Labour Must Find Its Spine

Not much blogging of late. I have been too ill with various viruses . And I have been too angry.
Mulling over events of the past couple of weeks I feel that Labour has to find its spine again- soon.Or else we are in danger of losing the immense goodwill from voters which has delivered stunning by-election success in Barnsley and Oldham and Saddleworth.
It is an absolute disgrace that only a handful of Labour MPs voted against the Government's Welfare Reform Bill.
Well done those who did ie John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn, Kelvin Hopkins, Jon Cruddas, Katy Clark, Mike Wood The rest abstained.
Sitting on the fence as we go to hell in a handcart is not an option in my book but it seems to be increasingly Plan B for too many in the Labour Party.
Now most of the council budgets have gone through we also need to ask some pretty searching questions as to why not one local Labour-led authority did the decent thing and voted against cuts.
I don't buy into the argument councillors had no choice. They did.
I also don't buy into the argument that Labour cuts are kinder than Tory cuts.
If you are one of the many recipients of a P45 or enforced retirement it matters not a jot who delivered the redundancy notice. So the lack of real opposition from Labour councillors has been a serious disappointment to many of us.Hand-wringing simply doesn't wash with me.
Nevertheless, we must continue our fight against the real enemy of the working-class , this Conservative-led Government.
Here in Yorkshire, thousands are heading for Sheffield this weekend to protest at the Liberal Democrat's spring conference. I hope Clegg gets a seriously rough ride..
Speaking as one of the many thousands looking the dole queue in the face I'm less conciliatory than some on the left. But frankly I have every right to be angry.And I will continue to be

WHY I'M SAYING NO TO AV .....

See the LRC website for more but here are my own personal thoughts on the matter......

Whatever happens on May 5, AV is not an issue I would die in a ditch for
However, ignoring the obvious temptation to just give the Lib Dems a bloody nose with a massive "No" vote, AV should be opposed for several reasons.
Firstly, it was none other than Nick Clegg who described it as a "miserable little conpromise."
It is not PR. It will not help minority parties like the Greens and those to the left of Labour get representation at Westminster. In fact, it will make it harder.
In strong Labour seats, the heartland constituencies, AV makes no difference at all.
In marginal seats, however, it is likely to lead to even more centrist politics with Labour candidates tempted to be all things to everyone to get over the 50 per cent threshold.
As the Electoral Reform Society says,it "rewards broad church policies."
On average, candidates who win under FPTP get 46 per cent of the vote anyway.
At the last election, AV would have given the Liberal Democrats 32 more seats and lost Labour 10 seats.No wonder they are in favour!
FPTP is by no means perfect but does mean that coalitions are less common..
It also sticks to the principle of ‘one person, one vote. .
AV, is only used in Papua, New Guinea and Australia, where voting is compulsory.
It is not particularly progressive.It is at best an irrelevance, and at worst a distraction from the real struggles people are facing in the face of this Government..
Liberal Democrats sold their souls to hold this bogus referendum with a bogus electoral change with little positive consequence for those facing cuts to services and job losses..
Let's not give them any credibility whatsoever. Vote No.