Tories and Libs Wring Working People: Now and then

 Hat tip to former MP, Harry Barns with his post on this great cartoon (right) which he titles "Clegg and Cameron 1895". Check out his blog here.

It first appeared in the Independent Labour Party (ILP)
newspaper "Labour Leader" in 1895. Its message is nowadays even more clear.

So say "No" to "Same old, Same old". The Liberals and the Tories have been ripping off working people for more than 100 a years and are still doing it now.

There is still an ILP which is called the Independent Labour Publication

Michael Foot

I got a text this afternoon about his death from a good trade union comrade on my mobile while I was travelling on the tube to a union meeting.

It’s always shocking when these things happen even if you didn’t know him and he had lived to a ripe old age (96).

I can still just about remember seeing him speak in person for the first time in Rhyl Labour club, North Wales. I think it was soon after the election defeat in 1979. But he was the first real true “orator” I had ever heard live. Even though before he spoke he appeared to be very ordinary and unassuming.

I think that Harry Barnes has the best take on him – see here and hat tip thingy for the above photo of Michael at the 1960 Labour conference.

Speaker Michael Martin and Harry Barnes

"I owe a considerable debt to Michael Martin.
He played a major role in helping to save the few brain cells I have left when I had a stroke in the Commons in 1998. He was Deputy Speaker at the time and when he saw the condition I was in he immediately helped me into his car and rushed me to the Accident and Emergency provision at St. Thomas's Hospital.

He brought Dennis Skinner with him.

It was late in the day as the Commons' was moving towards its adjournment, yet Martin and Dennis kept a watch over me in the hospital for two hours until my son had been contacted and travelled to St Thomas's to take over the vigil.

I have others that I am greatly indebted to at that time. These include Dennis who also contacted my wife by phone and an attendant at the Commons' Chamber who looked after me and helped me down difficult flights of stairs. Then there was, of course, the magnificent staff at the hospital and the attention of my son and of my wife. Ann quickly made it from our home to London, not just to help me with my physio exercises but to take over as my Constituents' de-facto MP for several weeks.

Yet the person who took determined action at a crucial stage was Michael.I hope that it is not just from a sense of gratitude that I resent the fact that lesser parliamentarians helped to hound him out of office when they foolishly thought that this would help save their own embarrassment. They did not know that when you try to feed someone to the wolves, that it only makes the animals more bold.

Michael handled the Commons' far differently than seen from the edited TV snippets which were used against him recently. He mixed with MPs at Westminster in a way that no Speaker in history has ever done, for he broke down the barrier that had hidden his predecessors within the Speaker's quarters. When he held receptions and meetings in his own rooms he acted with dignity, intelligence and kindness and always brought the best out of others. He has my eternal gratitude. This might not matter for most people, but I hope that in a small way it matters to Michael - as it does for me".

Harry Barnes