Back the left

[rob9443]

SUN list of candidates worth voting for come next years election.

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=4984

[Jon Teunon]

Thanks for this information Rob. I note that Socialist Unity hope that'...there may well be many more' than the 13 (out of 646 seats!) that they recommend - though what they base this hope on is unclear.

[Jon Teunon]

Here's some interesting statistics that Lee on Compass looked up after seeing the above list:

MPs WHO VOTED MOST SIMILARLY TO CORBYN:

94.6% Alan Simpson Nottingham South
92.5% Robert Marshall-Andrews Medway Lab
92.4% John McDonnell MP, Hayes & Harlington
91.9% John Smith Vale of Glamorgan Lab
88.9% Robert Wareing Liverpool, West Derby whilst Lab
87.9% Kelvin Hopkins Luton North Lab
87.0% Mark Fisher Stoke-on-Trent Central Lab
86.4% Michael Meacher Oldham West & Royton Lab
84.4% Katy Clark Ayrshire North & Arran Lab
CLOSEST LIB-DEM
76.6% Willie Rennie Dunfermline & Fife West

MPS THAT VOTED MOST SIMILARLY TO MCDONNELL

92.4% Jeremy Corbyn Islington North Lab
91.1% Robert Marshall-Andrews Medway Lab
88.5% John Smith Vale of Glamorgan Lab
87.9% Alan Simpson Nottingham South Lab
85.2% Mark Fisher Stoke-on-Trent Central Lab

LABOUR MP VOTES AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT
Kate Hoey Vauxhall Lab 25.5%
Jeremy Corbyn Islington North Lab 25.2%
John McDonnell Hayes & Harlington Lab 24.9%
Alan Simpson Nottingham South Lab 20.9%
Lynne Jones Birmingham, Selly Oak Lab 16.3%
David Drew Stroud Lab 15.8%
Kelvin Hopkins Luton North Lab 14.8%
Robert Marshall-Andrews Medway Lab 13.5%
Mike Wood Batley & Spen Lab 12.8%
David Taylor North West Leicestershire Lab 11.7%
Frank Field Birkenhead Lab 11.1%
Mark Fisher Stoke-on-Trent Central Lab 10.5%
Glenda Jackson Hampstead & Highgate Lab 9.3%
Andrew MacKinlay Thurrock Lab 9.2%

MPS WHO VOTED MOST SIMILARLY TO GEORGE GALLOWAY

90.0% Willie Rennie Dunfermline & Fife West LDem
75.0% Peter Law Blaenau Gwent Ind
72.2% Pete Wishart Perth & Perthshire North SNP
71.1% Alex Salmond Banff & Buchan SNP
71.1% Charles Kennedy Ross, Skye & Lochaber LDem
69.8% Angus Robertson Moray SNP
69.7% Mike Hancock Portsmouth South LDem
69.1% Stewart Hosie Dundee East SNP
69.0% Michael Weir Angus SNP
68.6% Mark Oaten Winchester LDem

66.1% John Gummer Suffolk Coastal Con !!!!!!!

CLOSEST LABOUR MP:
60.5% Lynne Jones Birmingham, Selly Oak Lab

[Jon Teunon]

This was my reply to Lee:

Lynne Jones is apparently standing down at the next election and there may be others in your statistics who are too (hence the LRC's point that
there might only being two socialist MPs remaining after the election).

Which is why the stranglehold that the New Labour leadership have on prospective candidate selection, is so key to the overall direction of the Party.

But it is striking that McDonnell and Corbyn's voting records are so far apart from that of Galloway's! There is also a sharp difference between the LRC and the Lib Dems - which raises questions about which can claim to be the most representative of 'progressive' politics (if this phrase does mean anything more than being anti-Tory).

[Free Radical]

Rob, Jon

This is all well and good, and the list includes some of my favourites (I think Alan Simpson is standing down, sadly)!

However, the thorny issue is whether it's worth voting for Labour MPs not on the list if the alternative is going to be a Tory. And the related question of whether it's going to be better to have a Labour than a Tory government next Spring. I know we have been all around this before but I just wanted to make this point. I know many here disagree but my feeling is that this election will be the most critical since 1979 and we are going to need a Labour rather than a Tory government more at the coming election than in any election since '79 and possibly since '45.

The reason I say this, as you know, is not out of any love for New Labour, but because in the indescribably bad state of the finances, it is Labour that is most susceptible to pressures not to cut. Circumstances are pulling the Labour government and party leftward whether they like it or not. The situation of dynamic and this is my view of what is pragmatically better for us.

[wolfysmith]

Free Radical,

I agree that it’s critical we prevent if possible ending up with a Tory government next May/June, I would say the election is more critical than 1979. The Labour government of 1945 represented the start of the era of social-democratic welfare capitalism not just in Britain but Western Europe and to a lesser degree the USA. The Reagan/Thatcher governments of the 1980’s represented the intellectual end of this period and the Blairite/Bush period as the consolidation of neo-liberal/neo-conservatism as the dominant ideology of the modern imperialist stage of capitalism. If the Tories win power next spring the neo-liberal/neo-conservative offensive to finish the project of dismantling the final elements of the social-democratic compromise between capital and labour will be completed in Britain and then the European Union will follow the British example which will then meet very little resistance in the USA. It is therefore most probably the most important election in British democratic history with equal if not more importance than 1945 or 1979 to the future of social, political and economic direction of not just Britain but the European Union and even of global significance. This is why I personally believe the left need to be serious about the CPB’s coalition strategy for moving the Labour Party leftward and putting an Alternative Economic and Political Strategy back onto the agenda, A pragmatic and radical strategy for a broad left alliance based around the principles of the Peoples Charter, which is based on the CPB’s ‘British Road To Socialism’ and the Labour Party’s roll as the mass party of labour.

[Jon Teunon]

FR and Wolfy

I quite agree with your overall points, if I was in a constituency where the choice was between
a Tory or a Labour candidate I would vote for the latter with a heavy heart (with the exception
of someone as copntemptible as James Purnell).

I know I was fiercely against such 'poisoned chalice' in the debate (row!) on this website in the Summer, but I think the warnings and points made by you (FR) and Brigg made me reappraise
my position on this.

Having said that - I am now convinced more than ever that the Corporatist UK's 'democratic deficit' is now so overwhelming that we need a grassroot response - or we are in danger of 'electing' a government with a completely unconvincing 'mandate' (low turn out, widespread voter despondency and contempt etc).

So while I broadly accept FR, Brigg's and Wolfy general point - this is just not enough on its own. Particularly when I believe that the Copenhagen's clear failure to deal with climate change
(and worse fix a irresponsible 'settlement' made by the developed countires without any input from the countries most at threat) is going to make real solutiond even more urgent and necessary.

[wolfysmith]

JonT,

As you have said we need a ‘grassroots response’ this is what the CPB is looking for with its strategy of coalitions and non-aggression agreements on the broad left along plus attacking the worst new-labour cabinet ministers and at the same time supporting left Labour candidates such as John McDonnell and the LRC plus other left such as Jeremy Corbyn.

[rob9443]

I fear votoing New Labour in many places will be necessary.  I would vote for Satan himself to get rid of Purnell.

[wolfysmith]

Tory lead cut to nine points in Guardian/ICM poll

Showing the Tories on 40%, Labour on 31%, and the Liberal-Democrats on 18%

A nine-point lead would probably still give David Cameron a narrow Commons majority, it enforces the fact that the Tories could still be deprived from winning the general election and will most probably need the Liberal-Democrats to form a coalition government. These figures show that people are increasing worried about the prospect of a Cameron/Clegg government and that Gordon Brown’s strategy of moving to the left all be it very slightly is Labours best bet for winning the general election.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/14/tory-lead-nine-points-guardian-icm-poll

[wolfysmith]

The Tory lead Labour has fallen by four points in a month and its the first time it’s been in single figures this year.

[wolfysmith]

Reasons for backing Left-Unity and the CPB, UfPS, Socialist Party, Alliance for Green Socialism, Respect, Green-Left/Green Party and a return of a Labour government in the 2010 general election   

The Nasty Party in their own words

March 11: Peterborough Conservative councillor Wayne Fitzgerald calls voters "idiots" and "morons" and tells one to "boil their head" after they disagreed with his plans for a new water park.

August 26: Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan describes the NHS as a "60-year-old mistake".

December 31: MEP Daniel Hannan says that no "sane" person would support the NHS.

This tells us a lot about the Tories and what they think of the people they want to vote for them ‘Not a lot’

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/02/the-nasty-party-in-their-own-words-115875-21936181/

Re: 2010: Positive Omens, 50% of the next generation of Labour MPs will come from local councillors and 20% from the labour movement. The Labour Party is picking people from the public and voluntary-sector whereas the Tories are picking people mostly from business and industry. Out of the 59 Labour candidates chosen so far in seats where the party's MPs are standing down 29 are either serving or former local councillor’s nine of which have been council or Labour group leaders.

Such as Simon Burgess former leader of Brighton council standing in the Kemptown constituency; Ronnie Hughes former leader of Conwy council, standing in Aberconwy, Michael Boaden leader of the Labour group in Carlisle, Other candidates are union activists such as Donna Hutton, a regional officer for Unison who will contesting Clwyd West, and Julie Elliott political officer for the GMB, standing in Sunderland South.

The selection of so many councillors reflects the fact that Labour candidates are chosen on a one-member-one-vote basis favouring well-known to local party members. The figures show a move away from Blairite new-labour and a return to traditional candidates from the grass roots and labour movement.

http://forums.redpepper.org.uk/index.php/topic,1433.msg10781.html#msg10781 

[wolfysmith]

The Tory ‘ideological’ revolution:

http://www.torystories.com/

[willp]

And which government has privatised more of the NHS than any predecessor? And set up more academies? And presided over 2.6 million (official figure) unemployed?
All the parliamentary parties are appalling!
The mass of the people are - rightly - disillusioned with the whole lot of them.
Yet most contributors to this forum wish to drag people backwards, into having faith in a discredited, corrupt bunch of traitors!
Then some, for example Wolfy, sneer at the people as ignorant!

[wolfysmith]

People are influenced by the mass media into believing in the hegemony of capitalism as the dominant ideology through the mass media and this is why I propose participation in the bourgeois election process in order that a socialist alternative view is given so that people can decide for themselves about the choices between a system where the market dictates individualist values of human existence and a system that is based on the values of a social animal which works for the mutual benefits of all humanity over the self interest of a privileged minority at the expense of the majority. This isn’t sneering ‘at the people as ignorant’ it’s the desire to ensure they are informed of the alternatives and one of those alternatives is the return of a Thatcherite conservative government which I fail to see as a positive step towards socialism and have never known the Tory party to further the cause of workers rights, health care, education, pensions or any other tangible benefit. These have always been a result of an active labour movement and left leaning Labour government. This isn’t a socialist workers state but if you are a young family on the minimum wage and struggling to make ends meet it’s a hell of a lot better than the alternative. If you believe it furthers socialism to have an extreme right wing government then by all means support the return of a conservative government but I am afraid the logic defies me  ‘sneer sneer’

[willp]

Wolfy writes, "the return of a Thatcherite conservative government which I fail to see as a positive step towards socialism".
Who has ever suggested it was?
You write, "If you believe it furthers socialism to have an extreme right wing government then by all means support the return of a conservative government."
I don't support such a prospect and you know that I don't.
I have said, as you know, that the election of a Tory government is an appalling prospect.
Your accusations are just the kind of Labour Party anti-communist sneers with which we have become so familiar.
But the prospect of a returned Labour government is also an appalling prospect, or don't you think that the prospect of a government in thrall to finance capital, pledged to cutting public services, with a record of privatisation, warmongering, mass unemployment, etc., etc., is appalling?
You Wolfy prefer to cover up Labour's betrayal, you prefer to try to persuade the British people to follow a known evil, rather than to follow the revolutionary path of exposing the evils of social-democracy.
Your way is not that of a communist, but that of just another social-democrat.

[wolfysmith]

Ed Balls says people who felt let down are now seeing that the Gordon Brown took action that preventing financial collapse and prevented a return to the misery of the 1980s and early 1990s. And are uneasy about the Tories who talk about a decade of austerity and threaten to freeze their pay and cut their local schools and hospitals, the more voters hear from David Cameron the more worried they get. Balls say unite and take the election fight to the Tories and focus on the choices between Labour and Conservative.

If we can get a left Labour government it would support economic recovery people know that David Cameron and George Osborne would have done nothing like Thatcher and Lawson they would have made things worse when they were if they had been in charge of the economy putting faith in laissez-faire economics that’s the Conservative old-fashioned class war.

[wolfysmith]

Willp,

I understand that according to Brigg you have me down as a neo-liberal/neo-conservative plant sneer, sneer. If left unity and keeping the Tories out is an MI5 plot then I guess that would have been news to that old Bevanite Harold Wilson in the 1970’s. I can believe that Blair was a secret service plant and his mate Lord Mandy and not sure about poor old John Smiths death either now I am on the conspiracy theories neo-liberalism/neo-conservatism needed a safe hand when the Tories lost the election in 1997 and new-labour fitted the job nicely, But for the capitalist elite Gordon Browns and Ed Balls are a bit suspect.

[wolfysmith]

King Of Dreams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPh3QHPApgk&NR=1&feature=fvwp

[wolfysmith]

Little Lord Mandy is the original manipulator and plotter, at the moment he is on Brown side, But we know he’s true ‘Blue’ new-labour so what is Mandelson’s end game, he sees himself as king maker working towards a new Blairite to replace Brown if Labour lose the election could the Left around Jon Cruddas or John McDonald take the Labour leadership if Compass and the Labour Representative Committee worked together and reclaim the Labour Party.