One of the upsides of blogging is being able to indulge in compiling lists that wouldn’t otherwise be published. So here’s the change in the number of Labour councillors last Thursday, ranked by authority and divided into type of authority, and so London doesn’t feel left out, the change in vote share by GLA constituency. …

Labour’s moderates need to vote and campaign ‘for Ken – with no illusions!’ I am referring of course to the old Socialist Workers’ party slogan at elections: ‘vote Labour – with no illusions’. I think it would be fair to say Ken Livingstone and I come from diametrically opposed traditions within the Labour party and …

The rise of UKIP to nine per cent and third place in the opinion polls ahead of the Lib Dems in the opinion polls for the first time this week took me by surprise. Like most people on the left I spend more time thinking about my own party’s problems and how to solve them …

Labour’s local election campaign has got off to an excellent start with the news that we are fielding the most candidates of any of the parties. Increasing the number of wards contested was set as a key performance indicator by the NEC in the run-up to the May 2011 elections and it is excellent to …

‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ I like to start columns with a quote from a great political thinker, in this case the singer Kelly Clarkson. In last week’s column I warned George Galloway might win in Bradford West and urged people to head there to help, as I did myself on polling day. …

Sometimes the urgent need for an organisational call-to-arms takes over this column because there is something that needs to be done, rather than debated. One such case is tomorrow, Thursday 29 March: the Bradford West parliamentary by-election. George Galloway of the Respect party thinks he has a chance of beating Labour’s excellent local candidate Imran …

The full national executive committee met on 20th March. I had been expecting fireworks on three issues: Ed Balls’ report on economic policy, the report on restructuring at HQ (as this issue had been reported in very controversial terms in the Guardian), and the anonymous report sent to CLPs about Progress. As it was, the …

I’m not sure why there is a habit in the Tory party of broadcasting their election strategies. Perhaps it is disinformation designed to spook us. But it usually seems reasonable stuff so we shouldn’t ignore it either as intelligence on their likely moves or to ‘reverse engineer’ their lessons and apply them ourselves. Usually it’s …

The interview the Guardian carried today with Unite general secretary Len McCluskey is worth a close read. I declare a few interests that will be familiar to regular readers. I am a Unite member and have been since 1995. Until 2009 I was heavily involved in the political structures of the union, serving on its …

Oh dear. If Jack Straw’s call for the abolition of the European parliament was intended to be provocative, it has provoked me. The European parliament may be very imperfect, but it is the only bit of the EU ordinary voters get to have any input into or any representative voice in. Jack says the turnout …