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February 20, 2006
Falling out of love with Labour
27 years ago the Conservatives came to power under Margaret Thatcher. The Thatcher years constituted, I felt at the time, one of the worst periods in modern British history. Indeed I firmly believed that Thatcher would remain unchallenged as one of Britain's most disliked leaders.
But not any more. I have finally reached the point where inspite of remaining a member of the Labour Party, I find myself unable to vote for a Labour candidate either locally or nationally.
There have been many issues that have built towards this point, but the final straw was the second reading in Parliament of potentially the most dangerous piece of legislation brought before parliament, the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
According to the Government,
The Legislative & Regulatory Reform Bill aims to make it quicker and easier to tackle unnecessary or over-complicated regulation and help bring about a risk-based approach to regulation.
The Bill will help deliver a number of the wide-scale reforms announced in the Better Regulation Action Plan in May 2005.
It will do this primarily by creating a wider law reform power than that in the Regulatory Reform Act 2001. This will allow the Government to deliver reform of outdated or over-complicated legislation more quickly, and enable the mergers of those regulators not currently covered by separate legislation.
A laudable sentiment you might think, enabling the Government to simplify legislation for the benefit of the public and business alike.
Except that it isn't that simple, as this briefing paper from London solicitors Clifford Chance shows.
If this Bill is passed onto the Statute Book then the Government will have enacted a profound and fundamental change in the constitutional nature of this country. The Bill would grant the executive the power to abolish trial by jury, reform or remove what remains of Magna Carta; sack judges, all without recourse to Parliament.
After the pensions raid where prudent Gordon Brown knowingly gambled with our future financial security, after Iraq and WMD, after the burying of the Jenkins Report on Electoral Reform (a referendum on which was a 1997 manifesto commitment), after all this enough is enough.
Along with many others, I won't be voting Labour and beyond that, will be pushing for true constitutional reform.
Not Little England - Getting New Labour out of office
Chicken Yoghurt - Chain of command
Talk Politics - Where liberty is, there is my country
BlairWatch - The Tipping Point
Nick Barlow - And if we don't do it, who else will?
Perfect.co.uk - The tipping point?
Posted by Clive on February 20, 2006 10:59 AM in the category Labour
Comments
"I have finally reached the point where inspite of remaining a member of the Labour Party, I find myself unable to vote for a Labour candidate either locally or nationally."
Sorry to hear that. So... what's it to be comrade? Revolutionary abstensionism? Or are you going with the last desperate throw of the Lib Dem dice... Anyone But Labour? If you believe chucking in your lotr with the sort of people who want things like... 'a Carnival of Blogs, a lá Britblog, that could rotate around, the best posts, the new blogs, etc? Good idea?' as suggested by Not Little England, is a substitute for opposing Blair as hard as we can within the Labour movement, best of luck to you. We might not defeat (get rid of) Blair, but I sure as hell know a bunch of lib dem supporting students and middle class twerps are going to achieve a damn site less. And if they win? If they get what they want? Who will address the problems of the poor sods that turn up to my surgery in Smethwick. A tory who is Anyone but Labour? Don't make me laugh.
Posted by: Bob Piper at February 21, 2006 7:19 PM
As an admirer of Thatcher, I doubt we would agree on many things, but I am 100% with you on the subject of this "Enabling Act".
As Conservative Bloggers, we are running a campaign against it
http://rightlinks.co.uk/linked/modules/AMS/index.php
The addition of a "Left Hook" to the campaign would be very useful.
Posted by: EU Serf at February 22, 2006 7:08 AM
Bob, right now my future actions are undecided, though I will continue to work from within the party to try and get things back on track. But where do we draw the line? This isn't a Labour government as I understand (or at least understood) it, yet it claims to be.
Short of taking up political assassination, or bombing the party conference, just how the hell are we supposed to get our party back. We've had plenty of grass-roots campaigns, yet the PLP just blithely continues to support the government regardless of just how antithecal current policies may be to the Party's original principles and ideals.
Posted by: Clive Summerfield at February 23, 2006 4:17 PM
Hey mate, nobody said life was easy. Its shit... and then you die. Socialists leaving Labour.. or voting Tory, just how upset do you think Blair would be about that? Personally, I think its what he wants... and I wouldn't give him the drippings from the end of my nose, as they say round here. Best of luck... but chop your hand off before you vote Tory!
Posted by: Bob Piper at February 23, 2006 9:09 PM
Don't worry Bob, around here my hands are safe. The composition of Barnsley council is pretty interesting, being:
Labour 33
Independant 22
Tory 5
LibDem 3
And the independants are pretty much socialist in outlook. So, no amputations likely in the near future.
Posted by: Clive Summerfield at February 24, 2006 8:15 AM
Well if you are a member of the Labour Party you should vote, otherwise do like others and pack it in and leave.
I hate doing this but being disabled, no really disabled with a spinal lesion I have had to leave the party. Once Labour closed down it's disabled members section, because Blair believed people with disabilities within Labour were a natural waste I left.
So either vote for them or leave.
Posted by: Robert at May 24, 2006 7:51 AM
socialist pigs!
Always the victims and never the solution. I vote tory because libralism cannot work in a shit-hole country like this. Barnsley, I come from barnsley and I hate the dependancy within it, they all winge but love to claim! claim claim claim that is no area to be proud of, and i'm not!
Posted by: craig at September 17, 2006 10:32 PM
"socialist pigs!", how witty and original of you to come up with that one, Craig. Now far from being a victim, my involvement in the whole process is to push for solutions, solutions that embrace the whole of society, rather than descend into unadulterated self-interest. A primary reason why liberalism struggles in this country is because people can't be arsed to look beyond their own selfish desires.
Shit-hole country, hate the town you came from? Instead of bitching about it, instead of looking after number one, why don't you get off your arse, get involved and try and make a difference? Or would that cramp your style too much?
You're so free with the sweeping generalisations,"they all winge(sic) but love to claim!", but strangely enough they don't all whinge, they don't all claim. But that stereotype most probably best supports your world-view.
Not all socialists are pigs, and not all Tories are scumbags, so throw away those blinkers and maybe, if your mind isn't too closed, you'll discover that there's a whole spectrum of belief from which a better society could be shaped.
Posted by: balders at September 17, 2006 11:46 PM