Well, I would say it's good to be back as the Aitken's had a superb holiday on Iona but returning to the aftermath of the worst fortnight the Labour Party has had in years thanks to the Glasgow East debacle is no pleasure.Still, watching from afar but unable to participate in the Glasgow meant I could step back and reflect a little. There are many reasons why we lost Glasgow East but for me the tipping point was not the credit crunch, fuel prices or even the "couldn'y find a candidate" farce. It was a sentence, or more truthfully the lack of a sentence at Prime Minister's Question Time some weeks ago.
When David Cameron asked Gordon Brown if he backed Wendy Alexander's view on the need for an immediate referendum on independence if he had said "Wendy Alexander is the leader of the Scottish Labour Party and so is best placed to decide the Labour Party's strategy in Scotland and so I back her judgement" instead of prevaricating, we would have faced Glasgow East with a strong leader of a distinctly Scottish Labour party, the SNP referendum bluff called and a confident prime minister who would have shattered the image of him always trying to "control" Scotland Labour.
All the other factors that were hammering us would still have been around and it would have still been a very tough by election to win but I believe we would have.
Glasgow East is an object lesson in why giving up power will always bring you more influence then trying to hold on to it. Unless that lesson is learnt fast by Labour, and in particular its leader in Westminster, (its not too late but it's close), we face the doomsday scenario of an SNP/Tory cross boarder coalition, (remember it was the SNP who brought down Jim Callaghan's Government), breaking up Britain for their own political ends.
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4 comments:
Of course the attitude of potential leader Gray, potential deputy leader Curran and the continued and sustained trough feeding which goes on and on by politicians of the Labour ilk don't do the party any good either.
The fact that John Prescott was claiming for the food, then having the cheek to throw it up, is even more damning. Thank goodness it is not in his DNA to think about giving it back.
John
whatever allegations or insinuations are made about others and as yet they remain as such, despite the headlines you link to, both of the two politicians you refer to directly are individuals of complete integrity and commitment to social justice.
Ewan
The statements made in the links in my last post don't contain many allegations or insinuations but actually what the people mentioned actually claimed from the taxpayer - downright disgusting in my opinion.
I am sure you will be interested to know as a man of the cloth, that as an alternative to you, I will be teaching my children that to have complete integrity it will mean that they do not lie (I've lived all my life in the east end) and that if they do and are caught out they should immediately own up to their disgraceful behaviour and seek not only forgiveness but also how to repair any damage they did.
To have a commitment to social justice they must have:
1) the ability to critically analyse social problems or conditions and existing or proposed policy responses,
2) recognition of
individual and institutional forms of oppression, and
3) the willingness and ability to
participate in social action to correct injustices (not sweep them under the carpet), fight oppression, and promote social
welfare for ALL (Remembering that the empowerment perspective should imply active collaboration with client systems in an atmosphere of equality and mutuality in which the goals of intervention
include maximizing social support and a balance between self-sufficiency and
interdependency.)
Unfortunately politicians possessing these qualities are few and far between in my experience - However, as you know, I am committed to social justice let's hope I can instill the same values in my children. Luckily, I don't have a political party looking over my shoulder whose secret agenda I must religiously abide by.
I await with interest your candidates appearing on Newsnight dodging every question posed to them.
John
I wish you well in what you want for your kids
Ewan
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