The short-sightedness of these people beggars belief. All that interests them is short-term gain for their shareholders. They have no interest in the future prosperity of this country nor the well-being of its people. I urge you to boycott these companies and write to their CEOs to tell them why. It is something that I will be doing without further delay.

The so-called captains and their companies are (list courtesy of BBC News):

Sir Anthony Bamford (JCB)
Bill Bolsover (Aggregates Industries)
Dominic Burke (Jardine Lloyd Thompson)
Ian Cheshire (Kingfisher)
Neil Clifford (Kurt Geiger)
Mick Davis (Xstrata)
Aidan Harvey (Tullow Oil)
Lord Harris (Carpetright)
Justin King (Sainsbury’s)
Sir Chris Gent (GlaxoSmithKline)
Ben Gordon (Mothercare)
John Lovering (Mitchells and Butler)
Graham Mackay (SAB Miller)
Alistair McGeorge (Matalan)
Nicolas Moreau (Axa UK)
Stephen Murphy (Virgin Group)
Alan Parker (Whitbread)
Sir Stuart Rose (Marks and Spencer)
Paul Walsh (Diageo)
Joseph Wan (Harvey Nichols)
Simon Wolfson (Next)
Zameer Choudrey (Bestway Cash and Carry)
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou (easyGroup)

For those of you who have either forgotten or, like me, have been distracted by internal matters let’s have a quick recap. Firstly what was life like under the Tories? Remember the NHS before Labour transformed it? Crumbling hospitals, patients dying before they had even seen a consultant, a criminal lack of investment in staff and facilities. What about schools? Remember when you had to save all the scrap paper from work and take it to the local school because they had nothing to write on? Under the Tories state schools were simply dumping grounds for those whose parents couldn’t afford private education. We can’t allow Cameron and his Old Etonian cronies to return us to the misery we suffered under Thatcher and Major.

As for Labour’s achievements outside of the NHS and schools how about the minimum wage? The Tories said it couldn’t work and they would get rid of it as soon as they came to power. If they had their way the lowest paid workers would still be taking home less than £2.00 per hour. Pensioners would be even poorer than they are now and the gap between the richest and poorest in this country would have widened even more than it has under Labour.

If the minimum wage isn’t enough to convince you how about relative peace and stability in Northern Ireland, free TV licences for the over 75s, free bus travel for the over 60s, free swimming for under 16s and over 60s,  or free entry to national museums and galleries? We even have a Prime Minister who is revered in the rest of the world for the way he has the led the fight against the global financial crisis.

What I don’t really understand is how this situation came about. We are almost guaranteed a Tory government next time around and, if the worst actually happens, it will be the people with most to lose who will drive the final nail into Labour’s coffin. In recent elections, whether local or national, Labour’s core vote has stayed at home and gifted victory to  the Tories  without them having to increase their vote. Maybe these traditional Labour voters are like me and have become disillusioned by what can be perceived as lost opportunities or maybe, again like me, they have never come to terms with why we were duped into invading Iraq.

Whatever the reason for staying at home in parliamentary by-elections, council elections and the complete waste of time and money that the European Elections represent, people need to realise that a General Election is not the time to stay at home or register a protest vote. By doing so traditional Labour supporters will allow the Tories to gain power and destroy everything that Labour has achieved whilst in power and for that I will never forgive a single one of them.

“Sorry about the green ink. It’s just that many of my friends are joining the Green Party (teachers mainly) due to MPs not listening to the concerns of local Labour branches, and the way some Branch Secretaries treat female members as if they are a piece of dust. I’m afraid it’s just not good enough.

“In 1997 Labour inherited one of the West’s most unequal societies from the Tories. Far from reversing this trend the Labour Government has allowed the gulf between rich and poor to widen.

“Labour’s insistence on upholding Conservative economic/monetary policies of deregulation and de-unionising the work force has led to a heightened pattern of greed by those at the top but downward pressure on wages, benefits and pensions for those at the bottom.

“The Labour Movement’s all important principle of democratic accountability has been dramatically eroded by the increased use of ‘Commercial Confidentiality’ and the insistence of ‘rolling back the state’ as seen in Government policy on privatisation. I believe the root cause of the current economic problems is the bankruptcy of the prevailing political dogma of past and present Governments.

“Therefore I am calling on the Labour Government to show greater respect to the Labour Movement by:

- allowing CLPs full rights to select MPs and deselect those that they judge to have behaved in a fraudulent or unethical manner

- restoring the democratic traditions that allow the rank and file member to participate more fully, thus reducing the dramatic decline in membership

- discussing future policy meaningfully with CLPs, the Co-operative Party, Trade Unions and other affiliated bodies

- working with other international Governments to ensure that tax havens comply with required economic disclosure

“One of my greatest concerns is that Gordon Brown can appoint unelected people, e.g. members of the House of Lords, to the Cabinet. I would like to see the National Executive Committee and MPs campaign for an immediate end to this undemocratic policy.”

I’ve published the letter in its entireity because, as the saying goes, I couldn’t have put it better myself!!!

My original post called for Gordon Brown to build on the Glenrothes success. Realistically the only way he could do this was to show true leadership to the party and the country by way of a programme of radical policies to reverse the damage done by 29 years of Tory government from Thatcher to Blair. Instead he showed us what he really is – a ditherer without any clear vision of how the country should be run. An adequate Chancellor, maybe; a leader, never! Brown’s problem is that his ideas (when he has them) are usually guaranteed to underwhelm rather than excite the electorate – remember the pathetic £50 increase in pensioner’s winter fuel allowance at the 2008 budget? You should have doubled their allowance Gordon. You had the chance to make a real difference and you blew it.

Last week, in marked contrast to the Glenrothes success, Labour suffered its worse night ever at the hands of the electorate, losing control of its four remaining County Councils and being pushed into third place by the Nazi-lite sub-fascism of UKIP.

But it’s an ill wind etc etc… Brown had failed the party and the people of Britain, Labour MPs were running scared as even majorities of 10,000 suddenly looked vulnerable. It was time to act to rid the Labour Party of the millstone around its neck. The scene was set. Cabinet ministers were jumping over the edge faster than a swarm of migrating lemmings and a gang of political heavyweights (most of the Blairites, unfortunately but we can’t have everything) were preparing to deliver the knockout blow at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).

So what happened? It appears that the threat of no central support at the General Election was enough to scare of most of the rebels. Given a choice of total annihilation under Gordon Brown or a really bad defeat under the new champion of proportional representation, Alan Johnson, the MPs chose the devil they know and settled down to await the inevitable.

Where now? You can bet that the so-called “radical measures to put a revived parliament back at the centre of British political life” will turn out to be seriously underwhelming. If I thought for one moment that Brown really believed in a parliamentary democracy I might cut him some slack but we all know that he can’t let go of the current system, introduced by Thatcher and followed slavishly by Blair and Brown, where the Prime Minister and his unelected advisors are the only people who really have a say. Inevitably the Government will fade slowly and painfully and will finally be euthanised by the British voters around May or June 2010.

Let’s look on the bight side again. A few years of Cameron and his old-Etonian cronies will at least mean that we get some of our County Councils back!!!

“Could We Have Stopped Margaret Thatcher?” by Frank Goulding

ISBN: 1904959628

Paperback 244 pages

Published by Paul Mould Publishing

Before I review this book please allow me to take issue with the title. If you are expecting an in-depth analysis of a complex plan to defeat Thatcher you will be disappointed. The question itself is only raised on the final page of the book and the discussion around the question runs to only 35 words!

Frank Goulding’s conlusion? Apparently he believes that Thatcher could have been stopped but isn’t sure whether she should have been. Hardly surprising for a man who started out as a Tory member and ended up as a Lib Dem (via the Lincoln Independent Labour Party and the SDP) but unlikely to endear him to this particular reader.

The title is probably something of an afterthought; possibly an attempt to improve sales. If that is the case it worked 100% with me. I couldn’t resist investigating further once I’d seen the title and, despite my earlier comments, I’m glad I did. The book might not provide the in-depth analysis I’d expected but it is an entertaining account of one man’s journey through local and national politics. It also provides a behind-the-scenes view of events on our doorstep when Lincoln became the focus of the political spotlight.

Those who were around at the time will enjoy reliving, amongst other things, the infamous 1973 by-election victory by Labour defector Dick Taverne and the revenge of Labour candidate Margaret Jackson (soon to become Margaret Beckett) in the second General Election of 1974. Those who are too young to remember the early 1970s will find “Could We Have Stopped Margaret Thatcher” an entertaining insight into a time when the political scene appeared to be changing forever.

Stop press: The book is available from the Nottinghamshire Library Service. Contact your local library for details!!

Today’s brave protest by the Menezes family risked the wrath of the Coroner but was an excellent way of getting across their outrage at the way they have been denied justice.

Only on very rare occasions do I feel ashamed to be British. This is one such occasion.

This was a victory that wasn’t easily won. Labour supporters had travelled from all over the UK to assist Lindsay Roy and the local party. Unlike in recent by-elections, this time their hard work was rewarded.

For the first time in a very long while there is light at the end of the tunnel and we no longer seem to be staring the nightmare of a Tory government in the face. Gordon Brown must now build on this success and on the massive mood of optimism amongst party members. If we all fight as hard as we fought in Glenrothes we may still be smiling after the next General Election.

The choice of an African-American as the 44th President of the United States of America is such a cataclysmic, earth-shattering, epoch-defining moment, made all the better by being almost unthinkable even two years ago. Remember too that Barack Obama is not just any African-American. As Michael Moore writes Obama is also “the most liberal senator in the United States Senate. More liberal than Ted Kennedy. When was the last time you had a chance to send the MOST liberal senator to the White House? Trust me, it won’t happen again in our lifetime.” For the people of America to have chosen Obama with such a decisive majority despite the scare-mongering of the far-right shows that the “World’s Greatest Democracy” has finally earned the right to that label.

For me the defining image of last night was Jesse Jackson being reduced to tears in the crowd in Chicago. He might not always have seen eye-to-eye with Obama but here, for Jesse, was the culmination of over 40 years of struggle to get the voice of the Black man and woman heard in America. I shared his tears last night and I’m on the verge of sharing them again as I write this.

One word of caution though – the joy shown by the majority of Americans last night draws comparison with the euphoric scenes in Britain after the election of Tony Blair on 1st May 1997. The British people eventually fell out of love with Tony Blair despite a string of achievements that made Britain a much fairer and more prosperous place to live. The fickle nature of voters may mean that Barack Obama is lucky to have an eight year limit on his Presidency.

OK, another word of caution – I’ve been here before (to a much lesser extent) when Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, only to be appalled by a President who, amongst other unsavoury deeds, extended the scope of capital punishment and supported the bombing of civilians in the former Yugoslavia. I like to think that my judgement has improved in the last sixteen years and thankfully I can’t see Obama being another Clinton.

Now is not the time, however, to allow my joy to be diminished by irrational fears about the past repeating itself or by the enormity of the task ahead. Now is the time to enjoy the moment because moments like this don’t happen that often.

At the moment we really need to fight to change the minds of Alstom and their contractors. We certainly can’t believe them when they say they are trying to recruit local workers; the evidence that Unite holds clearly shows Alstom and their contractors to be economical with the truth at the very least.

If our local MP Patrick Mercer is not still embarrassed by the ease with which he was duped by his friends in big business he should now stand up and fight for the people of his constituency – before it is too late!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7685894.stm

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=240583

http://www.fenlandcitizen.co.uk/latest-east-midlands-news/Overseas-workers-spark-power-station.4621926.jp