Trident – No Time to Think

Right wing Labour MPs exposed by their own voting record

AMID all the rhetoric, propaganda, smears and double talk, perhaps the best way to isolate the right wing Labour MPs is to examine their recent voting records.

Over the past 10 months, under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, there have been three key House of Commons debates where MPs showed their true colours to the Labour membership.

In many ways these votes exposed the real “Enemy Within” and those who will undermine Mr Corbyn at every turn.

The first occasion was last October when Labour had the opportunity to vote against George Osborne’s fiscal charter, which introduced a law to ban governments from borrowing money to fund infrastructure, housing or public services “during normal times”.

It was a key vote to secure the Tories’ Austerity programme and stop future public investment.

The second time was in December, when MPs debated and voted on whether to extend British bombing to Syria. An extension which has already killed hundreds of innocent civilians.

And the third occasion was on 18 July this year when MPs backed renewing the Trident £200 billion nuclear deterrent by 472 to 117 – a majority of 355 votes.

On Wednesday 14 October Labour voted against George Osborne’s fiscal charter. But a group of 20 MPs from Labour’s right wing felt they could not vote against the Tories’ Austerity proposal and instead abstained.

The abstainers were:

Rushanara Ali
Ian Austin
Adrian Bailey
Ben Bradshaw
Ann Coffey
Simon Danczuk
Chris Evans
Frank Field
Mike Gapes
Margaret Hodge
Tristram Hunt
Graham Jones
Helen Jones
Liz Kendall
Chris Leslie
Fiona MacTaggart
Shabana Mahmood
Jamie Reed
Graham Stringer
Gisela Stuart

The debate and vote on whether to extend British bombing of Isis into Syria was high profile and controversial for many reasons.

Labour MPs were given a free vote and allowed to vote according to their views.

Most Labour MPs – including the majority of the Shadow Cabinet – opposed the bombing, in line with Jeremy Corbyn.

But 66 Labour MPs voted with David Cameron in support of the military strikes.

They were:

Heidi Alexander
Ian Austin
Adrian Bailey
Kevin Barron
Margaret Beckett
Hilary Benn
Luciana Berger
Tom Blenkinsop
Ben Bradshaw
Chris Bryant
Alan Campbell
Jenny Chapman
Vernon Coaker
Ann Coffey
Yvette Cooper
Neil Coyle
Mary Creagh
Stella Creasy
Simon Danczuk
Wayne David
Gloria De Piero
Stephen Doughty
Jim Dowd
Michael Dugher
Angela Eagle
Maria Eagle
Susan Elan Jones
Louise Ellman
Frank Field
Jim Fitzpatrick
Colleen Fletcher
Caroline Flint
Harriet Harman
Margaret Hodge
George Howarth
Tristram Hunt
Dan Jarvis
Alan Johnson
Graham Jones
Helen Jones
Kevan Jones
Liz Kendall
Peter Kyle
Chris Leslie
Holly Lynch
Siobhain McDonagh
Pat McFadden
Conor McGinn
Alison McGovern
Lucy Powell
Bridget Phillipson
Jamie Reed
Emma Reynolds
Geoffrey Robinson
Joan Ryan
Ruth Smeeth
Angela Smith
John Spellar
Gisela Stuart
Gareth Thomas
Anna Turley
Chuka Umunna
Keith Vaz
Tom Watson
Phil Wilson
John Woodcock

In July this year when MPs backed renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent by 472 to 117, some 140 Labour MPs voted for the renewal, compared to 47 who voted no. A further 41 abstained or made themselves scarce.

Those who voted for Trident were:

Heidi Alexander
Rushanara Ali
Rosena Allin-Khan
Ian Austin
Adrian Bailey
Kevin Barron
Margaret Beckett
Hilary Benn
Luciana Berger
Clive Betts
Tom Blenkinsop
Ben Bradshaw
Kevin Brennan
Chris Bryant
Andy Burnham
Liam Byrne
Alan Campbell
Jenny Chapman
Vernon Coaker
Ann Coffey
Julie Cooper
Rosie Cooper
Yvette Cooper
Neil Coyle
Mary Creagh
Stella Creasy
Jim Cunningham
Nic Dakin
Simon Danczuk
Wayne David
Geraint Davies
Gloria de Piero
Stephen Doughty
Jim Dowd
Peter Dowd
Jack Dromey
Michael Dugher
Angela Eagle
Maria Eagle
Julie Elliott
Louise Ellman
Bill Esterson
Paul Farrelly
Frank Field
Jim Fitzpatrick
Robert Flello
Colleen Fletcher
Caroline Flint
Yvonne Fovargue
Gill Furniss
Mike Gapes
Pat Glass
Mary Glindon
Kate Green
Andrew Gwynne
David Hanson
Harriet Harman
Helen Hayes
Sue Hayman
John Healey
Stephen Hepburn
Meg Hillier
Margaret Hodge
George Howarth
Tristram Hunt
Dan Jarvis
Alan Johnson
Diana Johnson
Gerald Jones
Graham Jones
Helen Jones
Kevan Jones
Susan Elan Jones
Mike Kane
Liz Kendall
Stephen Kinnock
Peter Kyle
Chris Leslie
Emma Lewell-Buck
Ian C Lucas
Holly Lynch
Justin Madders
Khalid Mahmood
Shabana Mahmood
Seema Malhotra
John Mann
Rob Marris
Christian Matheson
Steve McCabe
Kerry McCarthy
Siobhain McDonagh
Pat McFadden
Conor McGinn
Alison McGovern
Liz McInnes
Catherine McKinnell
Ed Miliband
Madeleine Moon
Jessica Morden
Melanie Onn
Chi Onwurah
Albert Owen
Matthew Pennycook
Toby Perkins
Jess Phillips
Bridget Phillipson
Lucy Powell
Jamie Reed
Steve Reed
Christina Rees
Rachel Reeves
Jonathan Reynolds
Geoffrey Robinson
Joan Ryan
Virendra Sharma
Barry Sheerman
Paula Sherriff
Gavin Shuker
Andy Slaughter
Ruth Smeeth
Angela Smith
Nick Smith
Owen Smith
Karin Smyth
John Spellar
Keir Starmer
Wes Streeting
Gisela Stuart
Mark Tami
Gareth Thomas
Nick Thomas-Symonds
Stephen Timms
Anna Turley
Karl Turner
Stephen Twigg
Valerie Vaz
Tom Watson
Phil Wilson
Rosie Winterton
John Woodcock
Iain Wright

And the hard core of 14 right wing/Blairite Labour MPs that refused to vote against the Tories, voted TO BOMB Syria AND for the renewal of Trident are therefore:

Ian Austin
Adrian Bailey
Ben Bradshaw
Ann Coffey
Simon Danczuk
Frank Field
Margaret Hodge
Tristram Hunt
Graham Jones
Helen Jones
Liz Kendall
Chris Leslie
Jamie Reed
Gisela Stuart

It is easy to see without looking too far, just who are Labour’s Red Tories and those who might be advised to find a different political party to represent.

For more background you may also like to read: The right wing incontinence of the Progress plotters.

https://seagullnic.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/the-right-wing-incontinence-of-the-progress-plotters/

We gaze upon the chimes of freedom flashing

YESTERDAY’S landslide election of Jeremy Corbyn as the first truly socialist leader of the Labour Party since Clement Atlee is a profound moment in British politics.

Like thousands of other like-minded people, I am still shaking with emotion and trying to get my head round what has really happened.

For decades our country – and most of Europe – has been sleep walking into a world of personal greed, arrogance and self-importance with totems such as The X Factor, tanning studios, Top Gear, designer clothes labels and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Human kindness, gentleness, peace, society and social justice were jettisoned for a winner takes all mentality and a scapegoating of the homeless, those claiming benefits, Muslims, asylum seekers and the poor in general.

All of this was underpinned by our malicious gutter press who daily smeared and pilloried anyone who dare question the status quo or suggest alternatives.

When Cameron’s far right Conservative Party was elected in May this year I genuinely feared for our collective futures.

Here we had the election of a UK government compiled of self-seeking rich Tory elitists who care more about their mansions and banking friends than about people.

And their shopping list for change was truly terrifying as this is unshackled Conservative government promised to:

Rip up the Human Rights Act, which underpins our legal system and protects all our basic freedoms and those of persecuted minorities.
Spend £100 billion on replacing Trident with new nuclear weapons, which at the push of a button could wipe out millions of lives and pollute our planet for tens of thousands of years.
Make £12.8 billion of cuts to welfare, leaving the poorest, the oldest and the weakest in our society facing the bleakest of futures. In turn this will ensure the need for a food bank in every town and extend child poverty ensuring suffering and a loss of opportunity for millions.
Begin a phased end to council housing, thus pushing up rents in the private sector and making families homeless. Once again – as under Thatcher – we will see a surge in rough sleeping and begging.
Will enact tougher sanctions on migrants, involve the UK in further illegal wars in the Middle East and trigger an increase in racism and Islamophobia.
Extend zero hours contracts, thus massaging the unemployment figures and leaving thousands of the poorest people without any job security.
Legislate for more private schools which will imbed the class system even deeper in our society, rather focus on improving our state schooling system.
Escalate and accelerate the privatisation of the NHS, so medical care will depend on wealth and power rather than need.
Then redraw constituency boundaries so these same corrupt capitalist elitists stay in power for another 20 more years.

And the Labour Party, which should have been standing and campaigning against all this, crumpled into a Tory Lite modelled in the image of war monger and former leader Tony Blair.

Just over 18 months ago I had turned my back on Labour as a real alternative and joined Left Unity in a vain attempt to change things.

But outside the Labour Party the Left is too splintered and divided to succeed electorally, rather than uniting to defeat the greed and corruption of capitalism.

Following Cameron’s election victory I said the Left “must begin now to unify around a leader or leadership we can all trust, organise and start the fightback, or we wave farewell to hope for a fairer and better future.”

Well the fightback has now really begun.

And I must admit I never thought it possible.

But we had a hint that it may be possible by the political events in Scotland. There the electorate woke up to years of Tammany Hall politics and Establishment lies and en-mass elected 56 SNP MPs dedicated to social justice, welfare, investment and non-nuclear proliferation.

But other than the SNP standing candidates in English and Welsh constituencies, how could a similar popular uprising spread south?

Well along came Labour back bencher and peace campaigner Jeremy Corbyn – the rank outsider, who only just managed to get the 36 nominations from MPs needed to stand in the leadership election.

Then over the summer this gentle political firebrand, who appears more like a superannuated university lecturer than a Prime Minister in waiting, packed out meetings and hustings the length and breadth of this country with his simple messages of an end to austerity, an end to nuclear weapons and an end to needless wars over oil in the middle east and beyond.

His messages caught the hearts and minds of millions.

These are some of his primary beliefs:

The UK’s financial deficit should be paid off – but not through spending cuts and not to an arbitrary deadline. Instead, a Corbyn government would fund its reduction via higher taxes for the rich and a crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion. “Quantitative easing for people” could be used to invest in housing, energy, transport and digital projects.
Britain’s railways should be renationalised. Energy companies should also be under public ownership. He is “totally opposed” to fracking. However, he says deep-mine coal pits in the north of England could be reopened.
Far more allotments would be good for the UK and councils and builders “should be doing their best to ensure that every new development includes some allotment space”.
Talking to militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah is necessary to win peace in the Middle East. And arms embargo should be imposed on Israel. Mr Corbyn, who is a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said that Palestinian refugees should be given a “right of return”.
Replacing Trident would be a costly mistake. Jeremy Corbyn says plans to replace the nuclear missile system should be ditched. He believes the project’s £100 billion price tag could be better spent “on our national well-being“.
A National Education Service modelled on the NHS should be established. Under Mr Corbyn, state-funded academies and free schools would be forced to return to local authority control while university tuition fees would be scrapped and replaced with grants. He would look at ending the charitable status of public schools, although he accepts this would be complicated and might not happen immediately.
Labour should not support air strikes against ISIS in Syria. Mr Corbyn, who is national chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, believes innocent Syrians would suffer and the supply of UK and US arms and funds to ISIS should be cut off instead. He wants to see “illegal wars” replaced with a “foreign policy that prioritises justice and assistance”. This would ameliorate refugee crises. In turn, the arms trade should be restricted. Mr Corbyn would like to see the “brilliance and skill of those in the arms industry be converted for peaceful purposes
Rent controls should be re-introduced, linking private rents to local earnings, and more council houses should be built. Mr Corbyn also believes that council tenants’ right to buy their homes should be extended to private sector renters.
Remaining in the European Union but with changes. Mr Corbyn says he is not content with the EU as it stands, but wants to stay to fight for a “better Europe”. He also opposes the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal.
Ireland should be united and returned to Irish rule. Mr Corbyn has long supported British withdrawal from Northern Ireland.
Protect trade unions in the face of Conservative plans to overturn almost 100 years of workers’ rights with new legislation.
A national maximum wage should be introduced to cap the salaries of high earners. He would also introduce a windfall tax on former state assets such as the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Every child should have the chance to learn a musical instrument or act on stage. Mr Corbyn’s arts policy also includes directing a greater proportion of funding to local projects, widening access and protecting the BBC.
Private Finance Initiative deals with the NHS should be ended by using government funds to buy them out.
A “serious debate about the powers of NATO” is needed, but Mr Corbyn says there is not “an appetite as a whole for people to leave”. He also says open eastward expansion of NATO would lead the Russian military to conclude that it had “to expand to counteract NATO”.

All in all, a brave new world indeed.

In his victory speech, Mr Corbyn said: “We go forward now as a movement and a party bigger than we have ever been in a very, very long time, stronger than we have been for a very long time, more determined than we have been for a very long time, to show to everyone that the objectives of our party are intact, our passion is intact, our demand for humanity is intact.”

So at last we have our charismatic leader who with friends in the Green Party, the SNP and Plaid Cymru can offer a true progressive alliance and a way forward for us all.

Hope is renewed.

Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight An’ for each an’ ev’ry underdog soldier in the night An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind An’ the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales For the disrobed faceless forms of no position Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts All down in taken-for-granted situations Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an’ cheated by pursuit An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

(Bob Dylan, 1964)

In Search of Social Justice

LAST month’s General Election was a profound moment in British society and will change this country for a generation and beyond.

And I fear deeply for our collective futures.

On one hand I am delighted for my friends in Scotland, not for any reasons of independence but because they elected 56 MPs dedicated to social justice, welfare, investment and non-nuclear proliferation.

And the first indication are that under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon these new MPs are the real thing ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxDTasNcc2A )

But, I was equally appalled by the election of a UK government compiled of self-seeking rich Tory elitists who care more about their mansions and banking friends than about people.

And their shopping list for change is truly terrifying.

Over the next few years this is unshackled Conservative government will:

Rip up the Human Rights Act, which underpins our legal system and protects all our basic freedoms and those of persecuted minorities.
Spend £100billion on replacing Trident with new nuclear weapons, which at the push of a button could wipe out millions of lives and pollute our planet for tens of thousands of years.
Make £12.8billion of cuts to welfare, leaving the poorest, the oldest and the weakest in our society facing the bleakest of futures. In turn this will ensure the need for a food bank in every town and extend child poverty ensuring suffering and a loss of opportunity for millions.
Begin a phased end to council housing, thus pushing up rents in the private sector and making families homeless. Once again – as under Thatcher – we will see a surge in rough sleeping and begging.
Will enact tougher sanctions on migrants, involve the UK in further illegal wars in the Middle East and trigger an increase in racism and Islamophobia.
Back a return of the barbaric blood sports of fox hunting and deer coursing. If pandering to pink gin swilling toffs allowing them to tear defenseless animals to pieces is a sign of our society, I am ashamed.
Extend zero hours contracts, thus massaging the unemployment figures and leaving thousands of the poorest people without any job security.
Legislate for more private schools which will imbed the class system even deeper in our society, rather focus on improving our state schooling system.
Escalate and accelerate the privatisation of the NHS, so medical care will depend on wealth and power rather than need.
Then redraw constituency boundaries so these same corrupt capitalist elitists stay in power for another 20 more years.

I can’t help but wonder what’s happening to my country, my world and my companions. The Labour Party, who should be standing and campaigning against all this, have failed again and again to do so and the electorate saw through Miliband and his Tory Lite manifesto.

New Labour (or whatever they like to be called these days) even joined in with attacking the poorest, instead of the real culprits: the rich and the bankers who ruined the economy while lining their own pockets. Now our trade unions are distancing themselves from Labour in disgust. No one should have to choose between heating and eating, no one should have to pay for their healthcare or education – and everyone should have a roof over their head. It’s that simple. And neither have we learned the lessons of Iraq or Afghanistan. Once again we are hanging onto the coat hem of the USA in taking an aggressive stance against Russian involvement in the Crimea, while supporting a fascist Ukraine. We don’t need thousands more deaths of innocent people by any military posturing or worse still involvement. https://seagullnic.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/all-he-believes-are-his-eyes-and-his-eyes-they-just-tell-him-lies-2/ and in another post: https://seagullnic.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/youre-the-one-that-reached-me-youre-the-one-that-i-admired/

I have lost confidence with any major political party in this country to provide social and just government and turn back the cruel tide of capitalist politics. Last year I sadly found myself agreeing with Russell Brand that either we need a bloodless revolution to change the status quo or I remain sitting on my backside and give in to nihilism. Or is there another option? Is there a realistic left wing alternative? Also last year I joined Left Unity in an attempt to change things, and 12 months later I don’t regret that decision.

But the Left is too splintered and divided to succeed electorally.

Class War, The Communist Party, TUSC, The Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Action, 38 Degrees, UK Uncut, Respect, The Alliance for Green Socialism, The Socialist Labour Party, The Workers Revolutionary Party and even the Greens and many Labour Party members spend far too much time attacking each other over Trotskyite revisionism, personalities or tactics rather than uniting to defeat the greed and corruption of capitalism.

The 500,000 people who spontaneously attended the mass demonstration in London last weekend is an indication of the shared anger about the Conservative election victory and their manifesto of horror.

People are crying out for an alternative and they need it now.

The true Left must begin now to unify around a leader or leadership we can all trust, organise and start the fightback, or we all wave farewell to hope for a fairer and better future.