The bus to get a Labour MP elected in Hexham Constituency is leaving - Get on Board!

No blogs for a while. I've been busy on twitter. The Progressive Hexham Constituency twitter account has attracted quite a lot of interest. There's clearly an enthusiasm to try to get rid of the current MP. Hexham deserves better. There's still quite a lot of discussion about the best approach and we need to thrash that out between now and the next General Election. Time is short!

In a previous blog I asked everyone to remember the feeling that they had the day after previous elections, when the realisation that the Tories had won again, was sinking in. Sinking in is a good way of putting it, because it is that terrible sinking feeling associated with defeat. Contrast that with how you are feeling today, the day after another two fantastic by-election victories for the opposition. Labour in Wakefield and the Lib Dems in Tiverton and Honiton. 

The Tories are literally falling apart. Oliver Dowden has resigned. His resignation is a pretty pathetic attempt to salvage his own credibility. Until a few days ago he was backing Boris to the hilt. The same goes for our own MP. Guy Opperman has been on a political journey. He used to be a pretty "decent" Conservative, on the moderate wing of the Tory Party. I thought of him a bit like Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine or Rory Stewart. He campaigned to remain in the EU and was a big supporter of Theresa May. Despite all that, Mr Opperman has nailed his colours firmly to the discredited PMs mast. Recent tweets make his position clear:

The people of Hexham deserve better than this. Our MP has put his own career ahead of the interests of us, his constituents.

It's easy to point out how awful it is to have a MP who is happy to align himself with a dishonest politician like Boris Johnson, but that in itself my not convince enough people to vote differently next time. There needs to be an attractive alternative. 

That brings me to the trickier question of what that alternative should look like. 

I've made no bones of the fact that I'm a member of Hexham Labour Party and I want a Labour MP to be elected in Hexham. I hope everyone who wants a change of MP will recognise that Labour is best placed to win in Hexham. So we need to ask Lib Dem and Green voters, to vote Labour. We also need to convince some people who voted Conservative last time, to switch to Labour. 

People keep saying that they "don't know what Labour stands for" and "Keir Starmer needs to be more charismatic". The latter is certainly true, Keir needs to articulate a clear vision for what a Labour Government would deliver. Labour needs to have a programme which is true to it's principles, but also with wide electoral appeal. We need to recognise that Labour supporters, Lib Dem and Greens all share some basic positions which set them apart from the Tories. I like Ed Davey and some of the other Lib Dems and Caroline Lucas would be an asset in any progressive government.

Pick out from the following list the things that you want a future government to prioritise:

Fairness, equality, equal opportunity, sharing of wealth, affordable housing, properly funded NHS, good schools for all, decent public services, greening of the economy, decent public transport, support for veterens, humane immigration policy, ethical foreign policy.

Wherever you are on the political spectrum: Moderate Conservative, Green, Lib Dem, Right, Centre, Left of Labour, Further to the left than Labour.......I think there would be a consensus that a Keir Starmer led Labour Government or a Labour/Lib Dem/Green coalition, would be a million times better than what is on offer from the current Government. Articulating why is now urgently needed. Come on Keir!

So, what are we going to do? We can either not work together and increase the chances of having a Tory MP after the next election. Or, we can work together to deliver the change needed. This will need people who don't agree with each other to work together. Compromise, pragmatism. 

The bus to get a Labour MP elected in Hexham Constituency is leaving the bus station. Get on board! We need everyone on board. There will be a lot of hard work on the journey, but it should also be fun. 

Why not join a political party or, if you don't want to, help with the campaigning. We all need to do our bit.