11 June, 2004
Why Labour Need Leadership Change
When Labour came to power, I cried tears of happiness.
At last the despot Tory party had been removed.
I was 9 years old when Thatcher came to power and during my
formative years I saw her rip the country apart.
I watched the horrors of the 1984 Miners Strike when
soldiers dressed as civillian police battered a movement
into submission.
I come from a Socialist family; 6th generation Irish immigrants
who had seen the formation of the welfare state and at times
relied on it heavily. A state, incidentally, that they had
fought to win.
I watched an increasingly laughable Labour party stumble from
election defeat to election defeat under the unsteady hand of
Michael Foot, so I joined the Communist Party.
When Neil Kinnock took over the leadership and put the party
back on a level footing I started to gander hope that they
may finally remove Thatcher from power, but thanks to the
power of the Murdoch owned media that was not to be.
Although, living in Merseyside at the time of the Militant
debacle, I still retain immense pride in Kinnock's expulsions
of Derek Hatton and his cronies. They were leeches.
I cried tears of sheer frustration on Election night 1992.
So I went to Poly being one of the last to receive a full
maintenance grant (until the final year when I was instead
awarded a Student Loan).
When Kinnock made way for John Smith, I watched the Labour
Party transform itself into a modern socialist party.
I still remember the shock of hearing of his death . He was
without doubt the finest Labour PM we never had.
But there was still hope. A young upstart by the name of
Tony Blair was elected leader and promised to pick up where
Smith had left off. He carried on modernising and everything
looked fine, until he took a leaf out of Thatchers book.
He took on the unions, organisations representing the natural
electorate of the party. That smelt bad.
And then he sold the family jewels. That was unacceptable.
And then the unspeakable happened. Major was out, and Blair
was our new leader. With hindsight we should have kept Major,
a PM in my opinion who had no big idea, no spin, but with a
love of this country and what it has stood for through many
regime changes but who delivered, quietly and effectively.
And then came Tony
A middle class barrister with about as much in common as me
as Saddam or Bin Laden. Fortunately he had a Chancellor who
still retained some of of his socialist roots. There was still
hope.
To date Tony Blair has
reneged on election promises
took us into war after war
and lied about why we went to war
over and over again
Furthermore he has propped up a dangerous illegal regime
The final straw is that he is so dis-interested in the
electorate he can't even be shown in the party propaganda
for yesterday's election because the party already now deep
down he has become a liability.
Mr Blair, your time is up.
¶ Friday, June 11, 2004
When Labour came to power, I cried tears of happiness.
At last the despot Tory party had been removed.
I was 9 years old when Thatcher came to power and during my
formative years I saw her rip the country apart.
I watched the horrors of the 1984 Miners Strike when
soldiers dressed as civillian police battered a movement
into submission.
I come from a Socialist family; 6th generation Irish immigrants
who had seen the formation of the welfare state and at times
relied on it heavily. A state, incidentally, that they had
fought to win.
I watched an increasingly laughable Labour party stumble from
election defeat to election defeat under the unsteady hand of
Michael Foot, so I joined the Communist Party.
When Neil Kinnock took over the leadership and put the party
back on a level footing I started to gander hope that they
may finally remove Thatcher from power, but thanks to the
power of the Murdoch owned media that was not to be.
Although, living in Merseyside at the time of the Militant
debacle, I still retain immense pride in Kinnock's expulsions
of Derek Hatton and his cronies. They were leeches.
I cried tears of sheer frustration on Election night 1992.
So I went to Poly being one of the last to receive a full
maintenance grant (until the final year when I was instead
awarded a Student Loan).
When Kinnock made way for John Smith, I watched the Labour
Party transform itself into a modern socialist party.
I still remember the shock of hearing of his death . He was
without doubt the finest Labour PM we never had.
But there was still hope. A young upstart by the name of
Tony Blair was elected leader and promised to pick up where
Smith had left off. He carried on modernising and everything
looked fine, until he took a leaf out of Thatchers book.
He took on the unions, organisations representing the natural
electorate of the party. That smelt bad.
And then he sold the family jewels. That was unacceptable.
And then the unspeakable happened. Major was out, and Blair
was our new leader. With hindsight we should have kept Major,
a PM in my opinion who had no big idea, no spin, but with a
love of this country and what it has stood for through many
regime changes but who delivered, quietly and effectively.
And then came Tony
A middle class barrister with about as much in common as me
as Saddam or Bin Laden. Fortunately he had a Chancellor who
still retained some of of his socialist roots. There was still
hope.
To date Tony Blair has
reneged on election promises
took us into war after war
and lied about why we went to war
over and over again
Furthermore he has propped up a dangerous illegal regime
The final straw is that he is so dis-interested in the
electorate he can't even be shown in the party propaganda
for yesterday's election because the party already now deep
down he has become a liability.
Mr Blair, your time is up.
¶ Friday, June 11, 2004
