Tag Archives: UKIP

Labour Party, Politics

Diary of a Frustrated Labour Supporter Week 5

Saturday 6th June
With Farage the self proclaimed leader of the NO vote campaign that may be good for us YES voters. However, he does have a knack of whipping up support with his ‘down to earth’ lingo and exaggeration of the problem and his ability to solve it…so I am a bit worried. I think the YES campaign has Mandleson at the moment which, sadly, is no contest. We will have to get some more charismatic leaders to front the YES campaign if we’re going to get over the 50% mark…and not Blair. Hopefully Mandleson will get his Manchester University job and that will keep him busy!

Sunday 7th June
And so we have the first split in the Tory party. I shouldn’t really rejoice, but…YIPEE! It looks like 50 Tories want to vote NO and Cameron won’t want that. Is this the beginning of the end? We’ll see. I wonder how many of them will move over to UKIP.
Could sense Andrew Marr’s frustration with Liz today…she wasn’t keen on answering his specific questions. It’s OK to say we need to focus on the ‘ big issues’ but a potential leader must also have a view on detailed policy. I agree with her that we need welfare reform, we need fiscal credibility and responsibility and we need growth in all parts of the country but she speaks in a disconnected way that does help me warm to her.
It’s interesting that Alistair Campbell thinks the Labour Party may not have yet reached the bottom; even though I don’t want to, I tend to think he may be right. Getting the Labour Party to be a ‘political movement’ again may be one way but it will be a difficult thing to achieve…thinks we can do it and I like her optimism. I think she would do well as our deputy leader, but we have to find a reason for people to want to vote Labour. But do you need to be involved in the political movement to vote for it? I’m not that involved in the party, on a day to day basis, but I am a member and I vote Labour…but I do not feel part of a political movement.

Monday 8th June
Ahhh! We all seemed to have misunderstood what Cameron was saying about his ministers having to agree with the YES vote or otherwise they need to resign from the Government! I don’t think every journalist could be wrong…he’s just running scared! A huge U-turn that Cameron is going to have to deal with in the future.
Jeremy Corbyn speaks so naturally, you feel he actually believes in what he is saying..not like some of the other leadership contenders! I actually agree with a lot of what he is saying…equal society, nobody needing to live in poverty, decent housing for all…but I fear we no longer live in a country that supports his kind of beliefs. People seem to be much more selfish and focused on the individual…ie. themselves!

Tuesday 9th June
Labour Party leadership nominations are open…it’s going to be so exciting! Or not! On the first day Andy has got most MP support so far…not surprised, and at least he is now acknowledging how good the Labour Party 2015 manifesto was, focusing on reducing inequality.
And what a day of the bizarre! Harriet’s comments are bizarre…no real Labour Party supporter was relieved we didn’t win; of course we wanted to win. It would have meant we could have implemented our policies that would have supported those who really need help, those on low wages, those who rent, those who do not want to be on zero hour contracts. Surely that is better than having a Conservative MAJORITY? And Nicola on an American talk-show! She actually came across really well. She doesn’t seem to be afraid of saying or doing anything…which is good to see in a politician…a female Farage; maybe the Labour Party leadership contenders can learn from her!
But it looks like 16 and 17 years olds may not be able to vote in the EU Referendum. Very disappointed. It would be a fantastic opportunity to get young adults engaged in politics and would ensure the debate on both sides was clearly and fully articulated – a real shame. Let’s hope the Lords get an amendment through which the Commons will eventually support.

Wednesday 10th June
So, we’re going to sell off RBS for a loss and this is a good thing! I’m not convinced and don’t really understand the rush to sell it off – apart from the political reasons, i.e. getting the bad stuff done early in the Government. And whether his announcements that all future governments will ‘need to have budget surpluses’ is also the right thing for the economy who knows. All we do know is that he probably wants to be Conservative leader and will say and do anything to get that job.

Thursday 11th June
All parties have their own factions so I’m not surprised that a group of labour MPs want to push forward and create a Pro-European campaign group. Supposedly Harriet is worried but I’m not too sure why; it is in line the party view. We should allow each MP to campaign and vote as they wish to…a true free vote; it is the right thing to do and it would demonstrate to the public that this should not be a party political issue…it is a cross party, country wide issue. There will be labour voters who want to leave the EU and those who want to stay, there will be Tories who want to leave the EU and those who want to stay, ditto SNP voters and Liberal Democrat voters; although that is probably not the case for UKIP voters! The Labour Party should come out and allow a free vote; take the initiative and don’t worry about being seen as being too attached to the Tory agenda. Define our own agenda.
And once again the Tories have forgotten their One Nation mantra. Cutting support greats to students from less well off families does not encourage and support those who really need help to improve their levels of education and get skills for improved their job opportunities. And turning unemployment benefits into loans may save £5bn from the welfare bill but burdens the low paid with debt which have an impact on their ability to pay for food, housing, transport…it doesn’t appear to ‘be on the side of working families!

Friday 12th June
And now there are 4; tonight we say goodbye to Mary Creagh who has withdrawn from the leadership contest. I am not surprised as she seemed unable to get the momentum behind her campaign. It is now critical that Jeremy Corbyn gets his 35 nominations so that members have a real choice in this election…every MP should back someone and there must be some who would like to nominate Jeremy – so have the guts to do so and don’t grumble about the outcome when you don’t get the person you wanted. My heart is sympathetic to Jeremy but my mind seems to be moving towards Yvette…let’s see what the next few weeks bring.

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Politics, Uncategorized

Diary of a Frustrated Labour Supporter – Week 3

Tuesday 26th May

2 ½ weeks is a long time. Tomorrow will be the Queen’s Speech. 2 ½ weeks ago many thought we may not get to this point. They thought the political parties would be in the midst of trying to form a government that could get a Queens Speech voted for. Little did we know!

We know some of the things it will contain…EU Referendum, devolved power to Scotland, more money for the NHS, more free childcare, reduced welfare cap…but it will also include some more controversial proposals…..the right to buy housing association houses, the ‘snoopers charter’, tighter rules on trade union strikes, the abolition of the Human Rights Act (possibly).

And Nicky’s back on TV saying all the right things for now, and for her future Conservative party leadership challenge that will come around pretty quickly…I feel.

And how did I miss the announcement that Chris Leslie was the Shadow Chancellor? I actually think he’s quite good so I’m keen to see how he responds to the Queens Speech. If I don’t know who’s holding what shadow job then I am sure the public don’t know…could the Labour Party out some ‘comms’ please?

Mary Creagh sounds like she’s being interviewed for a job by Evan Davies. I know she is going for a job…sort of…but she sounds like she has learnt her answers t o the expected questions rather than portraying what she really feels and thinks. I think I prefer what she writes than what she says in person.

Finally…Chukka’s come out to support Liz. That won’t do her any harm and it now looks like it will be a straight battle between the post 2010 and pre 2010 camp…how they will work together after the vote who knows.

Wednesday 27th May

Pleased that Cameron has decided not to go full steam ahead on abolishing the Human Rights Act. It demonstrates that it is the wrong thing to do and that Cameron hasn’t got the guts to go ahead with such a controversial change. It could easily still be his ‘poll tax’ moment but not right now…although it would have been good to see how he handled a backbench revolt and public anger…it may mean he would have to go! Only time will tell.

And from what I can see Cameron hasn’t explained how all this is going to be funded. Where is the money coming from for the NHS, childcare, selling off housing association houses…without raising taxes? Financially incredible.

Making it harder to strike is just going to make the union members more active, more engaged and more likely to vote rather than the inactive, unengaged, uncommitted members so many of them currently are. If they know they need to get a 50% turnout they will work so much harder to achieve it. It may also mean union leaders will need to spend more time communicating with their members rather than trying to influence leadership elections. Good things all round! Probably not want Cameron thought he’d get.

Thursday 28th May

Bribery in FIFA has knocked politics out of the news! At least we don’t have a day of conservatives telling everyone how lovely they are and how much they are on the side of ‘working’ people…I feel we all need to resign from our jobs so there will no one working and they won’t be able to use that phrase again.

Friday 29th May…the day of 3’s!

Has it only been 3 weeks since the election? It feels so much longer. 3 weeks gone 257 weeks to go!

And 3 (out of the 4 labour leader hopefuls) were out and about today. Andy singing the praises of business, Liz talking about how important education is and Yvette’s going on a walkabout around the UK to listen to people…ahhh, how lovely!

Maybe Andy’s strap line should be ’embrace an entrepreneur’. I’m not convinced he spoke so fervently about how brilliant business was when he was in the shadow cabinet, but, like everyone else…in hindsight/now they have listened to what they heard on the doorsteps/looked at where we are…he now realises business contribute a lot to the UK and the economy! They always have and always will do so not too sure what’s changed! Oh yes…we badly lost an election 3 weeks ago!

And Liz, I actually agree with you that education is a key way to improve a person’s life chances and provide people with more opportunities. But she must stop supporting free schools. Last year figures showed that 30% of free schools inspected by OFSTED were marked inadequate or in need of improvement compared to the 20% of state schools. Even Sweden are falling out of love with them and want to tighten the quality controls over them and return control over to their local authorities. Since introducing them Sweden’s educational standards have reduced and now lag behind the UK and the USA. Even our own education select committee is unclear on whether free schools are effective and worth the money…and that committee is lead by a Tory! Are they really the right solution to improving standards when money is scarce? I don’t think so and Liz should not promote them.

And Yvette should carry on listening because I haven’t heard much from her yet,

So the 3 key words for the contest seem to be ‘business, education and listening’.

All very well, but what they must all remember is that people vote based on which party they feel will give them what they want as individuals and how that government will help their own lives; we don’t vote altruistically based on whether the party will help the country as a whole. So, however good or right our policies may be for the country if people don’t think they will help them personally, sadly, they don’t really care.

And, they still need to watch out for UKIP…they haven’t gone away. Whether the Labour Party likes to believe it or not, many potential and previous labour voters in England voted UKIP because UKIP said what they wanted to hear! Labour need to do a lot to ensure they start to say what these people want to hear…which will be hard for the party.

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