Untold stories of council tax arrears

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Recently I had an odd occasion to visit an Advice Centre. What took me aback the sheer numbers of people at the centre seeking some sort of advice varying from how to obtain foodbanks vouchers, to Bedroom tax and council … Continue reading →

Hobbit Journey During European and Local elections 2014

Firstly, I would like to congratulate the Labour candidates for winning their seats and to those who lost their seats. May the forces be with you the next time around in both European and Local Government Elections. No doubt this year will be the testing time for all the political parties as who is best to serve the country and able to represent the people in Europe and Westminster. So folks if you continue to refuse to vote then you forfeit your democratic right to have a say so don’t moan be part of the change and let your vote count.

Like many party activists in Labour, we are seeking for a Labour victory which I make no apologies for saying so as I’m sure whatever political party activists may belong to they too will be counting on their supporters to vote for their political party to win. This year will determine if Labour will win the Local and General Elections in 2015 as many of our Labour activist and supporters will be casting their votes for a victory under the leadership of Ed Miliband.

Some will say that some of the candidates where playing dirty politics and it was more like the American style of electioneering, in which some case I may concur which I make no apology as that’s the way how all the three main political parties are going down this route and there are some independent candidates have not read and comprehend the People Representation Act and were not familiar with the local rules of the city that they are allegedly wanting to represent.

Ed Miliband has argued that the party’s successes in the local elections prove he could lead the party to victory in the 2015 general election. His comments on Saturday came as he bids to fend off criticism that although the party gained more than 300 council seats in the elections it failed to make an advance in key areas seen as vital if Labour wants to secure an overall majority in a Parliamentary election, due next year.

One of those areas is Thurrock in Essex, where the party lost control of the council after securing it only last year when Mr Miliband described that victory as a sign the party was “winning back trust.”

A surge in UKIP support saw the far-right party take two Labour and three Tory seats, leaving no party in overall control of the authority. Mr Miliband, who says he is determined to attract voters “from every walk of life,” is due to visit the Essex town this week.

A projection of national vote share on the basis of the local votes suggested Labour was on 31 per cent just two points ahead of the Conservatives. But the Labour leader pointed to other areas where the party had performed strongly as evidence he could secure the keys to 10 Downing Street.

“The local elections show Labour can win because it is our party which is winning where it matters in dozens of our target seats for the next election,” he said.

“From Cambridge to Redbridge, from Crawley to Amber Valley, people are electing Labour councils to meet their desire for change.”

Let’s be very clear Conservatives and UKIP are no friends of lower or middle income they are more interested in their prevailed few pals and not for the many yet the give a good talk but fail to do the walk.

Intriguingly some people across the political Spectrum in some quarters are alleging that UKIP members are intellectually challenged yet UKIP’S advances in Rotherham sum up in a nutshell the choices that now confront Ed Miliband and Labour.

Former shadow health spokesman John Healey is right to say that the council result which saw the new racist “Tory” party scoop up seven seats from Labour to become the official opposition is “a message for all the political parties.”

“Wake up. People are angry. They are saying that they aren’t hearing enough of what they feel in what we politicians are saying.” I couldn’t agree more with this hardworking MP who distinguished himself during his time on the front benches by resolutely backing a publicly owned NHS.

The same MP could be heard at last year’s pro public rail Labour conference fringe advocating democratic ownership of the East Coast Main Line as a competitive “example” shaming the greedy privateers who scoop up profits on the rest of the network.

Such a publicly owned enterprise, he added, could serve as a model for Britain to reclaim control of other sectors such as energy. MPs such as Healey serve as an example to those who argue that Westminster should be written off in its entirety. Indeed it is from these defeatist sentiments that the far-right Ukip party has fed.

 

However, one cannot help but feel a sense of unease about how Labour will respond to the UKIP challenge, not least given the instinct among vacuous Progress faction types to push for policy via the lowest common denominator.

An irresponsible response would be to veer to the right, assuming that Ukip’s advances at Labour’s expense are about immigration.

 That would undoubtedly drag Britain further down a road which now sees baying fascists rampaging through communities singling out people for their skin colour and beliefs. And one could easily draw a different, more accurate conclusion from Thursday’s results on 22 May.

The turnout in Rotherham bumped tragically along at a third of the electorate. Undoubtedly some who turned to Ukip did so without realising that behind its dog-whistle policies lies a dyed-in-the-wool conservative party.

It has successfully attracted the most right-wing elements from the Tories and scooped up an additional bloc alienated by the perceived detachment of “mainstream” politics.

 But what of the 65.25 per cent of voters who did not even make it into the Rotherham polling booths?

 This, a clear evidence of alienation, should signal to any politician whose concern does not start and finish with their personal careers that significant policy change is required.

 The people demand something different and through its slavish reluctance to do anything but fiddle with policy Labour quite simply is not meeting that demand.

 A heavy responsibility rests with our union-backed elected representatives between now and next year’s general election. The voices of opportunism, seeking to out UKIP, UKIP, could win that debate.

So too could the voices of opportunity filling the massive vacuum within a disenchanted electorate which demands that the politicians for whom we vote must have a meaningful agenda and the power, incompatible with EU membership, to enact it.

That requires more than headline-grabbing hints that rail may under Labour become somewhat less owned by other states’ publicly owned companies and somewhat more owned by us.

It means setting out a vision that confronts the growing dismay and alienation at senior politicians’ unwillingness to confront the rampant tax-avoiders, corporations and the super-rich. It means, in a nutshell, a sharp turn to the left.

In times of economic stress e.g., the entirely fake narrative of “austerity” and the “recovery” which is only benefiting a minority it is sadly normal for the disorientated and disillusioned to vote for a “charismatic” figure who sells them convenient lies.

Some very close friends of mine actually sums up the UKIP vote has nothing to do with Europe (most UKIP voters don’t know the first thing about Europe) and everything to do with blaming somebody else for our self-inflicted problems. At the root of all this is the Coalition’s obsession with punishing the many and rewarding the few. Britain was foolish to vote for the laziest and most delusional party, but let’s not pretend that the vote was anything other than a perverse reaction to the lies and damage inflicted by Cameron and co.

I cannot help but agree with some more close friends of mine who says the endless rubbish about UKIP, let put some facts out there. Labour held all its MEP seats, it did not lose any. Labour gained 9 and its likely that will rise to 10 or even 11 when Scotland gives their results. So 21/22 overall Labour came 2nd ahead of the Tories with the share of the vote. They also had 50% of the share of the vote in London. With a staggering number of over 800,000 people voting Labour for their MEPs.

Which also means Labour is well on course to also take the London Mayor in 2016. Labour won the local elections and made big Gaines in councils and increased their councillors.

The Tories however, lost at least 6 MEPs, they also failed to come first in any region of the UK unlike Labour. They lost seats to Labour and UKIP. They are in Government and they came 3rd. So they have a lot of questions to answer to their performance.

UKIP may have made gains but they represent the lunatic fringe in the European Parliament so they will not have great influence. The site with party’s who openly back the actions of the SS under Hitler and other fruit lubes who have no common sense.

Labour however sits with the Social Democratic Group in Europe and is still likely to be the biggest block of MEPs, so it will have a good say on issues Europe does that helps people in the UK. Farage is a raciest jerk and his oddball candidates and MEPs are beyond weird. So all Farage and UKIP will do, is take money and every penny in expenses, fail to turn up for votes and then moan when back in the UK at how awful Europe is. Yet they will turn up when vested interest beckons and when they can vote on any measure with a raciest undertone.

Will UKIP survive till 2015, just, think 7/10%, but not in anywhere near the % they have today. They will still take votes of the Tories in their key marginals. They will also fail to get close to winning an MP seat. With maybe one exception. But still highly unlikely.

The BBC however will continue to be bias and will say and do anything to seek to undermine Labour and their chances.

It disgust so many people can think it is acceptable to vote UKIP. A fascist rightwing extremist party. Who have not one policy that will help the public. Have no sense of fairness of decency and who are hugely worse that the Tories and that takes something. I am ashamed to be British when trash who are little more than the BNP in posh suits can be presented as wonderful. The UK is seriously messed up if it thinks these raciest have any answers.

I do not care one bit about what Farage and his loons say or think. They do not speak for me and never will. I reject their aims, their cause and I reject them as ever being a credible political party. In 2015 it will be Labour who forms a Government while UKIP fade rapidly.

In times of economic stress e.g., the entirely fake narrative of “austerity” and the “recovery” which is only benefiting a minority it is sadly normal for the disorientated and disillusioned to vote for a “charismatic” figure who sells them convenient lies.

The UKIP vote has nothing to do with Europe (most UKIP voters don’t know the first thing about Europe) and everything to do with blaming somebody else for our self-inflicted problems. At the root of all this is the Coalition’s obsession with punishing the many and rewarding the few. Britain was foolish to vote for the laziest and most delusional party, but let’s not pretend that the vote was anything other than a perverse reaction to the lies and damage inflicted by Cameron and co.

Now that I have got this of my chest my hobbit journey across the UK has come to an end until my tour during the Local government and General Elections 2015.