Labour | Lunchtime Legend

rferrett
User
Ralph Ferrett, Male, 32,
Registered : March 11, 2010, 9:35 am
Tracks Played : 16239

You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me
Arctic Monkeys
13 hours and 9 minutes ago
U.N.K.L.E. Main Title Theme
UNKLE
13 hours and 15 minutes ago
Bodies
Chapel Club
13 hours and 18 minutes ago
Bodies
The Smashing Pumpkins
13 hours and 22 minutes ago
It's Getting Boring By The Sea
Blood Red Shoes
13 hours and 25 minutes ago
Rules For Normal Living
RJD2
13 hours and 29 minutes ago
Blind
Chapel Club
13 hours and 33 minutes ago
Why Hip-Hop Sucks In '96 - Alternate Take
DJ Shadow
13 hours and 34 minutes ago
To Forgive
The Smashing Pumpkins
13 hours and 39 minutes ago
Worst Comes To Worst
Dilated Peoples
13 hours and 42 minutes ago

There is nothing wrong with discrimination.

This item was published first on LaboutList at the following URL

http://www.labourlist.org/there-is-nothing-wrong-with-discrimination

Yesterday I read with interest Ian Silvera’s LabourList post “How to get more women and ethnic minorities into politics: the sober way”.

Ian started by saying “Positive discrimination is oxymoronic”. And for me this is the essence of where both Ian’s article, and argument, goes wrong. Let’s be clear about this – there is nothing necessarily wrong with discrimination. That might seem an odd thing for a Labour activist to say but it is true.

Our society discriminates all the time, with

Continue reading There is nothing wrong with discrimination.

A few reflections on the results yesterday.

Tories consulting omens about early election.

Yesterday i’ll have to admit I was utterly, utterly disconsolate. In truth I can’t remember being that down since England went out on penalties in Euro 2004. I was utterly deflated, and I just couldnt see any prospects of things ever getting better in politics. It was a difficult evening But luckily for me I have managed to bounce back, and this morning I feel much more like more normal effervescent self! And I think what would make me feel better is a quick blog on yesterday. So here are a

Continue reading A few reflections on the results yesterday.

Time for Labour to wake up

I have today had a piece published on LabourList.org.

You can read it here:-

http://www.labourlist.org/time-for-labour-to-wake-up

Unions should say YES to AV

Whatever we all think about politics I am sure one thing that we can all agree on is that things have not been all that peachy in respect of our relationship as ordinary people with our MPs in Westminster. Far too often our politicians seem distant from ordinary voters, preferring to listen bankers, and lobbyists in Westminster than the likes of us.

My Union is the CWU, and many CWU members who have tried to contact our MPs over the last few years about the various government wheezes to privatise

Continue reading Unions should say YES to AV.

AV Vote and destabilising the coalition.

I have heard a few Labour folks tell me that they are considering voting “No” principally because they hope to destabilise the coalition and hopefully bring forward a General Election. The view was espoused here on Labour List by Sonny Leong, and a colleague of mine David Chivers from the CWU also voiced this.

I thought it was an interesting view that was worth a full blog post riposte, I mean who wouldn’t want the Lib Dems to get a kicking and the General Election early? I know the thought of

Continue reading AV Vote and destabilising the coalition.

I have got an article published on Labour List today.

It is about factionalism and the difficulty of positioning our economic policies with anti cuts activism. You can read it here if you are interested.

http://www.labourlist.org/our-path-to-victory-is-not-one-of-factionalism

This silent immigration debate is awfully noisy!

Eek! Apparently we cant talk about immigration. There is apparently a plot (presumably by the PC brigade) are at fault that is causing a massive Omertà in which there CAN BE NO DISCUSSION OF IMMIGRATION.

Well apparently anyway. I’m guessing the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, The Times, The Telegraph didn’t get the memo. Neither did our TV networks. Or I suppose any of our political parties. Or people you meet in pubs…

No huddled masses here we are British.

Hang on, actually loads of people talk about

Continue reading This silent immigration debate is awfully noisy!

Compass and opening up membership

Compass

I’m a member of the Labour party and proud to be so. I’m also a member of Compass and proud to be so. So what do I think about the decision today by compass to vote to open up voting membership to those who belong to other political parties. Well when I cast my vote I put the little “X” next to the no box so you might think I would be really disappointed.

However I think my response is a little more nuanced than that. Firstly and importantly I

Continue reading Compass and opening up membership

The Judean Peoples Front

I guess having the Dark Lords of the Sith in power again (albeit in coalition with the Lib Dems) after thirteen years was always going to shock the left a little and make us have some slightly atypical behaviour. And for a little while everyone seemed to be focussed on the big job in hand, opposing the unfair, un-mandated, ideological Tory cuts that were coming.

Not that bunch of Splitters

Of course it couldn’t last and the left has now remembered who the *real* enemies are… and that of course is other

Continue reading The Judean Peoples Front

Drugs debate needs to have different frames of reference.

Earlier I was reading Hopi Sen’s blog at Liberal Conspiracy about Bob Ainsworth’s intervention on the drug debate. There was some stuff I agreed with, parties have to win elections and Hopi was right to say that the position espoused by Ainsworth is massively unpopular with the public. And in that sense Ed Miliband absolutely had to distance himself, and official front bench policy, from what Bob Ainsworth said.

But, for me one of the reasons I am political is that I want to change the world, I want to make

Continue reading Drugs debate needs to have different frames of reference.