A very public split

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/17/labour-leadership-andy-burnham-yvette-cooper-contest

Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper trade blows as leadership contest intensifies

Andy Burnham offers Jeremy Corbyn “a job”, in his Shadow Cabinet and presumably any government cabinet which Burnham may form at sometime in the future. A remarkably magnanimous gesture from a man who claims never to have voted against the party whip in the House of Commons, a man who has consistently advocated further austerity for the UK economy, has frequently demonstrated an ability for evasion, particularly during Ian Dale's LBC Radio programme and along with all but 48 members of the Parliamentary Labour Party, abstained on the vote on the Conservative Welfare Bill last July. Burnham qualifies this offer however, with an appeal for Labour party members who intend to vote for Corbyn in the leadership election, to move over to the Burnham camp to prevent Kendall or Cooper emerging as the winner.

This “offer” of course make two very sweeping assumptions. Namely that (a), Burnham will actually win the Leadership election and consequently be in a position to offer anyone a place in his Shadow Cabinet and (b) that he would actually win a General election at sometime in the future.

Perhaps the observer could be excused for thinking that the member for Leigh is optimistic, naïve, a little arrogant or even a mixture of all three.

The “offer” to Jeremy Corbyn has widened and made very public, the split between Burnham and Cooper which has been festering away from public scrutiny for some weeks. The “Anyone but Corbyn” campaign has always had a fundamental problem, in that there are three candidates, all from the “right” of the party, proposing the same old status quo policies and all competing for the same voting support base. The only thing that unites the three is their fear and dislike for Corbyn.

With Cooper now publicly calling for Burnham to stand down from the leadership contest the divisions between her and Burnham and in the background Kendall, have shifted the debate away from the real issues and created a slanging match between three candidates, intent on promoting themselves as the only alternative. In standing away from this spectacle Jeremy Corby maintains his position of putting forward proposals and policies and refusing to become involved in the puerile activity of name calling and personal attacks.

This current hostility between Burnham, Cooper and Kendall, raises a pertinent question. If the only word they have to offer, the only appeal that they can present to Labour party members, the only message that they can offer to people around the country, is that only one of them is the person that can beat Jeremy Corbyn, then why should anyone trust in them to address or even understand, the real issues and problems which face this country today?

Homelessness, growing use of foodbanks, problems within the NHS, Welfare Cuts, austerity, education, banks, anti trade union legislation and a hundred other issues are the real priorities and it is only Jeremy Corbyn who is addressing these problems.

Northern Ireland and Brexit. The return of "The Troubles"

Northern Ireland: police attacked in another night of disturbances | Northern Ireland | The Guardian When the "Brexit" debate was still filling our newspapers and our television screens, readers may remember why I had changed my mind since voting to leave at the referendum vote. Apart from the economic arguments, which had become crystal clear after peeling away all the lies and misrepresentations trotted out by Bozo Boris and his "Get Brexit Done" conspirators, there was always the problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Would it be possible to have a border between the European Union and the United Kingdom where people, goods and services could pass freely between the two nations without customs restrictions, tariffs, duties and all the other formalities? Would it be possible to have one part of the United Kingdom treated differently from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly when Scotland for example had voted overwhe...

The writing on the wall

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-government-zero-hour-contract-ban-latest-a9257281.html?fbclid=IwAR0OW6qhoVnO9MVH-E9ruKFLnL_V3NQ5PMpYEkGGHEXskJxkAsrr2UJjRIs Two-thirds of voters want Boris Johnson ‘s government to ban zero-hours contracts, a poll has found. There will be many people over the coming months and years who will tell the "pollsters" that something should be done about the homeless, or the costs of electric, gas and water, or about the costs of public transport, or the failing (and privatised) NHS, or the excessive profits and tax avoidance of large corporations. etc. To all those I say, that if you did not vote Labour then you have only yourselves to blame and you must bear the consequences of your actions. Johnson a nd his sycophant cronies have been given a blank cheque to do as they please and sell off vast portions of the British economy to the Americans, (the takeover of British defence giant Cobham by a US private equi...

Greed and envy are good says Boris Johnson.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/embrace-culture-of-greed-says-boris-johnson-8968276.html Embrace culture of greed, says Boris Johnson Boris Johnson. "I stress – I don't believe that economic equality is possible; indeed some measure of inequality is essential for the spirit of envy and keeping up with the Joneses that is, like greed, a valuable spur to economic activity." Johnson delivering the annual Margaret Thatcher lecture at the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, Wednesday 27th November 2013 Boris Johnson seeks to emulate Thatcher. He appeals to the evil side of the "nasty" party, for a society where greed is good, where selfishness is encouraged, where division amongst people by envy and status is championed as a proper objective and where the excesses of business and government are regarded as appropriate and right for the advancement of the few at the expense of the many. Johnson is an evil man with evil intent...

Agenda 2019

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