Over 700 sign May Manifesto Petition
Over 700 people have now signed up to the May Manifesto petition.
If you have not already done so, you can sign up by emailing info@l-r-c.org.uk with 'petition' in the subject line with your name and CLP or trade union. The petition states:
"We believe that Labour can win back the support of our people by adopting a new 2008 May Manifesto, which should include:
- Nailing the 10p tax mistake by the introduction of a fair tax system removing the low paid from taxation and ensuring the wealthiest and corporations pay their fair share
- An increase in the basic state pension, immediately restoring the link with earnings, lifting people off means tested benefits and providing free care for the elderly
- An immediate start on a large scale council house building programme and assistance for those facing repossession
- Immediate end to programme of local Post Office closures and liberalisation of postal services
- An end to the privatisation of our public services
- A new pay deal for public sector workers to protect their living standards and tackle low pay
- Abolishing tuition fees and restoring maintenance grants for all students
- Scrapping ID cards and abandoning 42 days detention
- Introduction of a trade union freedom bill and measures to protect temporary and agency workers
- Rejecting the proposals to renew Trident"
1. John McDonnell MP, Hayes & Harlington CLP
2. Dr Duncan Hall, Skipton & Ripon CLP
3. Cathy Watson, Welwyn Hatfield CLP
4. Rory MacQueen, Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP
5. Martin Jenkins, Ellesmere Port & Neston CLP
6. Tom Michaelson, Garston & Halewood CLP
7. Pamela Galloway, Central Devon CLP
8. Ian Woodland, Unite
9. Simon Hewitt-Horsman, Walthamstow CLP
10. John Buckingham, Cambridge CLP
11. Walton Pantland, GMB
12. Robert Naether, GMB
13. Nathan Trout, Wakefield CLP
14. Colin Pritchard, Gravesham CLP
15. David Semple, NUT
16. Helen Ingram, Beaconsfield CLP
17. Graham Day, Falkirk CLP
18. Clare Hewitt-Horsman, Walthamstow CLP
19. Susan Press, Calder Valley CLP
20. Tom Davies, Walthamstow CLP
21. Steven Anderson, Jarrow CLP
22. Joseph Boughy, UCU
23. Paul Smith, Yeovil CLP
24. Ravi Gopual, Garston & Halewood CLP
25. Cllr Dave Young, Calder Valley CLP
26. Mike Baldock, Sittingborne & Sheppey CLP
27. Veronica Killen, Blyth Valley CLP
28. Aidan Williams, Altrincham & Sale West CLP
29. Peter Berry, Stockport CLP
30. Eric Wood, Amicus
31. Cllr Brian Smedley, Bridgwater CLP
32. Stuart Watkin, Tooting CLP
33. Glynn Davies, North West Leicestershire CLP
34. Kevin Hind, Bury St Edmunds CLP
35. Steve Brown, Wansbeck CLP
36. Judith Atkinson, Brentford & Isleworth CLP
37. Val Graham, Chesterfield CLP
38. Scott Lomax, Chesterfield CLP
39. James McSporran
40. Angela Sinclair-Loutit
41. Tristan Martin, York Outer CLP
42. Jim Brookshaw, Cardiff South & Penarth CLP
43. Hazel Brookshaw, Cardiff South & Penarth CLP
44. John Giddins, GMB
45. David Stokes, Bournemouth East CLP
46. Pamela Read, Hampstead & Kilburn CLP
47. Andy Walker, Ilford South CLP
48. Brian Oldale, Sheffield Central CLP
49. Philip Crawford, Bromsgrove CLP
50. Janet Shapiro, Hornsey & Wood Green CLP
51. Richard Henson, UCU
52. Dave Eatock, Unison
53. Gwen Cook, Chelsea & Fulham CLP
54. Rev Hazel Barkham, South West Wiltshire CLP
55. Tony Holmes, Farnborough CLP
56. Gwyn Bailey, Castle Point CLP
57. Tom Rhodes, Unite
58. Ian Morrison, Sherwood CLP
59. Mat Coward, Somerton & Frome CLP
60. Darrall Cozens
61. Melanie MacDonald, BECTU
62. Ian Sternberg, Wantage CLP
63. Dave O’Mara, Bromley CLP
64. Kevin Hogarth, UCU
65. C Chinnick, Monmouth CLP
66. Paul Bull, BECTU
67. Alastair Gittins, RMT
68. Jacqui Connor, Leyton & Wanstead CLP
69. Henry Birtley, Stafford CLP
70. Tim Boddy, Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP
71. Ken Thomas, East Surrey CLP
72. Mike Gaskell, Wallasey CLP
73. James Ross, CWU
74. Mike Rowley, Oxford West & Abingdon CLP
75. David Holland, Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP
76. Pete Firmin, Hampstead & Kilburn CLP
77. David Smith, Sheffield Heeley CLP
78. Russ Blakely, Portsmouth North CLP
79. Norrette Moore, Uxbridge & South Ruislip CLP
80. Matthew Corr, Livingston CLP
81. Daniel Nichols, Romford CLP
82. Ed Doveton, Colne Valley CLP
83. Keith Perrin
84. Robert Parker, Amicus
85. M Murphy, Scunthorpe CLP
86. M Todd, Scunthorpe CLP
87. David Carter, Middlesbrough CLP
88. Chris Mullarkey, Unison
89. Paul McLean, Leeds North East CLP
90. David Watson
91. Tony Rea, Westminster North CLP
92. Cllr Geoff Lumley, Isle of Wight CLP
93. John Drewery, Huddersfield CLP
94. Catherine Anne Tanner, Cardiff West CLP
95. Bob Waterton, Leicester West CLP
96. John Prince
97. Matthew Teale, City of Durham CLP
98. Daniel Ashton, Isle of Wight CLP
99. Christopher Charnley, Ashton-in-Makerfield CLP
100. Paul Mannion, Tottenham CLP
101. Glyn Tudor, Southampton CLP
102. Jim Dye, Preston CLP
103. George Durack
104. William Allberry, Esher & Walton CLP
105. David Williams, Wansbeck CLP
106. Tarquin Gotch
107. Chris Wood
108. Clive Searle, NUT
109. Rosemary Addington
110. Andrew Fisher, Croydon Central CLP
111. Julie Prince, PCS
112. Luke Wilson, Leeds Central CLP
113. Jenny Lynn, Halifax CLP
114. Jago Parker, Halifax CLP
115. Michael Richards, Cynon Valley CLP
116. Paul Mansell, Beaconsfield CLP
117. Michael Chewter, Skipton & Ripon CLP
118. Graeme Cowling, PCS
119. Philip Lewis, Unison
120. Tony Richardson, Wakefield CLP
121. Jeff Slee, RMT
122. Cllr John Rodgers, Calder Valley CLP
123. Joe Kowalczyk, Beaconsfield CLP
124. Anne Tanner, Cardiff West CLP
125. Dr Richard Barbrook, Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP
126. Gwyneth Francis, High Peak CLP
127. Mary Mulligan, UCU
128. Michael Docherty, Harrogate & Knaresborough CLP
129. Annette Thomas, Islington North CLP
130. Suzanne Gannon, NUT
131. John Lipetz, Hampstead & Kilburn CLP
132. Joe Marino, BFAWU
133. Helen Simpson, Sherwood CLP
134. Mike Jones, Liverpool Garston CLP
135. Judah Smith, Halifax CLP
136. Malcolm Dunning, RMT
137. Alan McGuckin, Penrith & the Borders CLP
138. Tom Flaws, Hexham CLP
139. Graham Bash, Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP
140. Dave Statham, Hampstead & Kilburn CLP
141. Lucy Haynes, Unison
142. Richard Coates, Maidstone & the Weald CLP
143. Jim Moffett, Unison
144. Jack Preston, Unite
145. Cllr Mark Brain, Bristol South CLP
146. Cllr Simon Crew, Bristol East CLP
147. Mr P T F Gregory, Sherwood CLP
148. Angie Gregory, Sherwood CLP
149. Jon Rogers, Unison NEC
150. Mike Armitage, Macclesfield CLP
151. Peter Thomas, BECTU
152. Frank Leetch, Ogmore CLP
153. Sally Free, Brighton Kemptown CLP
154. Graham Felton, Cynon Valley CLP
155. Claire Wadey, Brighton Pavilion CLP
156. David Williams, PCS
157. Colin Burgess, Thornbury & Yate CLP
158. Pat Thorpe, Huddersfield CLP
159. James Cummings
160. John Merrett Bloom, Waveney CLP
161. Alison Mandrill, Gosport CLP
162. David Gee, Calder Valley CLP
163. Simon Boardman, CWU
164. Adam Spencer, Nottingham South CLP
165. Hucknall Branch, Sherwood CLP
166. Joan Abrams, Hazel Grove CLP
167. Phil Chadwick, CWU
168. Paul Barbour, CWU
169. Matthew Langley, NUT
170. Dr Premraj Pushpakaran, CWU
171. West Branch, Maidstone and the Weald CLP
172. Phil Hingley, Holborn and St Pancras CLP
173. Helen Peters, Holborn and St Pancras CLP
174. Cllr John Bell, Broxtowe CLP
175. John Calderon, Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP
176. Max Morris, Clacton CLP
177. Geoff Spall, Sherwood CLP
178. Ged Dempsey, Wentworth CLP
179. Vin Mullen, Jarrow CLP
180. John Bell, Greater Nottingham Co-op Party
181. Cambridge Universities Labour Club
plus another 550 through Facebook
To sign up please email info@l-r-c.org.uk with 'petition' in the title and your name and CLP or trade union
posted by John at 10:45 AM
18 Comments:
These demands won't win me back. What about troops withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan? Then there is the question of war crimes - a tribunal to try Blair, Brown and the war cabinet.
There's an interesting discussion going on at http:don-paskini.blogspot.com about this manifesto - people might like to comment (not least John, who's been second-guessed by a few people there, including me!)
Seahorse, speaking as someone who isn't in the Labour party (I'm one of this lot), I would nevertheless say these demands are just a beginning Labour left comrades can unite around. If it helps bring those comrades together and makes them more effective, that can only be a good thing for us all.
The problem with the list of demands is that some are presented in ways in which many outside the hard-left will just find it impossible to either sign up to or to compromise with.
Three of the demands call for immediate action and others seem to imply this. Yet these are mainly feasible objectives which can be seriously progressed within a reasonable time frame.
No account is taken of how policies (such as those for ID Cards) can be transformed into socially useful measures. (With ID cards this would mean using them to ensure that no-one misses out on their entitlements).
Given that New Labourism is in a state of collapse, the left should not adopt a programme that helps to perpetuate its own recent isolation. We need to remember that people under 52 have never voted in General Elections which have ever produced results other than those for forms of Thatcherism and her New Labour offspring. We have to pull people towards our ideals, not frighten them away.
There is some good stuff within the 10 points, but in total they read as if someone wrote them on the back of an envelope on the way to a political meeting.
This is not a programme that perpetuates anyone's isolation. If implemented, the May Manifesto would ensure that the Labour Party would once again give people positive reasons to vote .No-one wrote this on the back of a fag packer and Harry, you know better than that.What's more, you know better than to suggest it. Whose side are we on ?????
Obviously, I meant fag PACKET. Have spent far too many hours trying to explain to people stop apologising for the Labour Party - let's try and explain the case for socialoists within it!
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Susan: Here is an alternative 10 point approach which I produced a year ago, using several fag packets -
http://threescoreyearsandten.blogspot.com/2007/06/towards-socialist-perspective-part-3.html
Harry - I'm genuinely intrigued because, in the absence of anything along the lines of the first commenter's grievance (Seahorse) - I would have thought that this would be a programme you would have signed up to in a flash. My immediate response to it was surprise at quite how modest the demands are - it really is something that I would imagine could be signed up to way beyond the bounds of the left (let alone the 'hard left'). The couple of 'immediately' ones don't seem remotely controversial - restoring the earnings link and beginning the fourth option for council housing (and building them) have been Labour policies for many years, and I really can't see any merit in us demanding that the government should start doing them in the next few years (we may have lost an election by then!)
Similarly, calling to end the closure of local post offices at some later date, would of course be easier (as the post offices would already be closed) but would not be especially worthwhile.
I do wonder whether this is a variation on your 'goldilocks' approach, where you won't accept the porridge is 'just right' even when it is!
Duncan Hall; I accept 9 and a half points as objectives to move towards - at differing speeds. The "half" I don't go for is the scapping of ID cards. I would argue for a different agenda for them - they, for instance, could be used to get a missing 2 million or so onto electoral registers.
On some, I would make principled compromises (which differ from sell-outs) as this could help to get them on the Party's agenda and not just John's. For instance, there are moves which could turn the tide on student loans - such as pushing back the repayment dates irrespective of the ex-students circumstances.
I would sooner advance causes, than be a purist who always had them blocked.
All my rebellions as an MP against New Labour, didn't mean that the day afterwards I then just thought I needed to add a fresh and immediate item to a my programme for reform. Sometimes you need to know that losing alters matters. Politics should entail the difficult process of linking principles to possibilities.
One thing I welcome about John adopting a ten-point programme is that it moves in my direction compared to the 118 points or so which he pushed in his efforts to enter the Leadership contest.
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Well - fair enough if you disagree about ID cards, Harry. I hope to have that debate with you at some juncture! I do still come back to the fact, though, that this seems a remarkably reasonable and winnable set of proposals to me. I entirely agree about the need to prioritise the possible, but I do think we can be quite ambitious in that regard; and I also think that much less than what John has included here would be a a compromise en route to an election defeat. A radical programme is not only achievable within the Labour Party, I also think it is the only thing that will win us the next election (which is a whole other debate about the importance of the possible).
Enough MPs have signed this petition to block the 42 days detention bill. Will be interesting to see how many actually vote on their true feelings, and how many cave in to the threats of the party whips.
Being in power is about making the RIGHT choice for the people who put you there. Not making the right choice to make sure you keep a safe seat in a marginal region.
If 42 days gets passed then there is no honour left in politics at all. I'll be watching to voting history updates carefully.
Harry, I think you miss the point on ID cards. Whether they get 2million on the electoral role or not, what will that achieve? It won’t make them more likely to go and vote.
The fact that our identity is recorded at the polls for "security" reasons, means that central government know who we vote for. Add that to ID cards, and any police officer who pulls you over and scans you ID will be able to tell what your political alliance is.
Do we really want that? Just think where Zimbabwe was 10 years ago. Getting knighthoods for Mugabe, decent stable economy and the introduction of ID cards to enhance public security. Now the police know exactly who to target under regime orders.
You could say that would never happen here, but we are already the most monitored and spied apon nation in the world (even surpassing the bad old USSR days).
Draw your own conclusions, but ID cards will lead to me leaving the UK on principal. I have nothing to hide, but why should I be labelled guilty until innocent and locked up for 42 days, whilst being a law abiding tax payer (highest tax burden in Europe I might add).
Duncan: Instead of issuing lists of demands, why don't we seek to talk more gently into the left ears of the rest of the Party to seek to pull them towards us on specific items? Even Gordon Brown has done some useful work on the International Finance Facility. Why don't we try with him (or whoever) to go further by pressing for an international tax on currency speculation in order to dampen it down and yet raise billions for the world's poor? It can't, of course, be done unless we put pressures on the G8 and others to sign up. But its advocacy by our Government could unleash forces for real change across the globe. Who is going to defend currency speculators?
We could also try to open the door to other reforms. What if instead of ending student loan debt after 25 years, we said that they would not have to pay anything for the first ten years after graduation when they were looking to start a family and buy a home? Then we could come back to push the period up to 15, 20 years etc - and finally decide it wasn't worth collecting any longer?
Whether we aim high or initially low on issues, will depend on circumstances and the chances of gaining converts and support.
For the "anonymous" who responded to me, I will merely point out that using ID card details to help register the missing two million has nothing to do will pinching the details of how they afterwards vote. These are two separate exercises.
Harry said "For instance, there are moves which could turn the tide on student loans - such as pushing back the repayment dates irrespective of the ex-students circumstances."
You obviously haven't heard about the govt selling off these student loans to a private company. Somehow I don't think they would be so generous....
http://labourleftforum.blogspot.com/2007/12/christmas-sale-is-cancelled.html
Curlew: Parliaments are about changing the law.
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