New Statesman (Free subscription) | 01/10/2008
Surprise in Birmingham as government minister Hazel Blears turns up at the Tory conference only to sense a whiff of hubris. Well more than a whiff... I turned a few heads this week by appearing at a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. Several Tory representatives' did double takes. Some were mildly rude; some were perfectly friendly. There were also plenty of Labour...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 01/10/2008
Anne Perkins: Hazel Blears minced up Tory hecklers as she made an appearance on the fringe in Birmingham this week
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 01/10/2008
Hazel Blears: We need strong political leadership for our cities, which is why I support directly-elected mayors
Liberal England (Free subscription) | 30/09/2008
The latest Calder's Comfort Farm can be found on the New Statesman website: I have been told that Glenda Jackson, an obscure backbencher who was briefly a transport minister, appeared in a film once. It sounds unlikely to me.
NewerLabour (Free subscription) | 29/09/2008
Not that we're going to lose. Anyway, interesting to see that Michael Gove seems to be offering Tory jobs to Andrew Adonis (who has apparently never written anything Gove hasn't agreed with), Hazel Blears (who he describes as 'excellent') and James Purnell. Interesting, given that despite his sins, Purnell cuts Cameron to bits... as for the rest, one remains dubious. More to the point, why don't they...
London SE1 community website (Free subscription) | 29/09/2008
English Heritage and Westminster City Council have issued a joint legal challenge to Hazel Blears's decision to grant planning permission for the Doon Street Tower on the South Bank.
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 28/09/2008
Shadow children's secretary courts cabinet ministers Lord Andrew Adonis, James Purnell and Hazel Blears
Labourhome (Free subscription) | 26/09/2008
Sheer joy!- to see the eccentric egocentric Thatcherite May crushed to muesli size morsels by Hazel Blears on Question Time last night. Had she already got wind of last night's explosive Labour victory in Greenwich I wonder? Despite Dimbleby's rent a mob (yawn) tactics and some nonentity of a journo from the NOW preaching the free market Hazel Triumphed . You only had to see the frequent pained expression...
The Lone Voice (Free subscription) | 25/09/2008
Hazel Blears says that the “middle-class” is patronising the “working class” by trying to make their decisons for them, saying: [I want to] dispel the attitude from public service - I don’t just mean local government - that somehow those poor people need clever, educated, middle-class people to do the job for them… ... Miss Blears, who grew up in Salford, Manchester, the seat she now holds in parliament,...
Boggartblog (Free subscription) | 25/09/2008
Most interesting speech of the Labour Conference was made by Minister for Community Affairs and Smurfing, Hazel Blears. The motorbike riding MP is campaigning to restore our right to spend a penny. This is not some anti - inflation initiative but a plan to rebuild and reopen public toilets. The public lav used to be an integral part of community life, providing a venue for drug dealing and community...
An Englishman's Castle (Free subscription) | 25/09/2008
Hazel Blears: Middle-class professionals patronise the working class - Telegraph People working in the National Health Service and local government should leave working-class people to manage their own lives... Um, nothing about patronising prats in central government then Hazel? Do...
Chris Paul: Labour of Love (Free subscription) | 25/09/2008
Hazel Blears is a one! Now isn't she? Of Kilfoyle and Stringer she has just said that she loves them dearly but doesn't share their politics. I might say the same of her. But this comment was by way of a denial to Andrew Neil on the last conference Report from Manchester that - as the Times suggested graphically - she is the Queen Bee of a Killer Bee Hive. Out for a Taste of Honey to emerge from the...
David Llewellyn (Free subscription) | 24/09/2008
Well, that's that then. Jacqui Smith has officially ruled herself out of succeeding Gordon Brown, leaving the field for then next female Labour leader open for Hazel Blears . Ruth Kelly is already gone, will the rest of L...
The Why of the World (Free subscription) | 24/09/2008
My long and lonely battle to convince the country of the merits of Hazel Blears is picking up support. The Mail's Ephraim Hardcastle diary backs her this morning as the best outside bet for the Labour leadership calling her, rather ungallantly I fear, the "midget motorcyclist with the giant personality".
Spin and Spinners (Free subscription) | 24/09/2008
A promise to build ten eco-towns (up from five) was a highlight of Gordon Brown's speech to last year's Labour conference. This year Brown said not one word about them, neither did Hazel Blears . The only minister to say a word about them was housing minister Caroline Flint , who said this in a little reported speech: we will rise to the challenge of climate change, creating greener homes for all including...
