CROSS THE FLOOR, CHARLIE!..

Nick Clegg and David Cameron may today be prancing around Number 10 like a posh political version of Jedward. The good news is that like the other talentless twins this gruesome twosome face long-term oblivion in the wake of their foolish decision to sign an accord which is a death warrant for the Orange Tories. And , hopefully, for Cameron.
I understand from today's papers that the only voices to speak out against this wanton betrayal of the "progressive"values LibDems allegedly embodied up to 48 hours ago were Charlie Kennedy and Menzies Campbell.
I urge both of them to get the hell out and cross the floor to Labour - it will do both them and us the world of good.
What price did Cleggeron and his Lib Dem weasels pay for this disgusting con-trick? Oh, just £6billion worth of immediate cuts, replacement of Trident and agreeing to a cap on non-EU immigration. And that's just for starters. Forgive my somewhat howling mode but, for most of us, it's only today that the vile reality has sunk in. This is not a "hung Parliament." It is a National Government and, like ramsey McDonald before him, Clegg will one day be kicked into the long grass by his Party. And the electorate.

THE FUTURE IS NOT ORANGE......OR BLUE

I daresay all of us feel nauseous and upset at the sight of Cameron in Downing Street. It's horrible. But the truth is, however much it hurts ( and it does) the Labour Party will re-emerge strengthened by the bankruptcy and hypocrisy of the Liberal Democrats.
To those who voted for "change", sympathies. You have ended up with a Tory Government.
But I guarantee that the moral and political bankruptcy of the Liberal Democrats will destroy them in the end.
That end will not be so far away. The notion a coalition built on expediency can survive for long is simply not going to happen. As hard as it is, the Labour PLP has done the right thing in refusing to endorse a dodgy deal which would have killed us as a credible, radical force,
Now is our chance to bring people back, re-build and bring people home to Labour. But, yes, I feel as bad as everyone else.

WHY GORDON HAS TO GO

IT is somewhat galling, I agree, to see Nick Clegg strutting around and behaving like a primadonna as he gleefully weighs up the odds of which coalition to back.
But no horse-trading in the world s going to restore Gordon Brown's credibility as Labour Leader or PM.
The sight of two posh boys measuring up the curtains at Number 10 is one deeply revolting to all Labour supporters. The fact is that these two are now likely to be checking out the small print before announcing a deal which will be one of the most unprincipled ever in British Politics.
Nick Clegg, remember, said he represented change. What he now represents, as he always did, is a man prepared to go to any lengths in the pursuit of power. Not a bad prospect for someone whose results on Thursday night were the most disappointing of all for his Party.
Like rabbits caught in headlights, people like Peter Hain are now backing a "rainbow coalition" which could save Brown from the axe. And save Labour from Opposition. Neither scenario is tenable.
The best prospect for a Labour resurgence is for Brown to resign and a leadership contest - no parachutes - which will restore lost trust and credibility.
A Libservative coalition will expose the redundancy and hypocrisy of the Lib Dem message - and allow Labour a time to lick its wounds, rally around an agenda distinct from this centre-right stitch-up and offer a launchpad for different policies and a fightback.
Opposition will also mean that the Shadow Cabinet is elected rather than bestowed by patronage. It is the only honourable way forward.

WHAT A VICTORY FOR THE LEFT!

I have finally arrived home after 24 hours ensconced in Manchester town hall covering the General and local elections. As we wait to see whether Nick Clegg will jump with his right-wing instincts to Cameron or be counselled by wiser voices to build a Lib-Lab pact, one thing is wonderfully clear.
The Labour Left MPs who support the LRC bucked the national trend and performed amazingly well to retain a socialist voice in Parliament.
Congratulations to Mike Wood, Labour MP for Batley and Spen, who increased his vote by over 1000 votes. North Ayrshire and Arran MP Katy Clark increased her vote by over 2000 votes
Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins increased his vote by over 2000 votes, and was the only Labour candidate in the Eastern region to increase his vote
Hayes and Harlington MP John McDonnell increased his vote by over 2500 votes
And Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn increased his vote by over 8000 votes, among the most of any Labour candidate in the UK .
In Halifax, Linda Riordan survived Ashcroft's millions to retain Halifax in a night when many West Yorkshire seats went by the board.
These included, sadly Calder Valley. Where, for reasons I won't go into again , we had a divisive candidate who was never the first choice of activists.
Now we are where we are, Labour has a serious chance to re-group, re-build and re-engage people because the chances are we are going to have to go through all this again in a very short space of time.
Commiserations to Godon Prentice, David Drew, and Nancy Platts in Brighton Pavilion, where Caroline Luca finally secured the seat as the only election winner for the Greens.
RESPECT lost George Galloway, their only MP, and did not secure a breakthrough. TUSC, the socialist alternative, achived ( as predicted) miniscule votes.
I am not pretending last night was a triumph for Labour. Far from it. But we have a chance very shortly to come back fighting . My prediction is that Nick Clegg will do his utmost to secure a deal with Cameron.
Socialists in the Labour Party should feel strengthened by the vote of confidence they have been given by the electorate. It is also time that those who condemn us for still being with Labour got real - and engaged in a dialogue about how to build the left. Not engage in Life Of Brian-style sectarian warfare. Thanks to all who helped re-elect LRC-supported MPs. Now I'm off to collapse after nearly two days of sleep deprivation......

VOTE LABOUR TOMORROW ......

This enlightening article has just been sent to me by a fellow member of Calder Valley CLP.
And it is probably time I made one thing clear.
Despite everything, I still believe a Labour Government - warts and all - is preferable to a Conservative one.
I have my reservations. I have axes which I will probably grind in the days and weeks after it's all over. But, as the man says, the Liberal Democrats offer no real radical alternative. Given the chance, Clegg will cosy up to Cameron. and ditch whatever pretensions he has to being progressive. It's up to all of us on the left who care about socialist values to carry on the fight. And we can't do that with a Cameron Government. Or a Lib/Con coalition. But for probably the first time in my adult voting life I have no idea what is going to happen nationally........ we need also to be mindful there will be another General Election soon and that for Labour to come anything less than second would take the Party a generation to recover locally. The truth is the Liberal Democrats won't win in Calder Valley.Let's not give them the chance........this time or next
http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2010/05/05/it%E2%80%99s-labour-or-tory-there%E2%80%99s-no-alternative/

WHY DIDN'T THEY SACK THIS DREADFUL CANDIDATE

It doesn't take a genius to work out how the right-wing media would leap upon a Labour candidate calling Gordon Brown " the worst PM ever". So, of course, today the heaps of vitriol poured on the PM by Manish Sood in Norfolk are splashed everywhere.
Several bizarre things about this one. 1. Despite the fact this is a no-hope seat, he presumably had to be interviewed by an NEC panel. 2. The local Party now says they made several attempts to de-select him but "couldn't be bothered" as Labour had no chance. Why did they choose him in the first place? 3. Why would anyone, no matter how disgruntled, set out to scupper the chances of hundreds of other candidates in more marginal seats by launching a personal attack on Brown just 48 hours before a General Election.
Despite it being so late in the day, the Party should have suspended his candidature. In fact, he should never have been a candidate in the first place. And, yes, it does make me wonder why god left candidates like Mark Seddon and Christine Shawcroft never get a look-in while dipsticks like this are allowed to pass muster.

TACTICAL VOTING.....

Ed Balls and Peter Hain have now given Labour supporters carte blanche to "bite their lips" and vote tactically in seats where Labour cannot win. It makes sense.
Better a hung Parliament than a Cameron government and, as it's come to this sad and sorry state of affairs, that is probably the best we can do.
Voting with our heads and not our hearts is our best bet of stopping the Tories - not the unanimous view it must be said in a debate yesterday at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge . I enjoyed a Mayday chat with a bunch of activists including Paul Holmes, Labour Party stalwart , left candidate for UNISON General Secretary and LRC supporter.
Also there was Kate Sweeney, currently standing as Green candidate in Calder Valley and vowing to be lefter than left. However this self-styled "socialist" was frankly unable to answer my pertinent question as to why the Greens are on Thursday fielding candidates against both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell - the only reply being they represented the party of "war and privatisation." What utter tosh.If the Greens think actually impeding the chances of two of Labour's best socialist representatives is an acceptable strategy then they are living in a parallel universe. And, as they stood down to help Salma Yaqoob in Birmingham why not help Labour's Left? The fact they won't means they would never get my vote , no matter how good tactically it might be. quite honeastly what is the point of espousing radical policies if you don't support radical candidates ? The ones who are actually, er, on your side........

WE'll KEEP THE RED FLAG FLYING

Yesterday I was privileged to be invited to the 90th birthday party of a Labour Party stalwart in Manchester Blackley constituency. it was a lovely event and absolutely wonderful to meet old friends and comrades- some of whom I had not seen since the mid-1970s.
It restored my faith that, whatever happens on Saturday, the Labour Party is still the only place to be. The total disarray of the left "alternatives" who are spatting with each other over lost deposits shows the redundancy of such a stragey when it comes to the reality of elections.
Elections are, of course, not the only way of promoting socialist ideas. But they are crucial.
With the horrible prospect of Cameron in Number 10, the work of the LRC and its supporters will go on. This inspiring film shows that we are still there - and I would urge anyone who has left Labour to come and join us.We need you in the months and years ahead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4fXZgdVtDk

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 ......

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.

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

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.