1. Reverse the cut in corporation tax saving £64bn over the parliamentary cycle 2£10 minimum wage for all over 18s 3. 17% rise in unpaid farmers allowance (exrea £500 pa) - paid by reversing the Inheritance Tax cut. 4. Renationalise railways as the franchises lapse 5. Stop NHS private contracts. Phase out existing private contracts thus saving 3.5bn - 5bn at present going as profit to the private health companies 6. Build 200k homes a year. Half from the private sector and half council homes by giving LAs the power to borrow against assets. This should ensure that 12bn housing benefit bill at present going into private landlords pockets should gradually fall. 7. 4 new public holidays 8. End zero- hours jobs by guaranteeing a contract for all workers on regular hours. 9 Ban any company from tendering for government contracts if they are based in an off shore tax haven and pay their CEO more tha £350k pa 10 stop the opening of new free schools and grammars 11 Stop sweetheart deLs between HMRC and bug corps. All large companies should publish their tax returns 12 Eradicate gender pay gap 13 cut business rates by £1.5bn 14 End the practice by large corps, of taking longer than the accepted 28 days to pay SMEs
"We’ve had a breakthrough! Labour are now talking about supporting Proportional Representation in their election manifesto. If they did, it would mean every major party except the Conservatives is committed to fair votes."
I find it hard to believe that Lucy Powell and Andy Burnham were unaware that JC planned to visit Manchester. I suspect they kept away.
My husband is still a LP member, I left several months ago. Neither of us have spoken in support of momentum, in fact the opposite. We both received invitations from Momentum by email, inviting us to go into town to support Jeremy on his visit when Andy's results were announced.
Possibly Annie, who knows? Maybe none of his aids told him that Jeremy was to visit Manchester. I voted for Andy in the Mayoral election, though like so many others here, voted against the idea of a Mayor but it's been imposed on us. Andy has been a well liked, hard working MP in a nearby town. I saw him on the Hustings in the first leadership election, when it seemed he believed he had the leadership in the bag. I voted him 2nd (didn't vote Jeremy at all)
It was on the Manchester Evening News website even before Andy had been elected. Andy's aides must have known. They would have been checking the website.
That's very interesting, Fitzy. Considering the title of this thread and the OP, what about this?
"Well hurrah for that!” some Tories will say, many of them the kind who post comments beneath columns like this: “Good riddance if you go.” And perhaps they are right, and a time may come when a parting of the ways is unavoidable; and I do meet many non-members who seem like-minded with me but lament that they just don’t feel there’s any party they’re comfortable voting for any more."
Is there a centre party that is going to be full of people who do not feel comfortable voting for right or left? Look at who the French are voting for this weekend - do you think it could happen here?
Well I can't predict what might happen but I can see that the likes of Matthew Paris, David Milliband and Vince Cable could see eye to eye over a lot of issues.
True, but I just chose 3 people across the spectrum whose names sprang to mind as good examples of centrist (if that's a word) politicians (retired or otherwise). I can't see a new centre party being successful at the moment though. There is clear scope for defections from Labour, but not the Tories just now. A perfect storm would be needed - a Corbyn Labour leader at the same time as someone from the far right of the Tories. Or maybe Nigel Farage! But maybe that would just totally polarise the vote.
DJ my take on liberal conservatism would be people who would like the Govt. to be ablespend like socialists but think their economics are crazy. You might