Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Happy Birthday Labour Party: 111 Not Out.

One of the many possible birthdays of the Labour Party took place last weekend.  The founding conference was arguably on 26-27 February 1900 in the Farringdon Memorial Hall in London hoisted by the TUC.

Hat tip to Progress who seem to be the only ones to feature this important anniversary?

Check out this and that on what would Keir Hardie make of Labour 111 years on and Remembering Memorial Hall

Picture of the first ever Labour MP, Keir Hardie ,(West Ham South) addressing crowd. 

UPDATE: and posts by Denis MacShane MP and Gregg McClymont MP

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder what Kier Hardy would have made of the priorities of a Labour local authority planning to implement millions of pounds of cuts in services (albeit Tory-inspired)from a swish state-of-the-art building in Docklands while spending around half a million pounds a year on 'allowances' for serving councillors and mayor... something which used to cost virtually nothing?

We can (and should) complain about the inquity and injustice of cuts, but we also need to get our own house in order, in my personal opinion

bob said...

John

In cricket a score of 111 is known as a Nelson and considered unlucky. I trust the Labour Pary isn't superstitious.

John Gray said...

Hi Anon

I seem to remember that Kier had had grave financial problems as a MP since they were not paid at all until 1911?

Do you only want the rich to hold office?

Have you been to Building 1000? Of course this building will save money by centralising services.

If you want all Cllrs and MP's not to be paid allowances then please say so.

Hi Bob

I don't follow cricket. I think Nelson is a Naval hero who died in 1805 and no, the party is not at all superstitious (fingers and toes)

Anonymous said...

John
I don't think councillors (and mayors) should be paid anything more than basic expenses - travel, creche, telephone. And this was the case until about 10 or 15 years ago.

MPs are I think, overpaid, and therefore out of touch with the public they serve. We have gone from the financially struggling Kier Hardy - who we could have absolutely relied upon to understand the people he represented, to the expenses scandal and MPs imprisoned for fiddling. What do you think is better?

John Gray said...

Hi anon

well that is fair comment but these posts are mostly full time and I think it is wrong to only allow those who can afford it to have such positions.

Kier Hardy received no wage as an MP (I think he got money from his union?). I actually do not think that MP's are overpaid when compared to how much Head teachers and GP's are paid.

The real problem is the vast and completely obscene amounts paid out to Executives in the private sector. This is not only greedy and unfair but it distorts the public sector as well.

Anonymous said...

John
I agree completely about executive pay, the obscene and rapidly growing income gap between rich and poor. But I think that overpaying our representatives can make them out of touch and less likely to address those wider issues.

The other factor is of course the enormous shift from earned to unearned income over the past forty years (and its a worldwide phenomenon I believe). That's why are all having to work harder and harder and struggling more and more to get by.

John Gray said...

Agreed Anon.

bob said...

Following cricket should be in the curriculum! For the record it is believed that 111 is unlucky, and called a Nelson, in the mistaken belief that Nelson had one eye, one arm and one leg - in fact he had two legs. The superstition in English cricket extends to multiples of 111- so 222,333,444 etc. The famous umpire Shepherd always stood on one leg when a team reached a Nelson.

I'd better stop before you nod off!

John Gray said...

ZZZZZzzzzzz