Warning Ballot paper enclosed in "The Voice"

[easter bunny]

Who knows whats the Liberals will do if they lose the referendum next year..Anyway,it doesnt mean there has to be General Election for Labour to be back in power come next year...

[horris]

I'm curious as to why they want us to vote for Ed Balls? why is he better than any of the others?

[fishtank]

I'm curious as to why they want us to vote for Ed Balls? why is he better than any of the others?

He's the only one willing to come out against privatisation apart from Dianne Abbot who at the time looked like a no-hoper but next to Balls she looks like a favourite now.
....but Mr Balls was very quiet last year when he still had a job to lose.

[easter bunny]

Balls blamed it all on Mandelson....

[horris]

Hmmm Balls, good name for a politician

[DirtyHarry]

Perhaps you disagree with the minimum wage then..Its attitide like that which kept the party out of power for 18 years...

Errr, minimum wage.......Not much of a list of achievements, is it?

[BELIAL]

Perhaps you disagree with the minimum wage then..Its attitide like that which kept the party out of power for 18 years...

Errr, minimum wage.......Not much of a list of achievements, is it?

Like your style Keep the peasants alive and grateful Minimum wage w*****s, be I ever so umbel

[baldrick]

Perhaps you disagree with the minimum wage then..Its attitide like that which kept the party out of power for 18 years...

Errr, minimum wage.......Not much of a list of achievements, is it?

Like your style Keep the peasants alive and grateful Minimum wage w*****s, be I ever so umbel

The Minimum Wage might have been intended to be just that, but increasingly employers are trying to push all wages down to minimum wage.
Including Royal Mail when they employ casuals. They used to pay casuals the same hourly rate as permanent staff.

[plainpat]

Before some of you rush to throw "The Voice" in the bin, be aware that there is a Labour Party Ballot form for the leadership contest enclosed.
Btw I can't believe our union gives you the option of voting by internet then by post!

If you vote on T'internet you have to enter the two security codes on the voting paper (which will be unique to that voting paper)

if you then sent in the paper by post they would enter those codes, realise you have already voted, and disregard the voting paper sent in by post.

[Harry_Perkins]

Blair was a product of the huge defeats of the Labour movement in the 80s and early 90s. He didn't appear from nowhere and nor did he betray anyone given he has always been openly hostile to the labour movement. These sort of careerists have always been in the Labour Party. The trick is to fight them and defeat them (and they have been defeated and pushed back in the past) - not just throw your ballot papers in the bin. The likes of Blair and David Milliband love it when you do this as it means they win without even a fight.

[pinstripe]

Blair was a product of the huge defeats of the Labour movement in the 80s and early 90s. He didn't appear from nowhere and nor did he betray anyone given he has always been openly hostile to the labour movement. These sort of careerists have always been in the Labour Party. The trick is to fight them and defeat them (and they have been defeated and pushed back in the past) - not just throw your ballot papers in the bin. The likes of Blair and David Milliband love it when you do this as it means they win without even a fight.

OK, I don't disagree with what you said, but can you tell me, which of the candidates for the Leadership would represent what we would class as True Labour?

[Harry_Perkins]

I'm curious as to why they want us to vote for Ed Balls? why is he better than any of the others?

He attacked Mandelson on the plans for part-privatisation when that idea was being floated. Not sure Ed Milliband did, although he now opposes privatisation. Diane Abbott has much the same position as Balls on this but presumably they don't think she can win. I've put down Balls as 3rd pref. Anyone but David Milliband.

[Harry_Perkins]

Blair was a product of the huge defeats of the Labour movement in the 80s and early 90s. He didn't appear from nowhere and nor did he betray anyone given he has always been openly hostile to the labour movement. These sort of careerists have always been in the Labour Party. The trick is to fight them and defeat them (and they have been defeated and pushed back in the past) - not just throw your ballot papers in the bin. The likes of Blair and David Milliband love it when you do this as it means they win without even a fight.

OK, I don't disagree with what you said, but can you tell me, which of the candidates for the Leadership would represent what we would class as True Labour?

Diane Abbott. Even though I don't like her utter hypocrisy.

[fishtank]

The trick is to fight them and defeat them (and they have been defeated and pushed back in the past) -

I think you are a tad optimistic Harry,if the 19th/20th century can be called the industrial age then i think the 21st century will be known as the Media Age and the media doesn't care for the left at all.
Any party that wishes to move from the shadows into Goverment must first court the mass media.
Principles,ideology and all must be cast aside unless you want to be known as the Opposition.
Believe me Harry,i absolutely hate everything i've just posted but that doesn't make it any less true.

[Harry_Perkins]

The trick is to fight them and defeat them (and they have been defeated and pushed back in the past) -

I think you are a tad optimistic Harry,if the 19th/20th century can be called the industrial age then i think the 21st century will be known as the Media Age and the media doesn't care for the left at all.
Any party that wishes to move from the shadows into Goverment must first court the mass media.
Principles,ideology and all must be cast aside unless you want to be known as the Opposition.
Believe me Harry,i absolutely hate everything i've just posted but that doesn't make it any less true.

For one, I don't think the media are anywhere near as influential as is suggested. Here or anywhere. Nearly all our press and media had gone over to the Tories for the last election, all the big money had gone back to them as well - which meant they could stick those much derided billboards up everywhere etc and yet they were still well short of winning and not all that popular by any stretch. And when you consider what they were up against, this doesn't say much for media influence!

There are other examples outside the UK. Hugo Chavez has been for years attacked by the press in Venezuela and outside as a mad lefty who wants to be Castro mark II and turn Venezuela into the next Cuba blah blah blah and yet every election the masses come out and back him and they overturned a coup against him. So what is going on there? Venezuela didn't use to be like that, so what happened?

It is all far more complex than you're suggesting.