There’s no hope of change or reform under the current leadership. That’s why I’m resigning from the Labour Party
WE HAD our own Labour rooms in Halifax for more than 60 years. Last year, the local party took the decision to sell them. I went on the last day to collect some personal belongings.
It struck me as I looked through the contents of the skip outside the premises that this was the end of an era for Halifax Labour Party. A part of our history was being treated as rubbish and dumped in a skip. And this is precisely what “new” Labour has done to the party’s policies, dissenters and structures over the years.
It was a sad end to our old Labour rooms and, in a sense, to all that was so worth keeping in “old” Labour.
I made my decision to leave the Labour Party because I have realised it is impossible to change anything about it under the present leadership. It is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made.
I have always said that I was born into the Labour Party. One of my earliest recollections is going out leafleting with my father. It was cricket, rugby league and Labour at our dinner table – but not always in that order. However, “new” Labour has betrayed many of the values and principles that inspired me as a teenager to join.
I had hoped that a change of leadership might lead us back to being a progressive and caring party. In the event, I could not have been more wrong.
The obsession with privatisation, such as that planned for the Royal Mail, is inexplicable and quite simply wrong. And what does it say about promises made in Labour’s election manifestoes?
We promised the people of this country a referendum on the European constitution. Now it has been re-named the Lisbon Treaty and we have reneged on that promise. Who was it who said: “A pig with lipstick is still a pig”? If this treaty is ratified, we can say goodbye to any remaining publicly-owned services in Britain. Also, trade union rights will be further eroded.
Meanwhile, 900 more British troops are to be sent to Afghanistan. This is being done without any proper parliamentary debate, let alone any consultation with the Labour Party membership. We no longer talk about the war at the party conference and the last person to complain there vocally about Britain’s military adventures overseas was arrested under the Terrorism Act. Now the Government of the United States simply instructs us on foreign policy and this Labour Government complies – whoever is in the White House.
It also becomes clearer by the day that the British Government co-operated with George Bush and his acolytes as they “rendered” whoever they judged to be guilty of terrorism to despotic regimes which then tortured them.
And can someone explain to me why, when we are heading for the worst recession in my lifetime, ministers are bringing in the Welfare Reform Bill?
I watched John McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, and a few stalwart others attempt to amend this odious piece of legislation. I could have wept. I was present in the House Commons when a couple of hundred Labour MPs regularly turned up to oppose Thatcherite measures less draconian than this. But then the Labour voice spoke out to defend and protect the poor, not kick them when they were down. What provision – if any – has been made to feed the children when we stop the benefits of their parents?
Now that I live outside the Westminster bubble, I think I have more of a finger on the pulse of public opinion. Labour – and those who have brought it to its present, sorry position – are detested by many who would previously have supported us.
The thought processes of those who believed it would be a good idea to smear David Cameron and his wife when they are still in mourning for a much-loved son leave me and everyone I have discussed the matter with in despair.
Other issues are occupying people, too. Why, asked a group of pensioners I addressed recently, hasn’t the Government done something about the profits of the energy companies which put up their heating costs so astronomically?
Why, when we have thrown so much money at the banks, are they still awarding themselves huge pay increases and bonuses?
I have had many messages from people supporting my decision to leave Labour. Others have said I should stay in the party and fight. That was my own position until just recently, but I now realise that all democratic avenues within the party to bring about change have been closed down.
We can’t change anything at the annual conference and the party machine has taken over the constituencies. The attempt to parachute Georgia Gould, the daughter of Tony Blair’s polling guru, Philip Gould, into a safe Labour seat is the norm, not the exception.
Another example of the undemocratic selection of Labour candidates has just been seen in Calder Valley where a personally vindictive campaign played out in the pages of the tabloids led to the de-selection of a popular local activist. Ordinary Labour members cannot now choose their own representatives.
Parliament has come to reflect this manipulation of candidate selection, while traditional Labour MPs are very much in the minority – as was illustrated by the votes on the Welfare Bill.
I don’t believe in “new” Labour. I am opposed to most of its policies. There was nothing else for me to do but resign.
Alice Mahon was Labour MP for Halifax from 1987-2005 and a member of the party for more than 50 years
