An Open Letter to the Parliamentary Labour Party

Dear Comrades, yes I address you as such as that is what we are, comrades in the Labour Party, despite the uncomradely behaviour of some of you over the past twelve months. I realise that the election of Jeremy Corbyn as party leader in September 2015 was a huge shock to some of you - but then so many of you have only ever known New Labour, not the real Labour Party of previous generations. Those few older MPs who were seduced by NeoLiberalism, and who moved away from the Party's founding principles as outlined in the original Clause IV, seem to have become entrenched in a mainstream media driven scenario that Labour is a party of middle-class, comfortably off, aspirational business folk in suits served by career politicians whose interest do not coincide much with those of the grassroots members and the electorate.

Younger MPs can almost, in a way, be forgiven for believing this as they have hardly known the Labour Party to be any different. How could they? After the emergence of Neil Kinnock as leader in 1983 the party began its move to the centre right, losing the 1987 General Election in the process and, after abandoning Labour policy on trades union closed shops in 1989 and the following the witchhunt and subsequent expulsion of the left-wing Militant Tendency from the Labour Party in 1991, it lost yet another General Election in 1992.  This led to a change of leadership with the late lamented John Smith whose premature death, less than two years later, precipitated the rise in fortune of Tony Blair, whose landslide General Election victory of 1997 lead to the party moving even further to the right.

Throughout the Blair and subsequent Gordon Brown years the party lost touch with a large number of its traditional supporters. Notice that I say supporters not members, as many of us who were members left the party as a result of that shift to the right. We no longer felt comfortable in a party where special advisors held sway, and where the majority of party funding was coming from rich businessmen and champagne socialists, where the voices of the trades unions who had been our traditional supporters were dismissed, and where a decision to go to war was made on spurious and unsubstantiated evidence. Where the voices of members were over-ruled by those of the Leader's Office, and where decisions such as selecting prospective parliamentary candidates were taken by the NEC instead of at local level by the membership in their constituency parties. In just 13 years the Labour Party membership dropped from over 400,000 in 1997 to just 150,000 by 2010, alongside that the party lost around 5 million voters. Hardly a success story was it? Did you ask yourself why?

Did you notice? Did you, as MPs ask yourself why that might have happened? Did it occur to you to go and talk to members about why we felt disengaged from the party? Did it occur to you to go out and and talk to electors about why they had walked away en masse from voting Labour? Did you assume it was just a blip and all would soon be back to normal? Well, that didn't happen did it?

Yet twelve months ago you had the chance to make a difference, with a new party leader, and a resurgence of support for socialist policies - so-called radical stuff, like decent housing for everyone, a properly funded NHS free at the point of use, nationalisation of the railways, improved public services, sorting out the mess that is education, making sure that our elderly and disabled do not have a daily struggle to exist, that people are not reliant on food banks to survive - food banks, in 2016! If that is not a national disgrace I don't know what is! What did many of you do? 172 of you voted within the PLP to undermine the democratically elected leader and force a leadership challenge, which is effectively spitting in the face of the 59.5% of the membership who voted for Jeremy Corbyn - those are the people who also helped to get each of you elected as MPs, so perhaps you might like to show them a little respect? You also leaked stories to the media, which being owned by hugely rich individuals with vested interests in the status quo, is hostile to the idea of a socialist government, and you worked against him and his team in more ways that we the membership will ever be able to know - but let me tell you this, we may not know the detail but we know the fact that it happened and we have long memories.

Now comrades, you have a second chance. The Labour Party membership has overwhelmingly re-elected Jeremy Corbyn as leader, this time with a bigger majority than a year ago - some 61.8% of the vote for him - and he had over 50% of the votes in each category of membership, so you cannot deny that he has a mandate from the membership. The members will also expect each of you to accept and respect that mandate and not to work against the leader we have chosen. In case you have forgotten, this is called democracy and we in the Labour Party espouse it - as it says on the back of our membership cards - The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. You are also expected not to leak information to a hostile media, nor to work to overthrow the elected leader. If you can't manage to do that then you might also find that we, the members, can't find it within our hearts to forgive your betrayals and we may also not be too happy, when it comes to election time, to give up our precious free time to help you get re-elected to carry on undermining him.

Please comrades, do not take this as a threat, it is simply a statement of fact. There is a huge amount of anger amongst party members at what we perceive as treachery, disloyalty or just disingenuity and you have a lot of work to do to put things right and regain our trust. And it is all about trust and loyalty. It's about respect for members and for the democratic mandate which has been given to the leader. It's about decency and honesty. It's also about understanding that the Labour Party is a democratic socialist party and if you are not a democratic socialist then you do not belong in it!

I sincerely hope that you all will take some time to search your consciences and consider your positions. Members do not want to see MP deselections or a split in the party, we want to see a united party that is taking on the Tory government and defending those whom the party was founded to represent. We are not Tory-lite, we are not a party of austerity, we are not a party that should be funded by, and in the pockets of, businesses. We are Labour, together we are strong. Be with us now, or go.

Should Jeremy Corbyn worry about not getting the GMB endorsement?

One of today's big stories is that the GMB union has endorsed Owen Smith for Labour leader in this year's leadership contest, as against no endorsement by them last year. I can partially understand the decision, as GMB represents Trident workers and Owen is pro-Trident renewal whilst Jeremy is anti-Trident renewal, so there is some protecting of their interests involved, but that ignores the fact that keeping Trident is still currently national Labour Party policy and that at its annual GMB congress earlier this year the union called for "clear and unambiguous" support for Mr Corbyn.

It does seem that the buzz about how good having the GMB's support, as one of the UK's biggest unions, is a bit disingenuous given that of the GMB's massive 641,000 members only 43,419 of them voted in the endorsement ballot (i.e. 6.77% of the GMB membership). Of those 43,419 members the 60% who voted for Owen represent 26,051 members, which as a percentage of the total is just 4.06% of the whole GMB membership, which might just take the gloss off the gingerbread slightly. Ballot figures are as given in the BBC News story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37026145

Meanwhile, there are multiple reports on social media by GMB members who are asking, "what ballot?" as they claim they have not been asked at all, as some of the examples below show:

@GMB_union As a member I haven't received a ballot paper or been consulted on who the Union will back in Labour Leadership race @Tim_Roache

— rob kelsall (@rob_kelsall) August 10, 2016

@rob_kelsall @Rachael_Swindon @GMB_union @Tim_Roache neither has my Hubby..been a fully paid up member for 47yrs

— Christine Taylor. (@Malchris1954) August 10, 2016

@rob_kelsall @GMB_union @Tim_Roache Same here. First I heard was an email about the results, so it's not as though I wasn't contactable.

— ABAC (@AintBigAintClev) August 10, 2016

@rob_kelsall @GMB_union @Tim_Roache me neither! What the hell is going on here???

— Jack Nimrod (@jacknimrod1) August 10, 2016

@ChrisCr711 @caerdyddhome @bentos_j @NEWTEKWORLDNEWS We were not balloted only selected group GMB leadership fix disgraceful disreputable

— Colin J Smart (@colinsmartone) August 10, 2016

@rob_kelsall @GMB_union @Tim_Roache glad I'm not the only one, first I've heard about this vote was today via social media, not good advert

— Ian Hawthorne (@IanHawthorne8) August 10, 2016

Tim Roache, GMB's General Secretary, took to Twitter to refute the claims and to assert all GMB members were balloted:

No. Over 40,000 VOTED. ALL GMB members were asked. The response rate is down to individuals like any other ballot https://t.co/O2n0gpXpeI

— Tim Roache GMB (@Tim_Roache) August 10, 2016

But members in Scotland were excluded from the ballot (has the GMB written off Labour in Scotland?) as this article on the GMB website shows, whilst NewTekWorldNews claims that ​Scotland didn't want to participate in the nominations process.

Regardless of how the ballot was conducted, one thing that did come out of the various figures being bandied about today was that the GMB has only around 30,000 members paying the political levy as part of their membership, so they will be the ones who can actually vote in the leadership election itself once ballot forms are sent out from 22nd August, but will they and, crucially, for whom?

Using the racism card to undermine voter confidence ahead of May 5th elections.

The suspensions from the Labour Party of Bradford West MP Naz Shah and former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, has brought this issue to the forefront of the mainstream media (MSM) just a week away from the Elections on May 5th, and the cynical amongst us might wonder if this is a deliberate ploy from the MSM and the anti-Corbyn brigade to make Labour less attractive in the polls and give the anti-Corbyn folks a weapon to launch a leadership bid to oust Jeremy Corbyn as leader as a result.

Looking at the evidence of what has been said, it seems that some anti-Corbyn folks have jumped on the bandwagon and are happy to damage their own Party's electoral chances in order to oppose the democratically elected Party leader, something which others in the Party claim should result in the suspension of those seeking to undermine the leadership.

The biggest danger for the Labour Party is that jumping onto this bandwagon and conducting a witch-hunt against suspected or claimed anti-Semites is simply playing into the hands of those who are seeking the removal of Jeremy Corbyn as Party leader.

Further reading:

The Tactic of Calling People Anti-Semitic by Amy Hendrickson

How to Criticize Israel Without Being Anti-SemiticZionism, anti-Semitism and colonialism

Labour lacks "serious opposition" claims Lord Mandelson

Peter Mandelson expressed his concern that Jeremy Corbyn's leadership is a problem not just for Labour, but for the country, when he appeared on the BBC's HardTalk last night. "It is a very, very bad and sad day for this country," Lord Mandelson said, "when we do not have a serious opposition and a serious alternative to the Government."

I am not sure where Peter Mandelson has been keeping himself since September 12th, but there is more serious and active opposition by the current Opposition than we have seen in the Labour Party in many a long year.

During the interview by Stephen Sackur, Mandelson repeated many of the same old untruths and bits of misinformation that we have read and heard in the media over the last several months. His claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "far-left", that Harriet Harman opened the door to everyone to join in with the £3 vote, that Jeremy Corbyn changed his mind about Trident at the Labour Party Conference, and that despite Corbyn's claim of his belief in equality he appointed men to the top Shadow Cabinet positions.

Just for the record, Corbyn is not "far-left", his views reflect those of many others on the left or centre-left (not far-left or hard-left or even ultra-hard-left!) of the Party, even many in the centre of it! In fact, until the Blairite tendency moved the Party so far to the right that it was hard to differentiate between the Blairites and the Tories, Corbyn's views on many issues were pretty much standard Labour Party policy!

Harriet Harman did not come up with the £3 vote scheme. It was actually a change brought in by Ed Miliband in 2014 and supported by Mandelson's former boss, Tony Blair! In fact Blair actually said that it was a reform that his own leadership should have thought of.

And as for the Trident issue at Party Conference, that was not Corbyn's call either. At Labour Party conferences there is a committee which determines which subjects are debated. The short-list of subjects are put to a vote of those attending, thus it was conference itself which decided not to discuss the issue of Trident this year. 

As for the top Shadow Cabinet positions statement, this is very much a macho attitude! That positions of Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary are seen as the Top Jobs reflects an out-of-date view of what are priorities in government and society. Implying that the other Shadow Cabinet roles are less important denigrates whole sectors of society. It infers that health, education, employment, business, welfare, environment, transport, etc are less important issues, whereas to the electorate and I suspect to Corbyn these are most often the most important aspects of government as they have a direct and personal effect on each and every one of us. Cut backs in health or education funding have a more direct impact on us than does our foreign policy, yet Foreign Secretary is considered to be a Top Job by some. Clearly Corbyn will form his own opinions on what is important, but his first Shadow Cabinet does have a majority of women members - the first time any frontbench team has done so, so that's one up for him then!

Now we have corrected Lord Mandelson, what else can we say about the interview? Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable, and he cannot lead the Labour Party to victory and government, seems to be two main themes of Mandelson's spiel. In between the chest-beating mea culpa lament of "We didn't make enough changes ourself" and "We lost our way" type comments, it is quite clear that Mandelson has no intention of supporting the new leader or his attempt to win the next election. There was a lot of talk of "being ready" for when Corbyn goes (he said stands down but could just as easily have meant gets pushed out) and lots of guff about the Party not sharing Corbyn's aims for the Party, despite his "stonking" victory in the leadership election with just shy of 60% of the votes across all three voting sections.

Mandelson's sly inference that it was only the £3 supporters and the trades unions members voting that gave Corbyn his victory belies the fact that the full member vote of 121,751 out of 245,520 for Corbyn was only just shy of the 50% victory mark in itself, A further 1,010 full members voting for him would have given Corbyn the leadership even without the ability of the registered supporters and the trades unions members to vote, and Corbyn polled almost as many votes alone as the other three candidates did between them!  On that basis Mandelson cannot justify any claim that full members do not agree with Jeremy Corbyn's policies.

Mandelson's claimed that 47%  of the people who voted Labour in the 2015 General Election do not see Corbyn as leadership material, but that could also mean that 53% do see him as such!  But what about the 35% of the electorate who have not voted for anyone, many of whom claim they cannot see any difference between the Tories, LibDems and New Labour, so why vote?  Those people are amongst the sector of the electorate which has been excited and energised by the emergence of Corbyn as the Labour Party Leader. Many of them are becoming politically active for the first time ever, and come 2020 they will no longer be in the silent third, they will be voting!

Meanwhile, right across the country members and supporters are readying themselves to fight local elections in 2016. Indeed, some are already planning their campaign in the by-election caused by the death recently of the veteran MP, Michael Meacher.  Those of us who will be campaigning for local council seats do so in the strong hope that this will help the Party win votes and seats in the general election in 2020 also. We expect that it will be a hard fight; after all, we have to reconnect with an electorate that has become increasingly disillusioned with the New Labour Party of Blair and Mandelson, and it is to them that we have to establish our credibility as a Party fit for government. That job will be made all the harder by the whingers and the doomsayers, such as Mandelson, undermining the Party's democratically elected leader! So my message to him, and others like him, is this, "Button it! Support Corbyn. Help us win!"

Crossing the floor

If you have, like me, become fed up of the endless #piggate  stories flooding the press and social media, you will be glad to know that today's story has nothing in it about quadrupeds of any type!

Instead, I've been watching the steady climb of  membership figures since the announcement of Jeremy Corbyn as the new Leader of the Labour Party on Saturday 12th September.

An article dated 25 September last year (2014) on opendemocracy.net gace the following figures as having just been published in a House of Commons Library Report:

“Latest estimates suggest that the Conservative Party claimed 134,000 members, the Labour party 190,000 and the Liberal Democrat Party 44,000.*” They also say that, in June, UKIP had 39,000 members.

So how does that compare with the figures now, 12 months down the line?  It's hard to be exact as the latest "official" figures published by the House of Commons Library are dated August 2015, and show as follows: 

According to the latest party press releases and media estimates (at 11 August 2015):
- The Conservative Party has around 149,800 members, as of December 2013.
- The Labour Party has around 270,000 members, as of August 2015.
- The Scottish National Party has around 110,000 members, as of June 2015.
- The Liberal Democrat Party has 61,000 members, as of May 2015.
- UKIP has around 42,000 members, as of January 2015.
- The Green Party (England and Wales) has 61,000 members, as of June 2015.

However, what is clear is that whatever the figure was on 12th September, the Labour Party membership has climbed by more than 62,000 since the leadership election result - that's more than the total number of members that UKIP has, crowed the Independent.

Many of the new members are assumed to be from the 105,598 registered supporters (the £3 voters) signing up as full members, although there is evidence that some new members were not previously registered supporters whilst others have crossed the floor from other parties to join the Labour Party.  The total membership of the Labour Party is now reported in the Independent as approx. 360,000, which is probably more than the Conservative, the LibDem and UKIP totals combined!

So, apart from feeling smug, what should we as a party be asking all the new members to do?   We need action, we need people to spread the word about Labour Party policies, we need people to volunteer to deliver leaflets, attend meetings, organise awareness and fund-raising events, talk to anyone and everyone how a Labour government would result in a better, more socially just and caring society in the UK. How a Labour government would protect and improve the NHS; scrap student fees; bring essential services like the railways back into common ownership (not the same old nationalisation which was top heavy and didn't work);  build affordable social housing so that everyone who needs one can afford a home; by providing protection and support via the welfare system or otherwsie to the old, the sick and to people with disabilities of any kind;  to support small businesses and sole traders who have long-been ignored and neglected by all political parties;  by making our communities safer and giving our young people better opportunities for their futures. These are the policies that we need to explain to our friends, our neighbours and the wider society in which we live. Our vision is for a better future for us all in the UK, rather than the most wealthy 1% being OK and everyone else just getting by or suffering.

If you want to join us you would be very welcome:  https://join.labour.org.uk/ and if you are in the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency we will probably see you at a local South Lakes Labour event very soon!

Sleaze, sleaze and yet more sleaze... or is it a smokescreen?

After all of the garbage thrown at Jeremy Corbyn since his election as Leader of the Labour Party last weekend, you might think that I'd be taking great delight in the story in the Daily Mail today, giving details of sleazy goings on in the past of David Cameron as revealed in the book to be published next month by his erstwhile friend and financial supporter Lord Ashcroft.  In fact I am sickened by it, as it really shows the depravity which appears to be endemic in many parts of British politics and highlights the utter callousness of those in Government.

One thing that strikes me whenever I read this sort of "story" in the media is to wonder if it is a decoy. You know the sort of thing - a big scandal involving a famous name and whilst we are all laughing, the Govt. slips in another bit of legislation that takes away another freedom we have, or adds another tax, or sells off another state asset.  

Whilst social media has gone into paroxysms of laughter and satire about the so-called #piggate issue, are we being distracted from the big issues such as the deaths of those deemed fit to work by the DWP, the ongoing refugee crisis, or the outrageous rise in the cost of an anti-AIDS drug from $13.50 to $750 per tablet after the company which made it was bought out by a hedge fund?

Or is it that the Tories are simply fed up with David Cameron as their leader, and have decided it's time for him to go - as happened to Margaret Thatcher in 1990. Whatever the reason, the media seem to be having a feeding frenzy about #piggate, so it will be interesting to see if Cameron will emerge with his position intact!

When will the media realise that repeating lies will never make them truths?

In Jan 1987 The Times ran with a story about Jeremy Corbyn giving money to an on-the-run terrorist, which was subsequently acknowledged by The Times to have been wrong. The Times issued an apology. Time passed. Today those other bastions of news, The Sun and The Mail reported the same story as was carried in the 1987 issue of The Times, despite it being proved to be wrong in 1987!

Checking the IPSO Editors' Code of Practice it seems this is a clear breach of Clause 1 Accuracy 

i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures.

ii) A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion once recognised must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and - where appropriate - an apology published. In cases involving the Regulator, prominence should be agreed with the Regulator in advance.

So why did The Mail and The Sun print a story which The Times (owned by News UK as is The Sun) knew was factually incorrect? There is only one reason: it is yet another disgraceful attempt by the media to discredit the new leader of the Labour Party.

I would expect a correction with due prominence to be published along with an apology by both The Sun and The Mail!  My feeling is that won't happen, but shame on them both if it does not!

Out of context comment reporting shows media bias: How surprising!

All social media has been alive with activity since the Labour leadership election campaign began, but since the result last Saturday there has been an increasing focus on the lies, spin, and disinformation appearing in the media.

One Facebook member was so incensed at the video which appeared on the Conservative Party's Facebook page that used the out of context claim that Jeremy Corbyn said the death of Osama Bin Laden was a tragedy, he issued his own video (embedded below) showing the actual context in which the words Osama Bin Laden and death and tragedy appeared. Another member created the image on the right to rebut the claims appearing in the press.

It is, as you will see, not what the subsequent media hype claimed it was! Meanwhile, the original Press TV broadcast video can be seen in full here: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=056_1441034465

It just goes to show how biased and unreliable the press are and how we can be misled by reading it.

Media bias: fact or fiction?

Well who would have thought it? Less than 24 hours after the announcement of the new Leader of the Labour Party the UK's media seems to have lost its collective marbles!  Reading through some of the myriad of stories, which become ever more fanciful as time goes on, I wonder if those who write them really do believe the tripe they are spouting, or are they being (a) forced by the media owners to write it or (b) have they really been brainwashed into believing what they write?

Years ago, when I worked for a major trades union in London, I attended a good many seminars, conferences and meetings which those who worked in the media also attended as members of their own unions. Journalists, sub-editors, print workers, compositors:  they all had a good understanding of what were the real dangers to working people, and to those unable to work for whatever reason.  So what has happened in the intervening years that now journalists write the most right-wing, biased rhetoric as if it was gospel?

Have they lost their ability to think for themselves? Have they been brainwashed into believing that the interests of big businesses and arms manufacturers and banks are also their interests?  If that isn't the case then why are they doing it? I do not understand why there is such a witch hunt from working journalists against a man who stands to protect the rights and freedoms of all working and non-working people. It simply does not make sense!

Journalists you are not sheep, so please stop behaving like you are! Journalism was once a profession to be proud of. Now it is regarded by many as one to be ashamed of. Why? Because we have cottoned on to the huge bias in what you write, present and broadcast. We can see through the attacks on decent politicians, on the disabled, on welfare claimants, on refugees and asylum seekers.  You are doing the dirty work of the Tory government and their big business chums for them, but remember, you are only useful to those groups whilst you toe the line. Have an accident, fall ill, lose your job and you will become one of those vilified by the media by which you are now employed. Can you live with that? Can you ask your family to live with that?  Is there not a better way?

How about reporting the news objectively and fairly and allowing the readership to make up their own minds?   How about ceasing the intrusive and often scurrilous and unwarranted attacks on those in the public eye and their families and friends?  How about behaving like decent human beings and showing compassion to those in reduced circumstances? How about telling the truth rather than writing an article just because it will make a good story and sell papers, and make more money for the media barons?

You do not have to be a sheep. Be objective not objectionable. Why not give it a try? 

The winds of change are a blowin'...

The winds of change are blowing across this country. For too long the politics of greed and apathy and self have been dominant. With today's Labour Party leadership election result this will change. It must change for the sakes of the country, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, for those who - for whatever reason - cannot work, for those who are disabled, sick, incapacitated in any way - physically or mentally, for the old and infirm, for the disadvantaged, for those in work struggling to cope on low wages, for our students faced with a lifetime of crippling fee debt, for refugees and asylum seekers who are fleeing from such devastating effects of war or terrorism, for sole traders and small bsuinesses struggling to stay afloat, for the sake of every single human in this country!

The Labour Party leadership had over recent years lost touch with its members, so much so that many - like me - had left, disillusioned by seeing changes to the party we had joined, in my case as a teenager. Despite all our hopes we saw the party's actions and our aspirations move further apart, and had begun to think the paths would never reconverge. The May 2015 General Election result confirmed our fears - all but one seat lost in Scotland whilst in England and Wales we suffered a net loss of 26 seats. The Labour vote was 9,347,304  out of a total electorate of  46,420,413, on a 66.1% turnout (30,683,892). Labour was clearly not seen as a credible alternative to the Tory govt!

Then a feint light glowed, a tiny flame of hope ignited when the Labour leadership candidates were announced. One stood apart from the rest - one man who had defied his party whip on issues that mattered to him and his constituents, one that had served on the back benches for more than 30 years but who had never held a ministerial post or a seat in the Cabinet, one that the media clearly regarded as the comic relief of the campaign. And how they mocked him. Personal slurs, half-truths and even downright lies were published in newspapers, even the BBC allowed the broadcast of what clearly appeared to be a biased anti-Corbyn Panorama programme just days before the end of voting.  The personal attacks became more outrageous and more frenzied, even party grandees (who really should have known better) got in on the act, in what was perceived by many as a desperate attempt to derail the Corbyn campaign and maintain the status quo of New Labour.  The more attacks there were the stronger his campaign became. In just 100 days he attended 99 events, and spoke to around 50,000 people about his vision for the future. About how as a party we can take back control of our destiny, that together we can fight austerity, that together we can have hope for a better life now and in the future. That tiny flame had became an inferno!

Through it all Jeremy Corbyn remained his calm, polite, unshakeable self. Quietly courteous to everyone, refusing to fall to the level of those who made such bitter attacks on him and his family. "We don't do personal, we do policies" was his mantra. Many of his supporters were reminded of the words of an earlier leader (Mahatma Ghandi) who said, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." That thought kept us going through the long weeks of the campaign. It kept us going in the face of the media onslaught. It kept us going during the attacks by party members too.  And it was finally proved correct.

Today, the Labour Party has a new Leader and a new Deputy Leader. As Leader Jeremy Corbyn will no doubt seek more cohesion between members, more compassion in society, more accountability from politicians. Tom Watson, as his Deputy, is well-placed to offer support, build bridges, and bring the Party back together. Between them the future of the Labour Party can be one of progression and strength, of success in Opposition and in the 2020 General Election, but it needs all party members to put aside their differences and work together for the greater good of  all people in the country.  Jeremy Corbyn has the biggest political mandate for any political leader in UK political history and if that is not an indicator of the winds of change, I do not know what is!

I do know that together we are strong. Together we can put Jeremy Corbyn in No. 10 and the Labour Party into Government in 2020. A new era of politics, together!

Are you fed up of being told there is no alternative to austerity? Are you fed up of politicians behaving like overgrown schoolboys in debates? Are you fed up seeing the 1% grow richer whilst everyone else tightens their belts?  Are you fed up of seeing cuts to public services, welfare benefits, the NHS and more? If so, why not join the Labour Party today and be a part of the new era?  Together we can do it. https://join.labour.org.uk/