Bright on Luke
Martin Bright, ex-New Statesman and now at the Spectator, has this to say about me:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/martinbright/5257676/akehurst-v-harris-the-labour-battlelines-are-drawn.thtml
"I take my hat off to the man for his heartfelt rage that clearly comes from a deep political conviction. I have never known anyone to be quite so fired up by the politics of the centre-left (except perhaps Jessica Asato at the Blairite think-tank Progress).
I can't quite decide whether this level of passion will save the Labour Party or destroy it."
posted by Luke Akehurst at 11:20 pm
11 Comments:
By working together we can achieve more than by working alone. We'll save it. We need to.
8:22 am, August 12, 2009
Well, Luke, its clear enough that Labour are going to be in opposition after the next election, and personally, if so, I shall rejoin to work against the failed policies of the past 10 years.
I very much doubt that I will vote Labour next time. The party is out of steam and has no energy or vision. It needs to reject that which will, in years to come, be viewed as a mistaken faith in market economics and globalisation.
I think why you are so fervent is because the alternative is not the far left, but something far closer to the social democratic traditions of Labour, which New Labour effectively abandoned. This is why it can gain support which far left LRC views certainly can't
4:56 pm, August 12, 2009
Its not so much Labours fault as parliament is under the thumb of the global elite and can't do anything much more progressive. The minimum wage flag ship achievement is a joke as it was off set by astronomical housing costs not controlled, as the government were not allowed to regulate housing under the global elite ruling! what ever party is elected will be tied up to the global elite. The answer is not through parliament but through political groups campaigning on many issues and putting pressure on the government and showing the global elite we won't take their crap!
8:24 pm, August 12, 2009
Destroy hopefully
10:12 pm, August 12, 2009
I am glad to see that Luke feels chirpy enough to launch a withering attack on Compass.
And he is quite right to say that we need to concentrate on winning the next election rather than a lot of internal stuff.
He is also correct to point out the silliness of trying to create imaginary ideological differences between Milliband Major, Milliband Minor, Ed Balls, James Purnell, and, yes, even the saintly John Cruddas.
But he should not waste his breath on Compass. It is a chimera, bankrolled by erstwhile Blairite lobbyist Neal Lawson, with no members in parliament and very little existence outside of the pages of the Guardian.
I am not an apologist for (or even a supporter of) the LRC but facts are facts.
However Luke is WRONG to imply that the New Labour project had no failures. An obvious one is housing. It was correct to spend millions on doing up existing council stock.(Thank you John Prescott) But because of its doctrinaire belief in the private sector, and distaste for municipal socialism, New Labour insisted that housing associations and/or the private market alone could meet housing need in areas like London. If New Labour had spent less time genuflecting to merchant bankers and more time listening to the municipal socialists it so despised ,there were plenty of experienced council leaders to tell them this.
6:09 pm, August 13, 2009
Diane I agree with your last paragraph, but also the housing market should have been regulated as Council housing on its own is not enough, unless we build 8 million council homes now at affordable prices. Normal 3 bed old fashioned crumbling terraced houses are selling for half a million quid here in Izzy how does a working class person have any chance of living in a normal home when there are all these buy to lets and astronomical housing costs?
8:27 pm, August 13, 2009
I sometimes wonder whether our secret service would allow a traditional Labour party.
I think New Labour was engineered to be the only party fit to take power from the conservatives.
Labour had such a majority they could have done almost anything...but they chose to do very little.
We still have all our utility companies in the hands of private enterprise. Our railways are once again owned by a variety of businesses and franchises and our hospitals and schools are now owned by PFI.
Would John Smith have taken Labour in this direction....he was the one that won Labour the election and not Blair
10:26 pm, August 13, 2009
Why are Americans so scared of our NHS? I really can't understand why they are so anti NHS.
We have one of the best FREE healthcare services in the world...so why are they so reluctant to do the same.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6023751/White-House-turns-to-campaign-tactics-as-support-erodes-for-health-care-reform.html
10:30 pm, August 13, 2009
The NHS isn't free, taxpayers pay a lot of money to keep what I believe is still by far europe's largest employer, afloat.
3:57 pm, August 14, 2009
Waiting with interest for Luke's inside view on the NHS
6:04 pm, August 14, 2009
I think why you are so fervent is because the alternative is not the far left, but something far closer to the social democratic traditions of Labour......
___________________
Julie
Low and best rates on Payday Loans
10:43 am, August 18, 2009
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