TIME TO STOP- FOR NOW

Tomorrow night I'm having dinner with Nick Clegg - and a couple of hundred others - at a do in Leeds. Last week I got a nasty jolt from a BNP leader who claimed he had been misrepresented. It's not grounds for expulsion. Journalism on a Yorkshire paper is my job for now - albeit a short-term thing. And, given the hours and the nature of the job, it's made blogging pretty much impossible.
For the foreseeable future, much of my spare time is going to be taken up with inventing marvellous fat-free dishes for my dad who has a serious gall bladder problem and is in need of care from us - his family.
Then there is the stress I have recently suffered from people locally whose only agenda was to get me into trouble with the Labour Party. They have not succeeded - but I am pretty fed-up with it all and have had enough.
So for now the blogging stops. It may resume once the general Election is called. I may leave it till afterwards. Whatever the time, blogs only work if you can really say what you think and be as partisan as you like. When you can't do either, it is pointless.
I will continue to be active in the local Labour Party and LRC.But for now it has to be in real time. Not the surreal and often nasty world of the blogosphere. Thanks to all who have supported the blog since 2007 - this time it really is a break. I will be back .....

HELP FOR THE AGED

I haven't lost sight of the bigger picture. Disaster in Haiti and the sight of people's terrible tragedies renders everything else a little insignificant.
Personal loss, if not national catastrophe, is something we all have to face . And when it is one's immediate family in trouble then external events must fade into the baclground for a while.
My interest in local and national politics hs been dimmed for the moment by trying to come to terms with my dad's growing frailty. Two years ago, at 87, he could still walk down to the pub for a sizeable pub lunch, enjoy a few pints, and entertain regulars with Irish rebel songs. He defied the laws of gravity. I suppose we thought that would go on for ever.
But at the moment he's in hospital suffering from what can only be described as self-neglect. And it has taken days of wrangling with the hospital to stop them discharging him and take on board the fact his food intake needs constant monitoring.
Like most men of his generation, he's a tough old bird who does not want to accept he needs help. It's the job of me and my sister to persuade him the point has been reached when he needs others to intervene - and make the most of the facilities on offer . But it is a rough road for all of us.
On Friday, despite our entreaties , the hospital chose to send him home. Less than 24 hours later, I was in an ambulance with him . I have to say the compassion and care shown by NHS staff is something which never ceases to fill me with pride about our health system.
But the kind of care my dad now needs won't be provided in a hospital.
As people continue to live longer and longer we need to look at how we can give our very old people - which will be all of us one day - the care and dignity they need in their final years.
I take heart, despite being desperately worried, in the fact that as we waited in Casualty my dad was still demanding his Brylcreem so he could look his best. And cracking jokes with the nurses. The end, I hope, is not imminent. But facing life's realities is something all of us in our middle years sadly have to do.

A DIGNIFIED SILENCE

Calder Valley and its political travails are once more splashed over the newspapers. It is not a good situation.
In the circumstances, and for the foreseeable future, I think it best to say nothing.
In the past few days I have been fighting another battle involving a member of the BNP who is making trouble.
If blogging has been sparse that is because I am juggling professional commitments, trying to fit in meetings , and looking after my dad who is not in the best of health. The good news is that my recent mammomgram was fine. So that's one less anxiety to cope with........rest assured that at some point in the future I will comment on events in the Calder Valley. But now is not the time........

PERSONAL TRAGEDY?

Some words are over-used and "tragedy" is one of them. I find it profoundly irritating when politicans , as Peter Hain did last night on Question Time, use the word completely inappropriately.
Hain referred to the Robinson fiasco in Northern Ireland as a "personal tragedy." I disagree.
t was an entitrely avoidable error of judgment by a woman infatuated with a man young enough to be her grandson. Unfortunate, yes. Tragedy, no.
The word should be used sparingly and only in conjunction with truly catastrophic events - like in Haiti for example. A "personal tragedy" for thousands. And a world away from the seedy sleaze of the Robinsons. Which is entirely their own fault......

EPITAPH FOR DAVID TAYLOR MP

John McDonnell MP, Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group, attended Saturday's funeral for his Parliamentary comrade and Leicester MP David Taylor. Mr Taylor was only 63 when he died on Boxing Day while out walking with his family in the grounds of Calke Abbey, in his constituency.
People like David Taylor were/are Labour to the core. They represent the very best of what those of us who have grown up in the Party joined it for. Common decency, socialist values, a basic wish for social justice and a fairer society.
I think it is up to those of us often castigated for holding true to those values, for being "disloyal" to an orthodoxy which has no place in Labour, to stand firm and to continue the fight. However difficult that may sometimes be.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/12/new-labour-rootless-pretenders

WELL SAID, COLIN

In today's CiF, Leeds MP Colin Burgon articulates the thoughts of many Labour MPs and Party members who desperately want to see the Tories defeated - but rightly state this will only happen if there is a major shift away from the cuts agenda which all three parties are currently fighting over like ferrets in a sack. Can we snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Yes, we can. But no by adhering to the orthodoxy still being spouted by Mandelson and James Purnell.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/13/new-labour-purnell-election

POLICY CHANGE NEEDED

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has predictably ditched the dividing lines between his party and the Tories which made some Labour voters switch at the last General Election. Scrapping the policy on care for the elderly and tuition fees was not "grown-up poliics." It was a white flag of surrender to neo-liberalism.

The good news for Labour is that his sharp turn to the right will do the Fibs no favours whatsoever. The bad news that Labour is still hell-bent on sticking to the Tory cuts agenda.

Last night on Newsnight doyenne politicians Prescott and Hattersley were steadfastly loyal but also singularly blinkered in their dogged assertions that Labour still stands for a different way of governing. How Mandelson, chief architect of the GE strategy, praises Thatcher and continues to bang the New Labour drum.

I think it's excellent the coup led by Hoon, Hewitt and Charles Clarke died in the water. But what we need, as left Mps and trade union leaders are pointing out, is real policy change which helps, to use the cliche, "the many not the few." and which will bring our core voters back

The PLP most move fast to make the General Election campaign one which puts clear red water between Labour and the Tories. With the Lib Dems giving up any claim to being left-of-centre, now is the time for Labour to seize the moment.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/85247

WHY I'M KEEPING THIS APPOINTMENT......

Along with thousands of other women in the Calder Valley, I am due for a routine mammogram. And I suspect for most of us it is a traumatic business.

If you trawl the web, it is clear the jury is out as to whether or not three-yearly breast cancer screening actually makes a significant difference to death rates. Which, if you are one of nature's wimps like me, could be a convenient get-out.

But, anxious though I am at tomorrow's encounter with the radiographer, I will be keeping the appointment.

Unlike in other parts of the world, our NHS provides this service absolutely free. And two weeks of anxiety waiting for the result is a small price to pay for (hopefully) the peace of mind of knowing one is cancer free.
Which is why I will be keeping the appointment - and urge every other woman in the Valley to do the same.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORNING STAR

Today I should have been at a planning meeting for this year's Morning Star Conference but I have been laid low by illness .

The Star no longer has the "red gold" which used to come from the USSR nor is it any longer slave to any one political party. But after 80 years it still provides an invaluable role as the only newspaper whose bias and indeed very existence is down to the left and the labour movement.

While the likes of former Labour General Secretary Peter Watt peddle their revolting ( let's trash Gordon Brown from a great height because I'm no longer in a position of influence and swanning about so couldn't give a stuff if the Tories win) tittle-tattle to earn shedloads of cash , staff at the Morning Star survive on a pittance. Call them naive but they do that because they want to work for a newspaper which is not pro-capitalist and anti-socialist.

Most journalists don't have that option and do the best they can within confined limits.Meanwhile the Morning Star, for all its flaws , still shines as a beacon of integrity in the often grubby world of Grub Street. Happy 80th birthday.............

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/85337

PATRICIA WHO?

AS I observed a couple of days ago the Scottish actor David Tennant, who made his last appearance as Doctor Who over Christmas, is a long-time Labour supporter. In the latest edition of Doctor Who magazine, he reveals why he is backing Gordon Brown.

Which I suspect is possibly a little more helpful than the sad spectacle of the failed coup by disaffected Blairites.Perhaps they should shut the door on their way out......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8449895.stm

CAMPAIGN FOR THE NEW CAMPAIGN GROUP

With only months to go until the General Election, the LRC is drawing up a list of MPs on the left who will need help getting re-elected.

In every constituency, every MP and Parliamentary candidate will of course be doing their utmost to get back to Westminster and retain a Labour government. But, whatever the result, it is absolutely essential that the PLP retains its left voice.

Because of Mps standing down, or being in seats with tiny majorities, the sad fact is the left's ranks after May will be pretty depleted. But, with the inevitable losses elsewhere, a tranche of around 20 Mps could still play a significant role.

In our immediate vicinity, there are three MPs who have stood firm on issues like Trident, 90 Days and trade union rights. They are Mike Wood, Batley and Spen (pictured) , Linda Riordan in Halifax and Gordon Prentice in Pendle. All three also nominated John McDonnell in 2007 and they need support from across the north to get re-elected. The LRC will also be setting up a General Election fund which will shortly appear on the website. The money will go to help MPs with a consistent socialist record

In the past 20 years, the Socialist Campaign Group has been a principled voice in Parliament. We need as many people as possible out there helping to ensure it does not die.

MRS ROBINSON

Good to see religiously sectarian, homophobic, reactionary DUP politicians getting their comeuppance. Hopefully.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8448005.stm

WHAT A HOON.....

The latest attempt by the disaffected wing of New Labour to dislodge Gordon Brown is truly pathetic. Geoff Hoon, the worst Defence Minister ever, and Patricia Hewitt, schoolmarmy superintendent of NHS privatisation, join forces in the third attempt at a coup in less than 18 months.

It won't work, of course. By the law of diminishing returns such highly personalised attacks rightfully garner only disgust and incredulity that a matter of months before a General Election, these selfish beneficiaries of Government office choose to sharpen their (increasingly blunt) knives. And it's nothing about policy or principle.

They are terrified that if Brown loses he will not be replaced by another acolyte of neo-liberalism. Ther fears are probably groundless as neither front-runners Ed Balls or Ed Milliband would exactly frighten the horses of the City. Nor would the Guardian's favourite Jon Cruddas. But David Miliband is their man and they fear his time is running out.

What a distraction all this is. At a time when Labour COULD be clawing back votes by seriously changing direction, these buffions show how much they have lost touch with the grassroots by falsely imagining their back-door back-stabbing will get them the result they want.

Ex Labour MP Clare Short once referred to such characters as the "people who live in the dark." It is time their light of nasty cliques and cabals was permanently extinguished.

THE SOCIALIST DOCTOR.......

Like everyone else in the UK, not looking forward to Black Monday after the festivities. Prolonged Christmas by watching last ever performance by David Tennant as Doctor Who. Not only was he brilliant........ turns out also a socialist. Hope your Monday isn't too bad, comrades..........


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/david-tennant-the-good-doctor-802404.html

GIVE IT A REST , BARRY

Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman, the man who bottled out of challenging Tony Lloyd as PLP Chair ( he knew he would lose) is banging on about why Gordon Brown should stand down. I think it's time Sheerman shut up and did us all a favour. How dare he and the rest of these dreadful Blairites ( who are scared to death of a non New Labour leader after the General Election) lecture us on "loyalty." They are a disgrace. As were the "briefings" about the supposed Gang Of Five plotting to replace Brown with David Miliband. Don't the words "flogging " and "dead horse" mean anything to the control freaks in the Cabinet. If any Miliband is more likely to be a future Labour leader, the chances are it will not be the Foreign Secretary.

DEATH OF A DECADE

I won't be sad to see the end of 2009. In truth, it has been an awful year which I shall be glad to see the back of.
Good friends I have known for decades died this year, the health of immediate family members continues to give cause for concern.
And, until very recently, personal financial penury was most definitely looming.
At the start of the year, I invested much time and a considerable amount of cash in pursuing a Parliamentary seat in Keighley.
Last weekend, friends "kidnapped" me in an impromptu lunchtime drive up to Appletreewick, around 20 miles from the northernmost part of the Keighley constituency, for a splendid lunch. I reflected along the way that it was not - and nothing ever is - a complete waste of time. I met some great people - and learned some very hard political lessons.
My Christmas was less than wonderful thanks to the stupidity of a local DIY man who switched off next door's water supply ( therefore also curtailing mine). This took five days arguing with Yorkshire Water to ascertain.
Still, I now know it takes three litres of cold water to flush a toilet. And that there are far more important things in life than hot water. Like friends, family and basic facts like being healthy and relatively prosperous in a world where most people are not.
So I sincerely hope that 2010 is better. For all of us. A Happy Socialist New Year

DAVID TAYLOR MP

Sad to hear just now of the death of David Taylor MP, who represented North West Leicestershire. I interviewed him a couple of years ago and he was a decent old school Labour MP, Campaign Group member, who championed his constituency with conviction. He died while out on a Boxing Day walk with his family.

NO WATER WORLD

There is still no water to speak of in my house. My powers of British stoicism are running out and I have had to rely on the largesse of friends to have a bath. It has ruined my Christmas.
Yorkshire Water, to whom I pay over £30.00 a month in water rates, say there is nothing they can do and with temperatures set to plummet over New Year, it looks as though the situation will continue. I am at the mercy of the elements.
But what I didn't expect this morning was a dismissive phone call from the Yorkshire Water "helpline" to say it was an entirely private matter, there was nothing they could do, and basically to sod off.
I know that in the great scheme of things this is a trivial matter. But, as every woman knows, the simple joy of taking a bath is one of life's great pleasures. So forgive me while I contemplate crawling under the duvet and howling until the Big Freeze is over. It is nice to know the vast profits made by the privatised utilities are paid back in customer satisfaction

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW......

All I actually want for Christmas is a bath. And running water. There has been more bloody snow overnight and what little water I had has now gone completely. The plumber said there is nothing which can be done until the Big Freeze is over - when gallons of water are likely to flood the basement. God bless us every one......

Fortunately, I am going to friends for Christmas lunch. I may also join the gym down the road just to have a shower. As I look out the window, the scene could not be prettier. The reality is that sub-zero temperatures have truly messed up my Christmas.And yes, I know I should not whinge.But sod it........

On a more positive note a truly Happy Birthday to my friend Pete Lazenby who is 60 today. Pete is a lifelong socialist , journalist and lives in Hebden Bridge. He works for the Yorkshire Evening Post and writes on the Guardian's Comment Is Free too . The only man I know who can stomach vindaloo curry for breakfast in the office at 9am in the morning. Have a good one and see you later for a birthday drink.....if I can find some hot water

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER

I'm waiting for the plumber. I face the grisly prospect of Christmas without hot water - thanks to the Arctic weather we have had in Hebden Bridge. What joy.
Snow is great on the Christmas cards. Not so great when you are at the mercy of the elements and hoping against hope for an overnight thaw.
Trivial stuff, really, compared to the perils of being elderly and vulnerable in this kind of weather. Which at least are currently being assuaged by the severe weather payments which will now go out automatically to people like my dad who has not been able to leave home for a week. Payments which, under the Tories, are likely to stop.
But it's seemingly way too much for Peter Mandelson, that little inch of clear red water which still separates Labour from the Tories.
Apparently, he is letting his displeasure known to the press that Gordon Brown refused to be nice enough to the bankers and still wants to fight an election on the differences, not the common ground, between us and the Tories. The differences let's face it which keep many of us in the Labour Party despite everything.
No coincidence, surely, amid this talk of renewed plots against Brown that uber-Blairite John Hutton should finally own up to being the Minister ( which we all knew anyway) who said Brown would be a "f***ing disaster" as Prime Minister.
Once again Miliband, it's rumoured, is preparing to position himself for a leadership contest in the New Year.
I've always found it amusing ( in a wry kind of way) that what's left of the left gets accused of undermining Labour's chances when members of the Government feel free to brief the lobby they are not happy with the PM.
But they are living on another planet if they think a cynical pre-election coup will do Labour any favours whatsoever.
Is it the threat , not of election disaster, but of a hung Parliament, which has suddenly resuscitated the anti-Brown camp? It could well be they would prefer Brown to go down in flames rather than hang on - with a majority dependant on a de-New Laboured Party shorn of many of its most right-wing MPs , including people like Hutton who is standing down. We shall see but one thing is sure - Mandelson is up to his old tricks and Brown should also start positioning himself - around Labour's core values .