Tuesday 22 March 2011

The problem with Labour

I suppose it was predictable, but since leaving the Lib Dems, I have received various contacts from other parties suggesting I might like to join them.  I won't be joining Labour any time soon because:

I'd be happy to be proved wrong, but the party seems to be extinct in Hedge End.  In the 2010 council elections they couldn't even find a single candidate who lives here.

Eastleigh Labour Party (well, their one remaining borough councillor, any way) spends an inordinate amount of time attacking the Borough leadership for its opposition to the proposed flats at Wildern Mill.  Not a good way to win friends in Hedge End.

Labour did some good, progressive things while in power.  I think of the Good Friday agreement, the national minimum wage, writing off the poorest countries' debts, Sure Start Centres, free entry to national museums, civil partnerships, scrapping section 28, increased funding for education, devolved power to national assemblies.  How did they come to allow themselves to be remembered primarily for financial incompetence and attacks on civil liberties? 

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