WE'RE NOT ALRIGHT.......

I know this feeling I have had it before. In 1992, 1987, and 1983.
IN 1979, when I was a young student, it was inconceivable Margaret Thatcher would come to power . But she did. The rest is history.
The truth is that, barring a miracle, Gordon Brown is not going back into Number 10 a week today.
I watched last night's debate , and tried to cast a professional journalist's rather than partisan eye over what I saw.
Clegg was struggling, stuttering and generally ill-at-ease. Ganged up on over immigration and less than convincing on the economy. The novelty has worn off.
Cameron was unctuous and sounded more Tory than ever.
Brown, with little red water between him and the Conservative Leader, did his best. It just wasnt enough for most viewers.
The reality is that even if he were a combination of Gandhi, Christ and the Dalai Lama Brown is now uttterly unloved and unwanted by the majority of the Great British Public. As in years gone by, the Scum, Torygraph and the Mail are now piling in to finish him off.
My guess is that by this time next week it will all be over for the Son Of The Manse.
One can only hope the Tories don't have enough time to build up the head of steam which will give them an outright majority. With a hung Parliament, we can at least give it another go sooner rather than later.
But, as we head into the final furlong, my money is on a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition. Let's hope I'm wrong....... as I was over Gillian Duffy.
48 hours on it does look as though it was Gordon's Sheffield rally moment

65 YEARS A LABOUR VOTER.......

In 1945, my father voted for the first time in a General Election. His X on the ballot paper was a postal one sent thousands of miles from Iraq, where he was posted after VE Day following years in the Western Desert.

Millions of soldiers like him helped ensure that Clement Attlee became Labour Prime Minister.

Today, he put what will sadly be his last X on the ballot in a General Election- for Wythenshawe's Paul Goggins.

I'm proud that Labour vote is in the post and proud also of that generation, who endured hardships and sufferings few of us can imagine in the fight for democracy against fascism.

The distasteful media circus around Gillian Duffy is no more than an attempt by the right-wing media to condone views on immigration which are a betrayal of all those soldiers who fought for a better world which did not target ethnic groups or demonise people for their colour or religion. As the Nazis had done

Gordon Brown should not have scraped and bowed . He was in a hole, one entirely of his own making, but he should have stopped digging.

The desperation with which Labour's PR high command stepped in last night was not a show of strength - but of weakness. It only added fuel to a fire built by the Daily Mail and their friends in the Fourth Estate.

I don't kid myself there are not many Labour voters who don't have similar views.

But I have always thought our job as socialists was to explain why it is not acceptable to target immigrants as a perpetual bogey.

Brown's mistake was the contempt he expressed towards a working-class woman who had always voted Labour . It may well cost Rochdale the seat - I doubt, after the furore has died down, that it will cost Labour the election.

Credit to Cameron and Clegg for not jumping on this disgraceful bandwagon. I wish one could only say the same for the BBC who last night devoted most of last night's news to one woman's misguided views. Views which, in extremis, helped Hitler murder millions of Jews and ethnic minorities in the Second World War.

GORDON'S GAFFE- NO APOLOGY NEEDED

Gordon Brown said what he really thought when he was challenged by a woman in Rochdale who thought there were too many immigrants and too many people claiming benefits. He called her a bigot. Unfortunately for him his microphone was switched on.
Some in the media ie his bete noire Lance Price and others are suggesting this will cost him the election. What rubbish.
Quite frankly, I am delighted Brown thought the remarks of said woman with Daily Mail politics so offensive. Labour has spent far too much time dog-whistling on benefits and immigration. It doesn't show contempt for ordinary voters, it shows admirable contempt for reactionary rubbish.Ansd Brown should be applauded ......

PEPPA, ELVIS AND ME

You know the end of an election campaign is nigh when they start dragging out the novelty acts. Poor old Gordon Brown looked a bit embarrassed to be suddenly serenaded by an Elvis impersonator singing "The Wonder Of You." Other Elvis songs spring more readily to mind at present. As we continue to flounder "way down" in the polls even Peppa the Pig has bailed out.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says all the parties are telling porkies about the cuts which will follow after May 6. And they are right.
Labour is the least worst option in their scenario but of course there is little to choose between the three parties as none of them is targetting the real culprits for this crisis. The Liberal Democrats plan to cancel Trident - saving around £75B - so should we. But that is the only policy on which they can seriously stake a claim to be "left" of Labour.

And maybe it's wishful thinking but I don't believe the Clegg factor is as big as the media is oplaying it. I still do believe, vehemently, that with a different, sociaist agenda, Labour would not be languishing so badly. Imagine the money we could claw back if we targetted the fat cats and the tax dodgers.......and taxed the rich they should be taxed. Instead of asking ordinary folk with ordinary salaries to pay the price iof capitalism's meltdown
Meanwhile, the election news from West Yorkshire is pretty mixed.Constituencies with Labour majorities of less than 3,000 are unlikely to survive the rout - howver despite everything I've still been able to do a bit of canvassing for Linda Riordan and hope to be back in Halifax at the weekend. Ashcroft money has been poured into the constituency and things hang pretty much in the balance. Linda, who has opposed Trident, Iraq, and is way to the left of the Liberal Democrats, desreves all the support which can be mustered. Likewise Mike Wood in Batley and Spen and I'm sad my family difficulties have meant I've not been able to do more.
This election is one I will always remember for sad reasons which have nothing to do with politics. But I still hope to be celebrating afterwards with friends and comrades on the Labour Left who have made it back to Parliament - and I will then carry on campaigning for a change in direction. Whoever is in charge.......both locally and nationally

NORTHERN LAUNCH OF THE PEOPLE'S AGENDA

Tomorrow sees the launch of the LRC's People's Agenda led by Ronnie Campbell MP. And some coverage for it on the BBC. Well done to all in LRC Northern Region for organising and good luck to all those campaigning up there for Ronnie and Ian Lavery

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/richardmoss/2010/04/the_labour_group_with_a_differ.html#comments

JUST SAY NO TO TRIDENT.......

How dispiriting to see Nick Clegg being sole defender of thevote-winning policy to scrap Trident which is doggedly opposed by Gordon Brown. But how pleasing to note that backbenchers struggling with the consequences of New Labour's insane refusal to save £75B by cancelling this unwanted, unnecessary and irrelevant Cold War relic are making sure their voices are still heard.
Three years ago, 95 Labour MPs, including our outgoing Calder Valley MP Chris McCafferty, rebelled and voted to stop its renewal. Many of them are now fighting for their political lives.
So well done Leeds candidate Fabian Hamilton, for publicly stating that if re-elected on May 6 he will continue to oppose nuclear weapons " and will never apologise for my unfashionable views which will one day come back into fashion to save humanity from itself."
Good luck to all the other Labour candidates with the courage to also stand firm on this and the other issues which could have put Labour streets ahead - instead of struggling in third place.
Many other policies worth battling for after May 6 be found in the People's Agenda on the LRC website

TWO WEEKS TO GO.....

The skies are blue and the planes are back at Manchester Airport. Having become an expert at porridge-making and sneaky ways of getting calories down sick dads I will be heading back home this afternoon still in the curious role of bystander at an election where family comes first and I have no time for politics.
I've stuffed a few envelopes and plan to slot in a few days more when I can . That's it and that's how it has to be. But one thing I will be doing is watching tonight's debate.
This is the weirdest election I have ever known . The Clegg bubble surely cannot last. But where is Labour?
In most constituencies people will still faithfully be plodding on and hoping for the best. So am I - while fearing the worst.
Several things have struck me in the past few days. One is the complete inability of the left outside Labour to sort itself out. Perhaps they spend so much time slagging off the Labour Party that they don't understand fielding TWO minority candidates ie RESPECT and TUSC against each other is an absurdity beyond belief and bloody stupid tactics. But this is happening in several constituencies in the north-west. Note also the Green Party is standing candidates even in seats where redoubtable Labour lefties with impeccable records face a struggle. Why? I understood from senior Greens this was not going to happen. So much for solidarity
Most appallingly, the former MP Lynne Jones has said she will vote for RESPECT's Salma Yaqoob. No disrespect to Salma. I'm sure she is an excellent candidate with great values but Lynne Jones has relied on Labour to keep her career going for years. If she wanted to switch sides, why not keep quiet.
I think it is a major slap in the face to all her supporters and the Labour Party members locally who stood by her through thick and thin. It is also a slap to her ex colleagues in the Campaign Group who, whatever their differences with the leadership, are still fighting the fight.
I suppose now Ms Jones has got her Farrow and Ball wallpaper on expenses and left Parliament she can say what she likes and vote how she likes. But she should have kept quiet. It is the least she owed the rest of us still campaigning for Labour

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS

This Election has become surreal. One seemingly governed by the ability of Nick Clegg to turn star TV performer and come from rank outsider to suddenly be "bigger than Churchill." If you believe the headlines. I don't.
I think this election, like all the others, will be fought on the streets and door by door. Vote by vote.
Which is why interventions like the one by Billy Bragg in Barking and Dagenham against the odious Richard Barnbrook ( see link below) are so important. And why as many of us as possible need to get out there campaigning . I wish I could. But, like the planes where I am at my sister's house near Manchester Airport, I am effectively grounded for most of the time.But good on you, Billy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/19/billy-bragg-clash-richard-barnbrook

THE BIGGER PICTURE

IT was a tough choice. Stay in and watch three middle-aged men posturing or watch friends and neighbours on the big screen. I chose the latter.
Nick Wilding's "Hebden Royd At The Movies," featuring footage of the area and its inhabitants from the past nine decades, was a rather more attractive prospect than Nick Clegg and Co strutting their stuff in a pre-prepared, stage-managed debate.
Maybe it was the thought of all the rules which had been imposed on the audience, the fact all three contenders knew what they were going to be asked about and had also been briefed to death by their advisers. Which meant the chance of a truly electric TV moment was minimal.
I saw Nick Clegg speak at a business dinner in Leeds a couple of months ago. He would have scored a massive 10 on the zzzzzzzz...ometer. So I find it amazing he should have apparently won the audience vote. Possibly because Brown and Cameron were so busy knocking lumps out of each other that he came up through the middle. At any rate, I doubt it will make much difference to the result. Whatever the hype.

SENSE OF AN ENDING

There is a certain irony I suppose in real life scuppering what I thought I would be doing at this General Election.
Hopes dashed of being a candidate, and with minimal time to do anything much beyond work and sort out family stuff.
I'm preparing to spend the next week working from my sister's home where dad battles on with remarkable determination.
But as I write, an unprecedented cloud of volcanic ash is threatening to destroy my sister's long-cherished plans to fly to New York on Monday from Manchester Airport.
It has been that kind of year.
In the past couple of weeks I have heard more distressing health news - both of other relatives and friends in the local Labour Party.
One, 89, the oldest in our constituency and a grand old chap, is particularly upsetting . But he wants no fuss and no bother because he is of a wartime generation which did not indulge in mawkishness.
Likewise, my dad.
I am under strict instructions from him not to be maudlin - today we handed back the keys to my father's old house. The house where I spent my teenage years and where, less happily, my dad spent 23 years as a widower.
No longer owned by Manchester City Council, it's now in the hands of a housing association.
I am proud to say my father never considered capitalising on his long long residency by buying the property.
He also voted against the recent transfer of Manchester housing stock to an ALMO. Against the policy which was advocated by "Manchester Labour" and its former Leader Sir Richard Leese.
No Schadenfreude, truthfully. We can all make mistakes and I take no delight in such misfortune. But it was another gobsmacking moment yesterday when I heard he had been forced to stand down in what alegedly was an argument over a cat.
Something no-one could in all honesty have predicted and I suppose another indicator of the fact that, as John Lennon said, "life is what happens when you are busy making other plans." And, usually, the news when Fate steps in is not good stuff.

CALDER VALLEY IN THE GUARDIAN

Martin Wainwright, journalist brother of Hilary, has a piece in today's Guardian on the General Election battle in Calder Valley. The only comment I will make is that broadly speaking it is a fair and measured piece........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/09/general-election-2010

THE UBIQUITOUS CHIP......

Sad just now to read of the death of Ronnie Clydesdale, owner of The Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow's West End. Never able to afford the more upmarket Chip "downstairs" I used to eat there years ago usually in tandem with a former partner at the Upstairs eaterie where you got the cheaper offcuts. Lobster tails rather than lobster, haggis rather than venison......it was marvellous. And it's still there. Sadly, CND supporter Ronnie no longer is. I shall always remember the place fondly. So-named, of course, because there wasn't a chip in sight........

A PORTILLO MOMENT?

To get this one out of the way in 1997 I was at long-gone Mash And Air in Manchester where the newly funky Labour Party was having its post-election bash. I remember it well because the Old Labour activists were demanding pints of bitter and being told they couldn't have them as it was too "downmarket."In the end, they quaffed halves instead and in the end they threw us all out for being unruly but who can forget that glorious moment when Portillo lost his Enfield seat on a 17 per cent swing to Labour .

What we didn't know then ( though some did, and they warned me) was that the landslide which we'd yearned for would actually enable Tony Blair to hijack the Party and take it away from its democratic socialist roots.

So 13 years down the line Labour ( the "New" appears to have been thankfully dropped) is fighting for its political life in dozens of seats all over the country.

Just a few miles from where I am sitting at my work station is Morley and Outwood, a new constituency where Ed Balls is under some pressure despite a notional 10,000 majority. Ashcroft money has been poured in and, if you believe the Independent, Ed is sweating it out in fear of losing.

To be honest, I think they are just flying a kite - Leeds is NOT Enfield and Cameron's reception yesterday in Bolton shows how unpopular the Tories still are in northern heartland seats.

But many Yorkshire seats ARE in jeopardy. Current polls would see both Mike Wood (Batley and Spen) and Linda Riordan( Halifax) in trouble despite 4,000 - 5,000 majorities so all hands on deck are needed . Despite the over-riding concerns which make my election time minimal, I will try and get out there to help both these MPs, even if I can only manage a couple of days. But Ed Balls, I wager, is in no danger whatsoever.

NO TO TUSC

In the past few years, I have reviewed many of my previous political positions. But with the approach of the 2010 General Election I am dismayed that people I know and respect are advocating votes for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition- TUSC.
Today, I did the tot-up of candidates for the local elections in Manchester and this new invention of advocates of No2EU - which bombed spectacularly - has a handful of candidates. They will not even make a dent in the Labour vote. Why should they?
TUSC is another blind alley, and is even fielding candidates against other minority parties like Respect and the Greens. It is a pointless distraction with no future and most importantly no support apart from a few people who don't like the reality that the majority of the working-class still identify with Labour .
To suggest. as some do, that there is no difference between a Labour and a Tory candidate - or a Labour and a Tory Government - is disingenuous nonsense.
And what, exactly, will TUSC achieve? One per cent, two per cent, of the vote. At best.
It's not the start of a socialist alternative. I must confess that at no point in my long history of political activism have I been more distressed about the lack of difference between the main parties.
But that is to discount the hard work still being done by many Labour MPs - and the hope that with the imminent clear-out of the Augean stables of New Labour there will be the chance for a re-building of the Labour Left - and alignments with other socialists who share our concerns.
However disuillusioned I may be, I still retain a hope that after May 6 there will be a chance for a real platform for socialist ideas in and outside Parliament. The grandstanding of TUSC will do little to aid that. We have seen it all before.........and the results will be no different from the failed projects of the Socialist Alliance, Socialist Labour Party, and other abortive political projects

THANKS, CHRIS.......

I don't believe in telling fibs and our outgoing MP Chris McCafferty would be the first to confirm that she and I have not always agreed.
But, being in very different, happier, circumstances in 2005, I was more than willing to trot along to her campaign HQ every day and hit the phones to stop Calder Valley going Tory.
What I didn't realise, until just now, is that last time round Labour's share of the vote was exactly the same as the Tories - 35.7 per cent.
What swung it, on a wafer-thin majority, was the FTTP system. Whether or not that will save Labour again remains to be seen but what I do know is that Chris McCafferty will be missed by all of us in the Labour Party.
Neither particularly "left" nor New Labour, she was able to keep the constituency united - and when the occasion of a matter of principle arose, as it did over Iraq, Trident and foundation hospitals, she would rebel.
I still think Chris was wrong not to help us nominate John McDonnell in 2007 - we had a blazing row after that one.
But I have always appreciated her good humour and kindness in often trying situations. So, as Parliament dissolves , I just want to place on record the fact we will miss her terribly in Calder Valley, where she has been MP since 1997

GAME ON - BUT NOT FOR ME

As the rest of the political world gears up for the General Election, I'm likely to be a bystander.
I've just confirmed my presence in Manchester on May 6 to cover results for various news organisations but even that hangs in the balance as family matters take priority.
Today, as Cameron Brown and Clegg unveiled their election programmes, I was filing binbags with the ccumulated detritus of youth. I kept the copies of Tribune from 1976, the Militants from 1977, letters home about the local elections in Manchester from 1973.
And I reflected that for the first time in my adult life I am going to be unable to get even slightly excited about the result.
I wish all my friends and comrades the very best in their campaigns. I wish I could be out there camapigning and hope Labour can hang on. But, at one step removed from the process, I find little to get excited by in any of it.
At some poiint in the future no doubt my fervour will return. But, with my father's death waiting relentlessly in the wings, it all seems vaguely unreal.
One thing I have been able to do is make a donation to the LRC's election fund. I urge many others out there who want to keep ous socialist voices in Parliament to do the same.