I am supporting Gordon Brown's campaign to be leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister.I am doing so for two reasons.
Firstly, I support his underlying beliefs of, Gordon said in his speech announcing his candidacy, fairness and opportunity for all. I joined the Labour Party because our society then (1983) and now does not provide fairness and opportunity for all. It is easy for the privileged and for the chidren of propserous families to make a good start in their lives - and I am pleased that this is so. But this good fortune does not extend to all. Not every child in Welwyn Hatfield has the opportunities that they should have. As he said in his speech today, "These are for me the best of British values: responsibilities required in return for rights; fairness not just for some but all who earn it."
Secondly, his competence. After 18 years of Conservative Government, a period that witnessed two major recessions and interest rates as high as 15%, Gordon Brown has been an excellent Chancellor of the Exchequer. Over the last ten years, we have seen growing employment, increased propserity and low inflation. We are a better off country now than we were in 1997, and I believe that this is due in significant measure to Gordon Brown.
3 comments:
Hey Mike,
Great post and I thought I'd let you and your many readers know that I'm supporting Gordon Brown for Labour leader too.
Only thing is that I suspect it's for quite different reasons...
You see I believe that people will already know that it is because of this man that they no longer have viable pensions -- that £100bn that he stole from our pension funds has left one heck of a black hole meaning we're having to work longer and have less retirement.
Then there's the NHS and those famous changes to his Treasury PFI programme which have meant that we can't now afford to build a super-hospital. Worse still, after 10 years of increasing bureaucracy, introducing 1% on NI, increasing NHS pension payments to make up for the deficit mentioned above, targets, introducing of the extreme working time directive and so on... we also cannot apparently afford to keep our existing local QE2 hospital open.
And so on this occasion we're both in agreement. Gordon Brown is the very BEST person to lead the Labour Party. It's just that you think it's because he'll somehow be good for your party's prospects and I'm absolutely certain that he'll do wonders for ours.
Of course we'll have to wait and see who is right!
Warm regards
Grant Shapps MP
P.S. Hope you'll feel able to leave my comments up on your blog -- as I have a very open policy about you posting on my Welwyn Hatfield Forum .
Almost 3.5 million people will get to vote in the Labour leadership election, but I'm surprised to find you are one of them!
If I could say so, Grant, it's a bit cheeky for you to bemoan levels of NHS funding when your current Party leader wrote a manifesto at the last general election, proposing £35 billion in public spending cuts! I dread to think what state the NHS would have been in if your party had won the general election.
We would certainly not have had 75,000 extra nurses, 25,000 extra doctors, better pay for NHS staff, the new NHS direct and vastly reduced waiting times and waiting lists.
And we have these things largely because Gordon Brown has managed a successful economy. Something the Conservatives weren't quite so good at when you were last in power, I fear.
Yes, there are problems, not least in the local NHS. But I know who I would rather have running the country to fund the NHS over the next ten years or so.
Mike
Mr Shapps does not mention one thing about his so called 'new' party.
The support of its leader for chasing and killing wild animals for fun.
Mr Cameron does not have any policies it seems, except that it is repealing the ban on hunting.
Go blue get blood red torture of our wildlife
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