Elections 5th May – The fightback begins

After two weeks pounding the mean and not so mean streets of Aylesbury where District & Town Council elections take place tomorrow the fear of cutbacks to services people value is palpable, the fear voters have for their ability to earn a living and for their children’s potential being realised is obvious. For since WWII every British Government has at least held out the promise that life will be better for the next generation and their children. However this Tory led coalition is holding out no such stall – Headed up by a slick marketing man they are applying the Hershey Bar technique. We are going to give it a shiny new wrapper, make it smaller and charge you more for less. This of course applies to the new ConDem army of the disposed, workers and pensioners who actually pay tax not non-Doms or Tory Tax exiles or the powerful lobbies funded by offshore companies.

For the truth is that this strange Coalition running the UK has rewritten the rule book. Forget Election manifestos and promises – the coalition of the Conservative Party which didn’t win the election and the Lib Dems who most definitely lost the election has a totally new agenda from the one their supporters voted for, the Conservatives have abandoned conservatism and the Lib-Dems have abandoned liberalism while their leaders lead them on a mongrel course of untried, untested and unproven radical policies which nobody voted for at breakneck speed – frequently falling over themselves in the process.





In the elections tomorrow voters are urged to show Cameron and Clegg that they can't carry on with policies which have no public backing. Labour today released a document detailing the divisive policies which the Tories and Lib Dems are pursuing without a mandate: No mandate for NHS reorganisation; No mandate for police cuts; No mandate for VAT rise; No mandate for their squeeze on middle-income families; No mandate for abolishing EMAs and Future Jobs Fund or trebling tuition fees. Last year the Tories fell short of a majority in the General Election, unable to command the support of the British people for their right-wing agenda. Since then, rather than proposing reform that commands consensus, David Cameron's Tory-led Government has attempted to force through right-wing policies for which they have no mandate.



I’ve heard from so many people on the doorsteps who are deeply concerned about what this government’s plans will mean for them and for their families. People are worried - about the future of local services like schools and sure start, about how much damage the government’s ‘reforms’ will do to our NHS, about how they’ll make ends meet in retirement if they have to wait longer for their state pension. And they’re worried about what this government will mean for the next generation: £9,000 university fees, the EMA scrapped and 1 in 5 young people out of work.

Let’s send a message to the Con-Dem government that we deserve better than this:

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/sendamessage

Tomorrow, voters across much of the country go to the polls to elect the people who will run their local councils and, in Wales and Scotland, the Assembly and the Parliament. Every vote for Labour tomorrow is a vote against this Tory-led government’s unfair cuts.



As Cameron, Clegg and Osborne cut from Westminster; it is those people in local councils and in the Scottish and Welsh governments who will have to pick up the pieces as their budgets are slashed. Already we’ve seen local services squeezed as local decision-makers are forced to pass on the cuts handed down from the Tories in Westminster.



By voting Labour, you can help to make sure local councillors and the Scottish and Welsh governments do everything they can to limit the damage done by these vicious Tory cuts. By voting Labour, you can help send a message to this Tory-led government that their cruel cuts are wrong, and there is a better, fairer way. Help us send this government a message, by emailing your friends and family to let them know why you think it’s important to vote Labour tomorrow.



See also;

http://www.aylesburylabour.org.uk

http://www.facebook.com/aylesburylabourparty

http://twitter.com/#!/aylesburylabour

Elections 5th May – The fightback begins

After two weeks pounding the mean and not so mean streets of Aylesbury where District & Town Council elections take place tomorrow the fear of cutbacks to services people value is palpable, the fear voters have for their ability to earn a living and for their children’s potential being realised is obvious. For since WWII every British Government has at least held out the promise that life will be better for the next generation and their children. However this Tory led coalition is holding out no such stall – Headed up by a slick marketing man they are applying the Hershey Bar technique. We are going to give it a shiny new wrapper, make it smaller and charge you more for less. This of course applies to the new ConDem army of the disposed, workers and pensioners who actually pay tax not non-Doms or Tory Tax exiles or the powerful lobbies funded by offshore companies.

For the truth is that this strange Coalition running the UK has rewritten the rule book. Forget Election manifestos and promises – the coalition of the Conservative Party which didn’t win the election and the Lib Dems who most definitely lost the election has a totally new agenda from the one their supporters voted for, the Conservatives have abandoned conservatism and the Lib-Dems have abandoned liberalism while their leaders lead them on a mongrel course of untried, untested and unproven radical policies which nobody voted for at breakneck speed – frequently falling over themselves in the process.





In the elections tomorrow voters are urged to show Cameron and Clegg that they can't carry on with policies which have no public backing. Labour today released a document detailing the divisive policies which the Tories and Lib Dems are pursuing without a mandate: No mandate for NHS reorganisation; No mandate for police cuts; No mandate for VAT rise; No mandate for their squeeze on middle-income families; No mandate for abolishing EMAs and Future Jobs Fund or trebling tuition fees. Last year the Tories fell short of a majority in the General Election, unable to command the support of the British people for their right-wing agenda. Since then, rather than proposing reform that commands consensus, David Cameron's Tory-led Government has attempted to force through right-wing policies for which they have no mandate.



I’ve heard from so many people on the doorsteps who are deeply concerned about what this government’s plans will mean for them and for their families. People are worried - about the future of local services like schools and sure start, about how much damage the government’s ‘reforms’ will do to our NHS, about how they’ll make ends meet in retirement if they have to wait longer for their state pension. And they’re worried about what this government will mean for the next generation: £9,000 university fees, the EMA scrapped and 1 in 5 young people out of work.

Let’s send a message to the Con-Dem government that we deserve better than this:

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/sendamessage

Tomorrow, voters across much of the country go to the polls to elect the people who will run their local councils and, in Wales and Scotland, the Assembly and the Parliament. Every vote for Labour tomorrow is a vote against this Tory-led government’s unfair cuts.



As Cameron, Clegg and Osborne cut from Westminster; it is those people in local councils and in the Scottish and Welsh governments who will have to pick up the pieces as their budgets are slashed. Already we’ve seen local services squeezed as local decision-makers are forced to pass on the cuts handed down from the Tories in Westminster.



By voting Labour, you can help to make sure local councillors and the Scottish and Welsh governments do everything they can to limit the damage done by these vicious Tory cuts. By voting Labour, you can help send a message to this Tory-led government that their cruel cuts are wrong, and there is a better, fairer way. Help us send this government a message, by emailing your friends and family to let them know why you think it’s important to vote Labour tomorrow.



See also;

http://www.aylesburylabour.org.uk

http://www.facebook.com/aylesburylabourparty

http://twitter.com/#!/aylesburylabour

Bring on the new Battle of Britain!

Ed & David Miliband

Ed Miliband is the new Labour leader; it has been announced at a special conference in Manchester. It's official - the name of Britain's next Prime Minister who will have to rebuild the country after the half cock slash and burn decisions of the Demolition Coalition is Ed Miliband! Bring on the Battle - the sooner we tear the unprincipled LibCon coalition of opportunism apart the less lives will be destroyed! We don’t want a Britain fit for millionaires, alleged Bankers and other assorted spivs!

I must be honest; I have not been on a winning streak lately. I supported another Ed, Ed Balls for Labour Party Leader and Oonagh King as Labour Candidate for Mayor of London - Ed Miliband and Ken Livingstone respectively were the winners of the contests. Nevertheless this is the first Labour leadership election since 1994 and is a vital part of the renewal of the Labour Party and the critical stocktaking which the Party has to perform after 13 transformational years in government.

Ed will be a strong leader for our Party and lead the fight against Tory plans for cuts that will devastate our public services. He's not just a fearless leader to fight the Tories; Ed is a strong supporter of trade unions. We've reached the end of months of campaigning and, this afternoon, we start to write the next chapter of this party's and this country's history. Much is being made that Ed Miliband gained a narrow victory over his brother David due to Trade Union support. This snide campaign denigrates the democratic nature of the Labour Party and the huge sense of engagement that Party Members and affiliated Trade Unions had in the election where one third each of the votes were cast by MP’s & MEP’s and Constituency Labour Parties (Clp’s), Members and Trade Unions and Affiliates.



So for instance in my case there was a full debate at my Clp who supported David Miliband, I also cast my individual Member’s vote where I could give my preference votes to the candidates and ditto on my vote as a member of an affiliated Trade Union. Whereas my Union recommended a candidate I was free to ignore this (I did!) and all votes were returned to the Independent Electoral Reform Commission to count so the result was unimpeachable. So the mischievous accusations that Sayeeda Warsi and others are making are wrong – this was an organised and regenerative leadership campaign with over 60 joint hustings by the 5 candidates which had real debate, real involvement and real choice. The results, round by round, were;

http://www2.labour.org.uk/votes-by-round

ABBOTT, Diane 7.42 0 0 0
BALLS, Ed 11.79 13.23 16.02 0
BURNHAM, Andy 8.68 10.41 0 0
MILIBAND, David 37.78 38.89 42.72 49.35
MILIBAND, Ed 34.33 37.47 41.26 50.65

We can be proud that in every corner of Britain, people are joining the Labour Party as members and supporters and getting ready for the fight ahead. Since the May General election Labour has over 32,000 new member join.


The Labour Party Conference at G-MEX Manchester - The former Central Railway Station

Ed Miliband beat brother David by the wafer thin margin of 50.65% to 49.35% after second, third and fourth preference votes came into play. Ed Balls was third, Andy Burnham fourth and Diane Abbott last in the ballot of MPs, members and trade unionists. Mr Miliband, 40, replaces acting leader Harriet Harman in the contest triggered by the resignation of Gordon Brown.

He paid tribute to each of his fellow candidates in turn and told the conference: "Today we draw a line under this contest and move forward united as a team." The Milibands are an interesting family. Of Russian Jewish descent their philosopher father’s remains rest under the watchful eye of Karl Marx in a corner of Highgate cemetery in north London. 12 yards or so from Marx's famous statue and tomb lies a small square stone. "Writer Teacher Socialist" reads the simple inscription. Ralph Miliband was one of Britain's foremost political theoreticians, an academic of world renown. And he was proud to proclaim himself a Marxist. He often told the story of being discharged in 1945 after his wartime service in the Navy where his CO said “good luck and make sure you don’t vote Labour Miliband.” In 1945 Labour won the British General Election with a landslide.

Ralph Miliband died in 1994, a few weeks before Tony Blair took over the Labour Party. By then he could see, with great unease, both his sons embarking on careers within what soon become known as New Labour - David advising Tony Blair, and Ed in the other camp, working for Gordon Brown. Ralph Miliband was not a Marxist in the Marxist-Leninist sense. He was no fan of the Soviet dictatorships and one-party states. Nor did he believe in violent revolution to overthrow capitalism. In crude terms he was neither a Stalinist nor a Trot. Yet he was deeply sceptical about whether Parliament would ever do much to emancipate the working class. Miliband was convinced instead that progress would depend on activity outside Parliament, through trade unions and other protest groups liberating themselves through radical activity.

For more on how Communism was born in London see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/red-flag.html

In the longer term, the question is how Labour goes about renewing itself in preparation for the next election. There’ll be a second opportunity to ask the questions it could be asking now, once there’s a leader in place. There is a huge democratic deficit at the heart of British politics today. The May 2010 General Election resulted in the LibCon Coalition of the Conservative Party who didn’t win the election and the Liberal Democrats who most definitely lost the election and whose promise of changing the “Face of British Politics” turned out to be a busted flush. Since then the public has been treated to a drip, drip, drip of spending cuts and tax raises based on slash and burn policies which were never put to the electorate. It is now clear that under the guise of “fiscal responsibility” what is happening is an ideologically driven attack on State services and the whole concept of “Society.” For David Cameron’s Big Society read Bogus Society.


Tony Blair - winner of 3 General Elections

So the huge achievements of the Labour Governments which ruled a successful and prosperous Britain for 13 years are now being sneered at – Cool Britannia is being supplanted by the Demolition Coalitions Cruel Britannia.

The Demolition Coalition and the Labour Leadership Campaign has made the UK electorate realise why Labour is different. With its roots in the struggles for ordinary people’s rights by the Trade Union Movement and mutual self help by the Co-Operative Society it is set apart from the shallow opportunism of other parties and is the only political movement which can bring fairness and growth to Britain. As the outcome of the last election and the destructive experimentation of the Demolition Coalition have shown the Lib Dems were not an alternative to the overweening selfishness of the Tories. So let the New Battle of Britain commence for the hearts and minds of the British Electorate and for a society committed to fairness and opportunity.


Harriet Harman - Acting Labour Leader

Even in the 5 short months since the General Election the swing in the national mood has been remarkable with Labour without a permanent leader now level pegging in the polls and Lib Dem supporters feeling betrayed. As the events of the credit Crunch and the Banking Meltdown have shown the party which represents those who sell their honest Labour is the source of honest values in society. Let the new Battle of Britain commence with the first major engagement being the London Mayoral Election of 2012, if the Coalition of Millionaires has not been consumed by its own contradictions before then.

As Ed Miliband said to the Labour Conference in Manchester; "My responsibility is to work every hour of every day, with a united team, to get David Cameron out of Downing Street as soon as possible."



The Labour Leadership Candidates.

Bring on the new Battle of Britain!

Ed & David Miliband

Ed Miliband is the new Labour leader; it has been announced at a special conference in Manchester. It's official - the name of Britain's next Prime Minister who will have to rebuild the country after the half cock slash and burn decisions of the Demolition Coalition is Ed Miliband! Bring on the Battle - the sooner we tear the unprincipled LibCon coalition of opportunism apart the less lives will be destroyed! We don’t want a Britain fit for millionaires, alleged Bankers and other assorted spivs!

I must be honest; I have not been on a winning streak lately. I supported another Ed, Ed Balls for Labour Party Leader and Oonagh King as Labour Candidate for Mayor of London - Ed Miliband and Ken Livingstone respectively were the winners of the contests. Nevertheless this is the first Labour leadership election since 1994 and is a vital part of the renewal of the Labour Party and the critical stocktaking which the Party has to perform after 13 transformational years in government.

Ed will be a strong leader for our Party and lead the fight against Tory plans for cuts that will devastate our public services. He's not just a fearless leader to fight the Tories; Ed is a strong supporter of trade unions. We've reached the end of months of campaigning and, this afternoon, we start to write the next chapter of this party's and this country's history. Much is being made that Ed Miliband gained a narrow victory over his brother David due to Trade Union support. This snide campaign denigrates the democratic nature of the Labour Party and the huge sense of engagement that Party Members and affiliated Trade Unions had in the election where one third each of the votes were cast by MP’s & MEP’s and Constituency Labour Parties (Clp’s), Members and Trade Unions and Affiliates.



So for instance in my case there was a full debate at my Clp who supported David Miliband, I also cast my individual Member’s vote where I could give my preference votes to the candidates and ditto on my vote as a member of an affiliated Trade Union. Whereas my Union recommended a candidate I was free to ignore this (I did!) and all votes were returned to the Independent Electoral Reform Commission to count so the result was unimpeachable. So the mischievous accusations that Sayeeda Warsi and others are making are wrong – this was an organised and regenerative leadership campaign with over 60 joint hustings by the 5 candidates which had real debate, real involvement and real choice. The results, round by round, were;

http://www2.labour.org.uk/votes-by-round

ABBOTT, Diane 7.42 0 0 0
BALLS, Ed 11.79 13.23 16.02 0
BURNHAM, Andy 8.68 10.41 0 0
MILIBAND, David 37.78 38.89 42.72 49.35
MILIBAND, Ed 34.33 37.47 41.26 50.65

We can be proud that in every corner of Britain, people are joining the Labour Party as members and supporters and getting ready for the fight ahead. Since the May General election Labour has over 32,000 new member join.


The Labour Party Conference at G-MEX Manchester - The former Central Railway Station

Ed Miliband beat brother David by the wafer thin margin of 50.65% to 49.35% after second, third and fourth preference votes came into play. Ed Balls was third, Andy Burnham fourth and Diane Abbott last in the ballot of MPs, members and trade unionists. Mr Miliband, 40, replaces acting leader Harriet Harman in the contest triggered by the resignation of Gordon Brown.

He paid tribute to each of his fellow candidates in turn and told the conference: "Today we draw a line under this contest and move forward united as a team." The Milibands are an interesting family. Of Russian Jewish descent their philosopher father’s remains rest under the watchful eye of Karl Marx in a corner of Highgate cemetery in north London. 12 yards or so from Marx's famous statue and tomb lies a small square stone. "Writer Teacher Socialist" reads the simple inscription. Ralph Miliband was one of Britain's foremost political theoreticians, an academic of world renown. And he was proud to proclaim himself a Marxist. He often told the story of being discharged in 1945 after his wartime service in the Navy where his CO said “good luck and make sure you don’t vote Labour Miliband.” In 1945 Labour won the British General Election with a landslide.

Ralph Miliband died in 1994, a few weeks before Tony Blair took over the Labour Party. By then he could see, with great unease, both his sons embarking on careers within what soon become known as New Labour - David advising Tony Blair, and Ed in the other camp, working for Gordon Brown. Ralph Miliband was not a Marxist in the Marxist-Leninist sense. He was no fan of the Soviet dictatorships and one-party states. Nor did he believe in violent revolution to overthrow capitalism. In crude terms he was neither a Stalinist nor a Trot. Yet he was deeply sceptical about whether Parliament would ever do much to emancipate the working class. Miliband was convinced instead that progress would depend on activity outside Parliament, through trade unions and other protest groups liberating themselves through radical activity.

For more on how Communism was born in London see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/red-flag.html

In the longer term, the question is how Labour goes about renewing itself in preparation for the next election. There’ll be a second opportunity to ask the questions it could be asking now, once there’s a leader in place. There is a huge democratic deficit at the heart of British politics today. The May 2010 General Election resulted in the LibCon Coalition of the Conservative Party who didn’t win the election and the Liberal Democrats who most definitely lost the election and whose promise of changing the “Face of British Politics” turned out to be a busted flush. Since then the public has been treated to a drip, drip, drip of spending cuts and tax raises based on slash and burn policies which were never put to the electorate. It is now clear that under the guise of “fiscal responsibility” what is happening is an ideologically driven attack on State services and the whole concept of “Society.” For David Cameron’s Big Society read Bogus Society.


Tony Blair - winner of 3 General Elections

So the huge achievements of the Labour Governments which ruled a successful and prosperous Britain for 13 years are now being sneered at – Cool Britannia is being supplanted by the Demolition Coalitions Cruel Britannia.

The Demolition Coalition and the Labour Leadership Campaign has made the UK electorate realise why Labour is different. With its roots in the struggles for ordinary people’s rights by the Trade Union Movement and mutual self help by the Co-Operative Society it is set apart from the shallow opportunism of other parties and is the only political movement which can bring fairness and growth to Britain. As the outcome of the last election and the destructive experimentation of the Demolition Coalition have shown the Lib Dems were not an alternative to the overweening selfishness of the Tories. So let the New Battle of Britain commence for the hearts and minds of the British Electorate and for a society committed to fairness and opportunity.


Harriet Harman - Acting Labour Leader

Even in the 5 short months since the General Election the swing in the national mood has been remarkable with Labour without a permanent leader now level pegging in the polls and Lib Dem supporters feeling betrayed. As the events of the credit Crunch and the Banking Meltdown have shown the party which represents those who sell their honest Labour is the source of honest values in society. Let the new Battle of Britain commence with the first major engagement being the London Mayoral Election of 2012, if the Coalition of Millionaires has not been consumed by its own contradictions before then.

As Ed Miliband said to the Labour Conference in Manchester; "My responsibility is to work every hour of every day, with a united team, to get David Cameron out of Downing Street as soon as possible."



The Labour Leadership Candidates.