AND ANOTHER FOR US......

This Thursday my Branch Labour Party is having a Curry Night fund-raiser, as it always does, on the first Thursday of every second month.
For four years now we have been doing this - raising a few thousand pounds in the process.
The money pays for local election leaflets and other campaigning material.
I don't have a lot of money to spare for PR and publicity. The fact I was able to run at all in Calder Valley - after incurring considerable expense in Keighley - is down to the fact I'm able to write my own publicity using journalistic skills. It is also down to the goodwill of people like a local graphic designer who charged way under the odds for leaflets . Plus offers of cars from Branch members. I simply could not have done it without their help.
It is therefore particularly galling to see Government Ministers claiming to the hilt for everything under the sun. Including porn films.
Quite honestly, what people get up to in their personal lives is nobody's business but theirs. But the notion that the public purse is a bottomless pit as long as you stay within the "rules" is utterly wrong. The damage done to the Labour Party by such disclosures is possibly irreparable before the next General Election.
When Labour came to power in 1997 Tony Blair rightly said that his Government had to be whiter than white after the years of Tory sleaze. How far some people have fallen from those noble sentiments.
So, as i chop the chillies on Thursday night I will be wondering, how much longer will it be before people who are already seriously well-off see that their conduct is something which reflects on all of us with honest ideals of fairness and decency. Jacqui Smith, in a nutshell, should resign. And if Gordon Brown, the self-styled son of the manse, cannot see that, I begin to despair.

ONE RULE FOR THEM....

I have just got back from London where I took part in the G20 TUC protest - Put People First. 30,000 trade unionists on the march to express their wish for a world rid of greed, debt and neo-liberalism.
Before setting off home this morning I caught the headlines re Jacqui Smith and the latest farrago involving expenses and "adult" films. Truly shaming and embarrassing stuff.
It's a strange irony that PPCs need to live lives of seemingly ascetic virtue - while Cabinet Ministers can milk the taxpayer of thousands and use their dosh to rev up their husband's libidos. Is it any wonder people are losing faith in Labour.The hypocrisy and double standard is frankly breathtaking.

NO, MINISTER

I need a bit of light relief amid the travails of campaigning and Chris Mullin's account of his years in Government is certainly that. Mullin is an odd hybrid who did marvellous stuff in the 1980's and then fell into line with the prevailing winds and swallowed The Project hook, line and sinker. Well, maybe not quite.
Once a Bennite, he eschewed the wilder shores of Parliament's Campaign Group for life as a very junior Minister and clearly hated it. His contempt of "lines to take" and the dire speeches he was forced to recite as a lowly Governmennt Minister make amusing reading for anyone forced to put their head above the parapet and make pronouncements in public. The sense is he regretted selling his soul for the mundane tasks - and discipline - required in Government.
He's pretty scathing also about many of the senior figures in New Labour, including Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson and Philip Gould. But he was clearly captivated by the undoubted charisma of Tony Blair, who he rather irritatingly refers to as The Man throughout. Still, I recommend the book for anyone interested in the workings of Government and the last 10 years of Government. There are many lessons to be learned - not least of which is that transparency and honesty, rather than control freakery and the quelling of dissent, is the only way in which Labour can be rescued from its current plight.

PARTY DEMOCRACY

I've just got back from London- six-hour journey after atttending NUJ lobby on the terrible state of the media in the regions. It was a really interesting meeting with all-party support, chaired with aplomb by Austin Mitchell, Chair of the NUJ Parliamentary Group.
Spent much of the tortuous journey reading Chris Mullins Diaries - which will post about when not so knackered.
At the moment I am gearing up to another hustings speech for the Calder valley selection - and pondering what to say. I'm not at liberty currently to voice my thoughts on the process so far. But wht I will say is I have had a couple of pretty nasty comments from the usual anonymous posters .
So let me be absolutely clear why I am standing. This constituency is in the current situation because of a decision by the NEC not to endorse our previous PPC. As I made clear at a meeting in Parliament last night of the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance, I believe the NEC made a wrong call which has diminished our chnces of retaining the seat. It has also led to some members resigning or just washing their hands of the whole thing. As Chris Mullin makes clear in his book, one of the cardonal sins of the Party establishment has been to close down much of the democratic apparatus we used to enjoy. Whatever decision is made in the Calder Valley selection, I will continue to fight for those processes to be reinstated. And I will have plenty to say about the concerns I raised last night regarding ALL Parliamentary selections.

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT IN CALDER VALLEY.....

Yesterday I was out and about meeting Labour Party members and I just want to say thanks to all who are supporting me in my bid to be PPC . It's clear that in my immediate vicinity I have the backing of dozens of members but I am under no illusions. It will be a very close call. And, because of my previous commitment to Keighley, I've had relatively little time to campaign. So, once again, blogging will have to take a back seat.....will post as and when I can.

WELFARE REFORM REBELS

In the past two years in which I have been writing this blog, the same names crop up again and again.
Moat of those ( if not all) in the list below are also the names of those who did not want to see a coronation of Gordon Brown as Leader in 2007. They are the names of those who opposed Trident, 42 Days, et etc etc
I attedned the lobby of Parliament on the Welfare Reform issue a couple of weeks ago and I wish those hundreds of labour MPs who have now supported this disgraceful piece of legislation had been there too. It was frankly shaming to hear disabled people, trade unionists, and lifetime labour supporters denounce what this Government is doing in the name of Labour. Most sid they would never, EVER vote labour again. This was not some far left rally either - there were speakers from Child Poverty Action Group, Neal Lawson from Compass gave a speech and UNITE Gen Sec Tony Woosdley was among the most vociferous in opposition . MPs Katy Clark and John McDonnell explained theu would be doing their best in parliament via various amendments and opposition. The result, unfortunately, is their efforts have gone largely ignored by the vasy majority of MPs.
In standing recently as a PPC in Keighley, my aim was to be selected as a candidate who WOULD stand up and be counted when it mattered. It's not about being a rebel for the sake of it, it is about honouring the legacy of previous Labour administrations who would never have dreamt of forced labour for the unemployed - or privatising the Royal Mail.
One wonders who exactly will be left on the left after the next Election to carry the flag.

Colin Burgon,
Ronnie Campbell
Martin Caton
Katy Clark,
Frank Cook
Jeremy Corbyn
Jim Cousins
Frank Dobson
David Drew
Paul Flynn
Ian Gibson
Roger Godsiff
John Grogan
Dai Havard
Brian Iddon
Lynne Jones
Peter Kilfoyle
Eric Martlew
JohnMcDonnell,
John McFall
Austin Mitchell
Gordon Prentice
Alan Simpson
Dennis Skinner
Mike Wood
Neil Gerrard
Kelvin Hopkins
David Taylor
Linda Riordan

WELFARE REFORM BILL - DEBATE TODAY IN PARLIAMENT

Today's Guardian has this piece in Comment Is Free on the Welfare Reform Bill. These are the proposals peter Hain binned as a step too far when he was DWP Minister. Sadly, they were exhumed. I'm not going to comment - the piece by John McDonnell clearly explains why the Bill is one which should be opposed and the comments, I'm afraid, speak for themselves.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/17/john-mcdonnell-welfare-reform-labour

NOT GROUNDHOG DAY IN CALDER VALLEY.......

I'm just waiting for the final proofs of my campaign leaflet for Calder Valley. More than a slight sense of deja vu.
It is most peculiar piggybacking from one Parliamentary selection to another - but I want to be clear. Opportunism this is not. I have earned the right to stand via years of campaigning in this Valley.
At the last election, I worked every day to ensure Chris McCafferty was re-elected.
When I put my name forward in Keighley, there was no vacancy here. A month into the campaign we heard our PPC was not to be endorsed. It was sad news which many people are STILL very upset about. Let no one think otherwise.
It would have been deeply cynical to jump ship and I wanted to see Keighley through. So I did.
It means I'm on the backfoot in my home constituency but here of course I know dozens of Party members and am one of the hardest working activists there is. So I'm more than a little optimistic I can make up lost ground. As I learned in Keighley, no-one can be taken for granted. It is solidarity which wins campaigns and I am very grateful to my comrades in Calder branch for pulling out the stops. As the Keighley selection proved, a left grassrooots candidate CAN do extremely well. I came second. Now I'm resolved to come first......

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS.....

The bad news is I did not win Keighley today. The good news is I came second out of an original 10 candidates. That's not bad going for a complete outsider from a wing of the Party which has been granted pariah status for the last 10 years. But, obviously, not good enough.
I wish Jane Thomas, who won , all the best in winning Keighley again for Labour. The selection process was conducted with exemplary fairness as much as it can be. But it is not the level playing field which it should be. Points there to be raised with the NEC........My immediate task is to ensure I am now on the ballot paper in Calder Valley and carry on the grassroots fight which was started by my friend and council colleague Janet Oosthuysen. I have a team already in place - we're going to be late starters as you cannot ride two horses at once. But let me stress I am not downhearted. I'm strengthened and delighted by the support I got in Keighley. And I intend to carry on......

HOW RED IS MY VALLEY.......

Tonight to a civic function in Mirfield. Tomorrow hustings in Keighley. I'm very cheered by the many messages of support I have had - and the knowledge that so many people in the Labour Party want to see grassroots candidates succeed.
Let's be clear. The odds will be against us at a time when independent-minded socialists are in a minority in the PLP. But I 100 per cent believe that the more of us who put our names forward the more we will stand a chance of winning in the months and years to come.
If I win in Keighley tomorrow, it will be a serious victory . If I lose, it will not be a serious defeat because I have proved that a candidate with a socialist platform can get on the shortlist and win serious credibility due to a lifetime track-record working hard within the labour movement. I have one message really to like-minded comrades in and outside the Labour Party. Let's not give up on our core values - let's not give up on the Party. And let's have more candidates who are prepared to put their heads above the parapet.

BESIDE THE SEASIDE...

Just off to Scarborough to chair fringe meeting @ Women's TUC. I will be taking with me a copy of the People's Charter which was launched in Parliament yesterday. More details here
Update midnight: Just back ( two changes York/Leeds) after some time in main conference listening to v interesting debate on sex workers /decriminalisation followed by our LRC discussion on the global crisis. Speakers from PCS and CWU shared their thoughts on specific issues ie privatisation of Royal Mail and the Welfare Reform Bill. Also a wide-ranging discussion on recession, need to take on banks, and generally move to more socialist vision.
I haven't been to Scarborough for many years.....the Spa Complex is a stunning location and it would be nice to see more conferences there.All in all, worth a four-hour round trip. Now for a very stressful few days..........

MEN-RIP

For much of my journalistic life I was one of the key freelancers at the Manchester Evening News. You name it, I did it. MEN Diary, Women's Page, feature interviews with tbe great and the good. Plus the more mundne task of covering local news stories for the newsdesk. They were good years both financially and professionally and my colleagues were all excellent, meticulous journalists. I was a freelance negotiator with the management and did so much work that most thought I was a staffer. I wasn't.
Some years ago the MEN got rid of most of its freelances - me included - and the only vestige of my previous life is a page I write weekly - which I have done for the past 14 years .
This week, MEN journalists learned their workfocce is to be reduced by half. The paper is already a shadow of its former self and I cannot envisage how it will survive with further cuts.
All the weekly newspapers owned by the MEN are to, effectively, close. These are sad days for journalism and I will do my best to attend the lobby of Parliament on March 25 on this issue. I noted the other day that the MEN's business pages reported that 1 in 10 people are soon expected to be out of work. That's a figure which will resound with anyone who grew up in the Thatcher years. UB 40 immortalised the number with a song we all remember. Truly looks as though we're heading back to the 1980's .

ON THE PICKET LINE.......

Today I was in Leeds to show solidarity with NUJ members on strike at the Yorkshire Post. With me on the picket line was Alice Mahon who has been a stalwart supprter of mine in the campaign to be PPC in Keighley. The final vote is on Saturday and I will be giving it my best shot. I've made it clear all along I am not a career politican and I'm standing in Keighley as a credible candidate for a West Yorkshire constituency. I still hope I can win.

However, in my own constituency of Calder Valley we are still without a PPC following the de-selection of Janet Oosthuysen, an excellent candidate and friend who fell foul of an orchestrated media campaign against her. This NEC decision left many of us saddened - and also resolved to carry on the fight for a candidate who could win a highly marginal seat. When I applied for Keighley, there was no vacancy in Calder Valley. There is now - and the timing , unfortunately, means the two selections overlap. So, if I don't win on Saturday, I will immediately start another campaign in my own constituency. Only one other candidate, Stephenie Booth, has put her name forward. Watch this space........

THANKS.......

Tonight we raised another £400 for my local hospice - Overgate. A heartfelt thanks to the staff at the local Italian restaurant, Dave Boardman our quizmaster and all who turned up. Tonight takes us to £2500 raised locally - only £1500 to the total I set last May. I'm sure we will do it. A real positive at a stressful time.......

THE GREEN SLIME TENDENCY.......

Other bloggers have had a field-day over the Peter Mandelson slime incident. Much joshing about guacamole and variations on he-had-it-coming.

Actually, I have always taken the view that eggs, custard or whatever unguents one chooses to chuck are probably not the best way of getting your point across. But the reasons why people feel compelled to adopt such desperate tactics are really very simple. Increasingly, they feel utterly frustrated by the lack of democracy and the fact that the Government often rides roughshod over the silent majority. The Heathrow issue is a case in point. No vote in Parliament, no mandate for those whose homes, schools and hospitals would be bulldozed by the plans. No power to do anything much other than protest as loudly as possible in the hope one's voice will eventually be heard. The same is true over Royal Mail privatisation and the Welfare Reform Bill. At the rally I attended last week, people were visibly angry that a Labour adminstration should be targetting those most vulnerable and on benefits while failed bankers are bailed out with very few visible strings. So, while not a follower of the slime tendency myself, I do hope it gave Peter Mandelson some food for thought.

A WEEK IN POLITICS...A LIFE WITH LABOUR

A week today I will be over in Keighley relying on adrenalin to get me through a nerve-wracked afternoon at the final hustings. Public speaking is something very few of us are born to and something I have had to get used to in the past couple of years. But I will give it my best shot.
I've been mulling over what I shall say for several weeks and I've toyed with various ideas. But, with only seven days to go, I think there is only one strategy I will feel happy with.
It was made clear to me on Thursday when I attended the funeral of Bill Risby, a friend and comrade for most of my adult life. I'd like to thank Bill's widow, Marie, for asking me to do a reading at the Requiem Mass at St Dunstan's. It was a privilege to do so. It was also very moving to see so many people there paying tribute - dozens of Manchester councillors, MPs Tony Lloyd and Graham Stringer, plus friends from the Labour Party, many of whom I hadn't seen for over 20 years.
We first met each other as idealistic youngsters - we're now resolutely middle-aged but, whether in or outside the Labour Party, still I hope committed to those ideals of social justice which led us to get involved in politics all those years ago. I hope the presence of so many people who admired and respected Bill as someone who stayed true to socialist values was a comfort to the family.
There was one saying of Bill's which was quoted at the funeral and which has stuck in my mind for the past couple of days - namely that if you have an opinion, you should have the courage to express it.
So, when I make my final hustings speech in Keighley, what I say will I hope be an honest and straightforward explanation of where I stand and why. It will then be up to the CLP members to choose whether or not they think I am the right person for the job.
I would like to thank those who have endorsed my campaign. They included Bill , who sent me a message of support only two days before he died, also Tony Benn, Tony Lloyd MP, John McDonnell MP, Alice Mahon , Jeremy Dear of the NUJ and my friend Coun Dave Young from Hebden Royd Town Council. I know that if I am selected for Keighley I can rely on the support of many friends old and new in the labour movement. So keep your fingers crossed, comrades, and I'll get on with preparing my speech.

WESTMINSTER WATCH

Have not been at my computer for couple of days as have been in London for several meetings, including yesterday's Welfare Reform Bill lobby led by PCS and supported by the TUC . Yesterday 's rally featured the PCS's Mark Serwotka, Tony Woodley of UNITE , MPs Katy Clark and John McDonnell plus Neal Lawson from Compass. Plus speakers from pressure groups also opposed to the new laws like Child Poverty Action group and Release.
It was a very broad selection of campaigners - all united to oppose this draconian legislation which can only be a vote-loser and further erode Labour support at a time when we re staring election defeat in the face.
Expediency aside, it beggars belief that a Labour Government is choosing to single out the most vulnerable members of our society while fat cats like Fred Goodwin walk away with vast rewards for their ineptitude, and while the banks are bailed out with billions of pounds. There are still many principled politicans and trade unionists within the Labour Party - their voices seem to go unheard for reasons I find both mystifying and distressing. Alongside the Government's dogged determination to privatise the Royal Mail, this is legislation which will cost us dearly. And for the life of me I canot understand why the Government insists on ploughing on with what seems an almost wilful determination to adhere to New Labour dogma despite the fact it has long passed its sell-by date. Many MPs must be pretty much in despair at this madness

KNIVES OUT FOR HARRIET HARMAN

There is some seriously nasty briefing against Harriet Harman in today's Mail On Sunday amid accusations she is being "disloyal" by making known her opposition to measures like the part-privatisation of the Royal Mail. According to the MoS, the PM is considering sacking her and has no time for her whatsoever.

Aside from the ideological debate, it's deeply depressing that the culture of spin and highly pesonal atacks is alive and well almost two years after Gordon Brown vowed to put an end to it . And even more that anyone who raises a sensible voice against what are ( let's face it) deeply unpopular policies is immediately briefed against. If only the Cabinet would stand up against measures like the Welfare Reform Bill, the Heathrow third runway and the Royal Mail fiasco then maybe Labour wouldn't be in the troubles it currently faces. That's not hard left dogma, it's common sense.