I support...
Various threads below are now soaking up hostile comments like a sponge. I thought I'd save all the posters some time by just listing all the things I really support and they really hate, so they can just reply with one stream of venom. Here goes. I support:
The Labour Party
Tony Blair
The Hackney Labour Party
Hackney Council
Jules Pipe
The UK
The USA
NATO
The State of Israel
Australia
The Australian Labor Party
The New South Wales Right faction
Labour First
Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform
The EU
Sweden and its Social Democratic Party
Nuclear deterrence
The liberation of Iraq
Our police, security services and armed forces
Nuclear power
An elected House of Lords
Directly Elected Mayors
A Controlled Parking Zone for Clifden Road
ASBOs
ALMOs
New security doors on estates in my ward
That should give you all plenty to get your teeth into...
posted by Luke Akehurst at 11:46 am
30 Comments:
Well cross off Tony Blair... and a chunk of 'Labour first'... and 'liberation' of Iraq, if by that you mean white phosphorus and bombing residential areas. Now Iraq will have to be 'liberated from the islamists once we leave.
other than that I'm with you. Although I don't know much of Hackney Labour... are they nice people? I can't imagine you getting on with your MP...
2:38 pm, June 30, 2006
Its labour people now not labour first.
So you won't be voting GA this year luke?!
2:44 pm, June 30, 2006
Dear Luke, you really don't know what you're doing? I quite like many of the things you list. The only exceptions are Jules and hackney labour.
I really don't hackney labour because they are talentless dilettantes who continue to throw working peoples hard earned cash down the pan.
Simple as that.
Oh yeah, I don't like hackney labour because they seem to have an inability to focus on the issues we elected them to do something about. I could care less what you think of Nato, Brown, etc.
Could you just deal with the fairly big problems in Hackney for the moment?
2:48 pm, June 30, 2006
Hmm, how can you support Israel after the way they went into Gaza and blew the hell out of the place cutting off all the Palestinians electricity?
2:51 pm, June 30, 2006
Damn it Luke you are going to blow it for all of us. I know you want to be a leading statesman and an MP but if you are going to list things you are interested in try to include more than one item in Hackney. That way it looks like you take seriously being a councillor.
Guy's Threshers card has been revoked and he's getting active again so let's meet next week when you get back from your territorial weekend to work out what to do with Abbott who is bound to start shouting about Clissold again now that our cover is blown. Jules
ps,The Highways dept have rejected your request to rename Wilton Way, Pershing Street.
3:13 pm, June 30, 2006
Hi Luke,
Two of your list I'm interested in. Labour First - what's that? And why do you support ALMOs? (It's not a trick question, btw. I'm in favour of stock retention, as are all of my colleagues in Oxford, and I've never heard the case for ALMOs, perhaps you can enlighten me?)
3:27 pm, June 30, 2006
Hmm, how can you support Israel after the way they went into Gaza and blew the hell out of the place cutting off all the Palestinians electricity?
Do you deny the USA the right to exist because Dubya's "war on terror" and its consequences? Should we deny ourselves the right to exist because we went to war in Iraq?
There is (or if there isn't then there bloody well should be) a difference between agreeing that Israel has the right to exist and disagreeing with what its elected government does.
3:44 pm, June 30, 2006
Antonia - Labour First is a network of moderate Labour activists that was around before new Labour existed and is still going strong. It is the sucessor organisation to Labour Solidarity (moderates who stayed loyal to the Labour Party rather than join the SDP in early 80s). It includes people who are both Brownites, Blairites & neither, but who are primarily Party loyalists. It supports the union link. I'm in favour of ALMOs because tenants in my ward tend not to think Hackney Council has been the most responsive landlord ever, and I like the idea of the council retaining ownership of the stock but management being arms lengthed and involving elected tenant reps (which I see as a socialist/co-operative move) and independent people with housing expertise, as well as councillor reps.
4:05 pm, June 30, 2006
Tom - yes Hackney Labour are nice people - we cover a good mix of people from Labour Left Briefingites through to me, and although we debate issues vigorously we all get on well personally, campaign hard together and the disagreements are usually good humoured. I don't agree with much of Diane Abbott's politics but on a personal level I get on OK with her.
4:10 pm, June 30, 2006
Jo - I agree - I support the existance of the State of Israel and its right to defend itself, not every single action of every single Israeli government.
4:13 pm, June 30, 2006
I too support Israel's right to exist but can't agree with the way that they are conducting themselves at the moment.
6:29 pm, June 30, 2006
Good list. Would agree with them all except the 'State of Israel' and Clifden Road parking zone (don't have the foggiest where it is!). Only met Jules a couple of times but can still agree with it, heard him say some interesting stuff at NLGN events.
But your explanation of including 'State of Israel' only works if you say exactly the same thing about the 'State of Palestine' - its right to exist and right to defend itsself. Putting both on makes sense, just one is partisan.
Finally as someone who was recruited into the party by Nuclear Jack Cunningham in his constituency I definitely support the nuclear power and Labour First (although I think the name has changed).
7:21 pm, June 30, 2006
I take it your support Tridant, but with our armed forces seriously underfunded don't you think that it would be better to spend the billions that will be wasted on Tridant on actuallying giving our armed forces proper equipment, so they dont have to beg, borrow or steal off the Americans?
10:23 pm, June 30, 2006
Do you also support whoever's meant to be doing it emptying we Hackney resdients' garden waste wheelie bins regularly? Come on, out with it! Eh? Eh?
11:26 pm, June 30, 2006
But your explanation of including 'State of Israel' only works if you say exactly the same thing about the 'State of Palestine' - its right to exist and right to defend itsself. Putting both on makes sense, just one is partisan.
I don't know about Luke but I support a two state solution - Israel and Palestine, side by side and maybe even getting on one day.
But I've only ever met three people who don't believe in self-determination for the Palestinians, whereas I've lost count of the number of people I've met who don't believe that Israel should exist.
Not enough people stand up for Israel's right to exist - which is I why I do so on a regular basis.
9:37 pm, July 01, 2006
Jo, I second that comment.
10:36 pm, July 01, 2006
Tom asks: "Although I don't know much of Hackney Labour... are they nice people?"
Luke replies: "yes Hackney Labour are nice people."
Eh, Sorry Tom. Hackney Labour are many things, but "nice" is not one of them. We in Hackney Labour are the most devious, dishonest, back-stabbing group of hypocrits you might ever meet, and Luke stands head and shoulders above the rest of us on this. Nice? No way.
Luke says: [on the subject of Lib Dems] "it could be because there are none left in Hackney (Ok 3) after my efforts in the last 2 sets of elections."
Sorry Luke, didn't realise you did this single-handed!
Geraint asks "... is this blog serious?"
No, of course it isn't. This is a pale parody of the real Luke Akehurst:
http://lukeakehurstsblog.blogspot.com
Luke says: "I'm in favour of ALMOs because tenants in my ward tend not to think Hackney Council has been the most responsive landlord ever"
"Tend to think"? Eh, Luke, get with it! Reality check, please! Hackney IS NOT the most responsive landlord ever. (Or would you argue with that too?)
" . . . and I like the idea of the council retaining ownership of the stock but management being arms lengthed and involving elected tenant reps (which I see as a socialist/co-operative move) and independent people with housing expertise, as well as councillor reps."
I spotted Luke using the words "socialist" and "co-operative" without being derogatory. I claim my fifty pounds! (Must have hurt, typing those words, eh Luke? Was it a first?)
2:35 am, July 02, 2006
Look, you might not like them but look at the amount of councillors that they have. Hackney labour have a huge mandate for what they are doing.
11:29 am, July 02, 2006
...only, of course, if you are naive enough to believe that the election results fairly reflected the votes cast by genuine, eligible voters in the borough - something which I very much doubt.
12:04 pm, July 02, 2006
Dave - send me an email at my council address with details of the issue re. garden waste collection and I will take it up as casework with the relevant Director.
2:13 pm, July 02, 2006
Jo yes I do support a 2 state solution.
2:14 pm, July 02, 2006
Stuart - its definitely still called Labour First, if you email me your snail mail address I'll send you their latest newsletter (unfortunately they are not yet in the electronic age hence no web presence even though they are running a slate of 5 for the NEC).
2:16 pm, July 02, 2006
Honestly Luke they are definitely called Labour people not Labour first as a comrade from Salford Labour is running so I've heard a lot about the NEC elections.
They should have a web presence as the GA do.
6:17 pm, July 02, 2006
Is the comrade Peter Wheeler?
I think I'm fairly well positioned to know what they are called as I wrote articles for both their 2 newsletters this year.
6:33 pm, July 02, 2006
That particular comrade is Peter Wheeler. He will be able to take some of the GA's support as well as the more centrist, reformist support. In the same way that Ann Black will take some of the centrist support. Peter should definitely get on.
It was he that told me they had defo changed their name from labour 1st to labour people.
Do you know whether there are any rules about whether you can publicise particular candidates for the NEC on blogs.
8:36 pm, July 02, 2006
There are no rules affecting publicising NEC candidates to my knowledge - they can campaign however they want to. Maybe Labour People is the name for a slate of candidates that is broader than or overlaps with Labour First. It isn't a replacement for Labour First which does far more than promote NEC candidates. Say hello to Peter from me.
10:46 pm, July 02, 2006
I will say hello to peter from you and will shortly be announcing which candidates I will be supporting.
12:17 pm, July 03, 2006
You will perhaps forgive me if I say that I am disturbed that a Labour councillor & whip and parliamentary candidate can find time to mention the politics of a country on the other side of the world but not find time to mention support for the United Nations.
12:45 am, July 05, 2006
The lack of a mention of the UN is because my take on it is that it is at best an expensive talking shop and at worst actually a block on human rights and democracy e.g. China having a security council veto and absurdities like Libya being elected to chair the UN Human Rights Commission in 2003.
9:26 am, July 05, 2006
On the other hand, the United Nations is the only hope of delivering multi-national systems of governance to rival and curb the power of multi-national business. I agree with your analysis that there is much that is wrong with the UN, but if countries like America paid their dues consistently on time and contributed positively to it rather than going round it wherever possible, it's never going to become stronger or better. To paraphrase Churchill (I think) on democracy, it's not great, but it's better than any of the alternatives...
12:38 pm, July 06, 2006
Post a Comment
<< Home