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Should some animals be more equal than others? One of the aspects of Labour’s leadership election that has not really been questioned is the system itself. For unlike what has become the norm in other parties the choice of Labour leader is not determined by a membership ballot in which all votes have equal value. Instead different values are attached to each vote depending on whether you are an ordinary member, an MP/MEP, or you pay the political levy to…

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Should there be higher rates for people in the South? I’ve just had this email from HenryG – our regular Labour commenter from the North East. He writes: ” CLP activists are up in arms at this idea of Ed Miliband’s to pay people South more in tax credits that those in the North. It was flagged up in my local paper today and one of our MPs has jumped on it. This is a dubious idea at the best…

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Is saving “British Pubs” like saving the “British Sausage”? We all, I’m sure, remember the great episode of “Yes Minister” when Jim Hacker sought to change the media narrative by launching a campaign to “save the British sausage”. I just wonder whether Labour leadership front-runner, David Miliband, has found his equivalent with a been a big campaign just launched to save Britain’s pubs which he says are closing at about 40 a week. Before the election, he notes, Labour’s Minister…

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Is this the leader that Labour should have chosen? Earlier in the month on BBC1’s “This Week” Ed Balls revealed that if his wife, the former Work and Pensions Secretary, Yvette Cooper, had wanted to run for the Labour leadership then he would have stood aside for her. So I wonder how the couple will feel when, later today, UNITE the biggest union with nearly a million potential voters in this leadership race, announces formally that Ed Miliband is being…

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