Dan Clarke, a Labour PPC in Eastleigh, Chris Huhne's constituency, has resigned and is joining the Liberal Democrats. He's made the wrong decision.
Dan's disillusionment with Government policy is one shared by many others, including myself. When Gordon Brown became leader two years ago I hoped the Party would change direction. It was never going to implement the LRC's manifesto but one hoped for a decisive move away from New Labour ideology,
Events have ordained the Government had to step in and bail out the banks - but the same people remain in charge and the billion we have spent doing so are clearly not available for other deserving cause ie people on welfare benefits, people facing soariung utility bills, rocketing tuition fees. Et etc etc. Ay thr weekend Stephen Byers said it was time for the Government to consider scrapping ID cards and Trident because of the cost involved. We should also consider scraping them because it would help restore faith in the Party, mean cash could be diverted towards social justice, and maybe, just maybe, stop people tearing up their Party cards.
I have several friends standing as PPCs in unwinnable seats. They are the only ones left candidates don't get stitched up in. But I know that Gary Heather in Tunbridge Wells and John Wiseman in Westmorland and Lonsdale will use their candidacy to contiunue to fight for the policies they believe in and give people faith that one day things will change. Closer to home, I have friends who are now considering leaving Labour right across the political spectrum. I won't be one of them. But I fully understand why they feel they can no longer stay.
Alicde Mahon, I'm glad to say, will still be campaigning with us in the LRC. Dan Clarke's reasons for leaving are below
http://www.labourhome.org/story/2009/4/26/123957/105
Monday, 27 April 2009
PPC RESIGNS IN EASTLEIGH
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1 comment:
I think it's crap that many lefts have sat within NL for so long, then the moment we come into circumstances where the careerists begin to jump ship, so do they.
I left my comment there:
"Dan, I'm very sorry to hear all this. It seems to me that most of what you have written provides an excellent reason for more people like you to get involved in the party. The long process of a fightback against all this is underway, but we need people like you for it to ever happen. We are already a minority (but crucially, a growing and progressively more active one). This future, that of the party of labour, is key to the future of this country, we as individuals are but small players. The future of the Lib Dems is far less significant. Wrong as you are, that said, I respect your personal decision, and am shocked at the level of some of the comments on here."
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