Aaaaagh, the cocophony!! Just stop. Stop OK? I've got to put them all out of their misery!! My brain is bursting with anxt ridden left wing politicos and they're oh so earnest treatises on "What Labour Should Be"
From Black Labour to Red Labour and every colour of the spectrum in between, however counter-intuitive or obscure.
See, this is what happens when you give hundreds of remote Westminster thinky people 3 or 4 years to think! they forget what they were actually supposed to be thinking about in the first place.
Here's what people want from Labour. It's what they always wanted and absolutely nothing has changed today. It's universal, Labour or Conservative, Democrat or Republican, Socialista or Fascista. Now, stop squabbling and make it happen by 2015 please.
Left wing parties were born and flourished around the world because the public had a profound need of them. Why? (And here's the key to it all politicoes)
To be on their side.
When the Man demands more than they can give, we need to be there.
When he pays less than they need to live, year on year - not to exist but to live a little - we need to be there.
If a family who work worry about how to buy food and pay the rent, if they can never buy ice-creams at the beach or candy floss at the fair. If working isn't enough, we need to be there.
If their children are somehow excluded from the best education, whether through race, ability, creed, poverty or dogma, we promised to be there, to make it right.
Wherever the balance between them and the Man is too heavily weighed to exploitation, repression and humiliation, we promised to stand side by side and fight injustices with them, wherever they were proven. Remember?
Our finest hours - equal pay for women, Good Friday Agreement, Minimum Wage, exposing Murdoch and News International - were all because we stood up against the Man
The Man says can't. He says don't, he says I won't. We stand up to him and demand that he does and he must. Remember?
If the Man wants to charge a months wages for a damp, or dangerous home, we have to be there arguing for a fair rent.
We exist to be on the side of the People not the Man.
We want a world class NHS free at the point of use in the hands of the public many, not the private few.
That DOESN'T mean we aren't champions of business, innovators and creators. Far from it, stop being so silly. It's a contract - We help business to grow, but they never forget who pays for their luxuries.
Aspiration and Responsibility. Nothing wrong with that. As long as it works both ways. WE of all people, must NEVER forget it works both ways.
Am I talking about the "Working Class" or the "Squeezed Middle"? Stop that too. Stop it right now. ANYONE who might face exploitation at work, unsafe or unaffordable housing, shoddy healthcare, disability, old age or redundancy, need a party on their side. Against the Man. And that's every last one of us. Every one.
The Man is NOT the same thing as business. That's the most ridiculously lazy thinking in politics. Business is the lifeblood of recovery. I'm talking about the greedy, seedy, cheating, scrounging, cowboy Man. He can be mighty and international or he can be a lone shark, but forgetting - or worse, more shamefully - denying the Man exists has no place in a Labour Party
People want security at home. They want to spend quality time with their families. They want to work hard in jobs they enjoy, for employers who value them. They want a wage that pays the bills with just a little on top. To live, not to exist, free from fear or persecution. They want happiness and a sense of justice. They want freedom to roam and rest. They want food on the table in their old age and for every child to get an excellent education regardless of social background. They want to be cared for if they get sick and saved from the gutter if they don't recover. We all want dignity. We all want a fair balance. It isn't actually all that much is it?
Our job is to inspire the world as we show them how productive, how loyal and innovative a happy, healthy, educated, valued, public can be. Remember that guys? Remember the goal?
We just have to shut up and work out how we can be there, standing up against the Man. How can we inspire? How can we succeed, How can we be happy?
It's really not rocket science any of you. We just have to be there. The only protection from the Man
If the Man wants to charge a months wages for a damp, or dangerous home, we have to be there arguing for a fair rent.
We exist to be on the side of the People not the Man.
We want a world class NHS free at the point of use in the hands of the public many, not the private few.
That DOESN'T mean we aren't champions of business, innovators and creators. Far from it, stop being so silly. It's a contract - We help business to grow, but they never forget who pays for their luxuries.
Aspiration and Responsibility. Nothing wrong with that. As long as it works both ways. WE of all people, must NEVER forget it works both ways.
Am I talking about the "Working Class" or the "Squeezed Middle"? Stop that too. Stop it right now. ANYONE who might face exploitation at work, unsafe or unaffordable housing, shoddy healthcare, disability, old age or redundancy, need a party on their side. Against the Man. And that's every last one of us. Every one.
The Man is NOT the same thing as business. That's the most ridiculously lazy thinking in politics. Business is the lifeblood of recovery. I'm talking about the greedy, seedy, cheating, scrounging, cowboy Man. He can be mighty and international or he can be a lone shark, but forgetting - or worse, more shamefully - denying the Man exists has no place in a Labour Party
People want security at home. They want to spend quality time with their families. They want to work hard in jobs they enjoy, for employers who value them. They want a wage that pays the bills with just a little on top. To live, not to exist, free from fear or persecution. They want happiness and a sense of justice. They want freedom to roam and rest. They want food on the table in their old age and for every child to get an excellent education regardless of social background. They want to be cared for if they get sick and saved from the gutter if they don't recover. We all want dignity. We all want a fair balance. It isn't actually all that much is it?
Our job is to inspire the world as we show them how productive, how loyal and innovative a happy, healthy, educated, valued, public can be. Remember that guys? Remember the goal?
We just have to shut up and work out how we can be there, standing up against the Man. How can we inspire? How can we succeed, How can we be happy?
It's really not rocket science any of you. We just have to be there. The only protection from the Man
Thank you Sue - a clear statement of what Labour should be. I left the Party after 20+ years this year because my frustration reached boiling point. If Labour does what is above I will gladly rejoin!
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more! 'Nuff Said!
ReplyDeleteIt's become a game to them. I fear that will not change without something terrible happening first.
ReplyDeleteFor clarification, my comment was aimed at the whole party poltical, Westminster bubble system, not just Labour.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about the game. There's a political class, along with most journos, advisors, lobbyists etc who exist far away from the rest of us. Everything's a game to them and the fact that real people are suffering because of their tactics is monstrous.
DeleteI say Suey for Labour leader!
Did you see .. http://www.michaelmeacher.info/weblog/2013/03/dwp-ministers-run-frit-of-seeing-delegation-on-atos-healthcare/ Hoban refuses to meet Spartacus delegation!
ReplyDeleteReally good article. Certainly our politicians need to be working for the people rather than themselves and the rich and powerful.
ReplyDeleteGreat article Sue, I have a lot of respect for some Labour MP's who do genuinely care. But what an opportunity the rest are missing - 'old labour' would have had a field day with what the ConDems have been up to over the past few years. Not sure what the hesitation is for them to act now, it's their job to oppose. Perhaps they are too concerned with focus groups and what the readers of the daily Mail think. I don't know why, they'll never vote for them.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if they wholeheartedly came out of their corner fighting, a huge cheer would go up around the land, and they would gain a lot of disenfranchised supporters, including myself.
well said sue
ReplyDeletethe trouble with David miliband and the rest of his team is that he cant get the main points of what labours about when he talks. Theirs no belief or conviction either in his tone or look all he can do is go through the motions and with regret looks like a loser
at least IDS looks like he's out to damage people you can see it in his face and by the words he uses theirs no mistake he looks very powerful the same as the prime minister