Author: stuartsorensen

An interview with Sue Hayman part 1

This is the first part of an interview I conducted with Sue Hayman. Until the dissolution of parliament last week, Sue was MP for Workington. This Workington woman she sat on Labour’s front bench as shadow Environment secretary.

Antisemitic labour? Don’t make me laugh!

I’ve been a Labour party supporter all my adult life. Apart from a brief period when Tony Blair took us into an illegal war I’ve been a party member too. And I’ve never met a single Labour party member who I  would consider to be antisemitic.

Labour’s Brexit confusion?

For months now people have been telling me that Labour is confused about Brexit. The argument goes something like this…

Labour wants to negotiate a new Brexit deal with the EU and then vote against it. They can’t make up their minds what they want.

This argument is often persuasive but it’s also just plain wrong.

Labour’s confused Brexit from Left eye view on Vimeo.

Jules’ story

My childhood friend, we’ll call her Jules

Our lives kept pace through different schools

She was a child when Daddy died

The cancer ate him up inside.

She didn’t know about the pain

Relief that fogged his addled brain.

She didn’t know her great grandma

Had gone the same way years before

No pain relief for her back then

No hospitalisation

She lay there helpless, agonised

Till mercifully at last she died.

 

Times were hard for Jules’ Mum

Child benefit was such a boon

Three kids to feed and free school milk

Meant Jules grew strong – all the kids did

Free meals at school meant Jules stayed nourished

While Mum to better herself studied

 

Jules mother strived to make life better

A grant for college and a letter

Explaining how she’d few resources

Helped her to study pre-reg courses

 

By the time we went to secondary school

Jules’ Mum was working as a teacher

She’d passed her exams, fees all paid

And life was going up a grade

 

Jules’ flew through school, she’s very clever

And uni was her next endeavour

Free tuition, like her Mum

A great career had just begun

 

Soon after getting her first job

Jules conceived her first child, Bob

Her aunt had lost her job that way

But Jules just got maternity pay

And soon enough she came right back

Nobody had given her the sack

 

Bob grew up strong, a fine young man

And so is Mike, Jules second one

They’re both good lads, Bob’s soon to vote

He’s thinking Labour’s worth a punt

But Jules took him aside last night

And warned against that left wing shite

Fine words are all well and good you see

But the Labour party’s done nowt for me!

Happy not Brexit day!

I really should have known better. I’ve seen threats of violence from right wing keyboard warriors come and go before. They rarely amount to anything much more threatening than a raised eyebrow and a bit more fash cash invested in mutual consolation down the boozer. So when far right numpties started threatening riots and civil war I shouldn’t have been concerned. I’ve been here before.
But I’ve also been around flash rioting before – and it wasn’t pretty. That was back in the Thatcher era. I was living in a homeless hostel in Lincoln when everything went tits up all around the city centre. It just seemed to happen, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere. I remember the riots of 2010 in London and Manchester, the lives lost and the damage done. I know what can happen when a tory government pisses people off too much.
So I woke up yesterday with some trepidation. But I needn’t have worried. It’s all good.

Workington man: A partial retraction

Yesterday I uploaded a knee-jerk reaction video in response to Bill Pennington’s awful ‘Workington man’ stereotype. But I went after the wrong target.

Bill Pennington is not my enemy.

Bill, if you’re reading this… I’m sorry. I apologise for insulting you. I disagree with you but that’s not the same thing at all.

Workington man – the trouble with stereotypes

The trouble with stereotypes is that they’re far too easy!

Yesterday morning a London-based reporter popped up on my local politics Facebook page. I’m a Workington man, born and bred and although I’ve lived and worked in various parts of UK I’m home now and very definitely still a Workington man. So I was a bit surprised to read what he had to say.

This young bloke who presumably hasn’t ever set foot in West Cumbria was looking for a dinosaur from the 1970s, a stereotypical middle aged, white, beer-drinking, rugby league supporting, slightly dim-witted and extremely uninformed, male voter to tell him why he hated Jeremy Corbyn. And, of course – if you look hard enough you find what you’re looking for.

And where might you find such a relic, a blast from the disreputable past? Look no further than Wetherspoons where one Mr. Pennington, retired manager of Workington Job Centre and alleged former labour voter (if you can believe that) holds his court.

So… as one Workington man to another, here’s my response to the good Mr. Pennington. I hope he’s listening.

Oh dear Bill. Boris would see the economy crashed just to appease his backers who are actually gambling on UK’s economy failing. That’s why they and Boris want us out at any price to the people.

This tory stereotype really does appear to be what they think of people in the North. They see us as uneducated, outdated, sexist bigots (there’s no Workington woman caricature, after all).

Personally I think the Workington man stereotype sums up the tory attitude to we Northerners very well. Not only do they think we’re stupid but their economic decisions over the last 9 years have shown that they think us undeserving too.

Let’s boot the patronising bastards out of power and enjoy a proper, traditional, Northern Christmas with a labour government at the helm to bring a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

Blinded by Brexit

So the general election has finally been called.

The tories want to make it all about Brexit – they want to harness the disaffection they’ve created and redirect it in their own favour, just as they did in 2016 and 2017. Just as they did in 1982 when Thatcher took us to war in the Falklands, causing countless deaths but securing a patriotic fervour that saved her failing party and carried it to another election victory. 

The LibDems want to make it about Brexit because. Let’s face it – that’s the only election strategy they’ve got.

UKIP and the Brexit party want to make it about Brexit because they’ve nothing else to offer.

All these parties want to limit the scope of the debate but we know, we all understand that single issue politics don’t work when we’re choosing a government that will be responsible for a much wider range of issues than just Brexit

That’s why socialists like me, like the British Labour party will be talking about a much wider range of issues in the run up to the General election.

We’ll talk about soaring tory debt and the rape of our public services.

We’ll talk about the Labout party’s plan to restore funding to our NHS and turn back the damage of 9 years of tory and LibDem cuts

We’ll talk about rising inequality and the Labour plan to tackle homelessness, food and fuel poverty, unemployment and the travesty of zero-hours contracts.

We’ll talk about the right to education and Labour’s plans for a fair and equitable school system that benefits everyone, not just the rich.

Over the coming weeks we’ll raise awareness of the cruel tory plans for a punishing no deal Brexit and how Labour will work to protect working people and the disadvantaged, despite Boris’ plans to profit from our failing economy. A failure that he and his hedge fund backing mates are desperately trying to engineer for personal gain at our expense.

We’ll talk about how the right wing press has tried to con the British people and treat us like fools, with exaggerated nonsense and smears about Jeremy Corbyn plastered all over the front pages and even the TV news.

It’s time to get informed for the most important general election since 1948.

After the war the Labour government of Clement Atlee founded the NHS and the rest of the welfare state. For the first time in our history the essentials, the necessities of life, food, healthcare, money, adequate housing and the legal power to enforce rights were made available to everyone, not just the wealthy. At the time the tories opposed these national benefits and they have opposed them ever since.

At the time, Prime Minister Atlee made it clear that the NHS and the Welfare state would survive only so long as people are prepared to fight for them.

Well that fight is well and truly upon us.

A vote for any party other than Labour will be a vote to sell our precious, life-saving NHS to American profiteers.

A vote for any party other than labour will see the end of our welfare state with its pensions, invalidity benefit and unemployment.

It’s time to stop being so satisfied with media soundbytes and actually look at policies themselves.

Consider the reality – not just what the powerful news moguls want you to believe.

This election will set the UK down one of two roads, regardless of Brexit.

Whether we leave or remain another tory government will finally destroy our NHS, our Welfare state and the rights of our working people, our disabled, our unemployed and our kids.

Whether we leave or remain a Labour government will deploy its fully costed manifesto to restore the public services and livelihoods for ordinary people.