Four pitches were presented to the three #Dragons from @thefabians at lunchtime today. The Dragons were Luke Akehurst, Hazel Blears, and Anthony Painter, with Emily Thornberry MP, as Chairman.
David Goodhart, ‘Editor-at-Large’ of Prospect, urged more skepticism about mass immigration. He argued in his short pitch that Labour should remain a “pro-immigration” party, but should have a ‘pause’ (and consider net flows); the inward immigration flux hds put pressures on less paid people. David cited that very important skilled work for the Olympics is being done by non-citizens; this leads to the impression that we are not protecting national citizens.
David felt that there must be more emphasis on citizenship – there should be “a five-year wait” of citizenship depending on successful National Inurance contributions. Anthony Painter – co-author of Searchlight’s Fear and Hope report – reported that he had indeed identified this as cultural problem, as well as insecurity regarding macroeconomic factors. Anthony argued that it was now necessary to unpick the problems. Hazel Blears MP liked the idea a lot, feeling that David’s pitch resonated with her immediate experiences on the ‘doorstep’ at Salford, and mentioned briefly that it was perhaps a very good idea that Turkey should become more involved in Europe for both economic and socio-cultural progresion.
Daniel Elton, Managing Director of Left Foot Forward, presented a superb solution to an emergent issue energy management. The ‘energy crisis’ has witnessed bills going up, with reater fuel poverty, according to Daniel. Daniel felt that the energy market is “somewaht broken.” Daniel urged for a need ofor a practical solution in breaking up the power of the suppliers, encouraging competitive rivalry and a more balanced power relationship between the customer and supplier. Daniel advanced his thesis that the current market ha the actual effect of stopping new entrants to the market. NHS should utilize economies of scale and buy a huge amount of energy.
The pitch was extremely well received by all four Dragons. Anthony Painter loved this argument, because he felt that this would indeed be a great way to introduce new entrants into the economy. Anthony also provided that there is a strong nvironmental rationale for Daniel’s proposal. Hazel said rather pointedly that public utilities are perceived as being “mono-lithic” or “anti-competitive”, and that this provided a reason why they were broken up according to Blears. Furthermore, Hazel provided evidence that energy bills had recently gone up by 18%. Luke Akehurst, himelf a member of the NEC, believed that “there is a kernel of an extremely good idea“, as “fuel prices impact upon absolutely everyone in society“.
Two further political entrepreneurs attracted the attention of the four @thefabians Dragons in a good way. Sally Gimson, who recently won the Highgate by-election, urged the need to set up “victims commissioners” who could represent victims. Sally felt that such victim commissioners should be affordable in this “age of austerity”. In many places, this would allow a greater representation in #accesstojustice, through a personal statement. Finally, Will Cook, a very active Labour activist, pitched the right of every worker to start to business after five years’ worth of National Insurance. Will felt that the majority of people should start their own business.
Daniel Elton won the informal competition overwhelmingly with 27 votes.
