clawsfour

The essence of the Labour Party

Research on the PoliticsHome website shows that people think that Labour is divided, corrupt and - most importantly - doesn't know what it stands for.

As I have said elsewhere, it is the lack of clear purpose and vision rather than the lack of policy initiatives which lead to this conclusion and it is the conclusion which will be the most damaging to Labour at the next election. Of course, people don't expect Labour politicians to be financially corrupt and it challenges the perceived wisdom when a Labour MP bends or breaks the rules. We all know that divided parties don't win elections.

But the bottom line is people don't vote for parties where they don't know what's on offer. And policies just don't hack it. Even with the mighty midget pledge card of 1997, few people could say what we would do on day one. But they had a view about our direction of travel. What we stood for. What were our core principles and beliefs.

And that is why it is refreshing to see the closing words of the speech that launched Tony Blair's career in parliament again, published with all other speeches by They Work for You.

The aim would be to harness the considerable resources of the constituency and the region and to let them work to create a better standard of living for the people. 

After all, that is the essence of Socialism.

I am a Socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, Socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral. It stands for co-operation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality, not because it wants people to be the same but because only through equality in our economic circumstances can our individuality develop properly. 

British democracy rests ultimately on the shared perception by all the people that they participate in the benefits of the common weal.

After all, that is the essence of the Labour Party. And still worth voting for.

Torygraph loses its cherry

In Labour's 1997 manifesto there was something tucked away about judging a country by how it cared for its natural world. Another measure of economic and political priorities could be gleaned from the Theatre critics it would appear.

Just in case you've forgotten why you must never, and I mean never, vote Tory, the Torygraph gives us this little gem in its arts pages with the review of Chekov's 'The Cherry Orchard';

But there is little hope in Chekhov's play, unless you are a rabid Marxist, which sees a family we have greatly come to care about heading for the most desperate of futures.

Which translates as, "In a credit crunch, let's support the land-owning classes, even if by their wilful negligence they have brought themselves to the brink of ruin, and by the way we don't give a stuff about the people who who used to have jobs working for them."

The Torygraph is enough to make anyone into a rabid Marxist, and given that I'm really only a lovable leftie, that's saying something. Grrr.

Cameron doesn't sack Osborne shock.

According to the Times, George Osborne 'flipped' his second home.

The Shadow Chancellor bought the Cheshire farmhouse close to his constituency ten months before winning the Tatton seat in June 2001.

Instead of taking out a mortgage on the property he funded the purchase by increasing his borrowing on the London home where he and his wife had lived since 1998.

After his election he designated the London house his “second home” with the Commons authorities, even though it was his main residence, so that he could claim the mortgage interest payments on his expenses.

Two years later Mr Osborne took out his first mortgage on the house in Cheshire and made that his official second home. He has since claimed up to £100,000 of taxpayers’ money to cover interest payments on the farmhouse, which is situated on the edge of Peak District National Park.

The arrangement also enabled Mr Osborne to reduce the loan on his London home, which he later sold for £1.45 million, to less than £200,000.

Tory Leader Cameron, of course, wouldn't dream of sacking a Bullingdon Club colleague.

The Times also carried an informative piece about the Bullingdon Club.

The Bullingdon Club of 1992: pictured are (1) George Osborne, (2) Harry Mount, (3) Chris Coleridge, (4) Lupus von Maltzahn, (5) Mark Petre (6) Peter Holmes a Court, (7) Nat Rothschild, (8) Jason Gissing

The Bullingdon Club - immortalised in Evelyn Waugh's 1928 novel Decline and Fall - projects an image far from the classless, centrist Conservative Party that Mr Osborne and Mr Cameron have so painstakingly developed.
Famous for trashing restaurants and other riotous behaviour, the society was described in a 2005 article by the Oxford Student, the university's official student newspaper, as drawing "its membership from Oxford's super-rich, enticing them to a life of secrecy, champagne drinking and ritualised violence".
Its habit for rioting, although toned down from its notorious past, reemerged again in December 2004 when police arrested all 17 of the club's members for wrecking the cellar of a 15th Century pub by smashing more than a dozen bottles of wine into its walls. Four members - including Princess Diana's nephew Alexander Fellowes - spent the night in prison.
While many of the society's rituals remain secret, joining the Bullingdon Club is known to involve putting up with having your room trashed beyond recognition and seeing your drinking tested beyond all sane boundaries. And there is also the small matter (and indeed, for its wealthy members, it is only a small matter) of buying the uniform, which costs around £3,000 in total.

Mr Ten Per Cent

Back from a couple of days off (very nice thank you) to find that in one bound the Tories have revealed the truth behind the mask.  

I've been saying for some time that as soon as the microscope turned toward Tory policy, the real choice at the next general election would become clear.

Well the Tories have helpfuly set out the choice for themselves. Andrew Lansley, who has form in terms of opening up the Tory secret agenda, has blown the gaffe. And Alan Johnson, Labour's new Home Secretary, has kindly written to me (along with one or two others I imagine) to make sure I didn't miss the news.

Bella

Today the Tories finally admitted just how much they want to cut from our public services. I’m writing so that you have all the facts because we need to get this message out there in our communities up and down the country.

I think a lot of people listening to the BBC this morning will have been shocked when they heard David Cameron’s health spokesman Andrew Lansley stating that the Tories would make 10 per cent spending cuts in the vast majority of government departments. It wasn’t a gaffe – even though Mr Lansley seems to have gone to ground at the minute, he hasn’t been sacked for revealing the truth about the Tories’ plans.

I’ve only been Home Secretary for a few days, but I can already see what an impact a 10 per cent cut in that budget would have. Looking at the figures in my department, it would mean front line police officers would be subject to real cuts next year, leaving our streets much less safe. And I’m sure there would be similar risks when those kinds of cuts hit public transport or the skills and science budgets.

Labour’s investment in police officers and community support officers is vital to making our streets safer. Since 1997 there are over 14,000 more police officers and nearly 16,000 community support officers. We now have 3,600 neighbourhood policing teams across the country - one for every community. We know that there is no appetite in this country for cuts that would undermine the fight against crime.

It’s up to everyone in our party – MPs, ministers, activists and trade unionists – to make sure that we get this message out to the country. It's time to tell David Cameron - Mr 10 Per Cent - that no one wants his Tory cuts.

Best wishes

Alan