Tuesday 25 September 2007

From The Fringe - Monday


So Day Two of Conference, much schmoozing of journalists and politicians before the "great one" Gordon took to conference floor to deliver a 63 minute speech that pleased some, disappointed others but in all generally seemed from the heart.

Gordon Brown's Speech
What Gordon said was mostly empty rhetoric sadly, it was a crowd pleasing rallying call to troops and destroyed every solid prediction i put down yesterday of there being no snap election. I feel now is the time not to say anymore on the subject, in case i get it totally wrong.
Gordon's youth speech however sat well with me, i felt it was about time the young was given more of the political thought and this only bodes well for hopefully another term.

Lib vs Lab - Who's The Real Progressive Party
A debate which included former Labour defector Vince Cable, covered several topical issues including tuition fees, chaired by Tim Horton a lively debate left a sour taste in most people's mouths after accusations and counter accusations of sabotage in rival electioneering campaigns. Politics is pointless when it falls into the category of Punch and Judy and sadly for such a debate with so much, it fell so short.

So Day Two, I believe Labour are a progressive party, however certain areas of the party are backward in going forward....comrades.

Monday 24 September 2007

From The Fringe - Day 1 of The Labour Conference


Sunday and sticky rain greeted many of the Labour delegates and general cling-ons, the town bristling with people was a welcome to many of the hotels who had been hit by the constant changeable weather of this summer.

The talk among the people in the bars, restaurants and gardens was elections, and were we prepared, some felt so others weren't to sure, even Bournemouth's West own candidate muttered something along the words of "pointless", when the question was brought up at a Fabian fringe meeting.

Other debates included the stoppage of the BNP, Northern Rock and the Impending Iranian question, but not my question on the media and it's power, ah well you can't win everything or in fact anything when your brolly suddenly breaks mid-walk to the second of the fringe meetings.

Fabian Society: Question Time
The first of the two fringe meetings was in the surroundings of Hot Rocks Cafe, a seafront venue with the surfboards around, over looking the vast coast in front. Free Wine and nibbles greeted the large yet subdued crowd, and the panel consisted of Ed Balls, David Blunkett among others.

What struck me was the quality of debate, whilst Blunkett a former minster seemed to drive over the views of others, Balls was more compassionate more aware and delivered the best of the comments. For example: when commenting on the foreboding general election decision he was cagey, but it is clear that an election will be held in Spring and not in 5 or so weeks, the decision to neither confirm or deny is to shake the Conservatives, and Conservatives already battered and bruised by the government handling of as Blunkett described: Fire, pestilence, famine and Capitalism.

On faith schools, Ed Balls said that it was not the case that the government wanted to increase faith schools, yet "certain faith schools had worked better in communicating than the none secular schools". He however in a rare backtracking motion suggested that this was not common among all faith based institutions and neither were all secular schools were non cooperative.

Young Fabian Reception
I'm not sure on when you stop becoming young, but some of the people at the launch of a pamphlet on how to stop the BNP must of been past the bench mark of 31. Anyhow I don't discriminate just ailenate, spending most of the time talking to this old woman and drinking far too much wine, It got to me in the end, shortly leaving after a passionate but brilliant speech by Liam Byrne.

And thus Day 1 ended.

Friday 7 September 2007

Maybe a "Modern Labour"


Recently, I've been considering my idea's and values in a social and political way. It's not that i feel i have become more centrist, it is that i have felt uneasy with the relative concepts that the left views itself in.

Furthermore upon reading Phillip Gould's Unfinished Revolution, i came to feel more not old or new labour, but an inbetween. I don't feel the modernising force that became blurred under New Labour, nethier do i feel the cold static outdated past of old labour.

"Certain Ideas"
Perhaps as i question my standing, i can view different points of view. I was against the war, the reasoning was flawed. However what really irratates me on the war is the way we simply breezed in without a plan, and are now leaving with a hundred fewer servicemen, and what really for, Hussien never collectively had power in much of the country much like the current government. Iraq is split by religion, it always will be, no one will have a stable country, but i do believe maybe that it is time for us to leave.

For the union question, i believe unions need to modernise, the collective vote was a mistake, and a mistake that clause Iv, and Blair forced out. However, how can a union modernise, how can they force through action when most of the public just complain when a strike happens. This countries forgotten that the workers, who would think themselves as middle class have been pushed to the limit. We need a new thinking, a third way for the unions, as well as Labour.

"Modern Labour?"
I got the term "Modern Labour" from a interview i did, And it seems quite apt at the end of Tony Blair, the Labour party needs a new view, a world view that relies less on the US, more on the collective europe. We need a better serving transport plan, no more cancellation of train and tram projects in the face of increased road building. On the society we have we must listen to the youth, we must for once welcome them to debate, and not just the ones who are at the lowest or the highest of the education spectrum, the generation this country has lost. We should not condone Video Games or Tv as a quick fix to a society that isn't broken, but needs to be talked too. And we should no longer attack the needs of university generation, one which is now a customer, and a customer the universities should be offering far more to, and not less.

I've had the idea of collecting a manifesto together for some time, I want to collect a jumbled few ideas, such as this and put something i feel will benefit the country. Modern Labour needs the power to run this country that's 21st century, sad to say that Thatcher started and sped the modernising of this country up too quickly. Gould, Mandelson and others collectively modernised and developed the plans for a future Labour government, now it's time to start to build the country, we modernised too quickly and that we have little time is the most worrying thing.