Foreign Secretary David Miliband's 'secret' visit to Liverpool
Foreign Secretary David Miliband paid a 'secret' private visit to Liverpool yesterday to meet Labour party members.
Liverpool Councillor Louise Baldock spills the beans on her blog, about the meeting at the Devonshire House Hotel in Edge Lane.
Apparently he was "impressive, open, honest, frank, aware, alert, totally on top of his brief, funny, dynamic, questioning, thoughtful and very engaging," according to Cllr Baldock.
He apparently also paid a warm tribute to Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy who will be standing down at the next General Election.
Cllr Baldock wrote:
he genuinely believes Jane was personally responsible for helping to "save the Labour Party". He talked about the period in the 1980s when he said the Labour Party was at a crossroads, deciding whether to take itself into an idealogical oblivion (that is not the phrase he used, but I cannot bring it to mind just now, I think it may have been about moving "into the cold"), or whether to move forward as a truly Progressive party. (I think that deserved a capital letter).
He said this battle was fought most strongly in the "crucible" of Liverpool and that Jane was at the forefront of that fight - against Militant. Jane and I were sitting with David at the top table, and I could see and sense that she was genuinely touched by this significant praise. A thoughtful and well deserved epitaph for a fantastic Parliamentary career and all-round contribution of an active Labour Party member.
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David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
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One important way to boost morale in the Labour Party is for people like Louise Baldock & Jane Kennedy to invite senior Cabinet members to [i]"an intimate group of about 40 members"[/i] that the rest of the membership don't know about - and then brag about it on a blog. How very helpful! And how thoughtful that they didn't charge for entry! Maybe Jane Kennedy paid for the 'free' biscuits from her ã400/month food subsidy and her numerous resignation pay-offs.
I dont know why David has described this as a secret meeting. It was advertised to all LP members in the NW, by email, albeit with not much notice. It was not a secret, it was a regular party event, we often have Q&As. The bill for the tea, coffee and biscuits was of course met by the regional LP office. I am not sure why Ronnie, whoever s/he is, would want to make such inaccurate assumptions, but if s/he was to join the LP then s/he would also have been invited and could have been part of what was a really great event.
Neither Jane or I invited David, he asked the regional LP if he could come to Liverpool because he had an hour or two free in his diary that evening and was nearby and wanted to come over. Our LP events are organised on that basis 99% of the time, there is nothing surprising about any of this, other than that Mr Bartlett has decided to blog about it.
Get over it!
Awww David, you're not upset that you didn't get an invite are you? Is that how its decided that events are 'secret' or not these days - whether you're invited or not? I've got several friends who are members of the LP, who were all invited to go and did, albeit only at short notice (the Foreign Sec's visits can't be too highly publicised as he needs added security owing to his role) and asked me if I wanted to attend. Unfortunately I couldn't make it - had some scamping of my own to do - but I'm told it was a very good event.
David, you have form on this- try and get your facts right before penning inaccurate and sensationalist stories!
Advertised to LP members by email? No, it was not! The 'accuracy of my assumptions' is based on comments of five local LP members whose company I shared yesterday, not one of whom knew anything about this meeting. Mightily brassed off, they were too. But pretty unsurprised, frankly, given those involved.
Thanks for the comments. In using the word 'secret' in inverted commas I was not meaning to imply this was some sort of scandal or that I was put out for not being invited. It was a secret in so far as the wider public did not know about it, and nor would they have known about it had Louise Baldock not have blogged on it. But I did not pass comment on whether that was a good or a bad thing. Political parties are free to invite who ever they want to speak to local members. I only posted on the matter because I thought readers might find it interesting, by saying it was 'secret' I did not mean to imply that was therefore a bad thing, maybe private would have been a better word to use?
Let's face it, it essentially was a secret as many Labour members in Liverpool and the North West knew nothing about it until reading it on here or on Louise's blog.
It wasn't either Jane Kennedy or Louise Baldock's fault here, but to claim that all members were informed by email is simply untrue. No one expects to know Ministers diaries but members do expect to be asked whenever possible. Efforts may have been made but clearly they were not good enough in this instance. It therefore does come across as somewhat secret or at the least part of a north west 'clique' even if that were not the aim.
David should not then be castigated for using the word. It doesn't happen often, but it seems a reporter has (accidentally?) got it right this time!
This was definitely not a secret.
I'm a fairly new member and was contacted a couple of months back by email to see if I would like to go.
I accepted and then the final time and location was sent through on the day itself.
As for the events itself - it was excellent.
It's great that grassroots members get the chance to meet and quiz such a leading party and government member who in turn was open, warm and honest.
I've done some more checking. Yes, some LP members were informed a good while back, but clearly not all. From my contacts, there is no obvious pattern between those who knew and those who didn't. Incomplete email database? Faulty memories? Both could be at work. But one thing seems clear: the meeting wasn't nearly as well-attended as it might have been, had the organisation been better. Miliband is one of the few Ministers actually worth listening to. That's why some people are brassed off.
I am not very impressed Ronnie. You castigate me several times on this thread, and then when you have finally "done some checking" (!!!) and realised you were totally wrong, having spoken first and thought later, you don't bother to apologise. The reason we are having this dicussion is because I used the opportunity of my blog to share details of the event with the whole world. So don't accuse me of operating in a secret way.
Too ready to mount your high horse, Louise - far too ready. And to ready to play the victim too. I said I'd done "some [i]more[/i] checking", not 'some checking'. Read my words carefully before firing off. I'd already reported yesterday's comments from other LP members. In the light of the posts to this thread, I returned to the matter this morning, and reported the variations. Far from being 'totally wrong', I've been scrupulously objective. I don't need to distort what people have said. I don't need to rewrite the record. And for the record, I have castigated you [i]once[/i] on this thread, not 'several times' as you claim. So where does this leave matters? You can't read; you can't count; but you can blame everyone but yourself. Now that's what I call [i]unimpressive[/i]
A harsh response from an apparently ardent yet anonymous non-de-plume has little effect to be honest. Cheers