Sunday 25 September 2011

Labour Conference

So, here I am in that big Liverpool.

My drive was as farcical as the DWP admin department. The M6 toll road was actually closed due to an accident and after not moving at all for an hour and a half, we were diverted through Stoke and other "Northern Places" to the old M6. It took me 7 1/2 HOURS to get to the Wirral and when I did, I was good for absolutely nothing.

Kaliya Franklin, (@BendyGirl) welfare-warrior-twin had taken her life into her own hands to cook me dinner and after a pleasant few hours with her lovely neighbour, a yummy meal and a glass or two of wine I began to think that I might just make it to a few Labour-y things at conference after all.

WARNING : For the next few days, this blog will almost certainly turn into a bit of a Labour zone.

Adventures nearly always happen - Did I ever tell you about the time I found myself walking along he seafront with David Miliband? He was still Foreign Secretary, and as he made his way to the Conference Hall to make his keynote speech he spoke to me about social media campaigning as the world's media walked backwards snapping a thousand flashbulbs in our eyes. Or the time I plonked exhausted into a chair to find I was sitting next to Peter Mandleson?  You can imagine that I never waste such opportunities and hope there will be more this week.

Whoever I talk to, I will be urging them to reconsider ESA. I will be urging them to oppose Personal Independent Payments as a replacement for DLA. I will be urging them to speak a little louder and oppose a little more strongly.

However, I will also tell you who I think did a good job in their speeches - and who of course I felt didn't. An education report here, an NHS speech there - I'm sure many moments will inspire me to babble at you all.

I am Labour in my bones. It's in my DNA, runs through my family like the word "fairness" through a stick of rock. When I think they are wrong, I will say, but if I think they get it right, I will say that too.

I'll tell you what I think of Ed Miliband's speech and hopefully, this conference will be the start of a more coherent plan from Labour. Time is running out. We need a strong, confident opposition that stands up for fairness loudly, and with determination.

As the Welfare Reform Bill, the NHS bill and many others lurch gaspingly into the last stages of being made law (or should I say being forced into law?) we, the Labour party, the party that created the NHS and a compassionate welfare state must decide what we stand for and shout it from the rooftops.

Millions of people need us to.

23 comments:

  1. keep well Sue,
    If anyone listens to then your a marvel, trhe writings on the wall for all of us. If you do want to get their attention tell them that lives will be lost through the condem proposals.

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  2. Sometimes it is necessary to become a political animal this is one of those times!
    Good luck!

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  3. Good luck Sue. And they darn well should pay attention. They're lucky to have you as a supporter.

    Personally I'm probably a politician's worse nightmare. I've voted for all 3 parties at various times in my voting lifetime and regard every single election as a fresh start with my vote as something to be won.

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  4. the way i see it is they have potentially lots of disabled votes if they say tyhe right things having said that didnt mr c say the same things.
    Time is running out for not just us but our familys carers etc

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  5. "It's in my DNA, runs through my family like the word "fairness" through a stick of rock."

    Never thought I'd hear you paraphrase Nick Clegg ;)

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  6. Good luck sue and enjoy yourself
    If you get to meet any of the big boys tell them about me and my persecution of 30 years by the DWP

    I received another letter from my appeal with the DWP regards a so called debt i owe them
    yesterday from their debt agency saying that a debt i owed couldn't be applied as the DWP had not applied for it in the correct manor and that the debt therefore is cancelled

    The letter then goes on to state that they might come after me again using the right format for chasing money so please take note

    Signed as always DECISION MAKER that's all you get decision maker

    I have had letters like that for the past 10 years and threat letters for 30 years

    You tell them sue that old fourbamks is still alive and despite the very best efforts by the DWP to abuse me mentally have failed and although i look like i have come out of a prisoner of war camp I'm still alive and vow with gods help to carry on at least until my 3 kids are settled in adulthood

    I will then be able to go to Switzerland for euthanasia happy that as a father i did my duty in condition's normally only reserved for prisoners of war hence i look like one

    If you see ed just let him know about old fourbanks and ask him why he has never ever replied to any of my letters as I'm interested to know the answer it's probably the shock of seeing my body

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  7. FIFA, They are all the same which ever way you look at it, cant be trusted at all and you know what we vote for them kinda makes you sick dont it

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  8. [QUOTE]Anonymous said...

    FIFA, They are all the same which ever way you look at it, cant be trusted at all and you know what we vote for them kinda makes you sick dont it[/QUOTE]

    It all depends on how you view conferences and your own personal experiences
    I've been watching them since they were first broadcast and the message has always been the same I've yet to hear or see anyone outside )Michael foot (labour) Tony Benn (labour or Enoch Powell (Conservative ) speak in a manor in where everyone tuned in irrespective of what the debate was about

    What we see today is just so called educated people stand up and ramble on in the same way year in year out with complete meaning less words chaired by people who haven't a clue about anything and cheered on by and large by a very gullible audience at least sue wont be cheering as she like me will wont to see a clear path in going forward and rightly so

    The standard of debate is non existence and that my friends is unlikely to change over the next ten years and they call people like Ed a future leader not a hope in hell he sounds for starters like he's very week and when he tries to sound angry his face is just wrong and doesn't look convincing at all

    David Cameron on the other hand is very convincing hence the votes he gets but he is a very deceptive man and should never even be allowed in to politics as he can cause untold damage on vulnerable people of which their is no return

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  9. Anyhow what we have to remember at least i have too is that whatever labour say it wont effect me and those like me as i have said above the polices coming out are just going over old ground and the record is wearing out

    The conservative conference next week will be even worse that i do know only the likes of myself who are very frail can inflict serious damage on a party nobody else can as it's the visual element of how i look like all things in life which would do the damage

    See what ed should have done is come round my house and see the damage that's been inflicted on me and dragged me to the labour conference where i would have been able to deliver a final knock out blow on the conservatives

    So i regret to say that Ed's not a clever man either sad to say well at least sad for me but who knows maybe one day ?

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  10. Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
    Forgive our foolish ways!
    Re-clothe us in our rightful mind,
    In purer lives thy service find,
    In deeper reverence praise.

    In simple trust like theirs who heard,
    Beside the Syrian sea,
    The gracious calling of the Lord,
    Let us, like them, without a word
    Rise up and follow thee.

    O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
    O calm of hills above,
    Where Jesus knelt to share with thee
    The silence of eternity,
    Interpreted by love!

    Drop thy still dews of quietness,
    Till all our strivings cease;
    Take from our souls the strain and stress,
    And let our ordered lives confess
    The beauty of thy peace.

    Breathe through the heats of our desire
    Thy coolness and thy balm;
    Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
    Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
    O still small voice of calm!

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  11. http://www.matchdoctor.com/blog_127332/What_If_Jesus_Came_Back_Today.html

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  12. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15906.htm

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  13. I thought this your man was excellent and for 16 years of age has a great future
    Teen Rory Weal steals the show at Labour Party conference
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15064396


    He says the conservatives have taken a dislike to young people the truth be told from such a insular party the conservatives have always disliked anyone without money and that has been true since that party was born

    It's very being and ideology is the same as the BNP party who dislike foreigners so how the hell anyone would vote conservative or BNP is complete and utter madness

    Labour don't have all the answers we know that but they don't hate people the conservatives like the BNP like the Natzis do and that my friends has not changed and never will do

    Why i hear you say ?

    The conservatives need a scapegoat for their hatred of the sick and disabled just like hitler in the war A sort of punching bag if you will that they could direct everyone's hate against and so they could gain power. In Germany at the time of the rise of Nazism, poverty was a big problem in Germany so Hitler told his people that it was because of the jews as they were rich

    The same today David Cameron says the average person is poor because of the sick and disabled his speeches like Hitler of which i have all of the recordings were excellent it would be very difficult to tell them apart

    What ed should be doing is compiling the speeches that Hitler made and those of David Cameron so that the tones of the speeches along with the words used can then be measured you just have to replace jew in what Hitler used with sick and disabled the words David Cameron uses or in the case of the BNP party foreigners the words they use

    It's a fascinating excise hearing the speeches of Hitler and David Cameron both men looking for a scapegoat one the sick and the other the jews both men never to give up until they have succeeded

    In Hitler's case he committed suicide as for David Cameron who knows on what his mind is set on and i guess like all things in life only time will tell


    The majority of the British people don't forget are on the far right of politics which is a very dangerous position to be in for all that are on the left which is only around one third of the population

    My predication is that the county over the next ten years will be around 80% on the far right 10% in the centre ground and 10% on the left and those on the left will be like me ragged and threadbare like an old carpet

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  14. You can survive as long as all three corners of the survival triangle remain in place. Food, water, medication (bottom left) - heat, shelter, clothing (bottom right) - protection (top) we have already lost the top and the others are under severe attack.

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  15. Anyone see the report at conference to day about welfare. People must work if they can, but labour will look after those that cannot, but we must accept their will be benefit cuts and we must just accept this.

    So look I know many do not like some of my comments but why is it we must accept benefit cuts are both Labour and the Tories working together to put these through.

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  16. I am lucky enough to live in Scotland, where we have a leftie party to vote for, the SNP, though, of course welfare is a reserved matter.

    Labour are beyond corrupt. You hear their politicians talk, Party comes first. Up here they are the establishment and feather their own nests and give contracts to their buddies. The same is true down there.

    If you wish to recapture your Party from Blue and Purple Labour, you have to capture the constituency parties first

    Return your party to what it was, not the mirrorimage of the Tories that it is

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  17. If Scotland does become independent once again make sure whatever you do that you have the complete unaltered survival triangle as an absolute minimum placed within a legally binding written constitution. I would also look at the US Constitution and the EU Human Rights Act to be incorporated.

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  18. [QUOTE][QUOTE]Robert said...

    Anyone see the report at conference to day about welfare. People must work if they can, but labour will look after those that cannot, but we must accept their will be benefit cuts and we must just accept this.

    So look I know many do not like some of my comments but why is it we must accept benefit cuts are both Labour and the Tories working together to put these through.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

    Its not about the cuts Robert it's about the abuse that people like me suffer on a year to year basis where i have been and felt imprisoned in my own home and mentally abused and loss of benefit if i have gone out
    Thats the trouble and then it's all the letters 12 feet high that you owe money when you don't and have to spend one year on appeal on each letter i have been on appeal far longer then a USA murderer waiting for a death sentence has the BBC come to my aid ? NO
    HAS THE LABOUR PARTY COME TO MY AID ? NO
    Nor the police nor a charity no one
    All I've had is a brief 30 minutes with my mp never to see him again probably because i took my shirt off and seeing my broken body frightened him off ?

    I'll be the one that will say what's right and what's wrong with a political party if that's what you would call them i wouldn't to me there both scum and ed ain't going anywhere mouse never do

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  19. Fourbanks

    I do feel for you who would not, sadly this is about Politics and it is about cuts.

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  20. [QUOTE]Robert said...

    Fourbanks

    I do feel for you who would not, sadly this is about Politics and it is about cuts.[/QUOTE]

    Your a good man Robert it's just very sad that Michel foot is not alive to fight our corner god rest his soul

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  21. WE seem to have got away from the fact that the whole attack on the sick/disabled was started by Labour in thier last stint in mis-governmentand now we are hearing that Yvette Cooper could be a viable candididate in any future leadership contest.God help us.They didnt listen then and they sure as hell are not listening now.They are the official opposition and the clue is in that title .They should be bitterly opposing any and all bills,scams and flim flam policys that the tories are foisting on us ...again AT OUR EXPENSE....and they are not doing that.Balls can apologise all he bloody wants for thier previous failures...guess what we already know so shut the FFFF up and get on with it. Stop listening to corporate lobbyist disguised as think tanks and thier vested interests and bloody listen to the people who put you there.HOW MANY more times does it have to be said ...the tories are out to ruin the social gains of the last 50 years and you bloody lot hesitating and apologising is letting them.Its taken a 16 year old to tell you what you get paid 65 grand a year plus expenses what you already know and should be doing and in my book that should be a sacking for you all .NOW grow some bloody balls and go get the tories before we all starve to death in a country that is on the way to total ruin now and forever....and shame on you all if you dont ..you will never win again if you fail now.Somebody show em all this

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  22. sarcboy well said my friend not anything to add that's not already been said

    It's surprising how much rubbish they talk at these conferences and getting well paid
    That job should be strictly reserved for a sick or disabled person only who would do a hell of a darn sight better

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  23. Cant tell i am in a LOT of pain today and feeling just a bit grumpier than victor meldrew and doc martin can you? But its true they dont listen but they damn well better because if these bastards get in AGAIN then we are all ,well you know the terminology.

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