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 good faith support them in such a way. Tomorrow, voting begins for the Labour Leadership election - although you can still vote provided you join ...

Tags: AV, education, Environment, Labour, Labour Leadership, Politics, public transport, trident

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.