NOT A GOOD READ

Today I had a four-hour round trip into Manchester for a meeting of Mayors For Peace - which our council is signed up to. To while away the journey I took with me a birthday present - Cherie Blair's autobiography. Yes, he does have an extremely sharp sense of humour. ......
Actually, Cherie and I share one thing. A working-class, Catholic childhood in roughly the same era and fierce ambition academically. To that extent, I empathised with her . In fact, the first 100 pages were rather interesting . From then on in, my heart was sinking.
Aside from the rather prurient details of her sex life ( isn't three boyfriends at once rather greedy?) it is politics-lite with page after page of detail about hers and Tony's ambitions to be top of their particular trees. And of course much denunciation of "lunatic lefties. "
Oddly, though, the undoubtedly left-wing Tony Benn was drafted in to help Cherie's Parliamentary ambitions in Thanet North but I suppose a high-profile politician was useful to the campaign.
Cherie also claims to having been a member of the Labour Co-ordinating Committee. Which sits rather uneasily with her claims to have always been a New Labour kind of person. Only Labour Party anoraks will know this but the LCC was in fact a Bennite organisation - I used to be a supporter. So quite what she was doing there one can only speculate.
There has always been a myth that Cherie was always somehow more "left" than her husband. From the contempt with which the Labour Left is treated in the book, it is clear that is not the case. In short, after getting halfway through, and deciding things can only get worse, I am abandoning it in favour of better reading material for my weekend away from Calder Valley. Where allegiance to New Labour ideology would undoubtedly have cost us the seat at the last General Election.

BAD CALL BY THE NEC

As a mere ordinary Party member, I'm witnessing the current shenanigans over the leadership with a growing sense of disbelief. Because it seems the NEC is living in a parallel universe from the rest of us. They seriously think they can get away with not issuing nomination papers - on the basis they have got away with it for 11 years. In the short-term, they have won. In the long-term, a seriously bad call.

In various guises over the years, I have tried and campaigned for Party democracy to be restored. Groups like CLPD and Save The Labour Party have tried unsuccessfully to get this rule over nomination papers implemented. Now the Blairites are discovering just how undemocratic and unjust the Great Clunking Fist of the Brownite machine can be. Last year, they were a party to us not having a leadership election. Now they realise they were wrong - but are discovering just how determined Gordon Brown is to stamp out any opposition. To say it doesn't look good is an understatement. Stalinism at its best.

The faction-fighting between the two New Labour camps ( because that is what it is) does not interest me. It makes no difference whether Brown, Miliband or any other neo-liberal is Leader.

The tragedy is that while they scrap the Labour Party is almost certainly going to hell in a handcart. Had the NEC done as it should, at least we could have used that opportunity for an honest and open debate.Instead, it will be backstabbbing and off-record briefing on a grand scale around the Manchester conference centre.

MILBURN AND MILIBAND

It's nice to know that Alan Milburn is going to be the new Chancellor in a Miliband Government. Would be nice, n'est ce pas, if Labour Party members were consulted about these arrangements.
Sadly for the two ultra right-wingers it's down to the grassroots members and trade unions who would be elected in a leadership contest. I suggest you all support the Calder Valley leadership change at Labour Party Conference - cutting the threshold from 12.5 per cent to 7 percent of the PLP in the advent of a contest - which gives us all a say. How dare these apparatchiks and wonks tell us which direction the Labour Party is going to take.

AND ON IT GOES......

Reader, there was a time when even I thought Gordon Brown would be a step back from Blairite policies. How long ago that seems.
From the Press Association:
Gordon Brown has announced plans for a "new wave" of public service reforms intended to put more services in the hands of social enterprises and independent providers.
The Prime Minister - who is marking his first anniversary in No 10 - said that the Government had only just begun to harness the potential of these not-for-profit organisations.
The first step will come with the forthcoming publication of health minister Lord Darzi's Next Stage Review of the National Health Service, which is due out shortly.
Downing Street said that it will include new measures to enable front-line staff working in community health services to opt out of primary care trusts and set up their own, nurse-led organisations.
Writing in the foreword to a Cabinet Office report on public services, Mr Brown insisted that his approach did not mark a return to the days when the poor had to rely on charity for public services.
Nevertheless, the move is likely to alarm the public service unions at a time when they are already at odds with the Government over its determination to hold down public sector pay.

ALMOST THERE....WITH A SOCIALIST CANDIDATE

Just 53 votes short in Calder ward of WINNING seat from Liberal Democrats. Why? Because our candidate Janet Oosthuysen fought an honest, Real Labour campaign from start to finish. We made ir clear we were not New Labour, we stood up for peace and against racism. Janet, who is an LRC member, stated plainly "Vote Labour - Get A Socialist." Seems to me that it's not a bad slogan toi build on and indeed counsel others to follow.
Elsewhere, our worst vote for decades. No wonder. No time for considered thoughts. Three hours' sleep last night and about to gather for lunchtime wake. But we have plenty to be proud of here. I await the London Mayor result with growing sense of dread......

GENERAL SECRETARY RESIGNATION RUMOURS......

Labour Home is running an extraordinary tale that the new General Secretary - the filthy rich David Pitt Watson - may not after all be taking up his post. So well done all those NEC New Labour apparatchiks who lobbied for a City businessman over a trade unionist. You really couldn't ( apologies for sounding like Richard Littlejohn) make it up.....

MILIBAND - STILL NEW LABOUR TO THE CORE

There seems to be a bit of a bandwagon building up over Ed Miliband as next possible Leader following Spring Conference. I saw him speak in Bournemouth and there's no doubt that he is a more than capable performer who has a personable air and I have doubt is utterly decent. However, sadly, Ed's "vision" is exactly the same neo-liberal line we have come to expect from New Labour. Which is kind of disappointing - but predictable. He is an absolute defender of the free market, "choice" and all the other Blairite/Brownite buzz words those of us on the left of the Party have grown to dislike so intensely. So, no, I won't be joining in the adulation Here is his defence of public sector "reform" ie privatisation

"I don't see a disagreement across the Labour party about these issues. I think choice and contestability make a difference, and they need to be accompanied by a range of other things like greater accountability, drawing better on the capacity of the individual to contribute, mobilising the skills of the workforce and making services more personal."

Yes, we have heard it all before, Ed. And it's just not working.....

LAWSON FINDS HIS MORAL COMPASS

Absolutely excellent piece by Neal Lawson in today's Guardian on how New Labour acquiesced to capitalism and the interests of big business. As he points out, he should know. Being one of the most gung-ho advocates for Bliarism ( that was actually a typo which I'm not going to change). But no I'm not going to be dismissive or holier than thou.
I would like to say this.
What is happening with this Government cannot go on. There are daily announcements on everything from punishing council tenants to demonising Asians or coming up with McDegrees in burger studies. Every day there is something to be ashamed of if you are a Labour Party member and all of these pronouncements share a common denominator. They have absolutely nothing to do with what Lawson and Compass would probably call the "good society" and those a little further left would call socialism. Whatever.
I don't hold out much hope for Gordon Brown or the rest of the Cabinet ( a Cabinet now so far to the right as to make Blair's in 1997 look positively lefty) but I do feel that surely there must be sufficient decent MPs of the left of centre to wake up, smell the coffee and start working together to change this Government's course. The bad decisions which are being taken and the betrayals of our basic values mean that if the PLP doesn't get its collective head out of the sand then we are treading an inevitable path to a Tory Government. I hope groups like Compass and the LRC can come up with a common narrative which will salvage something from this wreckage of the Labour Party.
Lawson's piece is here:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/neal_lawson/2008/02/the_unacceptable_face_of_new_l.html

FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE- LET'S HAVE A UNITED NHS

Dismayed but not surprised to read that "marketisation" of the NHS is having all kinds of negative consequences.

As the Attlee Government's proudest achievement enters its 60th year, NHS Confederation boss Gill Morgan has told the BBC that patients in the UK are getting very different services,
Ms Morgan, whose organisation represents NHS trusts and health boards, says: "We basically have four different systems. We have had a complete split in philosophy. The model in England is about contestability and choice driving service improvements. Outside organisations have been brought in and patients can shop around. That model has been rejected by the other three."
In Scotland, where people have free personal care - unlike the means-tested systems elsewhere - Ms Morgan said there has been much more consensus.
She described the approach as the "collectivist model".
"They have very little contestability. They have been slower to improve waiting than England, but much less tension between doctors and managers.
"In Northern Ireland there has been very big structural change and more integration between health and social care."
In Wales, which has received praise in England for introducing free prescriptions, she said the close working relationship between local government and the NHS had had an impact on public health. ... diplomatically concluding "All we can say is that patients are experiencing different systems, each one has its advantages and we will have to wait to see what happens."
But others are not quite so circumspect. Joyce Robins of Patient Concern said the differences were "breeding envy".
Former Government adviser Chris Ham, of Birmingham University says:
"Patients are increasingly looking across national borders and wondering why they are not getting the care others are getting."
Michael Summers, vice chair of the Patients Association, adds England is lagging behind the rest of the UK.
"England - for some reason - seems to have been the poor relation."
The reason, as we know, is this Government's obsession with PFI, privatisation, outsourcing and moving the NHS in a marketised direction which would have horrified its chief architect Aneurin Bevan. And delighted Margaret Thatcher.......

BALDRICK STRIKES BACK.......

Interesting article by ex NEC member Tony Robinson in this week's New Statesman. Tony, aka Baldrick from Blackadder, was once one of Tony Blair's most enthusiastic cheerleaders but his years on the NEC and first-hand knowledge of the leadership's control freakery have made him critical of the "top down" aproach which is destroying this Party and which continues to do so under Brown. Don't agree with all of it but overall view generally sound......

http://www.newstatesman.com/200712070008

RULES MUST BE OBEYED

In case you are wondering why a former post on selection of a local council candidate has been removed, someone has complained about the process so we have to do it all again. Despite the fact this was discussed with an LGC observer, voted on and it was overwhelmingly agreed by the Party members present that the selection would proceed . We almost didn't have a contest at all and the person chosen on the night won by a mile. But, no, we've got to do it all again. I won't comment further but draw your own conclusions......

WHY DON'T THEY STOP SPINNING.....

My post yesterday contained a missive from my local MP which looks suspiciously like one of those mass posting jobbies which New Labour specialise in. ie a PR exercise. This "autumn survey" claims to want to know what I think about local policy ( which is fair enough) and national issues. There then follows a mini-poll asking which Party I most identify with. The idea is I post this ( buying my own stamp) and send answers back.
No disrespect to anyone involved.But leaving room for about 200 words on both local and national issues does not strike me as enough space. To put it mildly. And recent experience suggests that what I think ( or anyone else for that matter) is not regarded as particularly important by the powers-that-be in Government. Let's face it. The Government has been told what we think. Many times.
We wanted more social housing ( forget the "affordable" guff) no new generation of Trident, troops home from Iraq, no more Academies, no more PFI, and the railways to be returned to public ownership. For starters. A couple of dozen trade unions and over 100 MPs ( including mine) told the Govt in no uncertain terms a week or two ago that they wanted to pass a Trade Union Freedom Bill. It was blocked - again. So forgive me for being cynical but I do not see the point of filling in a form and reiterating points which have been made time and time again at my CLP and at Party Conference. And resolutely ignored by New Labour.

MORE GUFF ABOUT THe TB/GBs

Bet you all can't wait for yet another TV film about the Blair/Brown years. The ever sycophantic David Aaronavitch is the one Chosen to interview Tony about his 10 years in Number 10. Yawn yawn yawn. It all sounds like a re-hash of old stuff to me and just confirms what we all already know. They loathe one another.
But tellingly, in the programme Former Cabinet Secretary Lord Butler apparently accuses Blair and Brown of acting like a "revolutionary cell" inside New Labour and attacks Blair for refusing to consult the Cabinet about a Govt decision.
"[Mr Blair] said to me: 'They will all agree'. I said: 'That's not the point, we have Cabinet government in this country, it is a big decision and people will expect the decision to have been taken by the Cabinet.'"
Blair tells Aaronovitch: "I didn't want any argy-bargy. If you'd had a Cabinet discussion and people saying it's a bad idea and that had come out, the Government would have ended before it began." One wonders why he didn't go the whole hog and just abolish the Cabinet. Well, actually, in real terms, he did.

HOW NOT TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE

I sometimes wonder if this Govt is wilfully hacking off its natural supporters. First the announcement on badger culls, which hopefully will be ignored. Today, it's claimed John Hutton ( the most right-wing person in the Cabinet) will tell the PM there should be a U-turn on Britain's pledges to combat climate change.
The Guardian says it has leaked documents showing that Gordon Brown will be advised today that the target Tony Blair signed up to this year for 20 per cent of all European energy to come from renewable sources by 2020 is expensive and faces "severe practical difficulties".
According to the papers, John Hutton, the secretary of state for business, will tell Brown that Britain should work with Poland and other governments "sceptical" about climate change to "help persuade" German chancellor Angela Merkel and others to set lower renewable targets, before binding commitments are framed in December. Add the non-referendum to this noxious brew and I predict that by Christmas Labour will be well down in the polls. Indeed, I sometimes wonder if Brown is being stitched up.

DON'T DO IT, BOB ...

Bob Wareing has vowed to fight West Derby, leave the Party, and stand as an independent. I have to say this cannot be a good idea, least of all for him. OK, he 's 78 But let's forget the age factor for a minute because for good or ill there are plenty of other MPs who hang on until their 70s ( and beyond) .

But by standing as an independent , Bob Wareing will most probably

a) lose b) lose badly and c) not help the socialist principles he has espoused so consistently. So I would urge him to reconsider because:

None of his comrades in the PLP will be able to help him campaign ( or they will also be expelled from the Labour Party which frankly would be a disaster for what's left of the Left ) , a defeat will be used against the Left politically by New Labour , and he knows as we all do what happens to Labour MPs who try to go it alone. They end up in the wilderness. No matter how hard they have worked over the years.

After Bob's 60 years in the Party, this must be an awful blow and I think he's been treated pretty shoddily. But just let it go, mate. With the greatest of respect......

PARTY CONFERENCE IN THE BALANCE

Three months into the Brown Premiership and we're back to inquorate meetings, cynicism and disillusionment. It's deeply depressing. Last night to Branch meeting where I was aiming to get a resolution to our CLP next week on saving contemporary motions - and mandating our delegate to vote down moves to end Conference votes. With around 140 members in our Branch, we could rustle up only 9 - 1 vote short of the number needed. A show of hands was 6-2 in favour of keeping the status quo and i still hope to raise the isue next week. But it doesn't bode well.

Last weekend there was apparently a regional event ( to which surprise surprise I did NOT get an invitation and our CLP sec got it so late there was no time to circulate) with Hilary Benn trotting out the nonsense that Brown's proposals will be more democratic. His line was apparently that the Govt had never taken any notice of Conference votes anyway so what was the problem. Well, comrades, we know what the problem is. The National Policy Forum has no checks and alances and this ever more right-wing leadership doesn't want any more clear dissent from the Conference floor.It is one thing debating a contentious issue ( then sweeping it under the carpet) quite another having a clear vote showing the real thoughts of CLPs and trade union delegates.

. Ideology aside, this move by Brown is anti-democratic ( however cleverly he spins it) and the death-knell for any meaningful discussioon at Party Conference. However, the reality is this will get through unless the unions stand firm and help the Left save what little is left of democracy at what used to be the sovereign policy-making body.

PRISONS MINISTER SHOULD BE LOCKED UP!

Where do they get them from? Just watched Prisons Minister David Hanson MP ( never heard of him before) squirming and squealing on Channel 4 News. Put on the spot, he absolutely failed to convince - and sounded just like a Tory defending the twin indefensibles of low pay and bad working conditions. Some interesting statistics which i didn't know. And which help explain why the POA is on the picket line for the first time ever. Since New Labour came to power, prison officers have faced something like 10 times more violent incidents and there are thousands more inmates locked up in increasingly overcrowded prisons - to what avail? This Govt is tough on crime alright, but what about its causes? hace any of these measures actuaklly reduced the incidence of crime? The POA is clearly determined to see this one through. Looks like your honeymoon is over, Gordon.
9PM UPDATE: Strike now over with fresh talks with Govt tabled for Friday. 90 per cent support reported!

NO CHANGE IN CALDER VALLEY?

A strange rumour is sweeping our constituency that sitting MP Chris McCafferty will NOT be standing down at the next election. Given that our selection process has been stalled, this may or may not be the case. Given all the talk of a spring election, it may well also be that it's been decided our best chance of winning is with an incumbent MP. Who decides? Well, clearly not the humble foot-soldiers who knock on doors and do the legwork. It remains to be seen whether or not this is true ......more anon.

ALBANIA MARK 2

Many on the Labour right seem to take great pleasure in the stifling of debate. Inevitably, the likes of Luke Akehurst are now laughing their heads off at the prospect of a shoo-in for Wendy Alexander in Scotland. Quite why, when Labour are at least 14 points behind the SNP in the opinion polls, I fail to see. In the long-term, the joke may well be on them. With a weary sense of deja vu, I find myself utterly bemused at this Party's unwillingness to discuss the arguments, debate the issues, or even slightly challenge the status quo.I also find it quite extraordinary that not even six MSPs can be mustered to mount a challenge.
In the case of Scotland, Labour desperately needs a fresh image, and a socialist agenda ( why else has the SNP gained ground , right or wrong it's perceived as well to the left of Labour) People also need reminding of the radical (and I mean radical) values of much of the Party and the trade unions. UNISON Scotland, I don't need to remind many of you, nominated John McDonnell for Labour leader. But, as of now, the hopes of the left seem to lie in tatters once again.

BAD NEWS FROM SCOTLAND

No point beating about the bush. Absolutely awful news from Scotland, where it seems the left can't even muster six MSPs to mount a challenge to the status quo. Apparently, only 2 MSPs turned up to yesterday's emergency meeting of the Campaign for Socialism, with two apologies and votes of support. Which leaves the CfS two short of the six it needs for a contest. This is particularly depressing as, in fact, the chances of left support outside the Holyrood bubble were significantly better than they are in England and Wales. I have a hunch ( and it's only that) consensus couldn't be reached on who should stand....whichever, another shoo-in in Scotland is both demoralising for the left and a bad tactic by Scottish Labour.Wendy Alexander is just a more photogenic Gordon Brown. Without the support which Brown is enjoying at the moment......