Progressive future for Hexham Constituency

No idea if anyone is reading any of these blogs - if you are I hope you are finding the interesting! There's so much going on at the moment it's difficult to keep up. Today, Keir Starmer gave a strong performance at Prime Ministers Questions - he had Boris Johnson on the back foot about his lack of sacking of Matt Hancock and the rapid attempt to re-write history!  I like the way Keir Starmer comes across when he's holding the government to account in Parliament. He does it very well, the PM rarely answers a question and his tendency to bluster is exposed. Anyone watching Starmer, regardless of politics, could easily imagine him as PM. That's the first hurdle to negotiate as a future potential Prime Minister. Can enough people imagine you in the job?  I love hearing Jeremy Corbyn speak live. Like Tony Benn, JC is a great orator. I heard Tony Benn speak several times over years. I've heard JC speak at various meetings, rallies and the Durham Miners Gala. It's lik...

Here's another, more recent article form Compass. The forward is jointly written by Clive Lewis Caroline Lucas and  Layla Moran. Imagine a cabinet led by PM Keir Starmer, with those 3 round the table - along with a progressive MP for Hexham. Have we got the will to make it happen? All you need to know about a progressive alliance by Neal Lawson https://www.compassonline.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/All-You-Need-to-Know-about-a-Progressive-Alliance.pdf FORWARD Politics needs to change so we can change our society – to make it much more equal, sustainable and democratic. We are convinced that can only happen if parties of the left and centre start to work together, or at the very least stop fighting one another. There are two reasons for this. The first is the sheer scale of the challenges we face – not least the climate emergency, which will take all of our traditions, insights and energies to overcome. The second is that the voting system is now skewed strongly in the Conserva...

Came across this article:  The Progressive Alliance: Why Labour Needs It  Jeremy Gilbert The link to the pdf is:  https://www.compassonline.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Labour-the-PA.pdf It was written in 2017 but most of the content is very relevant, if not more relevant now

Not sure if I am getting a bit too obsessed with the idea of a progressive electoral alliance......but i seem to be coming across more and more reasons why it might be a good idea. A friend of mine gave me a book to read which I would recommend. It's called "Things can only get worse?" by John O'Farrell. It's very funny. The book starts with the Blair election victory for "New Labour" in 1997.  The story resonates with me. I was a member of the Labour Party from the late 1970s until the early 1980s. I became disillusioned with the Labour Party never winning any elections, so concentrated on single issues. In the 1980s there were plenty to choose from! Nuclear Disarmament, Poll Tax, Anti-Apartheid, Miners Strike etc etc. By 1997, everyone was desperate for change and I had rejoined the Labour Party a few months before the election as I was determined to be on the winning side for once!  Anyway, the author refers to world events as he goes along, recountin...

If there is going to be a progressive alliance at the next general election between Labour, Greens and Lib Dems, there would need to be some consensus on key policy areas. The 3 parties are in broad agreement in terms of many areas - fairness, equality, abolish poverty, tackle climate change, support public services, fairer taxation, ethical foreign policy - and when you look at the policies often there is a lot of overlap. There are some big differences but the amount of overlap is considerable when you line up the 3 manifestos. There is a housing crisis. Everyone can see that. House prices are out of control. Generation rent can't afford to get on the housing ladder without help from their parents. Affordable housing is rare. Public housing is minimal. Tenants have much less protection than previously. There's no imagination in housing policy in terms of building communities with integrating housing for families, the elderly and young people. Developers hold on to brown field...

I've got a confession to make. I buy the Daily Telegraph on a Saturday. It's good for sport and gardening tips. It also means I glance at the letters, editorial and Comment articles. They usually make pretty grim reading! The Editorial yesterday caught my eye. It's title was: Boris Johnson Must Take Back Control The editorial meandered through the Hancock affair (before he had actually resigned). It didn't call for his resignation but rather went on about how the impression might be created that the government was lacking in any moral authority and that might catch up with those old Etonians and that wouldn't be good for anyone! The piece finished: "The Government, and Boris Johnson personally, retain the goodwill of the public to a striking degree. The Labour Party is still incapable of providing any meaningful opposition. Yet in politics, perceptions can shift quickly. The Prime Minister needs to take back control of the narrative, or the Government will be a...

 A week is a long time in politics..... I heard Ken Clark on the radio this morning. Ken, as i am sure you will remember, was chucked out of the Tory party for refusing to support a Hard Brexit. I thought that Ken might take the opportunity to put the boot into Matt Hancock. But he didn't. He defended him. He said things like "it's a private matter for the two families to deal with". On the issue that the snogging broke the social distancing rules, Ken suggested "It was a bit like two work colleagues forgetting the rules for an instant and shaking hands". Shaking hands??? Blimey, I've heard some far fetched suggestions to explain poor behaviour over the years, but that takes the biscuit. I certainly don't care what Matt Hancock or any politician does in their personal life. I think most of us would agree that politicians and others in the public eye do a have a right to a private life. But what Mr Hancock was up to with his old friend Gina was conduc...

I've been asked to make it clear that this blog is not endorsed by the Hexham Constituency Labour Party. I'm a member of the Labour Party but my posts are in a personal capacity. Understandably it's against Labour Party rules to actively encourage people to vote for other parties at elections. I hope these rules will change but that is up to the Labour Party. I'm not particularly optimistic that this will happen - but without a different approach I think we are stuck with a Conservative MP in Hexham Constituency. If nothing changes in Hexham in terms of an electoral pact between Labour, Lib Dem and Green Parties, I will be campaigning for the Labour candidate at the next General Election as under those circumstances Labour would have the best chance of winning, but it would require a miracle. Part of the campaign would be to appeal to Lib Dem and Green supporters to vote tactically for Labour.  If on the other hand the 3 parties agreed to field a single candidate, then ...

Just to get the discussion going - Hexham is a great constituency - very diverse - urban and rural bits. In recent elections it has been a pretty safe Conservative seat. The combined vote for the other parties could make it more of a marginal - but the issue is that the opposition vote is split. The Labour, Green and Lib Dems could get together and agree that 2 parties step down and leave the next election open to one candidate who everyone could get behind. That assumes that Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters would be happy to vote for any of the 3 parties. which might not be true for everyone Another approach would be to have 3 candidates on paper - but encourage people to vote tactically. At the recent bye election down south - that's kind've what happened and the Lib Dems got in by a landslide. The Labour candidate got about 600 votes - but who cares! Labour were never going to win and it's sent a massive message to the Conservative Government who are now nervous about th...

Hello! This is my first post and first attempt at a blog - so hope it is of interest! I'll put my cards on the table - I am a member of the Labour Party (live in Wylam) but I used to be in the Green Party and I voted Lib Dem once!  I'm depressed about the situation in the UK. The current Government is causing a lot of damage to the lives of many people. I am hoping for a change. One of the ways change could happen would be to have a non-Tory MP for Hexham Constituency. This is nothing personal against the current MP but I don't agree with many of his policies either locally or nationally. The big issue for us in the Hexham Constituency is how to organise ourselves to have a chance of changing our MP at the next election. People have started talking about a "Progressive Alliance" to bring together the opposition - Labour, Lib Dems, Greens, disillusioned Conservatives, non-voters etc. Could this happen in Hexham? Here's hoping. The blog is a forum for discussion...