The media circus will now move on the Cameron coronation and its aftermath - then the future Labour Party leadership contest.
As for me? What I am thinking now about is what the imminent prospect of a Cameron/Clegg government means for my people?
I’m already starting to worry as a trade union rep about peoples jobs in our front line public services. As a Labour Councillor I’m worried about what will happen to my constituents who depend upon these front line services if there is no one to deliver them. As a brother I worry about my sister’s whose self employed husbands both depend upon Council and Government contracts for their families’ livelihood.
As a trade union rep I worry about Tory and Liberal manifesto commitments to cut pensions provision. As a Labour Councillor I worry about what will happen to my community if decent public pensions for already low paid local residents who work in schools and hospitals are slashed? As a son I worry about my old Mum who is dependent on pension credits for a livable income in her old age.
As a trade union rep I worry about Tory plans to cut workers pay, terms and conditions by letting the minimum wage “whither on the vine” and contracting out jobs to those who only pay poverty wages. As a Labour Councillor in a ward where pay is already relatively low this will be just disastrous. As an uncle I worry about my niece who works in retail who depends on the minimum wage being set at a level high enough keep her out of absolute poverty misery.
There are other thoughts and worries on similar lines.
But I am also thinking and talking to people about the future. We were beaten this time but neither did the Tories nor the Liberal Democrats win. We will have to go through the necessary post mortem and the new leadership election. However, we will then have to draw a line and plan for the next general election and make sure this time... we get a Labour victory. Onwards and forwards comrades!
24 comments:
So many NHS workers in London backjed Labour
we really won them over
thanks to Labours
extra resources for more nurses , better pay, faster treatment
Proud to be a NHS Nurse
Tories have no mandate for cuts
2.51 million out of work, 53,000 in the last quarter alone. Economically inactive people 8.17 million - the worst since records began. Youth unemployment the highest since records began.
It's one thing to to say that public services have improved: another to say that they are as good as they could or should have been considering Labour's investment in them. Health spending has doubled in real terms as has funding per secondary school pupil. But the reform Labour said would follow has not materialised. In 2008 Brown imlemented a wise bank bail out but he has since presided over a deeper and longer recession than in many of Britain's peers. The previous prosperity under Labour now looks somewhat illusory. Brown failed to regulate properly the city, and private debt and public borrowing. All this happened on Brown's watch. The IFS says that under plans already announced by Labour Whitehall spending on public services will make up the same share of national income as in 2000 when labour's splurge first began. "Things can only get better" said Blair.
The history books won't be kind to him at all.
I note the Governor of the bank of England has now come out strongly endorsing Cameron's economic policy. Just fancy that. Most of the Armed Forces will be cheering his departure as well.
Hi anon 23.30
Very true, but they will cut and cut and cut.
Hi anon 19.26
The Labour Party had saved the country from a depression and was pulling us out of a recession. This is all at risk due to cuts that will destroy demand and confidence.
Hi anon 17.28
I disagree! and I am sure that the ordianry servicemen and women of the Armed forces will regret he is gone. They rely on public services as well.
The 'not tackling the debt immediately' was just electioneering. If Labour were in government now they'd be cutting. The idea that the debt is not down to Labour and is completely 'global' is disingenuous. In order for Labour to recover, its supporters need to accept that profligate spending is at the heart of the matter. A great number of cuts will not necessarily need to be in the front line.
I think, unfortunately, that the history books will not look on Gordon Brown in a positive light.
http://www.republicanbritain.com
You're going to have to stop blaming the person picking up the litter and look at who dropped it.
Of the 29 million people who voted 21 million didn't vote for Brown. He's as unpopular as Foot...and as for history..the head of the Harvard history Department has called his stewardship of the economy a "disaster". What are you smoking John?
Hi Anons
Sorry - but you are believing the silly stupid Tory nonsense. This recession was not caused by state overspending but a collapse in tax revenues caused by Tory bankers and financier’s criminal fraud and theft.
It was selling bankrupt stock to the modern day widows and orphans. Nothing more and nothing less.
Gordon Brown will be seen by History as the unrewarded hero of the hour who saved the Labour Party.
Think you're deluded.
Hi anon
yeah, yeah
(whoops - with regard to my last thread I meant to say he saved "the economy" but I suppose by doing so he did save the Party from an crushing and overwhelming defeat?)
I was going to mention it. Your Freudian slip is revealing. Not all bankers are Tory and not all Tories are bankers. Surprisingly, I know some Labour bankers!
Hi Anon
"Surprisingly, I know some Labour bankers!"
of course there are - but as you appear to confirm the vast majority are tories! The Conservative party is pretty much bank rolled and controlled by uk financial service interests.
I didn't confirm that at all! My surprise was not that there are Labour bankers - it was that I know one! Funnily enough we're not all obsessed by politics - and it doesn't appear that you are either. You seem blind to all politics unless it's Labour. Have they ever done anything you disagree with or is your blind allegiance something to do with medication?
Hi anon
I think that you ought to lie down, chill out and get a life:)
That would be the same Tory bankers that Gordon knighted for services to the finance service industry...funny that. Amazing how Labour wash their hands of it all -remember thirteen years of Labour and it all happened on Gordon's watch. Was he asleep or just incredibly naive?
Totally chilled and drug free - what do those people in the white coats give you?
Hi anon 17.24
Yes, Brown and the rest of the world were taken in by neo-liberalism and did not understand that these people needed to be sorted out. Don't worry when we win power again (which we will) we will finish the job properly.
Brown then redeemed himself by saving the world.
Hi Anon 19.37
Medicine of course! I know you would want them to ask for my credit card.
Does everybody who doesn't slavishly follow your views need to 'get a life'?
Why do you have this blog if you need to resort to childish cliches?
Surely they don't allow you to have a credit card?
Hi anon
not everyone just "Mr Angry's". Its not good for you:)
and no they don't.
I don't think anybody appears angry apart from you!
Haven you taken a look in a mirror recently?
Ditto
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