THIS PLP IS BIG ENOUGH.......OR IS IT ?

Guardianista Jackie Ashley is a permanent resident in the Westminster media bubble with little concept of life outside London and the ( what was) New Labour elote. Yesterday she expounded on the merits of the forthcoming mayoral contest for London and the Labour leadership candidate. Message, Ooona King is a woman and black so therefore must be the 2012 candidate. Dianne Abbott is a black woman too so John McDonnell should "do the decent thing" and stand down. This is tokenist rubbish. Never mind the genders, what about the politics?
John's riposte is in todays's Comment Is Free and, as he points out, this eagerly-awaited contest is rapidly becoming a farce in which there could well be only two candidates.
No women, no ethnic minorities, no-one from a trade union background, no-one from outside London, no-one( hell forfend) from a working-class background., and quite probably no-one from the left.
In short, a two-horse race already stitched up by the PLP which will make the Labour Party a laughing-stock if it goes ahead.
I mean no disrespect to the Milibands. But many Labour Party members are getting very angry indeed at the appalling prospect of two MPs hoovering up nominations - which neither of them now need - to get on the ballot. And thereby depriving other candidates and the the Party of the chance to seriously talk about where we need to be to defeat this Coalition Government in a couple of years' time
Even in 2007, when we had the coronation of Gordon Brown, Labour's deputy leadership race had five candidates - and people felt seriously involved.
Can you imagine three solid months of hustings in which Milibands junior and senior traverse up and down the country talking to each other? A nightmare
The whole point of the electoral college as successfully campaigned for in 1981 was to stop MPs vetoing potential for debate and having the only say in who was leader and deputy .
The rules were sadly skewed in the 1990's to quell dissent which is why we have these absurdly high nomination thresholds. But dissent and discussion in very different times is now exactly what we need if this Party is to get up off its knees and build and grow in the years to come. It's time to send out a message that we are a broad church once again.......and get everyone on that ballot paper.

THIS IS A DISGRACE!

I have just had an e-mail from a Labour Party member to say his MP is not nominating anyone for the leadership because she "doesn't know" any of the candidates.
Now i am not on first name terms with Ed Miliband myself but the notion I would not want to vote is unthinkable. The fact is that many MPs are blatantly ignoring the wishes of thousands of members and treating us with contempt.
However I am glad to say Tom Harris MP has joined the growing chorus asking for a lowering of the nominations threshold to 5 per cent of the PLP . More info about it over at Labour List and on the John4Leader Facebook group - which now has nearly 1700 members

FIGHT FOR A PROPER CONTEST

Thanks to Katy Clark MP, Kate Hoey MP and Tom Harris MP for adding their voices to the increasing uproar from the Labour grassroots at the prospect of a leadership contest with MPs vetoing everyone but the likely winners. Bit like a Grand National with only the hot favourite runners and riders being allowed at Aintree.
What happened in 2007 was ultimately a disaster for Labour and for Gordon Brown. We simply cannot allow Westminster to tell us who we have a right to vote for.Or not.
I don't question the likelihood of one of the Milibands taking the top prize. But why can't Andy Burnham, John McDonnell and Dianne Abbott take their place at the hustings and let us at least rest safe afterwards knowing our views were represented
The rule-book has been torn up over the nominations period so now let's fight to have a leadership contest we can all participate in . Like Peter Kenyon, I urge CLPs and Party members to lobby the NEC. Now

WHY I'M STANDiNG FOR THE NEC

The next 10 days are going to be absolutely crucial for the future of the Labour Party. We now have a once-in-a-generation chance to make it clear we are a broad church with room for views across the spectrum and a diverse discussion as to where we want our Party to go with a new Leader
Talking to friends in the Party , many of whom don't share my political views. they agree the need has never been greater for a leadership contest in which everyone has a say.
The sad fact is we're looking at a situation in which everyone apart from David and Ed Miliband is struggling to get the 33 nominations from MPs required to stand. Why should MPs have the veto on a contest in which most of us would like ALL the declared candidates to have a chance. We pay £39 a year in subs yet it looks as though the PLP is dismissing what is a clear grassroots wish to waive the ridiculous threshold figure and allow a really interesting debate which would bring thousands back to Labour and restore our reputation as a Party which welcomes diverse views. Don't let them do it!
I'm standing with Christine Shawcroft as the LRC's candidate and one of 8 CLGA candidates seeking nominations. Christine has a fine track-record as an incumbent who has stood up for activists for many years.
I also want to put in a word for Save The Labour Party's Peter Kenyon, who and has done sterling work on our behalf both on the NEC and in the ast seven years fighting for Party democracy.
I've been a Labour Party member since the 1970's. I am a local Labour councillor, trade unionist and socialist activist. I need as many nominations as I can muster from CLPs to boost our case for a renewed, socialist Labour Party. A formal statement will follow but for now please do all you can to support myself and fellow LRC supporter Christine Shawcroft.
It is time the grassrotos had a serious voice in fighting the undemocratic stage-managed procedures and Parliamentary selections which have marred our Party in the recent period, And allowed the NEC to make wrong-headed decisions which have disillusioned many. We want our Party back! My membership number for CLP nominations is L0017551

LABOURLIST POLL BOOST FOR JOHN McDONNELL

THESE are very different days from 2007 and the groundswell of support for a truly inclusive leadership contest is growing apace- boosted by the power of the blogosphere.
LabourList, arguably the most mainstream of all the Labour-supporting blogs, today released poll figures placing John McDonnell THIRD on the list of preferred contenders. I urge all MPs to take this poll very seriously. They will not be easily forgiven if they take no notice, disenfranchise the left and bar all sections of the Party from having their place at the hustings. This time the grassroots and trade unionists who are backing socialist candidagtes must have a say and a real choice between different political directions. We now need to keep the pressure on - so far we have managed to extend the deadline. How about the NEC reducing the threshold to ensure all six a place in the debate.


http://labourlist.org/may-21-labourlist-leadership-poll-the-results

NOMINATIONS PERIOD TO BE EXTENDED?

My reliable comrade Peter Kenyon reckons the NEC may, in the wake of wide dismay at the ridiculously short time given to garner nominations, extend the period when candidates can earn support. Let's keep our fingers crossed . Whoever wins, a debate with all six declared candidates - and then a nominations tallly - would engage the Party and give everyone a platform,. Let'a hope they listen to commonsense........to end the debate before it even starts would be a great loss to Labour activists. Update: Apparently the deadline has indeed been extended to June 9 so how about some TV debates between ALL the candidates.

TWO LEFT CANDIDATES......

Dianne Abbott has unexpectedly thrown her hat in the ring for Labour Leader. And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out there is not room for two lefts on the ballot.
I'm disappointed Dianne has done this. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
Unlike John McDonnell she does not have grassroots support in the trade unions or much support in the CLPs across the country. If she does make the ballot, I fear a bad result for the left.
But we will just have to see what happens.
All I will say is this. That for the past 24 years I have fought in the Labour Party for socialist policies. And splitting the votes in this way will not be helpful for any of us.

29 NAMES TO GO

A big big thanks to Sunny Hundal over at Liberal Conspiracy for launching a determined bit to get a proper debate going for Labour's leadership and future direction. More info here and thanks to new MP Graeme Morrice from Robin Cook's old constituency who is apparently backing John. MPs need to understand we don't want a non-contest with the same old politics.

There is only one left candidate - please do what you can to get him nominated.

http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/05/19/getting-john-mcdonnell-nominated-for-labour-leadership-we-need-your-help/

WHAT A B****UP!

I truly have no agenda against Ed Balls. He is one of several Labour leadership candidates who are more or less indistinguishable. But, if his interview on PM is anything to go by, the lad doesn't stand a chance at any hustings.
If I was embarrassed on his behalf what on earth must his supporters have thought as he froze dead on PM. Asked to outline his disagreements with Gordon Brown, he clearly couldn't think of any. It was so bad I felt seriously sorry for him. But far more sorry for the Labour Party members who look likely to be denied any left candidate at all in the forthcoming election

INACCESSIBLE IVORY TOWERS

It's sad to learn that the richest teenagers are still seven times more likely to go to a top university than those from the poorest backgrounds.
As the Russell Group, the elite band which distinguishes itself from the newer universities, prepares to hike up tuition fees even further, this is bad news for our education system and even worse news for youngsters.
My niece is currently teaching English in Barcelona after four years at Lancaster University - and a good degree. This week she received her outstanding bill for tuition fees - £15,000 plus interest.
Because of the debts accrued by any other route, her younger brother chose to stay at home with mum and dad and attend nearby Salford University. He gets a bursary, and supplements his income with other work.
In a few years' time, I'm sure they will both have decent jobs and incomes. Even so, their parents have made huge sacrifices. Some kids just aren't that lucky.
One of Labour's biggest disappointments was its backing for tuition fees - as predicted, the cap is now set to be scrapped and the way clear for a return to the kinds of inequalities not seen since before the Second World War. The Parliamentary generation which most recently benefited from free university education ( mine) should be ashamed for letting our children - and theirs - down,

LET'S FIGHT THIS SHOO-IN BY NEC!

I don't think anyone, whaetever their political persuasion, wants to see a fraternal contest with just two candidates. Even if Balls and Andy Burnham join in they are ALL the same age, same politics, same backgrounds. It's ludicrous. The 10,000 people who have re-joined Labour surely deserve a choice and a contest representing all wings of the Party. At the moment we just don't have it.
Labour now has an opportunity to re-build and recruit on the basis we are a democratic broad church. If the NEC refuses to reverse its barking decision to allow only four days for nominations this contest is a farce which once again excludes grassroots activists and CLPs. . It looks as though, again, we might not have that choice, So please lobby your Labour MPs to give us a voice..... Give socialists in the Labour Party a chance for once to get their message across with hionest debate and discussion by candidates . Support John McDonnell and tell the NEC what you think about their timetable - now slammed by everyone from Ed Balls to Cruddas and Ed Miliband

http://unionfutures.blogspot.com/2010/05/press-notice-labours-national-executive.html

ANOTHER SHOO-IN?

Today, the papers report Jon Cruddas's announcement he will not be running for Labour Leader. The news will come as a surprise to some and a disappointment to many.
Actually, I am not surprised as it has been clear for some time that Cruddas is going to be supporting David Miliband. And running against him would not have been helpful to his chances.
There are many already, including trade unions and MPs, re-inventing Ed Miliband as the candidate of the left. It's nonsense.
I have just been reading the column written in his name in the Sunday Mirror and it is, to be honest, reactionary stuff. Two twin planks of his campaign appear to be clamping down on immigrants and tougher measures on welfare benefits. Yes, I appreciate it was a tabloid piece but why the same old mantras about "hard-working families" and other platitudes from the New Labour songbook.
Sure, if you asked me to choose, I would probably vote for the younger Miliband, He is more personable, less geeky, and not quite so tainted with the Mandelsonian mantle. But what a choice!
In his Sunday Mittor piece, Ed Miliband says he wants a contest with a broad swathe of candidates. Now Jon Cruddas has ruled himself out, how is that going to be likely?
The only other candidate so far, Ed Balls, is of exactly the same ilk as the Milibands. But, with a Parliamentary majority of less than 1500, also eminently vulnerable at the next election.
The idea that a choice between three fortysomething , middle-class males of roughly the same politics bears any relation to the broad church Labour Party of years gone by is a nonsense. The left should have a candidate. And, as Cruddas is not going to stand, the PLP should listen to the many members who want to see John McDonnell on the ballot paper. A woman candidate would be helpful too. But if it ends up in a Milband v Miliband race, frankly why bother spinning it out until September. Might as well toss a coin.......

WHY IT CAN'T BE DAVID MILIBAND...

As the dust settles, and the vile reality sinks in, that we have been conned into a Tory Government, the runners and riders are starting to emerge for Labour Leader.
I'm not sure the news that Charlie Falconer and John Hutton ( who?) are backing David Miliband will exactly boost his chances. But yes at this stage he's favourite to win
However, I have been reading some of the testimonies from people who have re-joined Labour after being hoodwinked by the Liberal Democrats.
Most have expressed their disillusion and disbelief at the duplicity of MPs like Clegg and supposed "leftie" Huhne, saying a perfunctory goodbye to his anti-nuclear power and anti-Trident position and waving hello to a fat salary and limo.
In recent years, many voters were understandably seduced by the Party's holier-than-thou presentation of itself as to the left of Labour. Many, understandably given New Labour's appalling record on civil liberties, believed it. They fthought us foolish for staying put and sticking with it despute being in the minority.
But now the leaders of their Party have done a disgusting volte face and with jaw-dropping arrogance and lack of judgment expect their own not to be dismayed.
Which is why 10,000 more people ( most Lib Dem supporters) are Labour Party members one week on from May 6. Welcome to all - however, it's just not enough to take the subs and carry on with the status quo.
The Party - from top to bottom - must recognise that its policy agenda and the way it treats its membership has to change if any gains from LibDem anger are to be permanent. Because let's face it one of the reasons we lost was so many things could have been so different.
Labour, too, had its cuts agenda. Threre is no point in pretending otherwise
But there is now the chance to start building an alternative.socialist policy platform
The savage and immediate £6 billion in cuts coming from the loved-up CamClegg hypocrites must be opposed and we must defend with all our might the frontline services which now are going to be attacked. Trade union rights must be defended and jobs defended.
That kind of radical change cannot possibly hapen with a Leader still signed up to cuts and privatisation, a Leader tainted by support for war in Iraq, and above all a Leader who is the elite's agreed heir to Blair. They may be nailing their coliors firmly to the mast. It is our job as ordinary activists to burst the David Miliband bubble.

A VERY SHABBY COUP

THE shocked faces of the young people who had voted Liberal Democrat said it all. Watching Question Time last night, it was clear that Simon Hughes's disingenuous prattle was doing little to assuage the rage of the idealistic kids who had thought that in voting Lib dem they were voting for change.
To hear Hughes dismissing the abandonment of core LibDem policies as a necessary "concession" with a quite breathtaking lack of shame, was a revolting sight. And this is someone on the "left" of the Party. "New politics?" Oh please.
The Libservatives are now trying to stitch up a deal whereby a 55 per cent Parliamentary majority is needed to get rid of them. Shameless, undemocratic, inexcusable stuff worthy of North Korea. Word is already it will get kicked out into the long grass by angry MPs. Let's hope so as the arrogance and smugness of this marriage made in political hell is already too much to bear. The only good news is that 10,000 people joined the Labour Party this week.

JOIN IN THE CONDEM NATION !

Today very pleased to speak to more people in Calder Valley who are re-joining Labour.......I have aded the Party membership facility to my gadgets and hope more of you do the same. In the meantime we could all do with a laugh so take a dekko at the website below.....oh, and I've also joined Twitter having finally worked out how it's done.!


http://www.condems.org.uk/

NO MORAL COMPASS.....

Compass got it blindingly, spectacularly wrong on the desirability of a Lib-Lab pact. As you would expect from a group led by the chattering classes with no base at all outside the metropolitan elite. I am profoundly relieved that the overwhelming majority of the Party, right across the spectrum, from left to right and centre, saw the foolishness and danger of the coalition called for by Neal Lawson, Polly Toynbee et al. But there was one bit of this otherwise nonsensical mutual suicide pact of "progressive coalition" which these two got absolutely right. As follows.......


If the Liberal Democrats enter a formal coalition with the Conservatives or prop up a minority Conservative government then they will lose for a generation and probably forever the right to call themselves a party of progress. The party would be split and Labour, if it gets its act right on the issue of proportional voting, Trident, tuition fees, fair taxes, immigration, civil liberties and much more, could eat up the thousands of Liberal Democrat activists and millions of Liberal Democrat voters.
On Thursday, at least 57% of the British people voted for parties seen as being on the centre left. The next few days will determine whether that perception was right.
Neal Lawson is Chair of Compass. Richard Grayson is Vice-Chair of the Liberal Democrat federal policy committee and was Liberal Democrat director of policy 1999-2004

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

""There is just a gulf between what David Cameron stands for and what I stand for, in terms of values, in terms of internationalism, in terms of fairness, in terms of progressive tax reform, in terms of political reform" Nick Clegg, May 1 2010

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.

ELECTION JET LAG

It's that moment on election night when you buy another packet of fags and go in for some serious drinking. Unfortunately it is six days after the General Election and I have to be up in six hours' time to go to work. My anger and outrage at the Libservatives is such am not sure will be able to sleep. But tomorrow, as Scarlett O'Hara said, is another day. And I understand the Labour Party website has been inundated with new recruits......night all.

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.

THE LEFT AND THE LEADERSHIP ELECTION

At what point exactly did Ed Balls become a candidate of the Left? Having scraped into his new Leeds constituency, Brown's former henchman is allegedly the candidate who will be backed by UNITE. This mammoth union has traditionally been kingmaker for Mps and Parliamentary candidates. Isn't it time the grassroots had a say?
Last time we tried, in 2007, UNITE swung its mighty weight behind Gordon Brown. Effectively stopping a contest. We are now living with the consequences.
Our friends in the media now want to do the same and have already decided that Miliband D is the only choice. But they, thankfully, are not the ones who will decide.
Jon Cruddas, rumour has it, is prepared to stand on a dream ticket with Miliband to ensure no-one else gets a look-in. Or Cruddas may, of course, stand himself in a wrecking move to stop a true left candidate.
Last time round, John McDonnell put up a brave fight - securing 29 nominations from the PLP - 16 short of the 45 needed and an impossible task given the machinery which was wheeled out to stop him.
This time round, it will be 32. The task will be no easier. But already there is a groundswell of support from activists for John which I hope he will consider in the next few days.
If we are to build an honest, renewed Labour Party in Opposition, the PLP needs to listen to its core supporters and give them a socialist voice in the contest - faux lefts like Cruddas and Balls are not the only option. Whatever they say in the Guardian - and after the debacle of the Lib-lab padt, who in their right minds would listen to them

COALITION AGAINST THE CUTS - JOIN THE LABOUR PARTY!

I happened to be in Westminster last night as Gordon Brown announced his resignation. It was a last-ditch bid by New Labour to keep the keys to Number 10 but my belief is still that Clegg will sign a deal with the Tories. Whatever game he is playing to suggest otherwise
I sincerely hope so because if Clegg listens to Mandelson, Miliband et al he will not only sign a death warrant for his own Party. It is also the end of Labour's status as a party of the left.
It has been interesting to see that people like John Reid and David Blunkett have rightly been speaking out against a Lib-Lab pact. Rightly, they see that in the long run it will destroy, not save, the Labour Party.
In opposition, Labour can build a resistance to the ne-liberal accord of Cameron and Clegg. It can also act as a beacon to those who have lost faith in us as the voice of democratic socialism.
The LRC is unequivocal about where it stands. Against this dishonourable stitch-up, an end to the horse-trading of New Labour, and a return to the kind of Labour values which will see us re-gain mmebers.
In the past 24 hours, I have had messages from several people who have re-joined Labour.
Let's look to the future - and put the final nail in the coffin of New Labour. Come and join us - now!
http://l-r-c.org.uk/press/the-left-will-not-support-a-cuts-coalition/

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.

COME HOME TO LABOUR....

I have just been casting an eye over some of the comments over at Socialist Unity in the wake of the collapse of RESPECT, the TUSC and the Green Party.

I don't wish to intrude on private gried but as I struggled to stay awake in the early hours of Friday morning some things occurred to me.

As I watched the wheelbarrows being brought in to hold Tony Lloyd's share of the vote, I was surrounded by young, sincere members of the Green Party. I whiled away a few minutes asking them what on earth they thought they were doing standing in Islington North and Hayes and Harlington. They had no answers that made any sense. As it turned out, Green opposition to our two best socialist Labour MPs had diddly-squat impact and both triumphed with increased majorities. Jeremy Corbyn's increased vote was an astonishing 8,000 more.

One week earlier, I had asked Calder Valley Green candidate Kate Sweeney the same question. Her answer was feeble. As. in the end, was the Green vote in the Calder Valley where a goodly number of people are inclined to be sympathetic.

Congratulations to Caroline Lucas but I would ave voted for Nancy Platts because she would have been an excellent MP

Whatever spin people put on it, the RESPECT project is over. The Labour Left , with a hung Parliament, is now in a stronger position to influence policy and fight to stop the Libservatives.

Clegg's weaselly behaviour will dispel the illusions many had that the Lib Dems were some kind of alternative. As for TUSC, well it was an appalling adventure with no hope of success.

So what now? Talking to people locally last night many were already saying they now felt it was time to return to Labour .

I know there are many who feel they can't. But in the coming months the fightback against the cuts will be led, not by the far left, but by our 20 or so socialist MPs within the PLP. They will join with others in the trade union movement who know in less than a year we will be doing it all again. And next time, I predict, Labour will be able to win an outright majority.

There is appetite for change. That change is not represented by the Liberal Democrats or by tiny splinter groups. The discussion on how we REALLY start to win the next election will be going on at the LRC's conference next Saturday. I urge as many as possible to get there

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 ......

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.

THE BLAIR EFFECT

Last week I attended a meeting at which I was assured by left-ish NEC stalwarts that Tony Blair was unlikely to be drafted in to help the General Election effort. Well, they were wrong.
One week on and there he is again in Sedgefield, looking rich and tanned and being used apparently in a Michael Winner kind of way to calm down the Tory dears of Middle England.
Whether or not this calms the fears of Labour supporters who think resuscitating the ex Leader is a recipe for disaster is another matter entirely.
In today's Daily Mirror, Kevin Maguire, no Blairite, argues his revival as an election weapon is a necessary strategy. I would suggest it is a sign of weakness on Gordon Brown's part to bring back a personality who is as likely to remind millions of the carnage of Iraq as the glory New Labour days of 1997.
At the last election , as all of us know who were campaigning last time, he was nothing but a liability.

A PEOPLE'S AGENDA FOR 2010

The LRC believes the answer to the current crisis of capitalism is NOT to inflict the "deeper and tougher" Thatcherite cuts which Alisdair Darling has warned of. The answer is socialist policies and making those responsible for the economic downturn pay. Not inflicting punishment on the rest of us...... To tie in with the General Election we have produced our own pamphlet on where a future statement on where Labour should be heading. Details here...........
http://l-r-c.org.uk/news/story/lrc-launches-a-peoples-agenda/

THE ASHFIELD PARACHUTE

One can expect an avalanche of "revelations" in the weeks to come as the Mail On Sunday gets stuck in to Labour candidates everywhere. The news that Gloria de Piero, the Brownite parachuted into Ashfield, the constituency of discredited Geoff Hoon, once posed for topless pictures is an irony in the light of others' unsuccessful attempts to beat the New Labour machine in the same constituency.
My LRC colleague Christine Shawcroft , an NEC stalwart for many years and campaigner for the left, was stitched up and excluded from the Ashfield shortlist. Grossly unjust
As things are, I am profoundly grateful I was not selected as a PPC in either of the two constiturncies I had a go at because I would actually have been unable to campaign properly due to family illness.
I still regard the imposition of All Women Shortlists in constituencies where they were neither desired nor necessary as a cynical way of excluding left candidates. Ashfield is only one of many similar stories. Gloria's youthful folly is not the reason why her selection was unjust. Party members everywhere are sick and tired of favoured candidates winning out over local activists.
I hear also on the graoevine that Peter Wheeler is to be shoo-ed in to Stalybridge and Hyde......

THIRD RUNWAY VICTORY

Well done to campaigners, local councillors, and local MP John McDonnell for leading the campaign against Heathrow expansion which today won a major victory in the High Court. This is great news for the local community and for all of us who want to see John re-elected in a few weeks' time at the General Election.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/26/heathrow-third-runway-travel-and-transport

HOON, HEWITT AND BYERS

The peripatetic nature of my life at present means I did not have the chance on Monday to share my horror at the craven greed of these three ex Ministers who have now justly been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party. Their greed is breathtaking. Well done to Dennis Skinner, Gordon Prentice, Paul Flynn and all the other MPs who successfully pressed for their immediate censure.

LEFT ALTERNATIVE BUDGET

You can check out the LEAP alternative to the cuts agenda here:
http://leap-lrc.blogspot.com/

FROM A DISTANCE....

It's almost 40 years since as a rather eccentric 12-year-old I was allowed to stay up late and watch the 1970 General Election. The one which Labour was predicted to win - and didn't. This time I will remember the 2010 Election for very different reasons.
Due to family commitments, I will simply be unable to do much beyond observe the next six weeks or so from a distance.
Yesterday, I sat with my dad ( re-located to my sister's with en suite facilities) for the day and listened to the (non British Airways) planes flying in and out of Manchester Airport as we watched escapist telly . We did also catch the news footage of the UNITE picket lines at Heathrow and it's been interesting to see the media drag out folk memories of the 1980s in their bid to discredit union leaders. Equating Charlie Whelan with Arthur Scargill, lots of shots of "union barons" with clenched fists and angry faces. The battleground is already very clear.
What is not clear is the result.
Last Sunday I was able to join the mass canvas in John McDonnell's Hayes and Harlington constituency, which includes Heathrow Airport. It was really heartening to see so many union activists and Labour supporters on the ground and utterly committed to retaining the seat for a socialist MP.
The LRC National Committee last Saturday voted to give the maximum we can afford to the 20 or so left candidates across the country who desperately need our help if they are going to get back to Westminster.
We don't have Ashcroft's millions. What we do have is bodies on the ground and candidates with a fjne track-record. In the last few weeks, they have been joined by Ian Lavery in Wansbeck and John Cryer in Leyton and Wanstead.
In the weeks ahead, the media attacks will become relentless. I am still hopeful that socialist ideals and track records of commitment and hard work at constituency level will see substance winning out over spin and left-baiting . In the weeks to come, the LRC website will be covering all aspects of the campaign. Katy Clark MP is the latest to explain what kind of Labour policies she wants to see after the election.

BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU.....

The days when Labour courted the business community and attracted millions in individual donors are over. Without funding from the big unions like UNITE, UNISON and the GMB, Labour would not now be in any position to fund candidates or a General Election campaign. So it is deeply unfortunate that Gordon Brown, six weeks before an expected General Election, has chosen to side with management in the ongoing dispute with BA. More so because its Chief Executive last week in an astonishing attack made it plain that his aim was to smash the union - whatever the cost. In the forthcoming weeks, Labour is going to need all the help it can possibly muster . This won't be helpful, to say the least.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/15/brown-ba-strike-unjustified-deplorable

WOBBLING AROUND THE WORLD

Many years ago circa 1982 Warren Beatty took a short break from working his way through the entire female species to make a rather wonderful film called Reds. The three-hour epic focussed on pro-Soviet American revolutionary John Reed, author of and starred his then girlfriend Diane Keaton as early feminist Louise Bryant. More interestingly, it also featured interviews with the ( now long dead) real-life socialists and revolutionaries who populated the US in the 1920'as and 1930's. They included Emma Goldman and other luminaries and "Wobblies" - members of the Industrial Workers Of The World.
I thought the organisation was a mere relic of history so was intrigued to learn this week not only is it still extant - there are branches in the UK as well as the US - there is even a website http://www.iww.org/
Just rather a shame that 100 years after they began their struggle most of Middle America still seems to think Obama's modest plans for healthcare are a communist conspiracy......

PUBLIC SECTOR ON THE MARCH

Commentaors as moderate as Madeline Bunting have joined in the rallying cries of the left against the needless cuts agenda in the public sector. Figures to conjure with as all parties rush to slash and burn are the £78 billion which would be saved by axing Trident, the £100bilion -plus lost to the Treasurey in tax avoidance, and the immeasurable personal and financial cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This week's civil service strikes are the first wave of what will be a tsunami of oitrage if eother Labour or the Conservatives scapegoat public sector workers for the crimes of greedy global capitalism.


http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/87748

RAGE, RAGE

I've got message for people younger than I to whom politics mean everything. There will be days in your life when your world falls apart and it matters not an iota what happens other than the fact you are about to lose a dearly-loved member of your family.
I had such a day today.
My father, I learned today, is terminally ill and that matters to me more than who wins the General Election, who said what about some policy, and who said what about whom.
This blog was never meant to be personal. But sometimes the personal is political. And I am profoundly grateful to our NHS to pulling out the stops to ensure my dad will have a pain-free end to a long life.
I won't be blogging much in the coming period because my priority is to help ensure his last days are as pain-free as humanly possible. But I also pledge to carry on fighting for the socialist ideals he has believed in all his life. I am very proud of him and for the bravery he showed today. It's now up to me to have the same fortitude in what is going to be a dreadful time.

BROWN DEFENDS THE INDEFENSIBLE

The other day as I was driving ( actually, being driven) to work in Leeds by a colleague we heard a harrowing account on the Today programme of the many hundreds of birth defects in Fallujah, razed to the ground by US troops at the height of the Iraq conflict, as a consequence o the obscene amount of bombing and the weapons used..
Many thousands have died and the war itself generally regarded as a horrendous mistake which many Labour MPs now wish they had not supported. Not so Gordon Brown.
In defending Tony Blair's decision to go to war in 2003, he has disappointed many who believed somehow he had been coerced into supporting this illegal and unforgivable act .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8552593.stm

FAREWELL FOOTY

Late finding out this sad news as have been travelling all day and spent some hours with my dad in hospital.

By any standards, 96 is a great age. And Michael Foot was a great man whose frail physique contained an enormous political intellect. The last time I saw him speak was seven years ago , appropriately, at a Tribune meeting at the Labour Party Conference.

It was at the height of the furore over Iraq and he shared a platform with Clare Short and Robin Cook, also sadly no longer with us.

When he became Labour Leader , "Footy" was already pushing 70. In an age when 40 is considered median age to hit the high spot, that's almost unthinkable. And so is the total lack of spin surrounding his Premiership. Famously derided for wearing a "donkey jacket" to the Cenotaph ( it was in fact a Crombie overcoat) Michael Foot never gave a hoot about his image. Good for him

Predictably, some of the obits refer to the "longest suicide note in history" ie the 1983 General Election manifesto. It was a cruel phrase and an unfair assessment for what was a principled statement of Labour values at a time when Thatcherism was in the ascendancy. He was the right leader at the wrong time

Foot had to deal with the departure of the "Gang of 4" to form the SDP and in many respects kept the Labour Party together at a very difficult time. He never abandoned his commitment to CND and stayed true to his socialist values. A famous champion of Aneurin Bevan ( his is still the definitive biography) he was one of the the last of a generation which saw the Attlee Government take on the "commanding heights" of the economy and build the welfare state.

Most of today's politicians are, by comparison, pigmies.

IAN LAVERY WINS WANSBECK

I'm sure my comrades in the north-east will be delighted at the news that NUM President Ian Lavery has been selected to fight the safe seat of Wansbeck in Northumberland.

My understanding from people on the ground is that Ian is highly supportive of the LRC and will also join the Campaign Groip if elected - as seems certain given the massive majority in this heartland seat. With the latest YouGov poll indicating a minority Govt led by Labour, people like Ian and John Cryer ( who has just been selected in Leyton and Wanstead) will be welcome additions to our voice in Parliament.

JOHN CRYER WINS LEYTON AND WANSTEAD

For months it was rumoured that Jack Dromey , spouse of Harriet Harman, was to be "parachuted" into Leyton and Wanstead . In the end, Dromey's clout as a key player in UNITE landed him a safe seat in Birmingham.

Which left Leyton and Wanstead in complete turmoil after months and months of delay in the selection process.

The good news is that left candidate John Cryer, who lost his nearby Hornchurch seat at the last election, won decisively with a margin of 136 votes to 100 over his nearest rival. Last time round in Parliament, John was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and the news of his selection is both welcome and deserved. Go John!

A FUTURE FAIR FOR ALL

The language we use in communicating ideas is desperately important. Too often, the left resorts to mantras and platitudes instead of arguing its case in terms people can understand.

The populist way in which the Tobin tax has been re-named the Robin Hood Tax is possibly deploted by purists. But , hey. taking from the rich and giving to the poor is an idea which just might catch on.

Labour's slogan for the General Election, albeit recycled from the 2003 Party confeence, is a god one.But how can people believe it when the reality is so very different.

It is patently NOT fair that bankers still get huge bonuses espite being bailed out by us.Likewise that we are told a cuts programme is inevitable when £100billion every year is lost to the economy by tax avoidance. There IS a way forward which would help bring about a fair future , and which would involve cuts.

Cuts to massive spending on Trident, cuts on military warfare in Afghanistan, cuts to tax for the low-poaid and an increase in the number of rich people paying the tax they should be paying to redistribute the wealth.

We could also cut the profits being made by the private utilities capitalising on the recent cold weather by bringing water, gas and electricity back into public ownership.

We could cut the bureaucracy in the NHS and deliver the money to front-line services. Cut the profits made by the private pharmaeceutical industry and end the gross profiteering from PFI.

Let's also cut prescription charges and tuition fees and student loans.

Including all, or any, of the above in Labour's election manifesto would bring about a turn-around in the Party's fortunes and deliver a fourth term.

Mouthing platitudes which sound good is unlikely to do that .

BEING IRISH....

When things aren't so great reading can be a great escape from stark realities. And the older I get the more interested I become in my genetic heritage. Which is 100 per cent Irish.
I was born in Manchester which has one of the largest Irish communities in the UK but the various counties of Galway, Meath, and County Down are all entwined in my DNA .
I've just been reading a book on Irish America I found absolutely fascinating. Coming into Clover by journalist Maureen Dezell is no Angela's Ashes whinge-fest but an academic look at how people fared as the diaspora in various waves of immigration.
Interviewing hundreds of people in the cause of her research, she writes about America but much of what she says will strike a chord with anyone growing up in an Irish background. The study shows we are in many ways our own worst enemies.
My mother often told a tale of getting dressed up to go out dancing in the 1940's and asking her mother how she looked. My mother was a good-lookinmg, well-turned-out woman always but "You'll pass in a crowd" was the stock answer she got from her mum - which more or less sums up the way in which many of us were brought up to be self-deprecating, with low expectations, and an innate lack of confidence which belied any intelligence, charm, or positive characteristics other cultures are rather more upbeat about. If your parents didn't do you down, the nuns and priests most certainly would.
The fearsome Mother Christina, Deputy Head at Loreto College , specialised in a reign of terror which these days would be unthinkable. These days it would be called emotional abuse.
Too many Irish women in previous generations accepted their lot with resignation, put up with the drunkenness which is still endemic in the male collective consciousness and, of course, fell in with teachings from the Catholic church which today have been thankfully discarded .
At the age of 16, I argued with a Jesuit priest about contraception. At the age of 18 I joined the Young Socialists. I wasn't alone - in fact one of my school friends got expelled for selling "Militant" !
Politics and religion go hand in hand - look at any left-wing group and you will probably find a disproportionate number of second and third generation Irish men and women still fighting the battles their forbears did.
Political argument was the mainstay of our house and to this day I can't understand those who find such talk distasteful or "confrontational." In fact, I hope to go to my grave still shouting the odds.

HUNG PARLIAMENT

The last time there was a hung Parliament I was studying for O Levels. The result was so close that the outdome was not clear until the Friday morning following the February 1974 General Election. Our history teacher, a Labour supporter, brought a radio in so we could be part of the unfolding saga which saw Harold Wilson presiding over a minority Government.
The same might be true this time round when the votes are finally counted and I suppose the forecasts are an overwhelming relief given the dire predictions of a Tory landslide just 12 months ago.
Back in 1974, the result was so close of course that another General Election was held in the October. It is going to be an interesting night......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/23/hung-parliament-tory-support-crumbles

SUPPORT THE ROBIN HOOD TAX!

Richard Curtis is renowned for escapist films like Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral and of course Love, Actually, in which Bill Nighy stole the show as an ageing rock star.

The sublime actor is also heading up Curtis's campaign for a Robinhoodtax on the bankers which has gained massive support.

It's not exactly revolutionary stuff but a stunningly simple idea - to tax the bankers a tiny amount and give billions of pounds in proceeds to tackle poverty and climate change. They are planning a lobby of Parliament and there is a real chance all the three main parties will be forced to sign up to it if enough of us rally round, You can find out more at the website here

BUILDING THE RESISTANCE.....

Yesterday to York for a meeting of LRC members from the North and East Midlands. Thanks to those from Durham, Carlisle, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield and Cambridgeshire who attended. Our mission was to talk through plans for after the General Election, which increasingly looks as though it will result in a hung Parliament, or minority Govt. We plan to meet again in June when the Election is over.......

NOT FOR CISSIES.....

Someone (I think it was George Burns) once remarked that old age was not for cissies.
Growing old is something most of us prefer not to think about. With good reason.
We spend silly money on anti-wrinkle creams and kid ourselves we are investing in somehow avoiding the inevitable ravages of time.
My own delusional behaviour has been brought up short by several weeks to-ing and fro-ing between Hebden Bridge and Wythenshawe 40 miles away where my previously defying the statistics father is suddenly at 89 a very frail old man- surrounded by people often years and years younger but even more incapacitated by ill-health.
We always hoped it would never come to this.Regarding the consumption of a whole banana as evidence that things were somehow getting better. Truth is they are not. And they won't.
And yet the sheer bravery I've witnessed in this place which needs tons more funding from central government should serve as an inspiration to all of us facing a possibly similar fate.
My dad told me tonight that the whole room he's been in for three weeks suddenly erupted in applause when a stroke victim suddenly managed to summon reserves from somewhere and stand up on his own two feet. There are people in their eighties determinedly hanging on by their Zimmer frames - and they are not going gently . They still want to live.
Whatever happens to my father, and believe you me he is still fighting the good fight against the dying of the light, I pledge to do my best to lobby and fight for better healthcare for our elderly people.
Martin Amis wants euthanasia booths giving "Martinis and a medal" for those who choose to end their own lives.
I regard such obscene pronouncements as a call to arms for all of us who call ourselves socialists to fight for a better-funded, universal healthcare system for the elderly people we will all one day be. No-one shoukld spend the last days of their lives in poverty- and alone

PURNELL STANDS DOWN

Breaking news: James Purnell, once touted as a future leader, is to stand down.
With the announcement of Hoon's departure, the sad and sorry bunch who tried to de-seat the PM are now going down like ninepins.
I shan't mourn Purnell's departure. One of the architects of the Welfare Reform Bill, and a career politician, he blew it bigtime when he resigned from the Cabinet.
At least he has had the grace to recognise that and leave Westminster. Which is more than one can say for others not so far away from Stalybridge and Hyde
Update:I hear from insiders that Purnell's news came as a complete shock to his local CLP which had already invested a siginificant amount of money in election leaflets etc. I also hear his replacement is likely to be a local candidate who might never set the world on fire but at least has a solid track-record in the area.Good luck to whoever is selected to fight the seat.

NICK WINTERTON - A FIRST CLASS PRAT

The other day I had something in common with Nick Winterton - I travelled first-class. I travelled that way because it was the cheapest way of getting from London to Manchester at a time when business travellers have long deserted their laptop stations and digested their business breakfast.
I almost had to pay twice because the kindness of a friend in dropping me by car at Euston station meant of course we hit wall-to-wall traffic en route and I missed the (first-class) train I had booked.
Subterfuge was called for.
I plonked myself in an appropriate carriage, ordered a coffee and hoped for the best. In the event, I got away with sitting on a train which left 20 minutes after the one I should have been on. And therein lies the madness of it all.
Not only do we have a class-ridden, two-tier railway service. The whole privatised caboodle is an on-line lottery where it is sometimes cheaper to travel first and enjoy the undoubted benefits - nice gin and tonic, wine, free tea and coffee, and sandwiches and snacks all provided too .
If you're unlucky, it's standing-room only, long delays, clapped-out kitchens and all at premium prices. Cheap tickets, much-touted in the trade, have to be booked weeks in advance. Fine if you're on a tourist trip. Not so great in an emergency.
What we want, and what Labour Party members have been demanding for years, is a first-class railway for all , back in public hands, and providing everyone with fair fares. Not the shambles which we have at the moment, whichever part of the train you choose to sit in.

WELCOME TO THE LABOUR PARTY!

Having been away from the blogging arena for a bit ( at the moment it is renewing my spirits in rather difficult times ) I was intrigued to see that Phil in Stoke has left the SP and joined the Labour Party.
I was particularly intrigued having spent a recent Saturday at the Right To Work conference organised by the far left, to which the LRC was invited.
As probably the most "right-wing" speaker there, I was arguing for the Labour left - and trying to argue against many who seemed to think the new Trade Union and Socialist Coalition was an answer. As Phil says in his post on the topic, the prospects eletorally are bleak.
It is pretty bleak also being a left-wing Labour member. No question. But to stand SP candidates against an excellent MP like Mark Fisher is madness.
So is the widely held view among many in the SWP that a vote for Labour is the same as voting Tory and that a Cameron Govt would be no worse. So, Phil, welcome to Labour. You have a long hard road ahead but we need people like you to carry on the fight. With no illusions..........

http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/

GO IAN LAVERY!

This Saturday I'm heading for York with other members of the LRC for a joint meeting of members from Leeds, Manchester, West Yorkshire and the North.
By the time we get to the Friends Meeting House at 1pm I hope to hear some good news regarding Ian Lavery, currently President of the NUM, who is favourite to win the PC candidature in the safe seat of Wansbeck. If he wins, it will be a triumph indeed.
I believe the usual suspects have been trying for years to stop him being a candidate andf the fact he was lambasted in last week's Daily Mail as a "hard-line union baron" shows that maybe for once a socialist candidate sympathetic to the LRC has a chance of winning against the machine.
Bad news though from Leyton and Wanstead where I believe the NEC has stepped in to the selection process and rather astonishingly kept its own member, Christine Shawcroft, from making it to the final shortlist.
I also understand that John Cryer, who lost his Hornchurch seat at the last election, is the left's last man standing . Serious commiserations to Christine, who has spent months campaigning in the constituency.

I WARN YOU NOT TO GROW OLD.......

When Neil Kinnock issued his famous speech re the danger of a Tory Govt many of us admired its sheer sincerity and raw appeal to Labour's sense of social justice.
Over 20 years on I wonder what has happened in a world where our old people are treated so shamefully and inadequately by an NHS which was once the envy of the world.
My eyes to the reality behind the slogans of the spin doctors have been opened by several weeks spent visiting my father, now desperately ill, in a Manchester care home where staff are clearly struggling with the impact of years of under-funding.
This place, by the way, is no Gothic horrorshow but a new Intermediate Care unit opened several years ago by a New Labour Minister. When my father was admitted several weeks ago, my hope was he would be restored to health with a simple combination of rest and good food. Neither has transpired.
Food is not cooked on the premises - but outsourced and brought in from a private company in Wales.
Little of it is suitable for my father, who has a chronic gall bladder problem, and most of it is frankful woeful and unpalatable. The consequence is he has not put on any weight - yesterday I resorted to taking in two tins of soup in a desperate bid to improve the situation.
The prospects are not looking good because staff seem to have little notion of nutrition - probably not their fault. But I ask what kind of world are we in when we cannot give elderly people in NHS care a decent meal? When relatives have to advise staff on the right diet for malnourished old folk? And when requests to hand out smaller portions to stop loved ones being overfaced are just ignored?
The bottom line Andy Burnham is we are simply not doing enough for a growing population living way beyond the ages of their parents and grandparents.
The people I saw yesterday suffering from the impact of strokes, long illnesses and chronic conditions like arthritis. This is will be you and I one day.
The least all of us deserve is a system where we willl be treated with dignity and respect.
Free care , first-class care, not £20,000 death taxes and punishment for the crime of living way beyond three score years and ten.
Are the staff where my dad is doing their best? Yes of course they are. The stark truth is that , because we don't raise enough money for a decent NHS elderly care, it is simply not enough. Better than the Tories - but simply not what we should be getting from a Labour Government