Growing in confidence throughout the rendition of “A Thing Called Love” by The Darkness, after the minute mark Balls starts showing off with drum rolls and a switch to the ride cymbal:

And it’s a lot better than Blair on the guitar.

Sorry, Tony.

Leadership caption competition: handy Ed Miliband

11:56am Thu September 9th

23 comments

Scrapbook plans to bookend Labour’s leadership contest with a series of caption competitions featuring the five contenders. Entries we canvassed privately for this snap from Ed Miliband’s rally at Haverstock School include:

“This is the hand I spank David with” and …

“Will you give me your second preference?”

We are confident, however, that our readers are much more witty. You can leave your entries in the comments.

One would assume Mili-D supporters will have some ideas!

Leaked Labour leadership campaign memo lays bare "Twitter bitching" strategy

1:37pm Fri September 3rd

24 comments

The bad-tempered arguments between supporters of the various Labour leadership candidates have not gone unnoticed. Until now, however, it was not apparent that such an approach had been encouraged officially by a campaign team.

The strategy document below, from leadership hopeful Jim Garner MP, suggests activists should “bitch about the other candidates on Twitter”, adding “If Ed Miliband farts in the woods and no one is around to hear it, I want you to say you were there and it smelt like he’d followed through.” The memo also carries annotations from an unknown aide suggesting Labour MP Stephen Pound should abuse DWP minister Chris Grayling in Parliament.

Garner’s campaign is perhaps best known for its videos (see his candidacy announcement), which the document indicates will make a return shortly. A source close to the Garner campaign told Scrapbook that Labour members can expect new material as early as next week.

In the meantime, check out his website at Jim4Leader.org.uk

As few as 11 MPs will vote for Diane Abbott

1:25pm Mon August 30th

16 comments

UPDATE 14:15 From what we’re hearing it might be less than 11!

For a full list of her original nominators (and who they’re really voting for) see our updated breakdown.

It was widely known that many of Abbott’s nominators wanted her on the ballot but would not support her in the final vote. Notwithstanding this fact, the extent to which she has bled support throughout the campaign surprised Scrapbook when updating our original article on her nominations yesterday. By our reckoning, just 11 of her 257 Labour colleagues intend to vote for her when postal ballots hit doormats from 1 September. This is exactly one third of the MPs required to nominate for the contest:

Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley)
Katy Clark (North Ayrshire & Arran)
Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North)
John Cryer (Leyton & Wanstead)
Kate Hoey (Vauxhall)
Kelvin Hopkins (LutonNorth)
Sian James (Swansea East)
John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington)
George Mudie (Leeds East)
Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)
Mike Wood (Batley & Spen)

A more generous assessment might include left wing PLP Chair Tony Lloyd, who backed her on the final day of nominations after coming under pressure from Labour members. This would bring her tally to 12 but this still includes 8 MPs who originally preferred John McDonnell and brings into question her claim that she could attract support “not just from the left”.

Abbott was at once blessed and cursed with the charity of David Miliband. A loan of his backers got her onto the ballot but meant her original list of “support” shrivelled over the Summer as the Mili-D camp slowly dripped announcements (notably Jack Straw) that they had kept in their back pocket. This strategy benefited the frontrunner as much as it did Abbott.

The “We’re backing Diane” section of her website has a grand total of, erm, two endorsements and one of these is by someone who will vote for Ed Miliband! Halifax MP Linda Riordan is clear that, while it was important to have a left-wing voice in the contest, she will not be voting for Abbott:

“To have the broad strand of Labour opinion represented required a candidate from the left. This is why, as in 2007, I nominated John McDonnell and when he fell short of the numbers, transferred to Diane Abbott. Already, thanks to Diane’s inclusion, issues like Iraq, tuition fees, and ID cards are being debated … That is why it was so important to have a candidate from the left involved, to enable the debate to happen.”

Abbott is currently 229/1 with Betfair. As Hopi Sen wrote in July:

“I have a greater chance of being Labour leader in my lifetime than Diane Abbott does.”

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.

Ed Miliband ratchets up the rhetoric: "we're within touching distance of winning"

6:40pm Tue August 17th

8 comments

With the most confident language used by any candidate thus far, Ed Miliband has claimed he is “within touching distance” of securing the Labour leadership. An email to supporters sent within the last hour repeats familiar riffs about winning back lower-income voters and casting David Miliband as the “big money” candidate while positioning the campaign as having the greatest momentum as the contest enters the home straight.

Postal ballots will be hitting doormats from two weeks tomorrow.

Be careful, David. Little brother is watching you!

Tag Archives: Labour leadership election 2010

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