A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.
Les Byrom, former Tory Leader on Sefton MBC, has defected to Labour, citing the Tories' unprincipled stance on 42 day detention for terrorist suspects.
posted by Luke Akehurst at 5:50 pm
Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012 and since 2020. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Supporter of Europe, NATO/nuclear deterrence, Israel, electoral reform. Guardian reader. Dad. Oxford resident. Unite union member. Employment history as a Labour Party Organiser, Local Government Political Assistant, Director at a Public Affairs company. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.
6 Comments:
And the real story behind the defection is on Iain Dale's site with maps, compass, fingerprints and DNA. He's been caught bang to rights.
In short: the sleazy has turned to Labour because he lost a £17,000 sincure with the fire authority.
Luke, you are fairly honest chap, don't let any bugger turn up at your doorstep and try and pass it off as a Damascene conversion.
Byron is fully paid-up piggy
6:04 pm, June 10, 2008
Well as anon says....so much for his defection due to the Conservatives 'unprincipled stance' on 42 days....let's hope alot of Labour backbenchers take a principled stand against the government in the vote....
7:07 pm, June 10, 2008
What a stupid man. Anyone who thinks holding a potentially innocent person for 42 days should be made legal needs shooting.
MI5 don't want it, the police don't want it, the MOD don't want it. Brown should give up this crusade and concentrate on sorting the current financial mess out
7:44 pm, June 10, 2008
What a twat! The Tories will be in power within a year. Gordo will be forced to fall on his sword and Labour will cut their losses and call an election. Mark my words
9:28 pm, June 10, 2008
Interesting. I'm a Sefton resident. But politics can be a bit strange here. In Southport, the current Tory PPC is someone very rooted in the community and strongly committed to equality issues - far more than the current LD MP! And certainly far more than the extraordinarily reactionary MP for Bootle, whose constituency I will be in next time following the boundary change and who I would never even considering voting for no matter what his party label....
10:29 pm, June 10, 2008
I think the Labour machine will force a vote for the bill but in the long term they will have damaged our legal system.
I think it is situations like this that MPs should put away party differences and vote with their beliefs. If they honestly think that 42 days will prevent a terrorist act then fair enough vote for it. But to change a right laid down in the Magna Carta is something we should think very carefully about.
My experience of the armed forces showed me that most of our security forces operate outside of the law. Shoot to Kill in Ireland for example, so why are we changing out right to a fair trial. We don't need this law.
11:00 pm, June 10, 2008
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