This excellent piece is worth reading as Parliament gets set to take the Welfare Reform Bill a stage further.........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/23/madeleine-bunting-welfare-reform
Monday, 23 February 2009
WELFARE REFORM BILL
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5 comments:
Workfare is an excellent idea. It might not suit the old Labour idea but old Labour is dead and buried. CVlinton, Gore and Obama all support workfare. Get a life you lot.
Hi Susan,
I am interested in to why you want to be a Labour MP - you have consistently opposed the Government everytime it has required the support of its MPs. Why would you want to join the PLP, 95% of whose members you presumeably see as right wing and Tory-lite?
How will such an attitude and perspective help you deliver in Keighley?
LabourForward, you utterly misrepresent my position.
I want to be a Labour MP because I am a lietime Labour member and Parliament needs more MPs with ordinary life and work experience.I do NOT hink 95 per cent of the PLP is "Tory-lite" far from it.
Current Govt measures to privatise the RDoyal Mail are opposed by a huge swathe of Labour MPs. Why? They break a Manifesto commitment we were elected upon. They are also unnecessary and unwanted.
The Welfare Reform Bill, drafted with the help of a consultant who is now with the Tories, has attracted similar opposition.
I have madeit clear that I support what the Govt is doing to try and build more homes, address the economic crisis, and put clear dividing lines between us and the Tories. There is much we can all unite around. In terms of Keighley, I live in the area, have pledged I will work my socks off if elected. And I would point out my supporters include Tony Lloyd MP, who is Chair of the PLP. And the Co-op Party
Hi again,
Sorry to misrepresent your position - I have never met you and only read your blog but you really do seem quite to the left of almost all MPs, most members and 95% of the country. I'm glad you don't think the Government is now Tory-lite, even if that is what you've said in previous posts.
On the Royal Mail, establishing a partnership with another mail company by giving them a minority stake in the company as a way to pay Royal Mail's gigantic pension bill was not ruled out in our manifesto. The manifesto explicitly says the Royal Mail is changing and we will do what we need to in order to maintain a universal service. We can plug up to £8bn of public money in to it (on top of the £4bn we already invest EVERY YEAR), we can reduce the service, we can reduce the pension liability or we can partner with another company to close the pension gap, maintain the universal service and put taxes to better use.
I thought you Co-op chaps liked working together? Surely two companies working together to deliver an improved service and protect the pensions of their employees should be encouraged? Why are you blocking it?
All the manifesto has to say on the Royal Mail is "we have given the Royal Mail greater commercial freedom and have no plans to privatise it. Our ambition is to see a publicly owned Royal Mail fully restored to good health, providing customers with an excellent service and its employees with rewarding employment. We will review the
impact on the Royal Mail of market liberalisation, which is being pro-
gressively introduced under the Postal Services Act 2000 and which
allows alternative carriers to the Royal Mail to offer postal services.
As you can see, the need to update and modernise the Royal Mail service and structure was a manifesto commitment.
Also, you can't privatise an already private company, so maybe new language is needed for you lot who hate companies and love the state? :)
You missed a reply to my last comment - how will a perspective that is so wildly out of sync with the Labour hierarchy help to deliver for Keighley?
LabourForward, your statement that I am to the left of" almost all MPs and most members" is not only sweeping to the point of absurdity but also inaccurate.
In my CLP, around 50 per cent of members share my concernsd. Those to the left have left the Party.
At a time when capitalism is in crisis the Govt plans to part-privatise the Royal Mail could not be worse timed nor less desired. The manifesto statment is clear - Royal Mail will stay publicly-owned. I suggest you take a look at the Compass website and see the hundreds of peopole who have signed up to the statement of opposition. They include many moderate councillors and PPCs. I have just finished an article for Co-op News on why capitalism.privatisation/demitualisation no longer is the answer so perhaps you should read that next week. Re Keighley: I think someone with 30-odd years exprience campoaigning and six as a local councillor focussing on local issues of concern like housing and education and unemployment can deliver a great deal. Any Mps prime concern is their constituents' needs. I would not be any different, even if the policy debates continue. That is what we are in the Labour Party for.
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