LEAKED emails show that Tony Blair warned Hillary Clinton Labour were set to “badly” lose the general election in 2015.
The disclosure was in the latest tranche of hacked emails from the account of Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta to be shared online by WikiLeaks.
An email to Podesta from Clinton with the subject “The British Election” reads: “I’d like to discuss your analysis of what, if any, lessons we should draw from what happened. Michael Wolff’s article in USA Today raises the obvious parallels, as do other commentators.
“Tony Blair told me months ago that if Labor [sic] ran a “base” election campaign, they would lose badly, even w/o the wipe out in Scotland. Look forward to discussing, H.”
It suggests, perhaps, regardless of what happened to Labour in Scotland, Blair thought Ed Miliband’s 2015 election campaign was likely to result in defeat.
WikiLeaks has released thousands of emails from Podesta’s email account. Clinton and her allies say the emails were stolen by Russia in an attempt to help Donald Trump win the Presidential election.
Mhairi Black gets a mention, in the latest release, though not by name.
One concerned Clinton fan writes to Podesta suggesting one way to engage the youth vote in the race would be for the Democrats to propose a reduction in the age at which US citizens can become politicians.
Currently the US Constitution requires that a person must be at least 35 to be president or vice president, 30 to be a senator, or 25 to be a representative.
John Seery, a professor of politics at Pomona University writes to Podesta: “I have an idea about how to galvanize the youth vote. I’ve been working on this idea for years. Hillary may need it. Here it is: propose (at least looking into the possibility) of a Constitutional Amendment to lower the age of office eligibility for elective federal office (the House, the Senate, the Presidency). Sounds crazy? The US is an outlier among advanced democracies. In 2008 Britain lowered the age of eligibility for Parliament from 21 (already lower than our house) to 18.
“There’s an 18-year-old Scottish member now sitting as an MP. For the last few elections, Canada has elected into Parliament several university students, ages 19-20.”
Podesta replies saying, “Thanks” and promises to look into it. He then forwards it on to Clinton’s adviser Jake Sullivan, who replies: “Not crazy. But kind of crazy.”
Black was 20 when she beat Labour’s Douglas Alexander, then shadow foreign secretary, to win Paisley and Renfrewshire South in the general election last year.
Alexander, who knows Clinton personally, is now a senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here