Tagged with London Mayoral selection

The crisis in our homecare system is a source of national shame

Diane Abbott 2The UNISON trade union recently launched a new report which uses the voices of care workers – and those who rely on care – to clearly lay out the truth regarding the crisis that has engulfed the sector – a crisis that is not being addressed by the ideologically driven Tory government and its ruinous cuts agenda.

Entitled 15 Minutes of Shame: Stories from Britain’s Homecare Frontline UNISON describes the report as “a compilation of accounts that reveal how poverty pay, zero hour contracts, poor training and rushed visits is having a detrimental impact on vulnerable and elderly care users.” Continue reading →

CLPD recommends first preference for Diane Abbott, second for Sadiq Khan

Diane for MayorThe London Labour Party is selecting its candidate to fight next May’s London Mayoral election. The ballot will take place alongside the leadership contest, from 14 August to 10 September. The position of London Mayor has important powers in the areas of transport, fire services, planning, policing and the environment. The Mayor also champions the interests of London with a significant campaigning platform. So London Labour is selecting someone to run and improve the capital’s services, who will speak up for London and challenge Tory policies.

The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) is wholeheartedly backing Diane Abbott as the main centre-left candidate in this contest. She opposes the government’s austerity proposals and is one the few Labour MPs who voted against the Tories’ Budget Responsibility Charter which requires a further £30bn cut to public services. Continue reading →

Why I went on the anti-austerity march & regret Labour’s leaders weren’t there too

Austerity demoLast weekend I attended the huge anti-austerity march and rally organised by the People’s Assembly against Austerity in London. Estimates of the size of the rally varied between 70,000 and more than 150,000. But demonstrators poured into London from all over the country, the march was self-evidently huge and it was definitely a great deal bigger than last year’s event. Several thousand more protestors gathered in Glasgow’s George Square and there were other smaller demonstrations in cities like Liverpool and Bristol.

I was there in London speaking at the beginning of the march and walked the whole route. It was an exhilarating event, purposeful but disciplined. I left it much more hopeful about the future than i have been since the General Election. And I was definitely proud to be there. Continue reading →

Labour needs its leader and candidates to offer an alternative to austerity

Austerity is failingA fundamental weakness of Labour’s recent general election campaign was the failure to offer voters hope of a return to prosperity. Shackled to the Coalition’s economic framework, the core of which is slashing the public sector, Labour’s small progressive proposals were drowned out by the overwhelming commitment to austerity. Focusing on a promise to introduce a ‘budget responsibility lock’ at the manifesto launch underscored just how out-of-touch the Party’s campaign had become.

The Tories’ rhetoric justifying their budget policies is just misleading propaganda – austerity is not about reducing the deficit. Quite the opposite, cutting government spending contributes to current economic stagnation and in turn depresses the government’s revenue. Continue reading →

Trade union shows how not to consult its members on London Mayoralty

People Not Profit March in central London.

People Not Profit March in central London.

So far the selection of the candidate for London Mayor has left much to be desired. A selection process was imposed on London that no section of the party in London wanted – not the trade unions, not the constituency parties, not the regional board of the party. Then the process was designed as if to minimise the number of trade union levy payers who could be recruited in time to participate. When the timetable for all other internal party ballots was adjusted (in line with the leadership election timetable) to give adequate time after the general election for nominations, that for London Mayor alone was left as it was.  Now one of the biggest trade unions affiliated to the Labour party has adopted a process that makes a nonsense out of the Labour rule which requires that “all nominees should have fair and equal opportunity to seek selection“. Continue reading →