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.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Council by-elections

Only two yesterday:

Ingleby Barwick W Ward, Stockton-on-Tees Council. Ind hold. Ind 1011 (62.7%, -16.4), Con 303 (18.8%, +6.9), Lab 163 (10.1%, +1.1), UKIP 82 (5.1%, +5.1),LD 54 (3.3%, +3.3). Swing of 11.7% from Ind to Con since 2008.

South West Ward, Inverclyde Council. SNP hold after transfers. First prefs: SNP 919 (42.4%), Lab 490 (22.6%), LD 454 (21%), Con 171 (7.9%), Ind 67 (3.1%), UKIP 49 (2.3%), Free Scotland Party 17 (0.8%).

21 Comments:

Blogger Silent Hunter said...

Bye Bye labour.

Good riddance to a bunch of corrupt politicians who took us into an illegal war and created the greatest gap between the rich and poor since Victorian times.

You will NOT be missed.

Ex-Labour voter. :o(

10:22 pm, June 19, 2009

 
Anonymous Harold said...

Who do you intend to vote for instead, SilentHunter? Not the Tories, surely? They were and are the biggest bunch of corrupt, incompetent liars to walk the face of the Earth and they took us into an unnecessary war ( the Falklands conflict ) as well as widening the divide between the rich and poor. At least Labour brought peace to Northern Ireland.

7:59 am, June 20, 2009

 
Blogger Mark Still News said...

Both Labour and Tories are absolutely appalling!

Labour have got so bad whats the point of another Labour government? The only difference is stuff like the minimum wage and you can't live on the min wage, this was a minimal concession and Labour could have done much better than its flagship minimum wage!

The only reason why I am voting for my MP is not that he is Labour but he is a good MP who stands up for the working classes the rest of Labour are trash with the exceptions of MPs like J McDonnell.

We really need a workers party to fight to close the gap between rich and poor!

2:45 pm, June 20, 2009

 
Anonymous Rich said...

Even the min wage is pointless having let the property market inflate beyond even the middle class.

Also what point is there for a min wage when they allow millions of immigrant workers to undercut the British worker.....many of which are still being paid under the min wage because the government is not spending enough to enforce it. Thousands of workers being sacked with no help at all because they are too expensive and its cheaper to bring immigrant workers in from abroad.

This Labour government has not only wrecked the chances of coming generations but also robbed millions of working people of a decent retirement. Gordon Brown has the worst record on pensions in political history.

This government has been a disaster and this country is literally fucked.

6:01 pm, June 20, 2009

 
Blogger Merseymike said...

I take it that by 'immigrants' you mean EU citizens - who are entitled to work here, just as many Britons are entitled - and do - work and live there?

The workerist 'national socialism' of the BNP is always easy to spot.

5:56 pm, June 21, 2009

 
Blogger Mark Still News said...

We don't want to take it out on immigrant workers that the minimum wage is not being paid to them!

What is wrong is that these imported workers are being used to undermine our British workers collective bargaining power by the Capitalists as a tool to break British workers!

All workers should have the same pay & conditions, either imported or British! Its real sad to see loads of East Europeans and others waiting on the street corners @ 04:30 in the morning for some one to pick them out for a 16 hour days work!And the others go back being rejected! This is brutal exploitation!

12:00 am, June 22, 2009

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rich

Its not Just Gordon Brown who wrecked pensions, look at the Tories who encouraged private pensions that were crap then you had the Maxwell scandal! Under the Tories workers pensions were being robbed.In 1994 they used British rail pensions surplus to subsidise privatisation! Now the railways pension is in deficit and the private companies refuse to to top it up! Pensions have been robbed for over 40 years now!

12:33 am, June 22, 2009

 
Blogger anonymous said...

I have parents in their early 60s and I am terrified of there being a Tory government. My parents love all the benefits that as pensioners they have already received from the Labour government such as their free bus passes. It is a comfort that Labour does things to look after pensioners. My father even got a 'phone call just after his 60th birthday offering help with his heating bill. He said he didn't need it, but it is great that pensioners are being looked after.

Two years ago I met a lady in her eighties who said that she was very grateful to Tony Blair for all the help she was getting with her heating bills and it was a contrast to how she had been treated earlier in her retirement.

Things could always be better, however things will most likely only be worse under the Tories. I don't trust them and the welfare of my parents is a huge concern to me.

1:45 pm, June 22, 2009

 
Anonymous Rich said...

But the fact still remains that Brown is the worst performing PM in political history on pensions. There is no getting around that fact because the figures are there for all to see. Please refer to the Barclays Equity Gilt study.


As for immigrants I don't care whether there from Europe or Outer Mongolia.....they are not British and I won't employ them...regardless of what our laws state. Until this government protects British workers through employment licencing and fair redundancy I will continue to refuse to employ immigrants.

Look at the Polls people don't want to be part of the European Superstate...they want trade and thats all. In a democracy the majority get what they want.....

9:15 pm, June 22, 2009

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rich

I am not defending GB, but it was between 1979-1997 that pensions were converted to rely on the Stock market performance, which returned good dividends during that period. This was great for the short term but doomed to fail after a few years as the market goes down as well as up!

12:23 am, June 23, 2009

 
Blogger anonymous said...

Business would be in serious trouble if we all behaved like Rich and decided not to recruit the best worker for the job.

Not someone I would take advice from.

10:04 am, June 23, 2009

 
Anonymous Rich said...

The problem is there are plenty of good British workers and unfortunately cost comes before quality in this global world.

British workers are more expensive and are thus losing out in contracts.....nothing to do with the best staff for the job at all.

If this country continues to allow this to happen then I'm afraid your beloved Labour party will be very short on funding. Labour relies on the unions and it will be the unions that suffer if Britain continues to lose skilled members to the benefits system.

Already China are ready to steal much of our aviation industry.....yet the likes of Mandy and Brown....do not appear to be bothered....

So much for supporting the workers....Labour is nothing more than spin and lies....

9:41 pm, June 23, 2009

 
Anonymous Rich said...

By the way the current pensions crisis is as much to do with Browns reforms and taxing pension funds and very little to do with stock market performance.

Sorry but that is also a fact......Brown can't blame America for this either...

9:44 pm, June 23, 2009

 
Blogger Mark Still News said...

Unions are gradually stopping their political donations to Labour in favour of channelling it into anti privatisation political campaigns! Some Unions have drastically cut it down and others have completely ceased giving Labour anything.
Many workers are withholding their votes rather than back up New Labour Neo Liberalism we have today. Expect a low turn out at the General election!

12:25 am, June 24, 2009

 
Blogger anonymous said...

My mother is not British and she is self-employed and works at a number of organisations in various capacities in the catering industry.

She charges more for her services than British workers in her town and she gets the most work and praise.

12:19 pm, June 24, 2009

 
Blogger MR said...

If that's your point Rich, then I don't understand why you don't just employ the best person and pay them the same regardless of whether they are British or foreign.

12:47 pm, June 24, 2009

 
Blogger Mark Still News said...

We need a New Party as the Labour party has gone to the digs and allowing illegal practise for the benefit of Business!

By not employing foreign workers is not the best policy, as this will drive them to the daily casual Labour market and have a load more on the street corners at 04:30 in the morning awaiting to be picked out for an 18 hour shift for £40 if they are lucky! This will have an affect on British workers having a large casual workforce and eventually the British workers will be joining the casual work queue's at 04:30 in the Morning if the Tories get back in! The exploitation of all workers whether British or Foreign must be abolished and it was time these Slave traders were imprisoned for running these casual cheap Labour markets!

12:46 am, June 25, 2009

 
Anonymous Rich said...

Look we have a choice in this country and at the moment us Brits are doing nothing. If this was France it would be a totally different story. It might be wrong to refuse to employ no Brits but this is the only way I can fight the system and show some loyalty to the staff that work hard to keep me afloat.

We either fight together or we'll all go down alone. We can't just keep letting large parts of our industry be off shored...there must be something within the law to protect our jobs. First it was unskilled workers, now its the skilled....next will be the middle class professions....which has probably already started.

It might be protectionism but unless we do something then the future of this Island is looking pretty grim.

11:09 pm, June 25, 2009

 
Blogger Mark Still News said...

If there were no so called foreign workers, who would fill the gaps in the NHS, Schools, Transport system?

12:53 pm, June 26, 2009

 
Anonymous Rich said...

We are in the grips of a recession and all around people are losing their jobs and homes. People talk about signs of recovery yet in the real world people are seeing things getting a lot worse.

Yet we have Brown talking about economic recovery and winning them the next election in 2010 based on this.

Does Brown know we are less than 12 months from an election? Does he know that any signs at the top will take at least 2 years to filter down to you and me. Does he realise that we are facing yet more increases in the price of food, rising inflation, rising fuel costs and petrol.......rising taxes, even an increase in interest rates.

For a man who is meant to be in touch he really looks like a man living in a dream world.

10:41 pm, June 27, 2009

 
Blogger anonymous said...

Maybe it's just me, but I have a lot of contacts and am involved in a number of community groups and work with the public in the public sector. However, I have yet to meet anyone who has lost their job or home in the 'recession'. I'm sure there must be people suffering, but I have yet to see any evidence of it around me.

Figures yesterday showed that the cheaper supermarkets are not doing so well after all whilst Waitrose is doing better. People have realised that they are not so badly off and that they only started cutting back because they got caught up in the media hype.

I know a lot of unemployed people and they are all white and British. One has left his job whilst he finds the right course to train for what he really wants to do so and his wife is happy to support him, so fair enough. The others have refused to work for many years. Young people whose parents let them laze around at home all day. Mothers who have lots of children and stop them from going to nursery school so that they have an excuse to stay at home and not work. A mother who is too old to have any more kids and continue with this method of getting benefits; she was thrilled when she started having health problems with her hip as it meant she could get incapacity benefit instead.

I think I understand why many white Brits are unemployed.

11:43 am, June 30, 2009

 

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