Morning update 01.09.15: New term
BACK TO SCHOOL
WE’RE not ready to give up on the sun just yet but a rainy bank holiday and the Back To School aisle sign in the supermarkets suggest the seasons are changing. And so here we are for a new term and another race of morning updates to stretch us over the political conferences, a period in which Labour will finally work out who its new leader should be. You can get the e-mail each morning by subscribing to the blog, which is coming up to its sixth birthday this month, and check back here for other updates. Also looks out for the Peeps column in each week’s Camden New Journal for more bits and pieces. Cheers.
ADAM vs THE ‘MEAN’ TORIES
ONE of the striking elements of the Labour leadership contest is the number of members, not just in north London, who say that re-founding the party with a left wing agenda is more important now than worrying about which of the leadership candidates is most likely to win the 2020 general election. The failure of the non-Corbyn candidates to set out their stall effectively in this saga has played into argument, as you will find members who will tell you that it’s all very well declaring that Labour cannot win with Corbyn, and therefore head should rule over heart, but would the others fare any better electorally. Put simply, the rebellion says, as Burnham, Cooper and Kendall have allowed the contest to become a matter of whether Corbyn wins or not, would they allow a general election to be played on their opponents’ terms in the same way? Either way, the power thing remains a key line for those Labour members most worried about Corbyn winning.
And here we come to Bloomsbury councillor Adam Harrison, who keeps it polite in an article for Progress but warns against a swing to the left, or at least digging in for the centre ground, as he suggests a ‘power with a purpose’ method of defeating ‘mean Tories. “The centre-ground is built on two planks: competence and compassion,” he writes. “The second sits on top of the first. Being a Labour party that people believe to be equally competent and compassionate beats the Tories every time because we are sometimes able to stand on these twin planks; the Tories, in contrast, are never able to convince the public that they are compassionate as well as competent – they are Tories, after all – they are smart, but mean. Though David Cameron has evidently set about to overturn this assumption, and thereby keep Labour out of power for good.”
TORY KEIR
AS every newspaper suffers the typo bug sooner or later, this one may sound like a bit pot and kettle. But here’s a clanger from the Daily Mirror over the weekend, which sees Holborn and St Pancras’ new MP Keir Starmer crossing the floor.
TWEETS
DOES T-Money think it’s time his council leader colleague Sarah Hayward was uplifted to the House of Lords?
Former Lib Dem councillor Paul Braithwaite sneaks into Andy Burnham’s event at St Pancras Church last week. He was there out of interest, we were told, not because of any switched allegiance.
Two different opinions on the delay to the running of the night tube: Camden’s Labour leader and the chairman of the Holborn and St Pancras Conservatives.
Richard Osley 
A bit naff if that’s what I’d been intending – here’s the context http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2015/08/30/sw1-labour-is-too-busy-pretending-to-be-in-the-west-wing-to-value-labours-local-government-leaders/
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And he said, “Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country”. Luke 4:24
Hey, Theo, whilst your at it, can you show us that nifty trick of yours with the fish and loaves?
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