First of all, let me preface this by saying this – I’m not a Labour member. With New Labour, and its shift away from the left, I can not in good faith support them in such a way.

Tomorrow, voting begins for the Labour Leadership election – although you can still vote provided you join by the 8th September. I understand they’re using AV for this election, which is amusing given how many Labour MPs are now rejecting AV, primarily for partisan reasons.

When it was announced that Brown was standing down, I immediately expressed my support for Cruddas, although it later emerged he would instead be running for Chairman, and my support turned to McDonnell, who then withdrew in favour of Diane, and so my support followed.

There’s a clear trend in where my support for the leadership bid goes – to the MPs who best represent what the Labour Party was supposed to be, before it was twisted into its authoritarian, neo-liberal form.

Diane being elected Labour leader would represent a rallying cry to the Left, and provide a central pillar from which a sorely lacking, united left-wing party could exist. With Labour representing the voices of the left, we would see greater representation of views across the political spectrum, rather than the squalid centre/centre-right complacency we’ve seen growing over British politics in the past two decades.

Diane’s views aren’t so left wing as to alienate the centrists, instead she seeks policies based on sense and conviction. As her campaigns team have said in a release – “Diane was the only candidate to vote against the Iraq War, has a strong record on protecting civil liberties and also wants to scrap Trident.”

She is uncompromising on education. Believing it ‘should be available to all’, rejecting the compromise of a Graduate Tax as an option. I take this to mean she would also seek to abolish tuition fees. Educating the public should not be considered a “burden” as the universities minster puts it, but as a chance to enrich the lives of the populace, as well as providing an able and intellectual workforce. Yes, she sent her children to private schools, but this is a symptom of the neglect and abuse education suffered under the Conservatives and New Labour.

She also understands the failing of the private sector, and so seeks to renationalise the rail network. With fares rising disproportionally to inflation, and the government subsidies given to the operators, the public’s money is lining the pockets of fat-cat businessmen, whilst the services themselves are poor and under-invested. Renationalising the railways gives us back control, would give us lower, fairer fares, and allows Britain to bring its public transport into the high standards seen across Europe at the same time as reducing our impact on the environment.

Some of her less well-known campaigns include fighting for the right to have abortions in Northern Ireland, protecting the rights of child migrants, and the removal of innocent persons from the DNA database.

I’m not saying Diane is without her flaws. She’s probably not the best person to lead Labour, but she’s the best candidate to lead Labour, and that is why I believe Labour supporters, and union members should put her as their first preference on their ballot papers.

First of all, let me preface this by saying this – I’m not a Labour member. With New Labour, and its shift away from the left, I can not in...

My father was rather surprised to come home to find the entire contents of my bedroom, bed and all, firmly planted in the middle of the landing. Having gotten the results I needed for Aberystwyth, and just 5 weeks to go, I had begun cleaning my room.

The task before me was a daunting one. Stacks of assorted paper littered my shelf; the floor was covered in clothes, packaging, and mugs; and unknown mysteries lurked under the bed.

Putting on some Frank Turner, I set to work – first tackling the floor, and then moving on to the shelf. Working my way through the piles was like taking a core sample in the arctic, the further down I got, the further back in time were the content. Evidently some of the stacks of paper had started some 7 years ago and been there ever since.

Whilst seeing some of my old school work was certainly interesting, the real fun was coming across things long since forgotten. Wondrous treasures left unknown to civilization for who knows how long.

It was a bit like this, only I wasn’t Harrison Ford, and there were no rolling boulders.

Other than all the Aberystwyth bags and pens I’d somehow amassed in the past year, I also uncovered such goodies as Pokémon Monopoly, a French wooden chess set, and £1.63 in loose change.

Next week I start sorting the rest of my stuff, I wonder what I’ll find.

This post was written for my page on AberInsiders.

My father was rather surprised to come home to find the entire contents of my bedroom, bed and all, firmly planted in the middle of the landing. Having gotten the...

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