Life, vitality, optimism, prosperity. These characteristics are evident when you are in a successful environment. Well maintained buildings, functioning roads, well-kept green areas, vibrant markets, sports clubs, pubs and restaurants, prosperity and peacefulness – the absence of crime and poverty. And smiles on faces.
Wherever I have visited in the UK, whether north or south, rural or urban, I am always struck by the characteristics of those constituencies over which Labour has held power. Whether in Huddersfield, East Hull, Halifax, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Bradford, Sheffield or Barnsley the lack of investment in the fabric of areas in these towns and their outskirts is shocking and depressing. What has Labour done for those who give them their votes?
My recent visit to Stoke took me to a council estate where I spent three hours walking the streets and delivering leaflets. The local school was surrounded by an eight foot metal fence – something I never saw in my youth. The three ‘community’ buildings were boarded up, unused and unmaintained. The potholes were deep and old, no evidence of competent maintenance. Or incompetent maintenance. The church looked boarded up and deserted too. The people with whom I spoke were talkative, polite. “Hello”..”Hello duck.” There is much apathy, much despair. Thanks Labour.
In Stoke, the buildings are rotting, the factories derelict with absent roofs and foliage occupying former potter’s work stations. The highway drains are silted up, defunct, and the rivers form on the roads. The smiles are welcoming, yet sad. The spirit is present, but fatigued. These people of Stoke, our countrymen and women, have been deserted and abandoned. Thanks Labour.
Labour has overseen the governance of areas like Stoke for decades. Stoke Central has returned a Labour MP since 1950 when the constituency was created and Barnett Stross was elected. It was then a hive of activity, manufacturing, wealth and pots. The last individual selected by the Labour Party to be MP for Stoke Central was Tristram Hunt, who has now deserted the people to take up a position at the V&A, a position more suited to his limited talents I would suggest. I say selected, because the Labour Party has discovered that, the poorer their constituents are, the less prosperity they see, the worse their world becomes, the more they will vote Labour. It is a betrayal of the most inhuman kind. Labour keep their constituencies poor and divided, call the Conservatives evil and nasty, claim the NHS as Labour property and BINGO! Labour keeps power. Classic divide and rule.
That the Labour Party waste taxpayers money on foreign wars, short term giveaways, creation of non-jobs and the inflation of the public sector bureaucracy is not highlighted to their voters. That the local hospitals are crippled under the debt payments to corporations designed and implemented by Labour under their PFI schemes is hidden from the voters by our biased media. That the council fails to maintain local infrastructure or create new housing is blamed on others, ‘Nasty Tories’, rather those who have power to help – the local Labour Councillors.
Labour doesn’t care about Stoke. It doesn’t care about Stokies. It doesn’t care about Huddersfield, East Hull, Halifax, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Bradford, Sheffield, or Barnsley. It cares about power. It cares about control. And to achieve this it has morphed from a party of the working class, a people’s party, to a cynical organisation with the sole focus of achieving power ‘by whatever means’. It has sacrificed and continues to sacrifice the wellbeing of the people of this country by maintaining poverty, expanding the gap between the haves and have-nots, and preventing those people who they claim to represent from improving their lot and advancing their prosperity.
The proof is there to see, whichever Labour ‘safe seat’ one wishes to visit. When traditional Labour voters wake up and see that the Party that was created to improve the lives, health and wealth of the working classes in the UK, that once attracted statesmen, patriots and working class heroes – like Hardy, Bevan, Benn, Shore or Foot – has been taken over by political ideologues and anti-Britons, then the Labour Party will be no more. There is nothing left in Labour, no ideas, no intelligence, no morality, no vision and no respect of Britons.
The people of Stoke, as elsewhere, need representation. They need a positive unifying message of hope and the vision of a more prosperous future. The Labour Party is dying and it deserves to die due to its betrayal of the British people. UKIP can provide hope to those who have been left behind. Whether sufficient people are opening their eyes, looking at Labour constituencies and asking “What has Labour done for us?” yet, we will know more on Friday this week.
Whatever the result of the Stoke Central by-election on Thursday, the facts will not change – Labour have betrayed the UK and the people need a Party that will represent everyone – rich and poor, old and young, male and female, healthy and ill. UKIP needs to continue rejecting the politics of division, promoting a patriotic and unifying message and staying true to its libertarian principles. Eventually, as more people see through the oratory and lies of Labour, they will look for a Party who they can trust.
Let us, together, make UKIP that Party. For Stoke, for England and for the UK!
“Let us, together, make UKIP that Party. For Stoke, for England and for the UK!”
You can’t if the media and your opposition are setting the agenda by calling you liars and you don’t clarify the situation with the truth, but instead run away like amateurs. What the hell is going on?
Radical is good, rude is not. I make an exception for Stoke, we can be as rude about Labour as we wish there.
The core reason Stoke is run down is GLOBALISATION, Supported even more keenly by the Tories.
Agree with so much.
PLEASE let us all stop using the phrase ‘Safe Seats’ ~ and start using the more accurate one ‘ROTTEN BOROUGHS’.
The scandal of how grotesquely undemocratic our so called Parliament has become needs to be screamed from the rooftops by all our MEPs and MPs et al who get the chance to speak on the MSM.
They are Rotten Boroughs; the system is ROTTEN to the CORE and it’s time for us to get EVEN as well as MAD !!!!!
http://www.ffl.org
http://www.rhys4nec.co.uk
A hard-hitting article, James, attacking a disgusting group of people who are hypocritical to the bone: the Labour Party. Orwell warned us of a world in which power is the goal and its image is that of a boot forever stamping on a human face.
If the Labourites ever sincerely wanted the best for the working class and to raise it up, they would have set out to eventually abolish themselves as unnecessary after achieving the conditions for a fair, free, prosperous truly democratic society. But that wouldn’t do, would it? That would mean relinquishing power to the people and getting them to decide by majority vote how things should be run for the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people to whom this country belongs – the British. Instead, they feel nothing but contempt for the ordinary British person’s views and prefer to champion minority rights, immigrants’ rights, the rights of EU nationals, the right of foreigners to billions of aid money, the rights of foreigners to our jobs, the rights of foreigners to housing, free health care and other public services, the rights of anyone in the whole damn world to what is ours, rather than fight for what the native Brit is entitled to in his/her own country – exclusive consideration.
I cannot wait to see the death of the ‘Labour’ party; they are the lowest of the low in the murky world of politics. No wonder I’m quite fond of Jumpin’ Jezza: he must make Blair squirm in anguish and that is the least of the torments Traitor Blair deserves.
Succinctly put, Ken. I totally agree with you. Drain the swamp!!
Tory voters with any sense would switch to UKIP for this Stoke by- election. They of course will not because of two reasons, firstly the Tories want a Labour victory to keep Corbyn and his weak opposition in place. Secondly, the Tories hate and fear UKIP. If the Tories had any sense they would realise that getting a proper Brexit means thinking about your country by forming appropriate alliances and not just party interests.
James
Yes of course Labour have betrayed working people but they’re not the only party obsessed with power. Tories are only different because their other obsession is money.
The nub is in your penultimate paragraph and our ‘libertarian principles’ – which really means Thatcherite economics. If we truly want to get the good people of Stoke onside we have to offer them something different.
I won’t get into this with you hon this thread, but ‘libertarian principles’ do not equate to ‘Thatcherite economics’.
UKIP is a radical Party or it is nothing.
I have read your posts recently and I thank you for them. I disagree with most of what you propose for fundamental reasons, some of which have been intimated to you by others. This is not the appropriate forum to thrash these economic basics out, but I would welcome further discussion at a future time.
Also thanks for your efforts on the ground recently.
James
I agree about being radical – one thing you can’t accuse me of, surely!
The most important and relevant aspect of libertarianism is that which which most affects elections, namly economic policy.
Yes please come back in due course. This debate is urgent. We’d romp Stoke if we’d had this sorted on Day 1.
Yup….UKIP will have to go more Red if it wants to attract ex-Red voters….that will enrage the Blue Wing of UKIP….
Succinct but undeniable, Allan. If we want to stop immigration it’s our only choice.
The irony is that with the right policies on the economy we’d also get large numbers of middling Tories in a grand patriotic alliance, but our own ex-Tories tend to be Thatcherites and they just can’t see it.
Thank you very much for your contribution and input, Allan! There’s nothing to be ashamed to be identified as ‘Red’ Ukip. Speaking of ex-Tories, without denigrating anyone at all, but at the risk of over-simplification and for the sake for making a point, there are ex-Tories and there are ex-Tories …… Suzanne Evans is an ex-Tory but she ‘gets it’ …..
Put it in another way, there is the middle ground or centre, that is the mainstream centre — the consensus (Tories, Labour, Lib Dems in hoc to neo-liberalism ….. all accept as truism that the State is helpless before the forces of globalisation and technological change).
But there is also such a thing as the *radical centre* — breaking with the consensus and representing a truly different and hence radical way of doing things ….. being more socialist than the socialist and more capitalist than the capitalist …… one way is return to “full employment” that was abandoned under Callaghan and Dennis Healey (the Chancellor from the right of the Labour Party) ……
Full employment under the auspices or the care of the State can promote higher wages — which boosts quality of life and pushing the working class into the middle class category that comes with higher purchasing power …..
The fear of the business class of an assertive and sophisticated working class can be allayed if there is a tripartite model – amongst the employers, trade unions and the State – that is practiced in countries such as Germany, Scandinavian countries,and Singapore.
Labour has betrayed the UK and the Tories aren’t much better.