Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for 10 years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
Tom Harris writes very lucidly about the way in which many people in the media (and the political parties) appear to think that the way to resolve the present crisis over MPs expenses is to come up with entirely unrelated solutions. David Cameron started us off last week with his 'power to the people' cry, which on close examination appeared to give us the power to have less Members of Parliament, and then for those smaller numbers to be allowed to elect the chairs and members of select committees. Pardon me if I don't feel totally liberated as a result of Dave's plan to empower me in this way.
Then we get Alan Johnson, followed by Polly Toynbee and the usual suspects finding the answer to MPs on the make is to change the voting system to the one they have been barking on about for decades. Now today, in The Guardian Jackie Ashley wants to revive the corpse of Ramsey Macdonald by proposing The Guardian solution to everything from global warming to bed wetting... that long time favoured solution of the chatterati, a Government of national unity... or a centre left coalition as our Jackie calls it.
Yes, the Goats, the Government of all the talents. Ashley writes...
So this new left-of-centre coalition could be pro-welfare, mildly pro-European and support constitutional reform, including PR – exactly the kind that would be melded by an alliance between Lib Dems and the better angels of Labour.
Hey, Jackie, why not throw in those centre-right Cameroonies too, because there are almost certainly a large proportion of them who could sign up to your plan. And what do they actually believe? Well, they believe in the same thing that Jackie Ashley, Martin Bright, Polly Toynbee and the rest of the chattering classes on their cocktail circuit believe in. Why not do away with elections and political parties altogether, and let Jackie and her chums select our governments for us... they are, after all, on the side of the angels, aren't they?
What the UK needs now is obviously a perpetual coalition of well-meaning Guardian readers. We could have a crèche‘n’lentils-based economy and the cabinet could meet in a tent at Hay-on-Wye. How lovely...
I remember your post from a few days ago, pointing out that everyone seems to think that PR will not only prevent future MP expenses scandals but will also cure cancer and AIDS in the near future. Same again here!
The Lib Dems can f*** o** ! Pardon my french. People like Ashley have no idea how tribal Labour is at grassroots level.
Jeremy Poynton said:
June 1, 2009 2:53 PM | permalink
Well one thing I know after 12 years of New Labour is - Never believe a word they write in their manifestos.
ps. Labour voter of 32 years, until Bliar lied us into Iraq. After Brown - never, never, never, ever again. New Labour has betrayed the country, and betrayed its own. Vermin.
"Labour undoubtedly contains plenty of people who want to see transparency of MPs' expenses, more backbench power, a wider democracy, restored local government, electoral reform for Westminster, and an elected second chamber. It also contains lots of others who want none of these things and who believe with an inextinguishable tribal passion that they are all weapons to weaken Labour and attack its voters."
That tribal lot that Kettle refers to, in distinction to what yozza has just said on this feed, is the New Labour tools who are afraid of life without the winning side (having, to paraphrase Kettle again, "gone from Commons intern to research assistant to councillor to special adviser, and ultimately to MP and minister").
The more experienced folk seem to want to engage with electoral reform and PR(Roy Hattersley), be seen on the side of leftist eurosceptics (Tony Benn).
So at times like this, its helpful not to forget that the Labour Party is occupied terriTORY.
June 1, 2009 8:49 AM | permalink
What the UK needs now is obviously a perpetual coalition of well-meaning Guardian readers. We could have a crèche‘n’lentils-based economy and the cabinet could meet in a tent at Hay-on-Wye. How lovely...