I don't agree with Progress, but I believe in their right to exist

As reported in today's Guardian, the latest sectarian ruptions in the Labour Party have being triggered by an attempt to ban neo-liberal group Progress, made up of those associated with Blairite thinking in the party.

The Labour Party has always been a broad church, it is only by being a broad church that you can build a large enough member base to be able to campaign effectively to win elections.  Labour are not alone, the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Greens all have groups within their parties campaigning for their party to take a particular direction. 

Progress is not the only group or policy forum in Labour, there are others such as the Labour Representation Committee, Labour Left of which I am member, Blue Labour and until recently Compass was a pressure group of Labour members, and I'm sure there are other policy groupings I've failed to mention.

If we try and enforce one view within the party you will end up causing the sort of splits we saw in the 80s which created the 'Gang of four' who left to create the Social Democratic Party or the banning of Militant Tendency which resulted in members leaving to create Militant Labour and eventually the  Socialist Party.

Let us not fall down the Life of Brian route and cause splits within the party encouraging members to leave and campaign elsewhere.  We see that with the parties to the left of Labour who continually split into smaller and smaller factions incapable of affecting any real change.   Let us have sensible debates about policy and not force our opinions on others through censorship.

If Trade union votes are being looked at so should the MP/MEP block

The Guardian reported recently that Ed Miliband is looking at changing the rules to reduce the influence of trade unions at conference and in the leadership election.

I am not going to argue that the place of unions within the party shouldn't be looked at, but they should be revised alongside all other power bases and groupings within the party.

Many argue that if it wasn't for the trade unions Ed Miliband would not have won the leadership election.  This is true under the current leadership rules, but it is also true that because MPs and MEPs hold a third of the vote and their votes boosted David Miliband's vote.  If the perceived unfairnesses are to be addressed it should be to bring in a genuine one member one vote system where every members vote has the same weighting on the basis of being a member of the Labour Party, and that member should only have one vote, not up to 5 based on how many other groupings that person belongs to such as The Fabians, The Co-Operative Party etc.  Only then can we say we have a truly democratic means of electing the leader.

Is it such a bad thing to drop shadow cabinet elections?

I am a strong supporter of bringing in more accountability and democracy to the Labour Party, but the shadow cabinet elections are a rather problematic arrangement and I can understand why Ed Miliband would want to get rid of them.

The leader is elected by a 3 way split of MPs & MEPs / Trade Unions and Labour party affiliates / Ordinary Members.  Ed just scraped in with more votes when all 3 constituents were taken into account, but David Miliband had a clear lead in the parliamentary labour party.  This means that many in the shadow cabinet are supporters of his brother David.  In total there are - members of the shadow cabinet who supported David:

• Douglas Alexander
• Angela Eagle
• Tessa Jowell
• Caroline Flint
• Ivan Lewis
• Jim Murphy
• Mary Creagh
• Meg Hillier
• Shaun Woodward
• Liam Byrne

If you also take into account those who supported campaigns for the other candidates it only leaves a few cabinet members who actually campaigned for Ed to be leader.

While I am not for one minute suggesting any of these people are being disloyal, it is possible that there are some people who feel that Ed is taking the wrong direction.

It surely makes more sense for a leader to pick his/her own cabinet which more strongly represents the general thinking of the leader.  It also gives the leader the opportunity to put a shadow cabinet together who will continue in those roles once Labour are re-elected, rather than the leader having to carry out a re-shuffle of places once in government.

Letter in support of Labour winning Heslington

Got this letter in today's Press

On May 5, the voters of York are faced with a decision which will have major consequences for the next four years.

They can vote for the Lib Dems and four more years of Tory budgets, as they continue to rely on the local Tories and push through the national agenda from the Tory-led Government.

Or they can vote for change and vote Labour, who have an alternative vision for York, based on protecting local services and reducing waste. As a Heslington resident and parish councillor, I am supporting David Levene.
Since being nominated as the Labour candidate, he has made a point of canvassing the whole of the village and has listened to residents’ concerns.

He launched a petition to call for double-yellow lines on University Road – which the council has now thankfully adopted – and continues to work on traffic and parking issues in the village and Low Mill Close.

Despite what some might say, Labour can win in Heslington, having essentially tied for second last time.
Please support David in the upcoming local elections, a candidate I strongly believe will stand up for the residents of Heslington and listen to their concerns.

Predictions for 2011

Towards the end of 2010 we began to see the signs of what to expect for 2011.  Here are a few of my predictions for 2011:

Re-alignment of politics, the Liberal Democrats and the AV referendum


At the end of 2010 the Liberal Democrats were hovering around 8-10% in the opinion polls, only a few months into the coalition.  The first big test will be in the May local elections, Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections.  If the opinion polls are to be believed it will be devastating news for the Lib Dems, it is quite likely hundreds or even thousands of Lib Dem councillors will lose their seats, and lose control of most the councils they currently control.  Hopefully it will be mainly Labour who benefit from these losses, particularly in England, although the votes are liable to be shared with the SNP in Scotland and Plaid Cymru in Wales.

At the same time we will be voting on the AV referendum.  My prediction is that the result will be close, probably with the No vote winning.  If this is the case, the No vote alongside massive seat losses will put serious pressure on the coalition with many Lib Dems questioning their commitment to it, knowing that if they decide to stick with it they are likely to lose many parliamentary seats come 2015.

2011 should see a continuing rise in support for Labour, with Ed Miliband being the right man to lead the party forward.  This should be a good year for Labour, hopefully winning the Oldham by-election and greatly increasing the number of council seats.

Ed is right to lead a review of party policy and question which Labour policies worked and which didn't.  Only a re-invented party, moving on from New Labour will engage with voters, particularly those who drifted away from Labour due to Iraq and attacks on civil liberties.  The Labour Party is the natural party for those who believe in fairness, equality and strong public services and hopefully the number of new members will continue to grow throughout the year.

A year of protest


Just because the tuition fee rise has been passed by Parliament, the ConDems are likely to be disappointed if they think the students will now leave the streets.  There are likely to be continued demonstrations about fees and the loss of EMA.  Alongside these demonstrations they student movement will be part of the bigger movement challenging the ConDem cuts.

March 26th will see the March for the Alternative demonstration, organised by the TUC.  In all likelihood this will be the largest demonstration the country has seen since the 2003 demonstration against the Iraq war.

Alongside the demonstrations there are likely to be an increasing number of strikes from public sector unions defending workers against the hundreds of thousands of jobs the ConDems wish to shed.

Royal Wedding

The diversion of a royal wedding will not take out minds off devastation the ConDems are causing to the country.  Unlike the Di/Charles wedding it is likely to polarise opinion, many will support it, but many  will questioning the relevance of a monarchy in the 21st century.  Republic will be leading the campaign for an elected head of state.

A look back at my year and the year in politics

Below is a little round up of what I have been up to over the past year as well as some of my views on major political events.


Snow, my accident and the NHS


The year started off as it finished with the most snow we have seen in many a year.  With half witted headlines like this:

It did make life difficult for us all and made getting about difficult, especially as many councils were woefully in prepared and did not have the grit reserves required to keep the snow clear.

The snow also resulted in me having a bad accident on my bike.  Cross a bridge a skidded on some ice and landed on my right elbow breaking my arm in 4 places.  After being rushed off to hospital I was operated on and had pins inserted into my arm, so it now looks something like this:

Unfortunately during the operation my lung collapsed and I ended up in a high dependency unit leading to a 5 day stay in hospital.  My arm will never be the same again, although hopefully will be a bit more comfortable once part of it is removed next month, a year after the accident.

This was my first real experience of a hospital, and found York District Hospital to be professional from the ambulance to the post-op physio.  It is clear they all work under a lot of pressure and those who criticise clearly have little understanding of the many demands on staff time.  I sincerely hope that the improvements Labour have made to the NHS over the past 13 years are now not going to be unravelled by the ConDem root and branch re-organization.  I do however have grave concerns as I laid out in previous blog entries this year on the NHS.

My injury along with the continuing pains I have from a pinched nerve in my neck have pretty much put an end to my cycling, and 16 years I have finally purchased a car again.  I would rather have not, but there is no public transport where I live, so was left with little choice.

From Green to Labour

In May I voted Labour for the first time since 2001 as I had confidence in Gordon Brown's economic skills, and greatly feared what my result from a Tory or ConDem government, which unfortunately I am now placed to say 'I told you so' to all those who voted Lib Dem.

Gordon Brown had help re-build my confidence in Labour after the appalling actions of Blair.  He wasn't perfect and unfortunately didn't come across well in the media, but I feel in years to come Brown will be acknowledged to have made the right moves when it came to the economy.  Where as like Antony Eden and Suez, Blair will only be remembered for Iraq.

I won't go into the details again as to why I left the Green Party, as they are outlined in my original post.  There are still many things I agree with them on, and respect many of the activists, particularly those in Green Left.   The only areas I fundamentally disagree with them is mainly around Science and the Food Industry, particularly their opposition to GM.  But if I am to be honest, my main reason for joining the Greens was because they were anti-war, and although I of course believe in climate change and reducing consumption I feel these are not the only major issues to be focusing on and that the majority of the public just do not buy the Green manifesto and feel my time and effort is better spent working to get Labour back in power at the earliest opportunity, rather than working against them.

When I joined Labour in May along with tens of thousand of other new members we were immediately faced with a leadership election.  I supported the Ed Miliband campaign and was very pleased to see him elected.  I feel Ed was the fresh start we needed.  Only getting Labour elected will help put a stop to the devastating changes faces the country's public services, and urge every to get involved and join the party.

Heslington


I remain a Parish Councillor in Heslington, now in my fourth year and plan to stand again next May.  I will be putting most of my time into helping David Levene take the Heslington council seat from Labour, which I believe is an achievable target.  Visit his site at http://www.yorklabour.org.uk/people/davidlevene.php

Heslington now has a new website, which I maintain.  Thank you to Matthew Clements for designing and hosting the site.

The Cuts and the Con Dem government


Even in my wildest imagination did I expect the horrific vandalism planned for the public services by the Tories.  From near privatisation of the NHS, to free schools, to extreme funding cuts, to universities resulting in trebling of tuition fees to hundreds of thousands of public sector redundancies.  This is a shameful attack on the public sector which has more to do with right wing ideology than dealing with the deficit, and it is shameful that the Lib Dems are propping up this Tory Government.

I urge everyone to become active in their trade unions and local anti-cuts groups, as we cannot stand by and our public services get trashed by the government.

I am involved in York Stop the Cuts and am also a delegate to York Trades Union Council and will be spending the next few years campaigning against these cuts and help build for the national demonstration in London on March 26th, which is likely to be the biggest protest against the government since the Iraq war.


Other activism


I still remain committed to other campaigns including Republic, which in a year of the royal wedding will be leading calls for an elected head of state, please consider joining at http://www.republic.org.uk/Get%20Involved/Join%20Republic/form.php

This year sort Israel blocking the Viva Palestina convoy at the beginning of the year and later carrying out a massacre on the Mavi Mamara in international waters in May.  The Palestine Solidarity Campaign continues to campaign to end the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, and I would urge you all to join the campaign at http://palestinecampaign.org/Index5b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=78&l2_id=102

Twitter


I really enjoy engaging with other Labour activists on Twitter.  You can catch up with me at http://twitter.com/#!/mr_andy_c

To look forward


Health permitting I hope to be fully engaged in 2011 campaigning for Labour and against the cuts.  The future of the country is at stake and we cannot sit by and let the Con Dems wreck it.

We should never go back to Blairism

Recently I have seen numerous Labour activists defending Blair on the basis that he won us 3 general election.  A quick look at the polling figures show that this defence is not so black and white:

Labour Party results

Year    Popular Vote    Percentage of the vote
1997    13,518,167       43.2%
2001     10,724,953      40.7%
2005     9,552,436        35.2%

If Blair was so popular with the electorate why did Labour lose 4 million votes between 1997 and 2005?  The only reason Blair won the election in 2005, was that the alternative was Michael Howard.

The argument is that we should continue to use Blair's policies to attract back Tory voters.  In reality we did not lose that many votes to the Conservatives.  In 1997 the results for the other two parties were as follows:

1997
Cons: 9,600,943
Lib Dem: 5,242,947

And in 2010:

2010
Cons: 10,703,954
Lib Dem, 6.836.824

This shows that of the 4 million lost votes the Conservatives have only taken about a million votes and the Lib Dems about a million and a half.

This means that many who no longer vote Labour have either stopped voting or have opted for smaller parties.  It is these parties and the Lib Dems who we need to focus on.  Many of whom will have stopped voting Labour because of Iraq and attacks on civil liberties. 

Blarism may be good for targeting Tory voters, but that is not where we should be directing our efforts.

100 days

We have now reached 100 days of the Con Dems and we face a very bleak picture of what the country will be like for the next five years.  The country faces:

• Drastic cuts to public services of up to 40%, even though the private sector is in no position to absorb the thousands of public sector workers who will be made redundant.  Those who manage to keep there jobs face a two year pay freeze at a time when RPI is currently 4.8%.
• A rise in VAT to 20%.  A regressive tax which will hit the poorest in society the worst.
• A wrecking bill which will see an expensive re-organisation of the NHS and allow back door privatisation by scrapping primary care trusts.
• An unequal education system which will see Gove's free schools create a two-tier education system at the expense of 700 projects being scrapped from Labour's building schools for the future scheme.  At the same time we will see higher education facing a real funding crisis as cuts kick in.
• A shake up of benefits which will see many of the poorest in society facing even tougher times as benefits are slashed.
• A cut in the number of MPs tagged onto the AV bill. The money this will save is negligible and will mean MPs will be more thinly stretched to cover constituency work.
• Councils will see funding cuts of £1.165 billion, meaning drastic cuts to local services.
• The arts will see major cuts regardless of how successful some of the projects currently are.  This has been shown by the scrapping of the UK film council.
• 9 regional development agencies have been scrapped.
• More outsourcing of government duties to the private sector, most recently with the scrapping of the audit commission.

There is absolutely no need for such huge cuts to public services at such speed, and no need for root and branch re-organisation of our public services.  These moves have more to do with Tory ideology than reducing the deficit.

None of this would have been possible without the support of the Lib Dems.  Many Lib Dem voters feel betrayed as they did not vote for this.  Many voters believed the promises of not bringing in immediate cuts or raising VAT and I sincerely hope they desert the Lib Dems at the next election, polls at the moment show a drastic drop in Lib Dem support and at the same time the highest polling for Labour in 3 years, not something you would expect so early in a new administration.

It was not an easy decision for me to leave the Green Party as I supported many of their ideals and policies, but the country now faces impending crisis and the wrecking of the public service improvements made by Labour in the past 13 years.   Only Labour can mount a serious challenge to the ConDem government and it is important that all of us who feel passionate about defending public services no longer sit on the sidelines and join the fightback to ensure the next election brings a clear Labour majority to roll back the mess this coalition will have made.

Letters in local press opposing Lib Con NHS "reforms"

I got the following letter in The Press today, there was also letters from York Labour councillors James Alexander and Ruth Potter, which you can read here

THE Tory/Lib Dem coalition has obviously never heard of the saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Last month, the Commonwealth Fund judged the NHS to be the second-best health-care system in the world and top for efficiency, yet despite this the Government wish to undo the improvements made over the past 17 years, and fundamentally reform the way the NHS works.
It makes no sense whatever to scrap primary care trusts (PCTs) and put GP groups in charge of funds. Such a move will create a postcode lottery for health, and the fund managers will be less accountable than the current PCTs.

Like many of the other changes and cuts we are going to see over the duration of this Parliament, these are based on Tory ideology, and not what is best for the public sector and its users. The only people who will benefit from these changes will be private health providers, as waiting lists grow and those who can afford to switch to private health care.

It is imperative that we join the battle to save the NHS before it is too late and join the campaign against the proposed reforms.

Andy Burnham on Lib Con NHS reform

In today's Independent on Sunday Andy Burnham writes a very important article challenging the Lib Con reforms on the NHS.   I strongly recommend that everyone who is concerned about the direction the government are taking the NHS in reads this article.  It clearly highlights the major flaws of a plan which could end the NHS as we know it.

Andy Burnham is not my first choice for Labour leader, but he has been excellent on calling the Lib Cons to task over their reform plans.

The end of his article is a rallying call we should all respond to:

So, my message to patients, doctors and staff who hate these plans as much as I do is this – get ready for the mother of all battles. Labour will bring forward a campaign over the summer to show the strength of opposition to these plans before the health Bill arrives in Parliament in the autumn.

We will defend our party's finest creation with everything we've got from a Bill that threatens to unpick its very fabric.

I would also recommend you join the following two Facebook campaigns:

Hands of our NHS

National General Protest Day to Save the NHS 

Why is Diane Abbott the only Labour leadership candidate to oppose Trident?

I find it surprising and disappointing that only one of the five contenders for the Labour leadership is willing to oppose the replacement of Trident.

I can understand that as a former Foreign Secretary David Milliband may be accused of double standards by carrying out a u-turn on policy, but the other candidates should reconsider their position.

There is no logical reason behind defending Trident.  According to CND:

• 58% of people say that "given the state of the country's finances, the Government should scrap the Trident nuclear missile system" in an Independent/ComRes poll of September 2009 (Table 7)

• 54% of the public say Britain should "no longer have any nuclear deterrent" in a Gurdian/ICM poll of July 2009 (Table 8)

• Only 30% of the public would spend £20bn on Trident when offered alternatives of spending on nurses salaries or affordable homes, in a YouGov poll for The People newspaper from July 2009 (Page 4)

• 72% of the British public, in a poll in March 2007, did not support the government's plans to replace Trident - More4/Populus poll.

• 59% of the British public oppose replacing Trident when presented with the cost of £25 billion just to acquire a replacement system. (The equivalent of building around 1,000 new schools at current prices) - ICM poll, July 2006

• 73% of Scottish people thought it was wrong that £50 billion might be spent on a replacement for Trident.
• 64% were against nuclear weapons being based in Scotland for another 50 years. ICM poll carried out for Scottish CND, January 2007

I would imagine if potential Labour voters were polled there would be an even larger percentage supporting the scrapping of Trident.  I therefore cannot see why it would be politically damaging to call for Trident to be scrapped.  Do Andy Burnham, Ed Balls and Ed Milliband really believe that it is in the country's interest to renew its nuclear deterent?

What's more, unlike when the issue of Trident first came up 2006 before the recession, we really cannot afford to be wasting billions on such a weapons system.  By scrapping Trident renewal we could save thousands of jobs in the public sector, surely on economic grounds alone this is a more sensible option.

Although Trident is not the only important issue in the leadership campaign, having a candidate who is clearly against renewal and is also questioning the mission in Afghanistan gives us a clear signal as to which direction they will take on foreign policy in the future.  That is why I am supporting Diane Abbott.

Why I'm supporting Diane Abbott for Labour leader

Today Diane Abbott launched her campaign website at http://www.diane4leader.co.uk

I was very pleased to see her reach the required amount of nominations to enter the race.  If Diane becomes leader of the Labour Party we will see a real difference between Labour and the Con Libs, a difference which I believe will bring many more people back to the Labour Party who have either stopped voting or voted for minor parties in recent years.

I stopped voting Labour after the Iraq war and refused to vote for party again until Blair had left office.  During this time there were still many Labour MPs who inspired me, who voted against the exceses of the Blairite era, such as Diane who voted against the Iraq War, tuition fees, Trident and ID cards.  These are not radical views, a large amount of the electorate were against these policies.

I also greatly respect Diane's position on immigration.  Some of the leadership candidates have chosen to empathise with Mrs Duffy and argue that we were wrong on immigration and that it helped us lose the election.  I do not believe this is the case, and it is good to see a candidate who is willing to challenge the misconceptions about immigration and to focus on the core issues behind discontentment amongst the electorate such as housing and jobs.

I feel it is important that we focus on what Labour did right in the past 13 years such as the minimum wage, equality legislation, Northern Ireland peace process. improved public services.  I feel Diane is best placed to carry on this agenda, and to steer us clear of unpopular policies.

Diane for Leader Facebook group
Diane Abbott Twitter feed

Why I'm voting Labour in York Outer

Many of you will be surprised to read that I have decided to support Labour in the forthcoming general election.  Unfortunately the Green Party are not standing in York Outer which has meant I have had to think carefully about where to place my vote.

I loyally voted Labour for the first 7 years of my voting life, but after the Iraq war I no longer felt I could support Labour and have not voted Labour for the past 9 years.  Even though I have a good MP in John Grogan I could not bring myself to vote for a party led by Tony Blair who I still feel should stand trial for war crimes and breaking international law.

In 2005 I ended voting Liberal Democrat, this is not an action I intend to repeat.  Since Charles Kennedy was ditched they have continued to move to the right.  So much now that we see Nick Clegg praising Thatcher and not ruling out helping a minority Tory governement.  I refuse to vote for a party which may end up propping up the Tories.

Despite the airbrushing and token statements on the environment and gay rights they have not changed.  I could write pages on why I would not vote Tory, but here are just a few reasons:

1. They wish to overturn the fox hunting ban.  This alone I feel is reason enough not to vote for them.
2. They still wish to impose their moralistic values on the country.  Two examples are their wish to give tax breaks to married couples and today's announcement by the shadow minister for children that he would like to criminalize under 16s for having consensual sex.
3. Leading members of the Tory party do not believe in man made climate change.
4. Even though we are facing cuts to the public sector in Labour, it looks like the cuts proposed by the Tories will come in sooner and be more severe.  I cannot see how firing large amounts of public sector employees will help the economy during a recession.
5. They wish to remove Britain as a signatory to the Human Rights Act
6. They are vehemently anti-union.  Cameron called on the PM to urge BA staff to cross picket lines during PMQs
7. They are members of the European Conservatives and Reformists group.  A group alleged to contain anti-semites and homophobes. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/gay-tory-daves-embarrassing-friends-1769707.html)

So why Labour?  Gordon Brown has to accept some responsibility for the Iraq war and we are still in a pointless war in Afghanistan.  But Labour have done good, which should be acknowledged, including:

1. Drastically cutting NHS waiting lists.
2. Fox hunting ban.
3. Implementing the minimum wage.
4. Human Rights Act
5. Freedom of Information Act
6. Scrapping section 28 and improving rights for the LGBT community.

Many people do come up with the old adage 'they are all the same' and say they will simply not vote or spoil their ballot papers.  I argue that they are not, and the thought of the return of a Tory government fills me with dread.

I therefore hope that fellow Green Party supporters will go out and vote for James Alexander for Labour in York Outer.

And, if you are lucky enough to live in York Central, please support and vote for Andy Chase for the Green Party.