To ask you what you would like to say to the Labour Party leadership?

[happyon]

This is a bit of a TAAT, but I didn't want to take the other excellent thread in only one direction, so here is a new one.

I'm a member of the Labour Party and I know there are other members here and plenty of voters. I also know that there's a world of rage out there about what this government is doing to this country and how ineffectually Labour seem to be responding.

I suspect that important Labour types will read this if get enough people involved. They need to listen to us or we will have to deal with another Tory government.

I'll begin by saying that I want Labour to:

Support a living wage for everyone, in all parts of the country. Immediately.

[Nancy66]

mummymeister - you're reading something that's not there. I am just saying that there's a group of people who would never dream of voting in a million years.

If you think otherwise then you're probably living in the idealistic, privileged, north London, middle-class, leftie bubble already mentioned on this thread.

[PansBigChainring]

Tony Benn remained a Labour Party member til the day he died, as it was the best opportunity of achieving a just society. He voted for Ed Milliband in the election leadership. What would Tony Benn do? Join Labour and vote for them.

[CountessOfRule]

Tony Benn was one of a kind, though - genuinely more interested in doing the right thing rather than necessarily furthering his own career. I couldn't say the same of any of the shower current Commons.

[Imnotmadeofeyes]

I'm not convinced nancy66, we manage to collect council tax and TV licences, heck we even manage a census every 10 years.

Of course there'll be a percentage of people who just don't engage but presuming those numbers match council tax non-payers, we still seem to think that's worth the bother.

Re: housing, thinking further on it, the market could be controlled to an extent. If the council tax banding of your property was defined by a scale of worth (eg. Band B worth £10-£25) and sale/rent prices couldn't breech that limit surely the market would adjust? Properties would have their worth defined by the free market within those limits.

It would have to be subject to annual increments that were able to be stopped in certain economic conditions (by the BoE maybe?), but I can't see how else wages and house prices are ever going to even out, well apart from a massive social housing building scheme which isn't likely to happen.

[PansBigChainring]

Self - interest? It was Ed Mil who re-arranged Labour finances to make them less dependent on the unions. A Brave Step and one that bit the hand that put him into the leadership. He spared us the David Milliband Blairite future.

[Nancy66]

Exercising your right to not vote would be a human right though wouldn't it?

[Jeepers]

After the last labour government I vowed never to vote labour. It's a measure of the revulsion I feel for this current bunch of self interested crooks that I would reconsider this now.

Promise to reverse the health & social care bill & stop the sell of the nhs and my vote is yours.

[PansBigChainring]

Reverse the restrictions on the access to legal aid! Soon justice will be only for the richer people. And reverse the privatisation of the Probation Service. It's risking massive harm for profit for the Tory buddies.

[Jeepers]

Oh yes & put ed balls out into the long grass....

[HauntedNoddyCar]

If you want better MPs then as well as changing the London set running the party machine then the media also needs sorting out. You either have to be blemish free and bland or a jolly rascal these days. Soundbites are the medium of communication and any serious, slightly flawed person will fall foul of the media moguls.

I certainly did things in my teens and twenties that I wouldn't want hashed over by some editor. Most ordinary people do. So that would always put me off being an MP!

[SelectAUserName]

"Understand that the only way out of poverty is through work not by increasing benefits."

Not everyone CAN work. A decent society looks after its vulnerable and disabled members, and if that means a comparatively small number of people get something they're not entitled to in order to ensure that no-one in genuine need suffers, then so be it.

[CountessOfRule]

Ed Miliband doomed his party by standing for leader and splitting the vote. As little as I like David M, he would have done a better job and not started his leadership under the stain of treachery.

[Imnotmadeofeyes]

Well I suppose selecting 'none if the above' could count as a declaration of your wish not to have a vote counted towards electing the country's governing body.

To be honest, I'm not sure we have a right not to vote in the same way we have a right to vote. Not enshrined in the human rights act anyway... Could be wrong, but I think people have been too busy getting equal voting rights to think they might not want it

[TheBody]

listen about immigration, listen about the EU, listen about people's perceptions of the human rights act abuses!!

just fucking listen to ordinary people not the luvvies.

[Jeepers]

Compassion for the vulnerable & frail in our society. Promoting the sense that a society has a responsibility to look after everyone & that in doing so makes everyone's life better.

Enough with the vilification, scapegoating and the divide & rule.

Enough with the imposition of market philosophy on every aspect of all uk life. For example Quality services providing good medical care should not need to have a profit margin to be considered an asset rather than a drain on state resources.

Put public money into public services not into private company pockets. Private companies are not necessarily more efficient or effective & profits go to shareholders rather than being reinvested into services. Endless money is being wasted on pointless tendering of contracts and relentless reorganisation of services that need to just get on & do their jobs.

[EEatingSoupForLunch]

I am a Labour member and do my bit at elections.

Reverse the privatisation of criminal justice, before there are several high profile incidents with offenders managed by the likes of Serco.

Protect and support the NHS.

Stop tax dodging.

[2013go]

Be brave and bold. Show some balls. Stop cowering and hiding. Take the Tories on. Put social justice at the heart of everything. Apologise for Iraq.

[2013go]

Specifically, maybe...
Social housing
Rent control
Ban on second home ownership- or at least 3rd home ownership
Stop academisation and free schools
Look creatively at the whole education system, and trust teachers
No privatisation in the NHS, no more full stop
Close tax loopholes
Cancel trident
Free nursery provision
Free school meals
Renewable energy
Most importantly, change the bloody argument: don't work timidly within the confines of the debate set by the right and Murdoch press- set the agenda, pose an alternative.

[happyon]

I Voted for Ed too. He is decent but not charismatic. But Ed, what do you actually stand for? What is the Labour Party about?

Listen to us: you need us as much as we need you.

[x2boys]

I,m really disillusioned with politics full stop I work for the NHS so see every day whats happened to it the rot started about ten years ago so we cant completely blame the condems for the inevitable privitasation of the NHS they are just finishing what labour started closing services post freezes etc the education system needs a complete overhall and if labour seriously want to get in in the next elect they have to seriously reconsider Ed Milliband as the party leader.

[firstchoice]

Get rid of Miliband.
Tell me what your policies are, please?

I would like you to concentrate on:

affordable housing funded by creating more secure low to medium waged jobs.

sort out the nhs / benefits system - please cut more fat at the top of the nhs to release it for the lowly workers and patients and rethink what has been done to those on dla / sickness benefits as it is a scandal.

Close tax loopholes to pay for all this.

Try Blair for war crimes.

[2013go]

I'm not enamoured with Ed but I just don't think it's a qu of leadership, it's one of policy. Focus on personality is a bit of a red herring- if Ed was speaking convincingly of some of the ideas suggested on this thread he'd be vastly more credible.

[merrymouse]

I'm a bit annoyed at them calling the latest Tory childcare proposal (which, I know, is clearly made with an eye on the next election) an 'au pair' subsidy.

It isn't hard to spend £10K on childcare if you work full time. Regardless of the ins and outs of this policy, calling households where two adults work full-time 'rich' is out of touch, and £10K is not a large income for somebody with a full time job (albeit perhaps live-in).

To me it seems like a knee jerk comment that doesn't recognise either the cost or low wages of child care.

[teaandthorazine]

be brave and bold - absolutely. I don't know who the Labour Party are these days. Be an OPPOSITION, tell us what you stand for, stop mealy-mouthing and compromising and faffing... You used to stand for something, now even your supporters are confused.

And then...

• remove tuition fees
  
• build some bloody houses that ordinary people can afford
  
• increase protection for tenants
  
• close tax loopholes that let billionaires get away with paying virtually nothing
  
• renationalise the railways, the utilities and stop fucking about with my NHS. Stop trying to screw money out of everything
  

Show some guts.