Labour; one rouse at a time
As I listen to members of the Labour party being interviewed during their conference I cannot help but hear echoes of party politics and sound-byte rebuffing of their misjudgements.
The Liberal Democrat conference was one of substance, or so it seemed from my perspective, Labour however seem to be enjoying the typical sparring match played out by media savvy politicians who thrive on reminding everyone how evil the Tories really are.
But what of polcy? So far all I have heard is vague descriptions and emphatic emptiness; 'things are like this, the current policy can't work, this study says it should be this way; we are going to support their findings!'
What about your own findings?
Even discussions on crime are riddled with confusion, perhaps there were 7million less crimes but this was a proportionate figure in respect to a national trend established in 1995; and certainly doesn't exemplify Labours commitment to tackling serious and organised crime.
It also fails to hint at statistic based policing who arrested for targets and targeted for success.
Drugs policies were a strong example of this where heroin users, pot smokers and 'drug house' residents (many illegal so two ticks) were part of our successes but the wealthy, organised members of drugs supply and demand slipped the net in favour of statistic hunting.
This has been Labours problem from 2001, they need to look at policy in the long term and how in 5 years it will work; they have made strong waves among the business community by discussing asset strippers but they have not suggested how they would secure the future of business.
Take the example of public houses and restrictive covenants; a strong tradition of pubs and ales bursts thorough our history yet under Labour we saw the strengthening of big breweries and hastened closure of our local houses. There was no support of micro breweries, little encouragement of community led multi-use buildings and a greedy approach to the construction of expensive dwellings by big business.
Asset strippers? Who was it that oversaw the selling off of our own community valued assets between 1997 and 2010?
They speak of regulation but offer no examples; no mention of LDV and Rover, a flickering on Bombardier, a soundboard on the banks and an omission of TATA's recent announcement. (a company winning many fans)
I had hope to see a Lib Dem type conference from a humbled Labour party but they seem to believe that galvanising their party strength and not its policies is enough to propel them toward glory; so far so good, Blair gets a boo, Brown gets a cackle and Miliband is given a C for centre.
The Liberal Democrat conference was one of substance, or so it seemed from my perspective, Labour however seem to be enjoying the typical sparring match played out by media savvy politicians who thrive on reminding everyone how evil the Tories really are.
But what of polcy? So far all I have heard is vague descriptions and emphatic emptiness; 'things are like this, the current policy can't work, this study says it should be this way; we are going to support their findings!'
What about your own findings?
Even discussions on crime are riddled with confusion, perhaps there were 7million less crimes but this was a proportionate figure in respect to a national trend established in 1995; and certainly doesn't exemplify Labours commitment to tackling serious and organised crime.
It also fails to hint at statistic based policing who arrested for targets and targeted for success.
Drugs policies were a strong example of this where heroin users, pot smokers and 'drug house' residents (many illegal so two ticks) were part of our successes but the wealthy, organised members of drugs supply and demand slipped the net in favour of statistic hunting.
This has been Labours problem from 2001, they need to look at policy in the long term and how in 5 years it will work; they have made strong waves among the business community by discussing asset strippers but they have not suggested how they would secure the future of business.
Take the example of public houses and restrictive covenants; a strong tradition of pubs and ales bursts thorough our history yet under Labour we saw the strengthening of big breweries and hastened closure of our local houses. There was no support of micro breweries, little encouragement of community led multi-use buildings and a greedy approach to the construction of expensive dwellings by big business.
Asset strippers? Who was it that oversaw the selling off of our own community valued assets between 1997 and 2010?
They speak of regulation but offer no examples; no mention of LDV and Rover, a flickering on Bombardier, a soundboard on the banks and an omission of TATA's recent announcement. (a company winning many fans)
I had hope to see a Lib Dem type conference from a humbled Labour party but they seem to believe that galvanising their party strength and not its policies is enough to propel them toward glory; so far so good, Blair gets a boo, Brown gets a cackle and Miliband is given a C for centre.
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