Much as folk may have got orgasmic over whether or not Chuck Kennedy was thinking of crossing the floor and joining Labour over the weekend, it was largely irrelevant. Ok, if he had there may have been a couple of other disaffected Liberal Democrats who also find an alliance with the Tories to be nauseating, but as I have written here before, these things are largely PR exercises, and in any event I think that if they switch parties they should be required to submit themselves for election in their new colours.
No, the real task is to attract not the headline-grabbing MPs… but the hundreds of thousands of Lib Dem voters who feel betrayed by the decision to form a coalition with Cameron’s Conservatives. But Ed Miliband wants to be very careful what he is saying when he writes…
Leaving your party is the most honourable course when your party leadership leaves you.
…because there a hell of a lot of Labour Party members who have stayed in the party despite the antics of a Leadership who deserted us a long time ago.
Miliband said on Newsnight the membership of the party was increasing, Prezzy tells us the membership is dwindling, so what it is Bob, are Labour actually on the mend or not ? Just as an afterthought , does Unite remind anyone else of Red Robbo and co. ? Like old times, the Tories in their castle and Labour on strike again.
My old man says that there are only two honourable ways out. Ejection or in a box.
If the leadership stray (and haven’t they?), then it’s up to them to force me out, not for me to make it easier for them to make the change.
If I had followed what Ed Milliband had said, I would have stopped voting for Labour when the middle class took over the local party and changed it forever. Some of us fought back and eventually won. Then they took over the party and I despair. I look at the candidates and apart from Ed Balls – I shudder.
“a hell of a lot of Labour Party members who have stayed in the party despite the antics of a Leadership who deserted us a long time ago”
Or, ‘suckers’, as we fondly think of them!
And the fact that so many il-Lib-non-Dem members wish to join the suckers tells us so much about them.
Mike, I can only speak for my local branch party. 17 new members in May and June looks pretty good to me.
Danivon… Too true!
Mrs K… I can’t say Ed Balls really does it for me, and if it has got to be a Miliband I’d go for Ed… Although I may yet be persuaded to vote elsewhere.
I left in 1997 when i went to my local party, and it had been changing for some time, when we were told one day that ties would be needed, it never happened because the following meeting nobody turned up. Then arriving at the hall we saw a picture of Thatcher on the wall, which stated the greatest prime minister of all time, next to Nye Bevan which said sod all, it use to have the greatest politician, then the welsh Assembly had a picture of Thatcher with the greatest prime minister ever, and I just though hell why bother, I did not leave so much just stop paying my fee.
Robert, I think you are making stuff up again…