Wednesday, 18 November 2009

The Fighters and Believers



I don't want to sound too much like Hugh Grant from Love Actually (ok, I do) but I must say from now on the Labour Party is prepared to be a lot stronger.

Here, in case you haven't seen it is our Party Political Broadcast, which has just this second been shown on BBC2 for the first time. Millions (I hope) of people will have now seen a Labour Party fighting for the future of this country.



I have written a lot about this film so all I'll say is this... We are the party of the fighters and believers, so we will go on, to May, fighting and believing in our Party. We'll have the battle scars to prove it, but it'll be worth every one of them.

Monday, 16 November 2009

Why the principles of our NHS shouldn’t stop at the White Cliffs of Dover…



A report out today from World Vision will shock. It outlines the biggest child rights violation of our modern age, child mortality due to lack of healthcare provision. World Vision’s statistics suggest that nearly nine million children will not see their fifth birthday, children who have not had the fortune of being born into a country that sees healthcare as a fundamental right for its citizens. Children who have had the ‘misfortune’ of being born into some of the poorest countries in the world. Purely and simply, a question of luck. Luck should not, and cannot play such a role in determining life expectancy of our children in 2009.

Millennium Development Goal 4 (to reduce child mortality by two thirds) can be met by 2015, though if we carry on at the same rate, it won’t. We’re 30% of the way there and we have a hell of a way to go in five years.

FAO Western, wealthy governments: a rise in investment every year from your countries from the current level of $16 billion to $42.5 billion by 2015 (that’s the equivalent to five, yes five, days of US health spending) would get us there. The right to healthcare and healthcare for children, should not respect borders. It should be universal, in the true sense of the word.

Currently, 3% of overall development assistance is spent on tackling maternal and child mortality(the two are obviously intrinsically linked). It's far too low a percentage, and priorities must change

We must not despair, solutions to child mortality can be easier, and cheaper, than one might think. Nutrition is a key factor – mineral supplements can prevent disease, education in basic hygiene and increased provision of antibiotics are all simple solutions to complex problems, problems that sound intimidating, but answers which are manageable. In short, can we help? Yes we can…

Let’s rescue Millennium Development Goal 4 from failure. Let’s lobby Governments to deliver on this, saving the Western World, who can help, from embarrassment. Let’s be able to cite the reduction of child mortality as an achievement: a source of pride, not shame.

To get involved:

Follow @WorldVision on Twitter

Visit World Vision's website

Saturday, 14 November 2009

Against the Odds



It was a well known fact that a lot of people at Labour conference were incredibly moved by the video shown before Gordon's speech. Against the Odds goes through a potted history of the Labour Party, showing exactly why we can and
must win.

I thought it might be an idea to ask the Labour Party if they had considered using the film as a Party Political Broadcast...fast forward about a week and we're here: the #againsttheodds campaign has gathered phenomenal momentum, and I have just this moment heard that Eddie Izzard has tweeted his support. I can't quite believe how a small idea, hidden in the deepest of grass roots could get this far, Alastair Campbell has blogged on it, a few hundred have signed our petition and more have joined our Facebook group.

I've written a more detailed piece on Labourlist about why I think this video should be shown across the nation to remind people of what a Labour government can do, and has done.

Funny what can happen when you put your mind to something isn't it?... #GameOn

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

As the blood boils, I write...



Have found the urge to blog on a few articles I've read recently... the last was yet another Daily Mail attempt to smear Harriet Harman. I go, therefore, from the ridiculous to the sublime. David Aaronovitch writes a superb piece in today's Times on Cameron's call for David Miliband to apologise for suggesting the views of Kaminski, one of the Conservatives' allies in their hideous EU grouping, were disgraceful.
They are disgraceful (see linked article). Miliband was right. He was right to say that they were repugnant views and he was right to call the Conservative leader on his alliance with such a man. I am sure there are many who find the views of Kaminski disgusting.

Though, I have to say I find David Cameron's request for an apology from Miliband chilling.

As Aaronovitch points out:

I find myself amazed by how Mr Cameron ever came to be in the position of demanding that a foreign secretary, descended from Polish Jews, should apologise for possibly offending the sensibilities of a foreign politician who vehemently opposed there being an apology for the massacre of Polish Jews. I think of all the things that Mr Cameron has got right in his leadership of the Conservatve Party and my mental jaw drops at the sheer wrongness of it.

This goes above the usual party political banter that I, and other activists indulge in frequently. This is not about Tory toffs or "Mr 10%", it goes further and I fear deeper. It is about David Cameron and the Conservative leadership showing themselves up for what they really are. Surrendering a place in the centre-right EPP grouping to join a fringe grouping of far right nationalists in order to placate the Euro-sceptic section of their party, and perhaps to secure UKIP/Tory floating voters. Many might say this was tactically quite clever.
But the move comes at a high price, one of political respectablity. And Cameron's call for Miliband to apologise should also prove costly. Aaronovitch suggests the Conservative leader should go to the theatre, I would suggest the drawing board, where first on the agenda should perhaps be an apology, of a different kind.

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

The raving FemiNazi is defeated...and a hideous excuse for murder is upheld


yet more vile spoutings from, as Stephen Fry beautifully referred to it, "the paper any self respecting person wouldn't be caught dead reading" on Harriet Harman's attempt to outlaw the defence of 'infidelity' in murder cases, i.e. a man (or woman, though the defence is overwhelmingly used by men in cases such as these) "potentially escaping with a charge of manslaughter if their wife was having an affair".

Let's just have a little nosey at the headline shall we...


I struggle to breathe reading the headline through the rage, I really do. By the end of the article, I was in need of emergency resuscitation.

We are now all too familiar with this rag of a paper, disguising itself as journalism, beating Harriet Harman and her disgusting feminism down at every opportunity, just remember the LESSONS ABOUT WIFE BEATING AT THE AGE OF FIVE: IN THE WEEK HH TAKES CHARGE YET ANOTHER FEMINIST INITIATIVE gem we got from this rotten corrupt and morally defunct publication in August.

We've recently had a woman all us girlies can be proud of, no not Harriet who has fought for an equality bill which as Brown said at conference will "change this country for the better and forever", don't be ridiculous, I mean the passionate purveyor of female rights DM columnist Amanda Platell who probably sees her stints on Richard and Judy's sofa defending Kate Middleton's choice to "wait for Wills" as doing her bit for the struggle. She eloquently and poignantly suggests,

Feminist? Ms Harman is a zealot whom history w
ill judge to have done more to hinder the progress of women in the 21st century than any Page 3 bimbo.

But we can easily dismiss that as, well, 'bitchy' tripe. It's when this publication, which I cannot bring myself to call a newspaper ventures into the realm of the real issue that I get scared. Harriet Harman was calling for a change. As she says herself, quoted in the piece -

'For centuries the law has allowed men to escape a murder charge in homicide cases by blaming the victim...Ending the provocation defence in cases of "infidelity" is an important law change and will end the culture of excuses.'

Yes, it has and yes it would. How can a law, which seems medieval in it's foundations, be upheld as a legitimate defence today? And how can a publication, along with a High Court judge (heaven knows, by the way...) chastise a minister for trying to put a stop to it?

I don't know... but yet again I find myself defending the easily defensible against the indefensible. If that makes sense... Nevertheless, Harriet, I ask you to wear this with pride -

A Labour Melting Pot...



What does a 'normal' Labour activist look like? Are they a plump, Northern, older man with thumping fists and a ever increasingly noticeable bald patch? Certainly, I've met many who fit that description. Where might they be from? Well, I've hastened a guess that they might be Northern, or Welsh perhaps? Maybe Liverpudlian? What do they do? Well they may well be retired, probably lived quite a difficult life, might well have joined a Union and become pretty active. They have probably been to getting on for fourty Labour Conferences and have seen many a leader come and go, been used to our criminally long spell in Opposition and welcomed (perhaps with some reservations) a New Labour party into government in 97 with a tear in their eye, and a smile of relief at the chance to change things. They may well have become disillusioned with some of the policy roads the Newer factions of the party have gone down in the past 12 years, but remain fundamentally convinced that Britain is better after, yes, Blair, Brown and most importantly, Labour.
They may look to the next election with a sinking feeling, that the dark days of opposition could be round the corner, this country that we can now feel proud to be part of, could once again slip into the hands of those that feel they were born into power to protect their right to it. Those who see the past 12 years as a temporary blip in the status quo of Britain, where Tories rule and Labour annoyingly rebel. Where people know their place, and know they'll stay there. The 'normal' Labour man I have been imagining may well be ready to give all he has to what will be the toughest fight our party has faced in twenty years. Thank God he is.

This activist, and those like him, are a fundamentally important part of our party. They're it's soul to an extent. But I completely reject that they are the only 'type' of activist or MP that our party can have to remain 'real socialists', to remain faithful to the cause of the working classes, to remain the party of the less fortunate. I have been attacked on, our old fave, Twitter for being a spoilt little daddy's girl (as I've vented my spleen on here before about) and a traitor to the working classes my party should represent because I tweeted that I'd had some cocktails. I'm sick of writing posts about myself but give me a moment to just respond...I'm not rich. I'm not spoilt. My mum and dad were both brought up in council houses, one in South London, the other North. My dad's parents were Irish immigrants and my mum's mum was a single parent who had her at 18, raised her well but struggled. I've never been spoilt and my family have never been well-off. I've had the benefit of an extraordinary (free, but Catholic) education which I am hugely grateful for, but to some extent resent. The point of this is that none of it really matters. Or shouldn't do anyway.

As I've said before, Tony Benn has hardly had a tough life, but he's one of our greatest fighters for the rights of those less fortunate. Nye Bevan was the son of a struggling miner raised in a community which knew little else but socialism, yet said himself when he became a minister that he openly indulged in the finer things in life, whilst struggling for a better 'lot' for his people, and for a health service in place of fear. Both men have done extraordinary things, from polar opposite backgrounds. Where Nye's achievement is probably more extraordinary, the politics of Tony Benn is impressive and inspiring considering his background of privilege.

In short, it's about where we as political voices, small like mine or loud and powerful like Nye's or Tony's, are aiming for, not where we've come from. Labour are proud to be a party who have stood up for women's rights, stood up for worker's rights, stood up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves.
Bevan once said, "when I listen to the cacophony of harsh voices trying to intimidate, I close my eyes and listen to the silent voices of the poor", this is what we as a party should forever be trying to do, irrespective of the background, age or gender of our representatives, but acutely mindful, always, of those we represent.

as an aside, someone has just brought my attention to this on Polly Toynbee which I think exemplifies my point nicely.

Friday, 23 October 2009

Why I'm Labour ...

And because I cannot believe I hadn't put this up on here before now... If you haven't seen it, please watch. Please...