If anyone does actually read this blog, you may have noticed that a clickable image appeared on the right-hand side, shortly after the General Election. It’s an invitation to Join Labour. Well the simple fact of the matter is that it appeared after I joined the Labour Party.
I have to admit that in some ways my joining was a reaction to the Labour defeat at the election, even though no-one actually won. I’m not happy at all with David Cameron as the country’s Prime Minister backed up by Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.
Tonight, I’m attending an informal Labour Party meeting at Viva Cuba1 in Kirkstall, Leeds. It’s arranged to welcome new members to the party. I’m told that our new Constituency MP, Rachel Reeves will be there, as well as local party representatives. In view of the occasion I thought I’d spell out why I joined the party. I suppose I may be asked why this evening, so this is the crux of what I’ll say…
Working Class
I was born in Oldham, Lancashire at a time when the cotton mills where in decline. My Dad and paternal Grandfather were plumbers and my Mum was an office worker; my earliest memories of her jobs were working for Courtaulds, the textile manufacturers. I can remember spending time with her when I was off school. She’d be doing the books and I’d wander round huge and empty recently-closed mills such as the Majestic in Waterhead2. My maternal Grandfather was an engineer and I can recall him working for Mallinson’s Chip Range3 manufacturers in Oldham. I think my Grandmother was also an office worker.
What I’m trying to do here is paint a picture of who I am and where I come from. I suppose my parents and grand-parents were bread and butter Labour voters.
I can remember staying at my Aunty Irene’s on election days because our school was used as a polling station. Aunty Irene lived opposite the school and she would act as a teller (or an organiser) for Labour. She’d have a desk in the living room and people would frequently come and give her figures, which she’d note down. I didn’t pay too much attention to what was actually going on though.
A few years after leaving school I started a career where I had to be publicly apolitical. Of course I could vote, like everyone else but I couldn’t actively support any party. This was in the Thatcher era and at the time I saw my income steadily rise year after year, despite the fact that my mortgage repayments and interest rates seemed to be on a steadily upward curve. I had no interest in politics whatsoever and due to my lifestyle, for a while I thought I was entering the realm of the middle class. As such I must have voted Conservative, at least once, probably two or three times. Obviously I was young and a little delusional. Middle-class (whatever that means), what was I thinking!
Towards the end of the 1990s I left my former career due to illness and for the first time in my life I was able to take an active part in politics. Needless to say I didn’t. Many years of thinking I didn’t have to bother and just looking at the net income on my pay cheque had been all I needed to worry about. What did happen though was that I started to be less insulated from the real world and things like social deprivation became more obvious to me. I started to see the gap between the haves and the have-nots. I’d see for myself the way some businesses would ride rough-shod over their employees and the only objective was to maximise profits. I’d see people working very long hours for very little return. I realised that I actually have socialist values somehow encoded into my DNA and eventually they had to surface.
General Election
I didn’t vote in the 2005 election, I’d recently moved house to my present home and in the move I found myself unable to vote. I was living in a strong Labour seat (Leeds West), the incumbent was the former MP, John Battle.
So this brings us up the most recent 2010 General Election. I seem to have reached a period in my life where perhaps for the first time, I really do have an interest in what’s going on around me, both locally and nationally. Who though, should I vote for?
There were Labour Party policies that really annoyed me, such as ID Cards and the DNA Database, the Digital Economy issue etc. I couldn’t vote Conservative at any price. An Ashcroft funded Murdoch supported election campaign to allow mega-corporations a say in how this country is run is not for me. I considered the Liberal Democrats, mostly I suppose due to Cleggmania4.
As a result I had no idea where to cast my vote in the weeks leading up to the election.
So….
I’ll tell you what swung things for me.
- Firstly, I attended the Hustings in Leeds West. As I said in my blog post 5 at the time, I was won over by the Labour candidate Rachel Reeves. Moreover, whilst sat in the Church Hall where the hustings were taking place, I could feel that the majority of people present completely supported Labour. I really did get a bit of a smack in the face about who I was and whom I should be supporting. All these people were like me and why was I dithering about where to cast my vote? I suppose that sounds a bit tribal and in a way I suppose it is, but I’d been convinced.
- Secondly, I watched Gordon Brown’s speech to Citizens UK6 It was really impressive and the speech of his career. Probably now seen as his swansong.
- Thirdly, I was chatting to someone about my thoughts on the election and what I’d like to see happen. I was asked what I was doing about it myself and I didn’t like my answer: nothing. How rubbish am I!
So on May 6th I walked into the little portakabin near my home and voted Labour.
Post Election
When the dust settled after the election and we saw the coalition government take over, I went into a big sulk. I suppose it was always on the cards that Labour would lose and David Cameron would become Prime Minister. There was a glimmer of a chance for Gordon Brown’s Rainbow coalition but the end eventually came and I think he stood down with dignity and honour7.
When I started to see on-line banners such as Labour’s “Join the fight for Britain’s future” I thought to myself, actually, here is something that I can do. In whatever small way I can, I want to help achieve the objective of returning the Labour Party to Government. If I want to somehow add my opinions to Labour Party policy making as I do so, the only option is to actually join the party. A few clicks later and I joined.
I want to live in a world where there’s affordable housing for my daughters, where quality employment is achievable and education for the less well-off is available. I want to see the gap between the rich and poor narrowed and see an end to the fat-cat bonus culture of the banking sector. I don’t want to see big business dictating policy in its own interest. Yes I’m looking at you Rupert Murdoch.
I’ve deliberately not made a song and dance about my membership with my friends and family. Perhaps in the weeks, months, probably years to come I may try some subtle persuasion but I want to be active in politics, even if it just means shoving leaflets through doors or using whatever skills I have, anything; I want to help.
So the fightback for me starts tonight, in a Cuban themed tapas restaurant in Leeds. If you’d have told me that 20 years ago, I really wouldn’t have believed you!
