OFF TO CAMBRIDGE

Braving weather to go to Cambridge LRC and if I get there will be looking in on student occupation. Just want to say thanks to those who have posted to say they enjoyed the blog.
I truly don't have the time to post much anymore......but as Bob Piper said, never say never....Thanks, comrades.

GOODBYE TO GRIMMER......

Tonight kids from Calder High School are out protesting and surrounded by an absurd number of police as the nationwide demonstrations demonstrate that sometimes direct action is the only way of making your voice heard. I applaud their determination and am greatly cheered that they are getting so much coverage.
Things move fast these days and after careful consideration I have decided that it is a goodbye to this blog.
I nearly made four years - but my time is limited and i simply don't have the time to write considered long posts on a regular basis.
Instead, I'm concentrating on Facebook and twitter as a more effective way of getting ideas across as and when events occur.
Thanks to all who have contributed over the years.It is time for action, not words, as anger grows against this wretched Coalition. And, hopefully, we really are in it together.......

THE ROYAL WEDDING ..........

Funny how at times of economic hardship those toffs can always be relied upon to come up with a feelgood solution to current crises.
It worked in 1981 so obviously they are going to do it again. Yep. Another Royal Wedding..
Almost 30 years on from the circus that was Charles and Diana we are back in a land rife with unemployment and Tories hell-bent on making the lives of millions as miserable as possible.
But let's forget all that and raise a glass .... er, No.
Last time round I held a "Toast The Royal Couple" party at my little flat in Penge which involved photocopied invites - complete with knives and forks.
I wish neither ill and am not of the Ekaterinburg Tendency.
However, at atime when thousands are facing serious poverty, the thought of the guff which will be spouted by the media all over again is truly, truly nauseating.
I hope the next generation does better than mine did - and gets a Republic ASAP
Next thing you know we will be fighting with the Argies

TURNING UP THE VOLUME......

Not much time for blogging recently as too busy trying to hang on to employment and in many ways the sheer scale of the onslaught against working people makes Twitter a much easier option.
I have tweeted my anger at Labour MPs defending the odious and indefensible Woolas, support for the students on yesterday's anti tuition fees demo.
Today, we have the appalling spectacle of "Quiet Man" IDS turning up the volume and outlining his reforms to welfare benefit. Punitive beyond belief, and front page fodder for the Mail, where news editors will be beside themselves with glee, it is time we reminded ourselves of a very salient fact.
Around £10billion a year goes UNCLAIMED in welfare benefits
Benefit fraud costs an estimated £1Billion
Tax dodging and evasion by the filthy rich earns them at least £120 billion a year.
As the new labour ultras commend IDS on his "courage" I am reminded of that old song which says "It's the rich wot gets the pleasure.. and the poor wot gets the blame."
And, when Ed Miliband comes back from paternity leave, it's time he started cracking down on the pronouncements from Douglas Alexander and the shameful way some in the PLP have treated Harriet Harman for standing firm on Woolas.
Blackley MP Graham Stringer, a man who used to tirelessly fight -racism as leader of Manchester City Coumncil, should be ashamed of himself for supporting the xenophobic ex-MP for Oldham East.

NOT OXBRIDGE MATERIAL.....

I was amused earlier today when a local Lib Dem tried to have a go at me on Twitter by asking where I went to University.
Amused is probably not the word. Sickened, definitely, by the attempted, ill-judged sneer and the total quiescence with which the Liberal Democrats have colluded in the most disgusting destruction ever of the life chances of thousands of young people.
A tiny cohort of working-class kids get to Oxbridge. As I pointed out, in so much as I could in 140 words, I was one of them at a time when higher education was free.
Even so, I remember my mother worrying whether we could afford the cost of food and accommodation - how we would manage and hiw I would manage surrounded by students from vastly more privileged backgrounds. . But as someone forced to leave school at 14 in the 1930's she was determined I would get to Cambridge - the first in my family EVER to go to university
There would be no question of that now. None at all. Nor, probably, of a university place anywhere else for children like me. But let's forget Oxbridge for a minute.
The very idea that fees of £6000 a year - for starters - everywhere - are "fair" is obscene, Orwellian doublespeak and utterly disgusting.
The £9000 which Oxbridge and other elite universities will charge closes the door for thousands of kids but is chickenfeed to those who pay £20,000 plus per year for public school education.
I am listening on PM to Vince Cable defend this indefensible policy with a breathtaking pomposity and pusillanimity which I hope will motivate Lib dems across the country to tear up their Party cards and join next week's demo in London against a rise in tuition fees which all Lib dem MPs publicly pledged they would fight.
Yes, New Labour opened the door to this wholesale betrayal by allowing tuition fees in the first place, That was six years ago.
At the time, dozens of Labour MPs rebelled against the Govt line and did their best to stop it. Aided, one recalls, by the Conservatives . How times change.
Cable talks of the "national interest." The only "interest" the Lib Dems are supporting is self-interest. They will righlty be punished soundly at the next election.
Tragically, a generation is going to be punished because of their wilful abandonment of every principle of fairness and decency.
Ed Miliband is right. This Government is one of "broken promises." Labour must now promise a fair policy on education and fight on behalf of those who will protest next week.
And those who now fear they will never get the chance to get to university in the first place.

NO HOMES TO GO TO

IF I am a little tetchy these days it is because every day brings another vile bit of policy making from the Coalition Con-Dem cabal now running the country.
Not only do they cheer on £83 billion worth of cuts which will profoundly hurt the most vulnerable, they tell lies about housing benefit.
This latest twist in the tale of total betrayal by the Liberal Democrats may well return to bite them.
Previously spineless MPs like Simon Hughes and George Russell are reeling in disbelief at the fact their True Blue leader Nick " Marlboro Man" Clegg supports chucking people out of their homes and punishing millions of people for the fact of being ill or disabled
The lies which have been told on this issue are admirably highlighted by Don Paskini and I refer you to his blog for some salient points which may come in handy as Labour gets set to fight the changes.

DISGUSTING VOYEURISM

THE ghoulish nature of the Fourth Estate is nothing new. But the worldwide syndication of pictures of a gravely ill Michael Douglas represents a new low in the dark arts of the paparazzi.
I was so incensed at this gross intrusion on the man's privacy that , along with hundreds of others, I posted a response late last night on the Mail's website. Oddly enough , all those remarks which castigated the paper for publishing them were this morning removed. Perhaps they shamed the powers that be . But not enough to stop publication
I think anyone who has witnessed first-hand the obscene ravages which cancer inflicts on their loved ones would agree it's time to call a halt to this ghoulish and distasteful way of selling papers. As I said in my comment, the man is clearly dying. Leave him and his family alone.

TIME TO CALL MPs TO ACCOUNT

As a recent convert to Twitter I was interested to note that Ben Bradshaw MP today enjoyed a chat with the Federation of Small Businesses. I know their concens are valid and I wish them well in these difficult times but Ben Bradshaw clearly preferred talking to small businesses than backing the Lawful Industrial Action Bill which today fell in the House of Commons.
Given the Conservative majority and the conduct of lickspittle, anti trade union Lib Dems the Bill's chances of succeeding were always slight.
However the least one could have expected was solidarity from the PLP for tihis very modest piece of legislation which would have stopped companies like the one I work for vetoing LAWFUL srike action.
Ed Miliband was not there - anxious obviously to ditch association with the unions. And only Diane Abbott of the Shadow Cabinet showed support.
In all, 87 MPs supported the Bill. Not Labour's "new generation." But such redoubtable lefties as David Blunkett, Gerald Kaufman, Jack Dromey and Stephen Twigg.
Tony Lloyd, PLP chairman. was also there . The reach extended far beyond the Campaign Group and thanks for that.
But where was Chuka Umuna, Jon Trickett, and other so-called champions of trade unionism.
I suggest that anyone who has a union-sponsored MP holds them accountable for their disgraceful actions today and asks themselves why they should support an MP who cannot even muster support for the most basic of trade union rights.
Labour had a chance today to come out fighting. They blew it. The only thing one can say is that no other Party , apart from the Green MP Carolne Lucas, even considered support.
Honourable mentions though for new MPs Teresa Pearce, Luciana Berger, Ian Lavery, and Graeme Morrice.

LABOUR MPS WHO BACKED RIGHT TO STRIKE

........And the others should hang their heads in shame.
Abbott, Ms Diane
Alexander, Heidi
Barron, rh Mr Kevin
Berger, Luciana
Blenkinsop, Tom
Blunkett, rh Mr David
Bone, Mr Peter
Brown, Lyn
Brown, rh Mr Nicholas
Campbell, Mr Ronnie
Clark, Katy
Connarty, Michael
Crausby, Mr David
Creasy, Stella
Cruddas, Jon
Cryer, John
Dobbin, Jim
Doran, Mr Frank
Dowd, Jim
Dromey, Jack
Dugher, Michael
Elliott, Julie
Farrelly, Paul
Fitzpatrick, Jim
Flello, Robert
Flynn, Paul
Fovargue, Yvonne
Gapes, Mike
Gilmore, Sheila
Glass, Pat
Glindon, Mrs Mary
Godsiff, Mr Roger
Greenwood, Lilian
Griffith, Nia
Gwynne, Andrew
Havard, Mr Dai
Hilling, Julie
Hodgson, Mrs Sharon
Hoey, Kate
Hollobone, Mr Philip
Irranca-Davies, Huw
Jackson, Glenda
Jamieson, Cathy
Jones, Susan Elan
Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald
Keen, Alan
Lammy, rh Mr David
Lavery, Ian
Lazarowicz, Mark
Lloyd, Tony
Love, Mr Andrew
Lucas, Caroline
MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan
Mactaggart, Fiona
McCarthy, Kerry
McDonnell, John
McGovern, Alison
McGovern, Jim
Meacher, rh Mr Michael
Mearns, Ian
Michael, rh Alun
Miller, Andrew
Mitchell, Austin
Morrice, Graeme (Livingston)
Morris, Grahame M. (Easington)
Mudie, Mr George
Pearce, Teresa
Pound, Stephen
Riordan, Mrs Linda
Rotheram, Steve
Sharma, Mr Virendra
Sheridan, Jim
Skinner, Mr Dennis
Slaughter, Mr Andy
Smith, rh Mr Andrew
Spellar, rh Mr John
Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry
Thornberry, Emily
Timms, rh Stephen
Turner, Karl
Twigg, Stephen
Walley, Joan
Wicks, rh Malcolm
Williams, Hywel
Wilson, Phil
Winnick, Mr David
Wood, Mike
Tellers for the Ayes:
Jeremy Corbyn and
Kelvin Hopkins

LABOUR'S CHANCE TO COME OUT FIGHTING

LABOUR'S high command in the Shadow Cabinet has ordained that tomorrow there will be a free vote on John McDonnell's Lawful Industrial Action Bill. It is progress of a sort as my guess is previous regimes would have hauled in the Whips.
That there should be any equivocation at all is both extraordinary and pretty depressing.
100 Labour MPs need to be there voting tomorrow to get this Bill through to its second reading. Plain sailing, no?
In fact some at the top who should know better are already running scared of being branded as trade union fodder and using Shadow Cabinet collectivity to excuse not being there to support this modest , reasonable piece of legislation which would stop companies vetoining strikes for spurious arcane reasons.
It's not militant, it's not extreme, it is basic trade union ABC and backed a by all the general secrtearies. If Labour MPs can't rustle up the numbers tomorrow it's not only a missed opportunity, it is a disgrace which many howling in anguish after yesterday's CSR will not forgive them for.

A LONG TIME IN POLITICS..........

This time a vote for the Liberal Democrats can really change Britain
I want a Britain that's different. A Britain where we have more police on our streets to keep us safe. A ...Britain where ordinary people aren't taxed to the hilt while millionaires can dodge taxes altogether.In many parts of Britain, Labour are out of the race.We've seen what the Conservatives are like-they won't stand up for ordinary people.Only a vote in the ballot box for the Liberal Democrats can beat the Conservatives this time.
I believe that it's time to do things differently in Britain. Please put your trust in us and we can put decades of failed politics behind us and deliver real change.
Thanks and best wishesNick Clegg
PS - Don't forget, in many parts of Britain Labour can't win. Only a vote for the Liberal Democrats can stop the Conservatives.
Nick Clegg- May 2010

11 PER CENT....AND FALLING

An opinion poll out tomorrow will reveal that support for the Liberal Democrats is now at 11 per cent. My guess is it wil be single figures before the year is out.
Yesterday I attended a full house TUC rally in London and heard speaker after speaker outline how they would suffer as a result of the obscene cuts announced today by this wretched government.
It's not surprising the Tories have inflicted the worst cuts in living memory on the poor and vulnerable n our society. They have always done that. What is unspeakable is the way they try to label it "fair." What is even more unspeakable is to see, as we did tonight, Danny Alexander and "left" Lib Dem Simon Hughes defend the indefensible. That they will be annihilated at the next elections is small comfort to those of us now forced to work till we are 66, see welfare benefits cut by £18billion , and live with the awful reality of job cuts on a massive scale.
They now how to protest in France. The Govt is currently harbouring the illusion that their destruction of the welfare state will go unopposed. It will not.
It is the job of every person involved in the labour movement to fight with every sinew to expose these cuts for what they are - ideologically driven, grossly unfair, and totally unnecessary.
One of the most angry speakers yesterday was not a usual suspect an expert from the Institute of Chartered Accountants who pointed out some £42billion a year is lost in tax avoidance.
That job cuts will lead to more job cuts. And that we face the biggest attack ever on basic principles of social justice we have taken for granted.
No more new schools. No more social housing. No more secure tenancies for those lucky enough to have a council house. Sky-high rents, disability benefits slashed, The list is endless.
Shame on the Liberal Democrats for colluding in this .And time to nail the lie it is inevitable

LOWER THAN VERMIN......

Tomorrow I am heading out on the early train from Halifax so I can join in the TUC rally against the cuts coming up on Wednesday. Around £84 billion of them so I believe.
While millions of workers face the prospect of pay cuts and redundancy, our local Liberal Democrats are fighting another battle.
On Friday, they held a public debate on the issue of AV. AV - Alternative Vote - was only months ago described as a "miserable little conpromise" by the despicable Nick Clegg. Now it is touted as the first importnat step towards a "fairer" democracy.
I was asked to fight Labour's corner at the debate and - to be honest - AV is not an issue I wouls lay m y life down for. It's not PR. It gives no greater voice to the smaller parties. It means even more gound is likelyt o be ceded to the centre. But my word the local Lib dems were burning with righteous zeal. Extraordinary, really.
Extraordinary that a Party which has reneged on almost every election pledge, which has sold its soul to get in bed with Cameron, has backed marketisation of our universities and NHS, has sold millions of voters down the river, has the brass neck to bleat about "fairness."
At the last election AV would have delivered 20-odd more Lib dems and 20-odd less Tories. Safe Labour seats would stay Labour and most constiteuncy MPs are elected on an average 47 per cent of the vote. In short it makes naff all difference and no way Jose are the Tories going to allow a vote on PR.
Strangely, NOT ONE Liberal Democrat backed an amendment by Green MP Caroline Lucas to allow PR as an option in the forthcoming referendum. So how dare they lecture the rest of us.
Like most people on the left of centre, I am incandescent with rage at the conduct of the Lib Dems. They deserve annihilation at the next local elections. Judging at the rate at which people are coming back to Labour, they are going to get it. Deservedly so.

TIME FOR LABOUR MPs TO UNITE -AND WIN!

From yesterday's Morning Star....

Labour movement activists urged MPs today to take a small step towards resisting the Tories' vicious anti-union onslaught next week.
Lobbyists swooped on Parliament in a bid to persuade at least 100 Labour MPs to turn up and support a private member's Bill introduced by left MP John McDonnell.
The Bill, designed to stop unscrupulous bosses from sabotaging strike ballots, is due for a second reading in the Commons on Friday October 22.
It is a simple measure which would deter employers from rushing to the courts to block strikes because of small mistakes in the conduct of ballots on industrial action.
But 100 Labour MPs will need to turn up to prevent wildcat anti-union Tory MPs from using arcane parliamentary procedures to crush Mr McDonnell's Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill.
Mr McDonnell was loudly applauded in a packed Commons committee room as he declared: "This Bill will be a small step forward. And by god we need a few victories at the moment."
He added: "We can win on this one" but warned that, if 100 Labour MPs failed to turn up and the Bill did not pass its second reading, "then the Tories will laugh at us."
Lobbyists carried a colourful array of banners and placards as they gathered on College Green opposite Parliament, reinforced by a big contingent from rail union RMT branches and regions.
Activists urged Labour's front bench to give strong and active support to the Bill and not just make sympathetic noises.
BA cabin crew, rail workers, bus workers and journalists have all fallen foul of the courts recently.
Mr McDonnell's Bill would change the law to protect unions which have shown "substantial compliance" with balloting procedures.
It would make it much more difficult for bosses to pick on trivial errors, such as the "failure" of BA cabin crew union Unite to announce that 11 members had spoiled their ballot papers out of 10,000 who voted.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow insisted that Labour MPs must turn up in force on Friday week to give trade unions a "golden opportunity" to resist growing attacks by "having a go back." Prison officers' union POA general secretary Steve Gillan said Mr McDonnell's Bill was a "very simple amendment to the law" but touched on "the very fabric of human rights."
Among MPs joining the lobbyers were Dennis Skinner (Bolsover), Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley), Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North), John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead), Julie Hilling (Bolton West), Ian Lavery (Wansbeck), Grahame Morris (Easington) and Jim Sheridan (Paisley). Mr Skinner protested that "the judges have been creating havoc for the trade unions by forcing ballot after ballot after ballot."
And Ms Hilling said she felt so strongly about the issue that she would travel back to Bolton next Thursday for a long-standing constituency engagement but would return early on Friday to support Mr McDonnell's Bill.
Among leading trade unionists at today's Commons rally were Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley, firefighters' union FBU general secretary Matt Wrack and journalists' union NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear.

THE SHAME OF THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

On Friday night I am going to be debating the AV system with local Tory MP Craig Whitaker and local Lib Dem councillor Nader Frekri.
My guess is Calder Valley's Conservative MP Craig will be against it and our Orange Tory in favour. I haven't quite ddecided how I am going to play it. But one thing I know is this.
That if I were still a member of the Liberal Democrats after abandoning every single decent pledge made in the last election camopaign I would hang my head in shame.
The U-turn on tuition fees will be the final nail in the coffin for many voters already disgusted with the Party's binning of of everything from commitment to child benefit to scrapping Trident. in their desperation for power.

THE X FACTOR

I wonder whether blogging is in serious decline with the advent of Twitter. my guess is Yes.
As a recent arrivee in the twitosphere it was fascinating to jon in the virtual conversation as Labour twitters waited for news of the Shadow Cabinet appointments.
The collective gasp of horror as it became clear AJ was to be SC happened in real time - and it was what the internet is about. Increasingly.
I try not to tweet about what I had for breakfast but I love the challenge of encapsulating something in 140 words. Too many bloggers on the left write reams and reams which no-one is going to read . Twitter proves that less can be more which is why so many are getting involved.
It also gives you immediate access to all kinds of people - you just keep on adding.
This week is an important one. It's Ed Miliband's first PMQs and there will be no mercy from a media hell-bent on political destruction.
It also sees the debate in Parliament of John McDonnell's trade union Bill and a major TUC lobby at Westminster. I will be following all these events with interest.
It is now clear the real Shadow Chancellor will be ...Ed Miliband.
He is to share an office with Johnson who is basically a front-man. How, given his lack of economic skills, could he be anything else.
Most i know in the Labour Party were very disappointed by the appointment however, in Machiavellian terms, it makes some sense.
Despite the doe eyes, Ed M is a ruthless operator and the Tories will be threatened by a Shadow Cabinet which reflects far more a broader spectrum in terms of gender and race than they could dream of.Politically, it is very similar to what went before
However, Diane Abbott has been given a Junion Ministerla post in Public Health and I hear there may be jobs for Emily Thornberry and Karen Buck.No doubt I will find out quickest on Twitter.
In the meantime it is a glorious Sunday afternoon in West Yorkshire and I am off for a walk down the canal to enjoy the autumn sunshine and a Sunday lunch with friends.

WRONG CALL, ED

Alan Johnson should not be Shadow Chancellor. Fact. he knows about as much on economics as I do and has already confessed he needs a "primer" to even comment on matters money-like.
I was hoping Ed Balls would get the job. I thought Yvette would be great, too.
The appointment of Johnson is a slap in the face for the optimnistic ranks of Labour activists who wanted to see an alternative to the Tories draconian approach to the deficit.
As the shock subsides, one can only assume he will be acting on the directive of Those Who Understand how we launch an opposition to Osborne. It is impossible to think Ed Miliband appointed him for any other reason than to keep friends close, and enemies closer......days before the leadership election AJ rubbished Ed and my word he has a great reward for doing so

THE YORKSHIRE MAFIA......

Greetings from Yorkshire which is now the nerve-centre of the Opposition.
With nine out of 19 Shadow Cabinet members, including Labour Leader, now based north of Watford, the White Rose county seriously holds sway in Labour's future.
The fact that in Opposition Labour's Cabinet is elected made for some interesting results.
Ex-Tory Shaun Woodward and uber-Blairite Ben Bradshaw failed to make the cut along with Pat McFadden and Fiona McTaggart. But Liam Byrne scraped in one vote ahead of Islington South's Emily Thornberry , which is a shame.
I also think it reprehensible that Diane Abbott got nowhere near the Cabinet - despite being a leadership candidate.
My view on Abbott's candidacy was always that it was tokenist and purely an expedient to keep John McDonnell off the ballot. Borne out by the fact that all the blah from Davids Lammy, Miliband et al about "inclusivity " and "broad churches" disappears the minute Cabinet elections are on the horizon. Whatever, it was a gross discourtesy to Diane by a PLP which is now way to the right of the Party. But we are where we are.
Ed Miliband has a Cabinet which is not of his choice and with a few people I suspect would not be there if it were. I hope he does not bow to pressure and deny Ed Balls the job of Shadow Chancellor - Balls is by far the best person to come out fighting against Osborne. And Yvette Cooper would be a great oppo to Theresa May as Home Secretary

WE ARE THE RADICALS NOW

Let anyone listening to David Cameron's speech be in any doubt. The nasty party is back with a vengeance. Determined to dismantle the welfare speech, reward the "winners", tear apart the NHS and make the poor pay for the mistakes of the rich.
The triumphalist tone of Cameron's speech should shame every single Liberal Democrat MP who continues to collude in this right-wing, punitive Government which today brought Thatcher back from the dead and next week will celebrate her 85th birthday in Downing Street.
At the Tory Party Conference, Tories quaffed wine costing £1200 a bottle - roughly the same as a year's child benefit. Compassionate Conservatism? I think not.
i haven't blogged much this past week as I have been ill with flu'. Today I'm ill listening to rhetoric which throws us back to the 1980's - and which Labour must fight with all its might in the coming period.
Today Neil Kinnock was scoffed at by the man who many misguidedly thought represented a kinder kind of Tory. There is no such animal.
We should be glad , as Kinnock said, that we do "have our Party back" and that Labour has a renewed sense of purpose. We have one enemy - the Coalition.
And we have a Leader who has pledged to be different to Blair - he will have to be.
New schools are being abandoned, libraries and council facilities closing down. Public sector workers facing an attack which on October 20 must be opposed full-on by the Labour Party.
Osborne's utter misreading of the child benefit furore shows just how much the Tories are out of touch. It is merely the start of a full-scale onslaught of the state with £15billion worth of welfare cuts on the way. Attacks on trade unions, attacks on pensioners.We are all in it together. For all the talk of the "new kind of politics" it is the same old enemy. And time to fight back

THE NEARLY MAN - AND WHY I'M GLAD HE LOST

Today I am back at work after a few days at Labour Party Conference and few days battling a seriously vile sore throat and chest infection. There was a lot of it around in Manchester......with various speakers and politicians losing their voices.
I bailed out early Tuesday morning but hotfooted it home to catch the Leader's Speech live at 2,30pm. What to make of it all. ..
In the two days since there has been ad nauseam footage of the Miliband drama. While in Europe workers take to the streets and set fire to vehicles in protest at the cuts., here journalists comment on David Miliband's Paul Smith shirt and obsess on the brotherly psycho-drama
On my return to the office this morning, otherwise sane people were nodding sagely and warning that Labour was on its way back to the 1980's.
As Ed Miliband himself might say, come off it !
Labour's new Leader is mildly left of centre yet even this is too much for a media so used to neo-liberal New Labour that they are hurling bile and venom in a way not seen since the Kinnock years. A timely reminder that even pale pink social democracy is too much for the establishment.
But Labour simply cannot allow the howls of anguish to send the Party back on a right trajectory.
The Blairites are causing mischief enough and doing all they can to undermine Ed Miliband without us on the left piling in and heaping coals before we know who is in the Cabinet and what policies are likely to emerge in the coming months.
We know it won't be an agenda of mass mobilisation against the cuts, we know the "Red Ed" tag is a nonsense.
But we should also recognise that we have a job to do and we are in a beter place to do it than for a long time.
Nearly 40,000 people have joined the Labour Party since May and that for many a left agenda is awhat they are seeking and what they perceive the Labour Party to now be returning to. The fact they are actually wronmg does not mean we can't put the pressure on from below to make it so
The famously sentimental Neil Kinnock apparently roared with glee that "We've got out Party back" at the first Tribune rally for aeons . It was, to say the least of it, over-egging the pudding.
But the rejection of Blair's heir must be a positive for the grassroots - and a cause for cautious optimism.

A FOOTNOTE ON JON CRUDDAS......

A few years ago I got a fair amount of gyp for daring to suggest Jon Cruddas was not the aspiring born-again leftie he was cracked up to be.
But JC's complete misunderstanding of the zeitgeist and recent backing for David Miliband showed just how right many of us were to be sceptical about his so-called credentials.
Well, what goes around comes around and I learn from an impeccable source that Cruddas did not come clean about his backing for the pro-Iraq Miliband until VERY late in the day.
I also learn that several close former allies on the left were tearing their hair out at his support for New Labour's chosen heir. They regard it as abetrayal and want no more truck......
I am no cheerlleader for Ed Miliband - but let us at least give him some credit for avowing a different stance on civil liberties and speaking out against Iraq. And let's remember that "leading left winger" Cruddas voted to lock people up on the 42 days issuye , was in favour of ID cards and of course voted for the war. Hope he shuts the door on his way out........

CURATE'S EGG

Just sat through the 90-odd minutes of Ed Miliband's speech which, like the curate's egg, was good in parts..

Let's start with the best bits. Apology for Iraq and condemnation of what's happening in Palestine. For that, much thanks, Great to see Ministers who backed calls for war squirming in their seats.

Civil liberties too. A refreshing change from Alan "Attila" Johnson's recent pronouncements.

On immigration, unclear. Great to condemn the BNP but not so great not to clarify whether in favour of caps or not......Obviously riled by the "Red Ed" media bashing, the speechwriters went out of their way to quell alarms so abolition of Clause 4 mentioned (quite unnecessary) , paeans to New Labour and grandstanding to Mail on trade unions also clear ploy. On the cuts, disappointing but expected. No-one at the top is disputing the need for any cuts - which is what many of us would like them to be doing. But at least there are calls for investment and regulation of the banks and bonuses.

Overall, then, middle-of-the-road social democracy. Which is what anyone with an ounce of nouse would have expected from the mildly-more-left Miliband

Bizarrely, the BBC was still desperate to left it up. And no doubt the papers wlll continue to caricature someone who 20 years ago would have been on the right of the Labour Party as a crypto-Marxist.

Presentationwise, it wasn't slick, he faltered at times , and the endless repetition of phrases like "new generation" and "let's be honest" was deeply irritating and unecessary.

BUT it was sincere, in places brave, and PR-wise the decision to work the hall with hundreds of handshakes afterwards was an inspired move. No T Benn, but no T Blair, either. Which has to be a plus.

POLL BOOST FOR LABOUR......

Good news, despite the hysterical media bashing of Labour.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/28/ed-miliband-poll-labour-conservatives

RED ED BAITING

I'm back in Hebden due to recurrence of nasty virus and also as cheese-paring on conference pass meant I would not have got into auditorium for the Leader's Speech which I can watch here live anyway.
Judging from the bile emerging from the media in the past few days, one would imagine Ralph, not Ed, Miliband had been elected by the Party.
I am tired of reading that Party members didn't vote for him, and that union leaders are delirious with joy at somehow pulling a fast one and dispatching Miliband D to the dustbin.
Yes the margin was tiny. But the Blairite lost. And it's time his supporters either got over it or walked away if they can't stomach a moderate social democrat in charge.
Having correctly predicted the winner, I now predict David Miliband will choose not to stand in the Shadow Cabinet. I think that would be the right choice as the last thing any of us want is fraternal soap opera again for the next 10 years.
It is extraordinary that the unions are being lambasted for "wrecking" the campaign of someone who had so many rich friends he had around 10 times more cash than any of the other candidates to throw around. The media were behind him, the Party establishment. Yet he lost.
He lost because a large proportion of the Party simply could not stomach a Blair continuum and Mandelson's ill-judged jibes ( which probably cost him the leadership)
Yesterday morning I bumped into a former Yorkshire MP and over a cuppa we agreed that although Ed is not left in the sense we would favour, his election gives us hope.
Later, at a lunchrime fringe meeting, I heard Ed Balls present the case for not slashing and burning everything in sight. It was a modest reappraisal - not anywhere near as far as the Labour left would like to go. But it's a start, a window, and a means of levering Labour away from the neo-liberlaism which has all but destroyed us. Which is why the media are briefing against a Balls Shadow Chancellorship
At last night's Campaign Group meeting, MP after MP pledged to do their best to restore Labour values and help the Party walk away from the betrayals of the Blair years.Let us hope that Ed Mliband means it when he says the era of New Labour is past. And let's hope he will ignore the pleas from the likes of Alan Johnson to tack to the right. And start listening to the left

ED MILIBAND BY A WHISKER.....

I should be at work today but I am dosing myself up with antibiotics and paracetamol in a bid to ward off a disgusting lurgy which came from nowhere to knock me for six.

Bugs or no bugs, I will be in Manchester tomorrow for Labour Party Conference and I plan to be in the conference hall when the announcement is made re next Leader.

Not because I am a gung-ho supporter of either Miliband, but because it is an Occasion and one which should be very interesting. A journalist is never off duty.....

Reading between the lines in today's papers, it is clear that the David Miliband camp is already briefing for defeat. Mandelson's poisonous interventions at the weekend probably put the last nail in the coffin.

But even had he stayed quiet there is no mood in the Labour Party for Blairism Mark Two.

The media are already sharpening their claws and risibly suggesting Ed Miliband's politics are closer to Ralph's than his brothers. If he does get elected no doubt the Mail will be tagging him as a Marxist. Not so. To put it mildly

Ed Miliband represents a strand of social democracy which is firnly in the centre. Under Blair, we moved so sharply to the right it can be painted as far more radical than it is.

However, I have long said it was a key task to stop David Miliband and see off the Mandelson Campbell cabal . I cannot for the life of me fathom what the likes of Dennis Skinner were doing when they endorsed him.Cruddas, showing his increasing disengagement from the grassroots, also chose the wrong horse.

Could be of course I am utterly wrong and the elder Miliband will storm to victory. But somehow I doubt it.....

THE BLACK STUFF...

When Alan Bleasdale's seminal Play For Today was screened in 1978 I was exactly the sort of prim and rather priggish student portrayed in the 1978 drama. It was quite common then for lefty students adorned with badges to hitch across the UK to save rail fares. Whether I would have got into a van packed with navvies is debatable but I certainly recognised myself - and the grim late 1970s - in a play which has stood the test of time supremely and which was shown on BBC 4 last night.

Despite the comedy, it showed a world which many would like to think had disappeared. In some ways, it has.

The smoking chimneys of Middlesborough are now demolished yet this is the town predicted most to suffer from the oncoming cuts which are going to sweep us back to the 1970s in a way which some thought unthinkable in the boom years. Capitalism still rules.

Those most likley to bear the brunt of it all are still the people at the bottom.

What has changed starkly is the consumerism and expectations which have seen millions burden themselves with debt in an attempt to emulate the rich.

Yozzer Hughes didn't even have a bank account - not unusual in those days. Yet he gambled all in a foolish bid to become the boss.

The message of Bleasdale's play was that those who have will always defeat those who don't.

It was a world of desperation and mean streets .

Liverpool itself, then a near-derelict skyscape of unemloyment and real poverty, may have changed in some ways beyond recognition. But the roots of Bleasdale's polemic are still there.

What was also striking was the notion such a political and serious drama was once screened at prime time on BBC 1 as a Play For Today.

Earlier in the day, I switched on the telly randomly and caught the Manchhester auditions for the X Factor. Largely a parade of sad, untalented people determined to "live the dream" of overnight success which these days is the Nirvana for a generation fed a relentless diet of celebrity culture and pap television. For most, it was an exercise in humiliation by the Botoxed and seriously wealthy.

Yozzer Hughes and his mates wanted to "be somebody" too. Unlike the X Factor competitors, they just wanted the chance to do some hard graft and earn a decent living. The subsequent Boys From The Blackstuff series showed the waste and the tragedy of the Thatcher years.

It is that world which the policies of Clegg and Cameron are about to deliver us back to.

I doubt any TV station would today have the courage to screen drama os similar weight.

I wonder if any of the Liberal Democrats swanning round the Conference Centre in Liverpool caught it. And had the grace to hang their heads in shame.

MANDELSON AND DAVID MILIBAND

Peter Mandelson's astonishingly nasty outburst about Ed Miliband will deliver the Labour leadership to him.
It is surely a sign of rampant panic that the opposing camp are unleashing attack dogs uttering pronouncements which would shame the Tories on "scroungers and immigration."
One wonders, in hindsight, whether Mandy deliberately kept Gordon Brown in power to ensure a New Labour victory. for whoever took over after defeat
The spoke in the wheel is the leadership process which delivers a third of the votes to members and a third to trade unions.
In the past week I have heard rumours that the vast majority the second preferences are all going to Ed .
At this stage in the game, most of us have already voted. I urge those who haven't to help ensure we start a new phase in Labour's history - unfettered by people like Mandelson who should now be consigned to history. We know ed Miliband is only mildly to the left of his brother.
But the symbolic defeat os the ultra New Labour candidate can help us build support for policies which will signal a break with the Blairite years.

I WARN YOU NOT TO GROW OLD....

Two weeks from today Labour will have a new Leader . Chances are it will be one of the Millibands. Looks like "Red Ed" (irony) might make it by a whisker but whoever wins needs to act fast.
While the endless hustings roadshow has been crossing the country, the Tories have been using the hiatus to build a mindset that they have no choice but to make obscene, draconian cuts .
Using Churchillian rhetoric, they have somehow managed to hoodwink millions into thinking there is no alternative. There is. It's called socialism and an alternative economic strategy which cracks down on the tax dodgers and the City and the business community who continue to profit while we are led into a maelstrom of misery.
The problem is that all the leadership candidates have colluded in this unspeakable policy programme by going along with the cuts consensus. The gist is that Labour recognises cuts have to be made - but we will be nicer about it.
So far, £15billion worth of welfare benefit cuts are coming. This will impact on the most vulnerable in society and, as today's Observer reveals, the plan is to cut harder and deeper.
So far, most of the PLP, fixated by the leadership contest, has stayed quiet.
Most of the media goes along with the myth that the Government is doing its inevitable duty in the national interest.
To the point where my once catatonic commute at 6.30am to work in Leeds is one of wide-awake fury as I listen to the BBC Today programme touting out the line that cuts have to be made.
The tragedy is we are wasting billions on wars and weapons of mass devastation.
We could cut Trident - saving around £76billion at a stroke. We could also save plenty of money by bringing the troops home from Afghanistan. Yet only 14 Labour MPs voted to do so at a shamefully ill-attended debate in the Commons.
If we are to win back support, and credibility , Labour has to change tack. And grassroots members can be part of that change.
Whoever becomes the Leader 13 days from today, they have to be told in no uncertain terms that without real Opposition to the cuts, without a democratic socialist alternative, we are letting our people down and colluding with a Government which thinks it can do what it likes - and get away with it.
At the Labour Party conference, it's time to make our voices heard and put pressure on from below via the trade unions and local campaigns to show our opposition to these cuts and start nailing the lie that it is somehow in the national interest to consign millions to poverty and go beyond what Thatcher would ever have dared do. We can all be part of that process.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/11/george-osborne-slash-Assickness-benefits

SERVANTS OF THE PARTY - NOT THE ESTABLISHMENT

Andrew Rawnsley has a piece in today's Observer which, predictably, backs David Miliband for the leadership. Why? Because, according to Rawnsley, he is of the Blairite mould which believes elections are won and lost on the centre ground.
The point not made is that New Labour moved so far to right post-2001 that it was in territory so akin to the Tories that few could tell the difference.
Rawnsley's only concern is winning back the support of Middle England. The fact that millions of core, working-class voters walked away bothers him not one jot. He is at the very epicentre of the media establishment who lectured the Party for years - while it collapsed and died all around us.
None of the five leadership candidates is of the stature or experience of previous generations. Robin Cook would have wiped the floor with all of them Likewise Tony Benn, John Smith, Neil Kinnock and Harold Wilson. But we have to make a choice. Realpolitik ordains that, in the end, it is about one of the Milibands. Some I know are refusing to vote for either.
Rawnsley is an elitist. He describes Jon Cruddas as being of the "intelligent left" which presumably means those who don't back Miliband D are complete numpties. There was nothing intelligent about Cruddas swinging back to his comfort zone. Or disappointing the many supporters who had faith in him as a future Leader.
We should, Rawnsley says, learn lessons from the creed of Tony Blair who won three elections in a row.
It was not Blair personally who won those elections. It was Labour. Labour voted for by people who thought it represented them - a broad coalition who finally walked away disenchanted and disillusioned with Labour's last years in power. And the rapid trajectory to the right which Blair pursued in his final term
To win them back, we do not once again become courtiers of the City, we do not demonise immigrants, we do not allow the poor and jobless to be victimised , and we do not advocate wars and nuclear weapons and we take on the might of the people at the top.
I do not think the sight of the permatanned, Botoxed Blair touting his book around and hoovering up mililions is an inspiring one. It is time for him to retire from the stage, and time for the Labour Party to choose a leader who will at least not embrace the worst aspects of the ideology which it will take us many years to change .
Don't waste your vote in this election - vote for Ed Miliband second preference. However different one might like things to be, we have to start somewhere. Dispatching Blair's chosen heir is at least a start.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/blair-miliband-labour-leadership

A JOURNEY.....

I got back yesterday from Heaven On Earth - which is County Mayo. I was staying near Westport and can honestly say this is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It is also my genetic home. I loved it.

So- back to England and many thanks for the messages I am getting of support for the NEC elections.

The LRC has two candidates. Myself and Christine Shawcroft. In the absence of a Grassroots Alliance, I am voting for the candidates i think will best serve the interests of ordinary members.

These are not high-profile politicos like Ken Livingstone and Oona King who frankly are using the NEC platforms as a platform for their mayoral campaigns. They are: Christine Shawcroft, Peter Kenyon and John Wiseman.

Back the LRC two - and vote for those who really are of the grassroots and will work for us.

A MESSAGE FROM VICE-CHAIR OF THE CENTRE LEFT GRASSROOTS ALLIANCE

Before I leave for Ireland today and a well-earned rest, I feel compelled to point out, as a Vice-Chair of the CLGA, that for this year's NEC election purposes it does not exist.
This is a great shame but I felt it needed clearing up as most CLPs will be circulated in the next couple of days with a leaflet from "Grassroots Labour." This is in fact the CLPD/Compass slate and it would have been helpful if they had used that tag .
The confusion needs to be sorted out as myself and Peter Kenyon of Save The Labour Party and the CLGA are not on the list. However, the other constituents of the CLGA are the LRC, STLP, Labour Briefing, Left Women's Network and the Socialist Youth Network.
All of the above have expressed their support for me and Christine Shawcroft.
I would urge all activists who want to be well represented to vote for Peter as he has done sterling work for many years - long before he was elected to the NEC.
Having cleared that up, I have a long jouney to the West of ireland and am packing my case. A good Bank Holiday to all.......

BLOOD BROTHERS

To say I'm angry is putting it mildly. While the ConDems cut fuel allowance, tax credits, welfare benefits and come out with the most reactionary Budget in decades we poor souls in the Labour Party witness the spectacle of a Labour leadership contest which has become a farce.
Remember all that hooey about it being a pluralist contest which would give everyone a chance to vote for candidates of all shades of opinion.
We might as well have cut to the chase three months ago because from beginning to end it has beena two-horse race.
The latest twist in this endless saga is that "leading left winger" Jon Cruddas has come out for David Miliband. The very same Jon Cruddas once touted as a future left-of-centre leader.
Now returned, strangely to the Blairite fold.
It beggars belief that anyone allegedly left-of-centre in the Party would back a candidate who wants more of the same policies which have consigned Labour to opposition. The same policies which will give Cameron a landslide at the next election because there is nothing whatsoever to distinguish David Miliband from CamClegg .
What is even more cynical is that it was Cruddas who enabled Diane Abbott to get on the ballot. Likewise David Miliband . Left cover for both while, obviously, the game was to deliver another Blairite leader.
Now you know and I know there is very little to distinguish any of the candidates who have a hope of winning from each other.
That said, a victory for David Miliband will be, symbolically, a disaster for all of us who want some semblance of change. So, like most people I know my second preference will go to Ed Miliband.
What angers me most of all is that the left were denied a chance to vote for the candidate of their choice - and have a real debate with a credible contender
These Machiavellian right-wingers not only denied John McDonnell the chance to get on the ballot, they are trying to ensure we have Blair Mark Two. UNITE has answered Cruddas's call by urging members and trade unionists to vote for Ed Miliband. They are right to do so.
But Jon Cruddas has blown whaetver left credentials he had ( and I never thought he had any anyway) right out of the water. Hobson's choice - but sadly our only one if we want to rescue Labour .

BROTHERS IN ARMS

I have been away in Whitby for a few days and come back to some important tasks before I head for Ireland on Saturday.
Task One was to get in touch with all the CLPs in the country for the NEC hustings.
Which i have now done and thanks for the messages of support I am getting.
As the final countdown begins for the Labour leadership, it is clear the final choice will be between the Miliband brothers.
David Miliband's latest statements confirm that if he becomes leader there will be no retrenchment from New Labour policy and he will go for the centre-right ground. It is therefore very important Miliband Senior is stopped in his tracks. I am sure we will all vote accordingly.

RAMSAY MAC WOULD BE PROUD....

But most Labour Party members are surely horrified - if not surprised - at the spectacle of Frank Field, John Hutton, Alan Milburn and David Blunkett all getting into bed with the ConDem "National Government" . Milburn and Hutton, arch-Blairite to the core, were inevitably going to jump ship as they quit Parliament the minute Opposition and the absence of fat Ministerial salaries went. Blunkett, centrist though he might have become, is rather more of a disappointment. The word loyalty clearly means nothing to these people in their pursuit of wealth, power and influence. The sad thing is that two of them are still, in name only, Labour MPs.

THE SUMMER'S GONE......

And all the leaves are dying.......which kind of fits the bill as far as this year is concerned.
My strategy for coping with what has been an awful year is to read copiously, sort the house out and indulge myself with nice food, beauty products irresistible to women of a certain age and keep on keeping on as much as I can but there is no denying as autumn fast approaches my mood is not a good one.
This week I was asked to do 1500 words for the Yorkshire Evening Post on Macmillan Cancer Support - very glad to be able to boost their PR fir the World's Biggest Coffee Morning in September but it is not a great way to stop thinking about how much people have to go through - and how the spectre of illness, once it has touched one's family, just does not go away.
Those who have not yet faced losing loved ones (lucky them) live life in a way which is irredeemable to anyone who has seen mortality. And what it means.
I find I am angry. Unreasonably so. A lot of the time. I wonder why humans are forced to go through unreasonable suffering when animals are humanely put out of their misery.
I sometimes also wonder what the point of life is - though I am very far from thinking that at some stage mine will not get better.
It has been hard at times to summon up the will for mundane tasks or mobilising myself politically. But I'm doing what I can because I know just crawling under the duvet will make me feel worse.
Having lost my mother, elder sister and now my dad to awful cancers, there is also the selfish fear of an inevitable fate that I will fall prey to similar.
Not being morbid, but realistic.
But there are good days too, and in time there will be more.
However, to anyone else out there also coping with bereavement, my fullest sympathies.

JIMMY REID AND KENNETH WILLIAMS

I meant to write something earlier in the week about Jimmy Reid.

It was hard to imagine him as an old man of 78 as to those of us who remember him wiping the floor with the ultra reactionary Kenneth Williams on Parkinson he will be forever the young and charismatic firebrand of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders.

In those days, chat shows were not just an excuse to plug the latest book, film or TV series. Parkinson on a Saturday night was a highlight for millions who liked the intelligent chat and star guests Parky was able to command.

One night the usual Hollywood contingent couldn't make it and the Carry On star began a tirade against trade unions and three weeks later he was invited back to debate with Reid. His performance was excruciating - Reid's was brilliant.

Jimmy Reid should have been a giant in the labour movement. He was a great orator, would ( after he left the Communist Party) indeed have been a great Labour leader but never got the breaks which would have taken him to high office. Right man. Wrong time. Sadly he shifted over the years, wrote an iffy column for the Daily Mirror, and joined the SNP some years ago.

But his contributions to the cause in the long years before were head and shoulders above most in the current political generation.

STRAW BACKS DAVID MILIBAND

The ludicrous nature of the PLP nominations process is again highlighted today as Jack Straw reveals he is voting for David Miliband.
The MP for Blackburn and former Home Secretary was among the band (including D Miliband himself) who gallantly rode to the rescue of Diane Abbott and got her on the ballot paper.
As the September 1 deadline for the ballot papers going out aproaches, one can only ask why?
Even on the left, the ranks are divided. I note with some surprise that the Irish Post has a double-page spread from Campaign Group member Linda Riordan explaining why she is voting for Ed Miliband
The irony is that the only MPs who are likely to vote for Diane are those who originally supported John McDonnell. And not all of those transferred their vote.
And some of those who did, like Linda, don't seem to be exactly supportive.
I think Diane will get a reasonable vote from the constituencies but she was set up at the outset by MPs who never had any intention of voting for her.
However thrilling it might have been at the outset to have been parachuted onto the ballot, I bet she's not feeling so euphoric now.
The sad fact is she has been used as a token nod to inclusive politics in a contest where the winner was always going to be white, male, and middle-class I don't think it's good enough. Next time, we have to do it better. And really mean what we say about being inclusive

NEC SUPPORTING STATEMENT

The LRC is backing two candidates for the NEC - myself and Christine Shawcroft.I'm going to be doing my best over the next few weeks to maximise my vote and give the left a real say in the elections. If you support my candidacy, please download the leaflet which is now on the LRC website and let's get our message out across the country.More here...

http://www.l-r-c.org.uk/files/LRC_susanpress.pdf

PAST LIFE

Today over to Manchester to collect a box of photos and family memorabilia.
Will i ever play the recorder again? Probably not. but I'm keeping it anyway along with tatttered exercise books and school reports. Were the 1960's another age? Seems that way, looking at the First Communion photos of 30-odd little girls in veils and white dresses. Most of whose names I can still remember. A far-off, innocent time.
Even my graduation photo is now 30 years old but I've hung it in the front room as a memento of times when university education did not put students in hock for the rest of their lives.
The Coalition's latest proposals for a graduate tax are nothing short of scandalous.They will mean fees will rocket through the roof.

WHY DIANE ABBOTT ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH

AT this stage in the game, I think most of us have made our minds up how we are going to vote in the leadership election. Some, I know, are not going to vote at all.

But I don't believe in paying £38 a year for the privilege of disenfranchising myself.

When the ballot papers arrive, I will cast my first preference for Diane Abbott and my second for Ed Miliband. and I will do so with no illusions whatsoever.

My vote for Abbott is to stop the left being humiliated. Her candidacy, however, was designed to ensure it.

An MP who had only two nominations after three weeks of campaigning was suddenly railroaded onto the ballot because of the real prospect of a credible left challenge.

As the grassroots clamour grew for John McDonnell to go on the ballot paper, so did Abbott's support in the PLP.

Mysteriously, people like Phil Woolas, Harriet Harman, Jack Straw appeared from nowhere and effectively - with the final vote from David Miliband - nailed a candidacy which they knew was no threat whatsoever to the status quo. And so it has proved.

At recent hustings, Abbott has agreed cuts have to be made (50 per cent rather than 60 per cent ) and ignored the socialist alternative of progressive taxation and nailing the tax dodgers .She has not impressed the grassroots outside London and many LRC members I know up here are simply cutting to the chase and backing Ed Miliband.

I will not do that.

Abbott's stance on Iraq, immigration and civil liberties distinguishes her from the rest

Buty had she really been interested in promoting the cause of Labour Left, she would have supported John McDonnell and done her best to get him on the ballot. He withdrew with dignity. The truth is he would not have had to withdraw at all if she had not stood at the eleventh-hour.

I don't think the Labour left will gain much in the long-term once the ballot papers have been counted. Those in the PLP who aided her appearance on the ballot will actually vote for others. The big trade unions have already swung behind Ed Miliband.

Reluctantly she will get my first preference. But don't expect me to be a cheerleader .

As LRC Secretary Andrew Fisher explains in this article, it could all have been so much better.

And once the contest is over, and Abbott is back on the sofa with Portillo, we will have to keep arguing the case for a real left alternative.

http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/only_a_socialist_vision_can_defeat_the_cuts/

NEC RUNNERS AND RIDERS

NEC member Peter Kenyon has outlined why this year there is no Centre Left Grassroots Alliance slate. but there will still be a plethora of people to vote for. On the centre. And on the left. The bottom line for me I suppose is whether candidates really are of the grassroots and will put in the work.
The LRC is officially supporting two candidates - Christine Shawcroft and myself. On a personal level, I will definitely be supporting Peter who has worked his socks off for the past two years on the NEC on behalf of ordinary members. At the end of the day it is down to all of us as individuals to maximise our vote and put forward the best case we can.
I don't know what the final tally of candidates is but it is likely to be more than 12. No-one can argue they don't have a fair choice.......

NEC NOMINATIONS

My thanks to the following 27 constituencies who have nominated me. During the pre-nomination period, I was almost wholly occupied with family illness so contacted not as many CLPs as I would have hoped to. That will change in the coming period.
Alyn and Deeside
Barnsley Central
Bournemouth West
Bradford South
Brentford and Isleworth
Brigg and Goole
Bristol East
Bury St Edmunds
Calder Valley
Cambridge
Cardiff South and Penarth
Christchurch
Hayes and Harlington
Hazel Grove
Hyndburn
Leeds Central
North Ayrshire and Arran
North West Hampshire
Peterborough
Portsmouth South
St Helens South and Whiston
Tooting
Uxbridge and South Ruislip
Warrington South
Weston Super Mare
Workington
Wyre and Preston

HOMES FOR LIFE

It was a throwaway few seconds on last night's Channel 4 News and I would have blogged straight afterwards but post-work exhaustion set in. But I still want it on record that David Cameron's plans announced for fixed term social housing rank as aming the most despicable ideas yet the ConDems have come up with.
Back in March we faced the painful task of handing back my dad's house to the housing association and I believe it's now occupied by a young family complete with new renovations and a satellite disc . Strange to think the place we knew as home for 35 years has gone but that's how it works. Or rather, should.
The idea people who are unable to afford to buy somewhere ( or maybe don't want to) should be kicked out is pretty disgusting. So much for Cam's concern about 'broken Britain.'
At a time when millions more homes are needed for social housing, he is proposing the very opposite. How compassionate. And how very Tory.

MONEY CAN BUY YOU SUPPORT......

On Saturday I got a txt message from Ed Miliband asking if I was supporting him. Being a realist, I clocked that Miliband Junior was not actually at that minute staring at his mobile anxiously waiting my reply. He gets his minions to do it from Labour Party records.
By way of contrast, in the current crop of NEC elections, I did my best to contact as many CLP Secretaries as possible, with no help, and no money, just a wodge of second-class stamps donated by a friend and a list of CLPs donated by a well-wisher. The rest I did for free on the internet.
A few notches up the scale, there is a bit of a hoo-hah over the money David Miliband has put into his campaign. Around £200,000 or thereabouts.
Diane Abbott is right today to complain at the unfairness of canddates being able to buy support, infleunce and possible power just because of rich supporters.
The Labour Party apparently put a "modest" cap of £156,000 on the amount each leasdership candidate could spend. No-one apart from D Miliband has remotely approached that figure.
His camp say loftily it's all AOK because he just happens to be someone who has so much popularity that the money pours in. Wrong. Miliband has rich supporters which the others don't.
In fairness, David Miliband would be in a pretty good position to take a pop at the leadership with or without pots of money. So whuy does he feel the need to blatantly smash the opposition with expensive mail-outs .
Far fairer for the Party to allow each person the same access to membership records, CLP secretaries , envelopes and stamps. And a level playing-field. This contest has turned into an American-style contest where money is in danger of deciding the result.

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS TOAST.......

Tonight a Town Council meeting in Hebden Bridge and look forward to passing on to the smug Lib Dems the news they are set to lose around two-thirds of their MPs according to a new IPSOS poll in the New Statesman. Labour are just two per cent behind the Tories at 38 per cent and the Libdems nowhere at 14 per cent.
Clegg may enjoy swanning and strutting and pretending to be a politician of substance. Hold your ire, comrades, because he is set for a serious kicking by an electorate incandescent at voting "progressive" and ending up with Thatcher's sons......climbing Brokeback mountain.


http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/07/puts-labour-poll-tories-mori

And another......

Many thanks to Uxbridge and South Ruislip CLP

MORE NEC nominations

Many thanks to Leeds Central and Cambridge CLP. The tally is now 16 CLPs

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Seventy years ago George Orwell famously commented on the poor diet of the working-class in The Road To Wigan Pier.
Orwell's fly-blown tripe shops may be no more but it seems the gap between life expectancy for the poor and the rich is back to where it was in the 1920's.
Bad nutrition and lifestyle among those with the least money is quoted as key to why people with money are twice as likely to live as their badly-off counterparts past the age of 65.
Teams at the universities of Sheffield and Bristol tracked the total number of deaths before 65 in regions where personal wealth was in the top 10 per cent from Britain , down to areas in the bottom 10 per cent. The figures showed for every 100 people dying under the age of 75 in the best-off areas, 188 were dying in the poorest tenth of areas -apparently the highest relative inequality recorded since at least 1921.
Why so? Last week I wrote a piece on obesity and itys health implications and spoke to a nutritionist in Leeds. She pointed out that these days people with less money are able to eat cheaply - and not feel hungry - but not necessarily well.
The problem is so bad in Yorkshire - second fattest county in the counntry - that Wakefield council is limiting the number of takeaways. Small beer in a world where lager is often cheaper than fizzy mineral water.
The Goverment is also storing up trouble for the NHS by its attitude to preventative health policy. It has just completely axed the £300M-plus budget for the Change4Life programme - launched only last year.
It also refuses to crack down on the bloated food and drink industry - which continues to mislead the public with ambivalent labelling as well as lure them in with loss leader deals on supersized sweets , cheap booze and junk burgers and pizzas.
The ConDems are also determined to cut down on welfare benefits even further so people can afford even less decent stuff to eat.
Ocado on Jobseeker's Allowance? Don't think so. These days, a root vegetable stew costs more to make than a family bucket of KFC.
Yes, people in poorer areas tend to smoke and drink more. They always did.
In the 19th century, gin palaces were said to be "the quickest way out of Salford" We know cigarettes are the number one destroyer of health and smoking is far more prevalent lower down the income scale.
But it is also true that many of the consequences of fags and booze are offset by a good diet and regular exercise.
Moderation may be the watchword of Middle England. It has never been the case amongst the aristocracy who tend to live to ripe old ages despite copious amounts of alcohol ( think Queen Mum and even chain-smoking, whisky-swilling Princess Margaret made it to 72) ) and rich food.
Authors of the recent study say the widening health gap is probably the result of the economic crash of 2008. With the prospect of a double-dip recession, the gap is likely to widen.

PRIORITIES

I've not blogged for a bit. Reason being I'm coming to terms with a very changed life in which me and my only surviving sister are what's left of a family of five.
I don't spend my days disassociated with what's going on politically. Far from it.
Every day brings more bad news about what this wretched Government is doing to dismantle our NHS, the public sector, welfare benefits we have taken for granted over 13 years of a Labour government which , despite its failings, protected the vulnerable and weak.If not enough.
This is a truth ( universally acknowleged) by all the would-be leaders of the Labour Party.Yet I hear the forthcoming Labour Party Conference will be same-old same-old with lots of speeches by ex-Ministers and precious little chance for you and me to have our say.
At the moment, I'm taking pleasure in the very small things of life. Cooking nice meals, drying herbs for winter, reading books (lots) and generally escaping from the facts of a mortality awareness which sometimes threatens to stop one engaging with the immediate.
If I had a time machine I would love to esacape back to the 1980's when death was an impossible. I know now it is an inevitable.
The experience I have had watching my father die has had a profound effect on my life. At 52, I have far more years behind than in front. So it's hard (and frankly pointeless) to get steamed-up about battles which in the long-term, are meaningless.
At the moment. am concentrating my efforts of forthcoming NEC campaign. The last year, though unremittingly bad, has taught me to concentrate on the things which matter. They are: family, friends and principles. I'm taking it all day by day and wish nothing more that in the months to comewe can start to re-build a Labour Party we can be proud of. That still matters enormously. But not as much as putting what's left of my family in order - and ensuring I look after them.

AND ANOTHER...

Thanks to Hyndburn CLP

NEC NOMINATIONS....

thanks to Portsmouth South CLP!

FUTILE, FINISHED AND F........KED

The latest racy instalment of Peter (Ker-ching) Mandelson's memoirs reveal the above slogan was dreamt up by him and the equally droll Alisdair Darling as the rest of the Party gritted its teeth and tried to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. As I said yesterday, Mandelson's spilling of very dirty linen in public is a gross disservice to the Party he claims to love. One can only hope the said slogan applies equally to Mandelson himself.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/12/mandelson-brown-labour-party-finished

PETER MANDELSON

I have always found it ironic that the left is blamed for disloyalty to Labour while the likes of Peter Mandelson have been allowed to get away with Machiavellian posturing for years. Now he shows his true colours by publishing a book slagging off Brown, Blair and everyone else who stopped his narcissistic wishes to be Mr High Command of Labour.
The timing of his book, The Third Man, could not be worse for the Labour Party. This clearly does not matter to someone who has pursued rich friends and high places for over two decades.
If he wishes to use Graham Greene -esque titles for his self-indulgent moneygrabbing, I have another suggestion. He is A Burnt Out Case.

THE MARCH OF TIME.......

Saturday's Durham Miner's Gala was a first for me but the 126th "Big Meeting" to be held. It was a great day.

The banners which were once proudly held aloft by local lodges of the NUM are now in the care of their local village communities but the day still serves as a reminder of the endurance and commitment of the socialist movement to building a better world.

I got my spot under the County Hotel balcony at 8.55am and was still there as the march ended at 13.35. Each banner is accompanied by a brass band and they played everything from the Internationale and Red Flag to Sex Bomb and Let Me Entertain You!

Watching from the balcony were stalwarts like Tony Benn , Bob Crow, and Jeremy Corbyn.

Despite advancing years, Tony Benn joined the march in honour of the banner (pictured) which bears his image- along with Nye bevan and Keir Hardie. But what a blip we all are in the march of time.

The most moving part of the day was at Durham Cathedral, where new banners were blessed and the building resounded with the magnificent sound of the bands marching them out. The stirring rendition of Jerusalem at the end moved many, including me, to tears.

Contingents from UNITE, the GMB, PCS and RMT, added their presence also to the march. I hope next year to be back - with the Labour Representation Commitee banner.

ANOTHER NOMINATION....

From Bournemouth West. Thanks comrades......

CASH FOR CANDIDATES

At last week's UNISON leadership hustings in Leeds, Andy Burnham remarked, quite rightly, that it was time to retreat from "the old ways" of parachuting candidates in and the culture of control freakery which for years has disallowed debate and discussion at events like Party Conference. So it's immensely depressing to note that, yet again, money and famous connections are likely to determine the outcome of the Labour leadership election.
David Miliband has received an astonishing £185,000 from pals like Lord Putnam and that geezer from Blur who fancies his chances as an MP.
Ed Balls has a mere £28,000, from novelist Ken Follett, Ed Miliband £15,000 and poor relations Burnham and Abbott have declared nothing.
Maybe I am naive - but I view the fact that money can seemingly buy expensive leaflets, PR machines and ultimately the highest office in the Labour Party as deeply wrong.
This campaign should be about ideas, not who has most friends in high places. There should be a cap on individual donations -or the same amount allocated to all.

THE BIG MEETING.....

This afternoon I'm up to Durham for the annual Miner's Gala, or the "Big Meeting" as it's often dubbed. I'm looking forward to it immensely after a roller-coaster week in which we finally said goodbye to my father - his funeral was on his 90th birthday July 7 but was happily more a celebration of a life well lived than a day to be sad.
I think anyone who has seen loved ones endure months of suffering will concur with me that there is an immense sense of release when they are finally at peace. After a time of great diostress I have no more crying left to do so, as he would have wished, I shall get on with stuff and be as positive as I can. The Miner's Gala is a good start.

PS: Last week I was sent to cover the Labour leadership hustings in Leeds . Completely uninspiring. None of them really has the gravitas required to be Leader. So in the end for many of us it's going to be a case of "Anyone But David Miliband." Sounds like Blair, talks like Blair, but without the charisma.........at least all the others agree we have to undergo a sea change and admit they got stuff wrong. Miliband senior is yesterday's man and yesterday's politics. Ed Miliband is, realistically, the only one with a chance of stopping him. But, compared to previous contenders, ie Michael Foot, Denis Healey, John Smith, Anthony Crosland, Tony benn, they are all lightweights

ON BALLOT FOR NEC!

In the past few days I have had notification of nominations from Tooting, North Arran and Ayrshire, Bristol East , Warrington South and St Helen's South. I hope more will follow but the good news is I'm now on the ballot! Thanks to all. Update: Weston, Brentford and Isleworth and Hayes and Harlington now added to list.....

JUNE 25 2010

This is my dad almost one year ago at his grand-daughters' graduation. He died today after a long struggle against cancer. Brave brave spirit. His funeral will be on his 90th birthday. And - for the moment - I'm not sad. I'm proud of him. I will get back to the politics ( as he would want) soon

DIRTY TRICKS

I won't be blogging for a little while,But before I head off for Manchester this morning I will draw your attention to Peter Kenyon's entirely accurate assessment of the dirty tricks which have been perpetrated by the Campaign For Labour Democracy in undermining two years of negotiations on the slate by issuing a self-styled Grass Roots Labour leaflet excluding both myself and Peter from the list of names. I would like to thank the individual who sent me all the CLP addresses which I have been trying to work my way through. The work will go on.
In the meantime please try and get me as many nominations as possible. The LRC's two candidates for the NEC are myself and Christine Shawcroft and Peter also deserves support and thanks for his hard work on the NEC.

FATHER'S DAY

My dad was a dignified and private person. He's currently in St Ann's Hospice in Heald Green, Manchester, and about to die. I want to thank all those who have supported me. It's bloody hard. I promise one thing. To carry on his bolshie tradition. John Press I salute you. And I will never let you down.............I love you very much. And I will carry on fighting for the socialist values you believed in. To the end.

NEC CAMPAIGN- GAME ON!

I want to thank delegates at tonight's GC for nominating me to go forward to NEC ballot. I know not everyone shares my politics but I also know that the Labour Party has a renewed vision and belief in the importance of everyone having their say and in uniting against the ConDems.
I plan to work as hard as I can to get as many nominations as I can .
But my greatest joy is knowing that we're all going to work as hard as we can in Calder Valley to see the Tories off. And we will be working together......

BLOODY SUNDAY

The Savile enquiry has conceded the deaths of 14 innocent victims were "unjustifiable." And David Cameron has apologised. Some may say what is the point of all this so long after the event - but to the families who have lived so long with so much grief that will be some comfort in the conclusions.
I was 14 on the day in question and remember it well as I had gone round to my grandmother's . She cried her eyes out as we watched the news in stunned silence on her little black-and-white TV. The image I will always remember is the priest who bravely risked his life trying to save those who had been shot. It was clear something terrible had occurred.
Awful things happened during the Troubles. This was one of the worst.
However much the inquiry cost, if it helps heal the scars of decades it will be worth it.

STANDING UP FOR THE GRASSROOTS....

Have just about recovered from a long day yesterday down to London and back for the Compass conference where the lrc/Labour Briefing had a packed fringe meeting. with speakers John McDonnell and economist Graham Turner, who ariculately and impressively argued the left case against the cuts..
Compass, along with the Fabians, LRC and Save The Labour Party organised a massive e-mail campaign to ask the Party leadership to enable all six declared candidates to stand.
In the event, the only reason there were five was because one candidate stood down and there was then the shambolic sight of last-minute horse-trading which had nothing at all to do with Party democracy - and everything to do with face-saving amid the prospect of four fortysomething male candidates with very similar policy ideas.
We are better off with five than four - but it should have been the case that Party members were not effectively vetoed by the PLP. And it must never happen again.
My guess is the rules will indeed be looked at - and that will happen because of the grassroots campaign which made it clear what loyal Labour Party people wanted.
What is rather sad in all this is that only two members of the NEC put pressure on to change the nomination threshold . They were Peter Kenyon and Christine Shawcroft (pictured with me at last year's briefing AGM)
It is my belief that it is the job of all six constituency representatives to act in the interests of ordinary members. Which is why I am standing for the NEC.
Two years ago, my constituency, Calder Valley, did its level best to get that threshold changed at Labour Party Conference. We failed because we were not backed by the big unions. One hopes they have now changed their view. And that the overwhelming call for an end to the stifling of Party democracy which tarnished the Blair years will now be supported by whoever is the new Leader.

THANKS FOR ORGANISING......

I want to thank all the Party members, LRC supporters and socialists who tried so damned hard to get all six candidates on the leadership ballot.
MPs were lobbied , urged by organisationms from the Fabians to Compass and the LRC to allow a free, frank and honest debate on Labour's future.
Yer nearly 80 Mps chose to (needlessly) nominate David Miliband and nearly 60 his younger brother. Ed Balls, to his credit, did not seek any more nominations after reaching the 33 required.
As Dianne Abbott herself said, the threshold was upped from the original five per cent to 12.5 per cent to keep the left out.
The only reason she is on the ballot is down to the selflessness of John McDonnell in withdrawing - and some last-minute horse-trading.
It is not to the credit of the PLP or the NEC that things have worked out this way. They simply did not listen to the views, not just of ordinary Party members, but to major trade unions like UNITE , the GMB and CWU.
I know there are many thousands of disappointed left Labour Party mmebers out there. I urge you all to support Diane Abbott as first preference and make sure theleft gets a creditable vote. But let's not forget either how she got there. And how wrong it is that a candidate supported by thousands of grassroots trade unionists and socialists will not be on the ballot paper.

LETTER FROM JOHN McDONNELL

Dear Comrades

I am writing to let you know that I have withdrawn from the Labour Party leadership race this morning.

I stood for the Labour leadership as the candidate of the Left and trade union movement so that there could be a proper debate about Labour’s future in which all the wings of the party were fully represented. It is now clear that I am unlikely to secure enough nominations and so I am withdrawing in the hope that we can at least secure a woman on the ballot paper.

We came into this campaign knowing that it would be really difficult to obtain sufficient nominations but we knew we had to try. The support we received from rank and file party members and from trade unionists was just overwhelming but we still could not overcome the barrier of gaining sufficient support from Labour MPs.

I appealed to the party leadership to lower the qualifying bar to allow all the candidates on the ballot paper. It was perfectly possible within the existing rules for this to be done. Reducing the bar to 5% would have allowed all the declared candidates to get on the ballot paper and the Party to have a full and open debate about its future direction. The party hierarchy refused and instead threw its weight behind one candidate.

I know that many Labour activists and trade unionists will be disappointed.

I want to thank you for all your hard work in lobbying and campaigning to secure sufficient nominations to get me on the ballot paper. You could not have worked harder.

I am urging everyone to continue the fight for democracy within the party so that in future elections rank and file members will be represented by the candidate of their choice.

We must also now throw our energies into the campaign to resist the cuts that the Coalition government is launching against our community. Providing
leadership in this struggle is critically important in this coming period. We will be convening rallies and demonstrations and linking up with trade union action to resist the cuts. Let’s rise to this challenge.

Yours in solidarity,

John McDonnell MP

15 NOMINATIONS FOR JOHN McDONNELL

Thanks to: Linda Riordan, Katy Clark, Jeremy Corbyn, Ian Lavery, Jim Dowd, Frank Field, Kate Hoey, Dai Havard, Graeme Morrice, Dennis Skinner, Mike Wood, Ronnie Campbell and John Cryer.
It is surely now time for Dianne Abbott to consider standing down. Or for the NEC to do the decent thing and alow all six on ballot.

KENNY EVERETT MAKES THATCHER LAUGH - LET'S THROW MICHAEL FOOT'S STICK AWAY!

Those shedding tears re Thatcher should watch this...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcSmnBfMhRE

JOHN McDONNELL APOLOGISES FOR THATCHER JOKE

To put a bit of perspective on this, a friend of mine is set to quit the Labour Party if John McDonnell doesn't make the ballot. Thousands of people have joined Labour to vote for change.
There will not be change if all the candidates share the same politics,
For decades, the press has hounded Labour politicians. The distortion of John's comments from a jocular quip - which caused no offence - to a trade union audience into a full-on media bashing is regrettable but typical of the tactics of the right.
It is now also being used by rival supporters to try and persuade John to stand down.
Gaffes litter political history. Aneurin Bevan sparked outrage when he said at a rally back in the 1930's that the Tories were "lower than vermin." There were calls for him to be thrown out of the Labour Party. Ken Livingstone got into bother with the Evening Standard. And then there's Boris Johnson's remarks about Liverpool. Liam Byrne....... the list goes on. It happens
The people who are getting so upset about this particular remark, for which McDonnell has now apologised , shoukd recall the upset Thatcher caused to millions of working people, her ruthless destruction of the trade union movement, and her callous disregard for the millions on the dole.
Those calling for John McDonnell's head also need to get a grip - and focus on what matters, Which is the future of the Labour movement - and a concerted campaign against the cuts which look set to whisk us back in that time-machine to the 1980's. Thatcher or no Thatcher. If you want a reminder, she is visiting Downing Street today.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10263076.stm

TRAMP THE DIRT DOWN....

The Tory blogosphere is currently in uproar about a throwaway remark made by John McDonnell about Margaret Thatcher.
I would like to remind those blowing a gasket over what was basically a quip at a trade union hustings that Thatcher "assassinated" the NUM, the trade union movement, the hopes of millions on the dole, and indeed the Labour Party as a Government for 18 long years.
I would also remind those frothing at the mouth that it was the late not so great Kenny Everett who inspired hysterical laughter at a Tory rally when he urged the Party faithful to "bomb Russia" and throw away Michael Foot's stick. My guess is that, like John, he did not expect to be taken literally. But the Tory press will of course use any stick to beat the left with. Their apoplexy is nonsensical.

CENTRE LEFT GRASSROOTS ALLIANCE SLATE

It would appear that a leaflet is being circulated from something and someone calling itself "Grassroots Labour" . It erroneously suggests there are only six candidates aiming to be on the CLGA slate. The perpetrators of this leaflet have clearly learned a lot from their years observing the shenanigans of New Labour because in fact as they know there are EIGHT candidates trying to get official backing from the CLGA. The list also includes myself and Peter Kenyon of Save The Labour Party who to be frank has done far more for "grassroots Labour" than most people on the NEC. In recent weeks his voice has been one of the loudest calling for a change in the rules to enable all six leadership candidates on the ballot. In this he was backed by Christine Shawcroft, who like myself is backed by the LRC, Left Women's Network, Campaign for Socialism , Socialist Youth Network and Labour Briefing. I will be asking my CLP to give its backing to Christine and Peter and urge others to do the same. In the next few days I will also be sending a statement to all CLP secretaries in the country.

WE MIGHT JUST MAKE IT - WITH HELP FROM UNITE

Thanks to Alex for this report from UNITE conference


http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2010/06/04/brothers-stand-fast-against-a-“grand-coronation-”-alex-halligan-reports/

DIANNE ABBOTT - SO MUCH FOR DIVERSITY

Labour's Acting Leader Harriet Harman today called for 50 per cent of the Shadow Cabinet to be women. a measure, to be frank, I do not agree with.
Why? Because I happen to think political principles are far more important than gender and also because the current parlous state of diversity and democratic choice is not being supported by the people in the PLP who seem hell-bent on ensuring neither left candidate is on the leadership ballot paper.
As Dianne Abbott points out here, the current rules are a disgrace. And, yes, it is a worse disgrace that thanks to a gerrymandering procedure dreamed up to keep the left out neither she, not fellow left contender John McDonnell, is likely to be able to meet a threshold set ridiculously high.If Ed Miliband supports Harman's call for equality of opportunity he should put his money where his mouth is and tell male supporters to lend nominations.
In the interests of all of us, male and female, in the Labour Party.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7143741.ece

MEACHER BACKS ED MILIBAND. WHY?

Home from dispensing Labour Party curries to the news that Michael Meacher has apparently backed Ed Miliband. For someone who has recently set up a new blog called Left Futures, this is a profoundly disappointing and irritating move which most of us still fighting for a representative ballot simply will regard as a slap in the face.
Even Ed himself is , I understand, asking supporters not to nomate him as he does not need any more support. Meacher, at the very least, would have been expected to support one of the left candidates if he is to claim any credibility . My guess was he would have lent support to Dianne Abbott.Instead, he's flying in the face of a broad consensus that we need all six on the ballot.In short, it is an unnecessary and seriously unhelpful decision. Bad call, Michael

UNITE BACKS McDONNELL ON THE BALLOT

PRESS NOTICE:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Unite conference overwhelmingly adopts motion calling for all declared candidates on ballot for Labour leadership election

Following a packed fringe meeting at which John McDonnell spoke, an emergency resolution was put before the Unite conference in Manchester this morning and was overwhelmingly carried calling upon Labour MPs to nominate to ensure all candidates are on ballot paper.
The resolution follows statements of support for John McDonnell's candidacy by a large number of delegates.
Union delegates argued that having a full range of candidates on the ballot paper would give their union members a democratic say over the future of the Labour Party.
The point was forcefully made in the debate that without John on the ballot paper, union members from the Party's largest affiliate would be denied a democratic voice in this election.
John McDonnell MP said:“I’m hoping that Labour MPs will listen to the members of our largest affiliated organisation and nominate so that all declared candidates are on the ballot paper and that trade union members will be given a proper choice.”-Ends-