Friday 19 September 2014

Dear Ed - In Response To Your Email The Morning After ...

Today I had one of those generic emails in my inbox waiting for me by the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. It read: 

I am delighted and proud that the people of Scotland have made this historic decision to stay in the United Kingdom.

This was a vote for solidarity and social justice. It was a vote for our NHS, for the welfare state, and for unity - because we are better together.

But whether people voted Yes or No, this was also a vote for change.

We must change the way the UK is governed and who it is run for. And that thirst for change is not just in Scotland but across the whole of the UK.

We need more good jobs and job security. We need decent wages and an end to poverty pay. We need a better future for our young people so they can believe they can have a better life than their parents.

The last few weeks have been about keeping our country together. The next eight months will be about showing how we can change our country together.

There is only one party that can do it - and that is our party.

Thanks,

Ed



Dear Ed

In an ideal world I wanted the union to continue. But if I were in Scotland I would have voted Yes.  It was the Yes voters who wanted to keep our NHS and who cared about our welfare state which our government, and the previous Labour government to their shame, have been busy dismantling.

Thousands in England are screaming out for change too but my fear is that devolved power in England (without the more radical elements from Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland with the exception of the north and some of the Midlands) will make England even more of an insular little island than ever with the worst of the global mentality thrown in, if that makes any sense.  I would love to see the same spirit and appetite for social justice here in England as in Scotland. I know it is there but how much clout we will have without the input from Scotland and Wales? But I don't hear you or your party making any noises about reversing the savage welfare cuts or the creeping privatisation of our NHS. All I hear is Labour trying to out-Tory the Tories.  There is a gaping void on the Left waiting to be filled with someone who dares speak up for social justice, who is proud of what Nye Bevan bequeathed. What is wrong with standing up and saying, 'we're the party of compassion and social justice?' Only then will the many disaffected Labour voters return....

Yours sincerely