Opinions from a loyal Labour Party member
Archive for February, 2010
I warn you not to be ordinary
812 days
If David Cameron is elected as prime minister this year, I warn you.
I warn you that you will have pain–when healing and relief depend upon payment.
I warn you that you will have ignorance–when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right.
I warn you that you will have poverty–when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can’t pay.
I warn you that you will be cold–when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don’t notice and the poor can’t afford.
I warn you that you must not expect work–when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don’t earn, they don’t spend. When they don’t spend, work dies.
I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light.
I warn you that you will be quiet–when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient.
I warn you that you will have defence of a sort–with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding.
I warn you that you will be home-bound–when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up.
I warn you that you will borrow less–when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.
If David Cameron wins this year –
- I warn you not to be ordinary
- I warn you not to be young
- I warn you not to fall ill
- I warn you not to get old.
Actually it was Neil Kinnock on Margaret Thatcher in a speech in Bridgend, Glamorgan, on Tuesday 7 June 1983, but 27 years later the terror of a Tory government hasn’t changed.
David Cameron is right when he talks today about the need to fulfil your patriotic duty. But he’s wrong in his conclusion. It is our patriotic duty to do everything in our power to prevent the terror of a Tory government. Now is not the time to gamble that Cameron can keep the old, nasty Tories at bay. He can’t. They are waiting in the shadows to clip Cameron’s wings and implement policies that will damage British business
- attack the ordinary
- attack the young
-attack the ill
- attack the old.
Twitter ban by Lord Mayor of Leeds
816 days
Leeds is a dynamic European city with a thriving digital and creative sector, unfortunately it’s not one that the Lord Mayor of Leeds appears to understand.
John Barron, the blogger responsible for the excellent new Guardian Leeds, tweeted “at #leedscouncil meeting no tweets allowed, says lord mayor.”
If this is true then Leeds City Council has joined the list of clueless councils that are damaging democracy by failing to engage with the electorate to the best of their ability.
When I was a Leeds councillor one of my frustrations was how it holds nearly all of its official meetings during ‘normal’ working hours thus depriving the vast majority of the electorate an opportunity to participate. There’s never a perfect time to hold meetings, but during the working day is done for the convenience of officers and councillors, not the public.
Enabling councillors to blog and tweet from official meetings actually makes them far more accessible to voters. If MPs can blog in the House of Commons – and many of them do – then Leeds councillors should be able to as well.
The worst of this is that Leeds can justifiably claim to have been at the forefront of councillors using social media. In 2003 I was the first councillor in the UK to blog (as covered by The Guardian at the time.) In July 2003 I even blogged live from the council chamber, which who knows but might even have been a world first.
It’s disgraceful that in February 2010 the Lord Mayor has chosen to take Leeds back into the past.
I’m inviting Councillor Judith Elliot of the Morley Borough Independents to use the comments to explain why she wants to deny the citizens of Leeds the right to hear direct from their elected representatives. I’m waiting Judith.
#labourdoorstep was great for a future fair for all
820 days
Today thousands of political activists from all the parties, up and down the country, were out tramping the streets and knocking on doors. It was a bright, sunny day and that pretty much matched the feeling of the team out working for Jamie Hanley, the Labour candidate in Pudsey.
By and large we had an invigorating welcome on the doorstep, giving those that wanted them a copy of Labour’s new A future fair for all booklet. What was really inspiring was that some people already knew about it and were interested after seeing it on this morning’s news.
One of the most telling things is that despite the fact that the election is at most 100 days away people still don’t trust the Tories. Even those that are disillusioned with Labour aren’t inspired by the Tories. At the moment it looks most likely that they will stay at home with a possibility of them switching back to Labour. Unless the Tories do something spectacular between now and the general election it doesn’t feel like the swing voters I’ve been speaking to will swing their way.
James Purnell and the Achilles’ heel of Labour
821 days
by Stuart Bruce
in Labour Party
James Purnell’s announcement that he is standing down from his Stalybridge and Hyde constituency has led to much chatter on the Labour blogs and Twitter.
It’s sad that so much of it is the old, nasty politics of the early 90s and 80s. The divisive left/right idiocy that led Britain to endure 20 years of horror under the Tories.
One of the worst examples is Bob Piper, who when he originally started blogging came across as a fresh, interesting voice. He was from a different part of the party to the one I was from, but from a perspective that I could admire and respect.
Not so his ill thought out and damaging post on James Purnell’s decision. HIs political analysis is breath-taking in its naivety. He attacks Purnell’s decision to resign from the cabinet the day after the local election results. The emphasis on day after is mine, because its significance appears to have escaped Bob.
Regardless of whether I agree with them I want politicians with a conscience. I want politicians who’ll put their money where their mouth is and actually do something. That’s exactly what Purnell did. His conscious told him that Labour is moving in the wrong direction and rather than just keeping quiet for the sake of his career he did something about it. And he did it at the least possible damaging time, unlike Hazel Blears who caused the party real trouble.
If Purnell was from the same political spectrum as Bob I suspect we’d see his analysis of Purnell’s resignation and standing down to be entirely different.
Labour can win the General Election, but we won’t do so if you have the same old-fashioned, nasty politics of old. That is Labour’s Achilles’ heel.
James Purnell and the Achilles’ heel of Labour
821 days
by Stuart Bruce
in Labour Party
James Purnell’s announcement that he is standing down from his Stalybridge and Hyde constituency has led to much chatter on the Labour blogs and Twitter.
It’s sad that so much of it is the old, nasty politics of the early 90s and 80s. The divisive left/right idiocy that led Britain to endure 20 years of horror under the Tories.
One of the worst examples is Bob Piper, who when he originally started blogging came across as a fresh, interesting voice. He was from a different part of the party to the one I was from, but from a perspective that I could admire and respect.
Not so his ill thought out and damaging post on James Purnell’s decision. HIs political analysis is breath-taking in its naivety. He attacks Purnell’s decision to resign from the cabinet the day after the local election results. The emphasis on day after is mine, because its significance appears to have escaped Bob.
Regardless of whether I agree with them I want politicians with a conscience. I want politicians who’ll put their money where their mouth is and actually do something. That’s exactly what Purnell did. His conscious told him that Labour is moving in the wrong direction and rather than just keeping quiet for the sake of his career he did something about it. And he did it at the least possible damaging time, unlike Hazel Blears who caused the party real trouble.
If Purnell was from the same political spectrum as Bob I suspect we’d see his analysis of Purnell’s resignation and standing down to be entirely different.
Labour can win the General Election, but we won’t do so if you have the same old-fashioned, nasty politics of old. That is Labour’s Achilles’ heel.
Nicholas Winterton makes a hash of defending first class rail travel for MPs
822 days
by Stuart Bruce
in Conservatives
If there’s ever a case of “it’s time to stop talking” it was Sir Nicholas Winterton on BBC Radio 5. Sir Nicholas was being questioned about MPs being prevented from travelling first class and and came out with the outrageous claim that “someone in standard class has a totally different outlook on life.” Instead of apologising and retracting the statement when given the opportunity Sir Nicholas just kept on digging.
That’s a shame, because he had started off by making quite a pertinent point about using train journeys efficiently by working. I’ve tried both standard and first and it is a fact that it is far more difficult to work in standard.
The most pertinent reason is the fact that the tables are a lot smaller and it’s more crowded. When all of the seats are full there simply isn’t space for four people to get laptops out and work. Especially when you start adding reports, folders, drinks and food to the clutter.
The issue that should be addressed is how badly MPs buy their first class tickets. I’ve frequently travelled first class with MPs I know and their tickets have cost £334 for an open first class return and I’ve paid £94 (or less) to sit next to them on the same journey.
It’s ludicrous to think that MPs can’t plan their journeys like small businesses have to. Their diaries and meetings are no less or more subject to change than any other person travelling for business. There is no justification for using open tickets. Stopping them using first class is pointless and won’t necessarily even save money as an open standard is usually more than a first class advance – £223 on the Leeds to London Kings Cross example I’m using.
You can get first class tickets even cheaper if you follow the ‘split-ticketing’ advice. Instead of attacking those travelling standard class Sir Nicholas should be seeking to introduce legislation preventing the train operator using such unfair pricing that such tactics are necessary.
XP: Cross-posted from my A PR Guy’s Musings website.
Yorkshire Labour Party members on Twitter
833 days
After this afternoon’s excellent Go Fourth Leeds Tweet Up I’ve pulled together a quick public list on Twitter of Yorkshire Labour Party members. It has only got 33 people on it at the moment, so apologies if I’ve missed you off. To get added just tweet to @stuartbruce or leave a comment on this blog.
You can follow the list here and thanks to @johnprescott for organising it all.
General election TV debates: Alan Johnson v. Chris Grayling
833 days
Alan Johnson was on fine form on the Andrew Marr show this morning. Other politicians resort to hyperbole and pointless attacks on the opposition (some Labour MPs are as bad as the Tories and Lib Dems) but Alan is nearly always cool, confident and authentic.
Kerry McCarthy tweeted: “Never underestimate the seriousness of the British electorate says AJ. That’s why polls are tightening. How about AJ & Grayling debate?”
That’s exactly what the British public deserve. Debates between the main party leaders are an excellent start, but in a Parliamentary democracy aren’t enough. We’re not voting for a president, so we need to reflect the fact that we’re voting for a party and a leadership team.
The number of cabinet positions mean that it’s unrealistic to have debates between them all. But it would be possible to have debates between the holders of the main offices – Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary.
It’s doubtful the Tories would be for this as it’s one thing for them to risk Cameron against Brown, but if it’s Miliband v. Hague, Johnson v. Grayling or Darling v. Osbourne then it’s no contest. It would highlight just how weak and shallow the Conservatives really are. Not only can Cameron not trust his would be MPs, he can’t even trust his potential cabinet colleagues.
In the four great offices of state Labour has three potential leaders. The Tories have one leader, one failure and two no hopers.
Official Conservative policy – Tory candidates not to be trusted
834 days
It’s official you can’t trust Tory party candidates. The Conservative Party has so little faith in its own Parliamentary candidates that it’s had to issue official advice to candidates to check before they say anything about policy. Tory wanna-be MPs can’t Twitter, blog or use Facebook to talk about policy without checking first.
When I read and tweeted about the Daily Mail Fail story this morning I didn’t quite believe it. But confirmation came shortly later when Tory staffer Craig Elder tweeted “PPCs are free (and encouraged) to tweet what they like. But they should double-check if commenting about national policy.”
This ‘rebuttal’ is even more alarming than the original Daily Mail story. It effectively confirms that Tory candidates can’t be trusted to know something as simple as their own party’s policy! Now I know Dave and Boy George keep having gaffes and making it up on the hoof, but you’d have thought that Tory candidates would be bright enough to keep up on their own without spoon feeding from Central Office. Or maybe it’s just that the real views of Tory candidates are so much to the raving right that Dave is worried that voters might find out what they’re really like before the the election and scupper his chances for power.
You don’t need to look far to see some of the most extreme raving right nonsense to emanate from Dave’s acolytes:
This is going to be the most unpopular blog I’ve ever written, but here goes. MPs should set their own salaries. They should be free – encouraged, even – to take on additional jobs. And the fuss about how much they can spend on their kitchens is silly and demeaning.”
Daniel Hannan, Daily Telegraph blog, 16 May 2008
You just need contrast the Tory’s ‘Command and Control’ model with Labour’s approach of genuine engagement with voters to see that Cameron’s cuddly Conservatives are all spin and no substance.