Centenary of Labour

I second the thanks for the links seadragon and Sue. Really interesting. Well done to Yvonne Findlay, you must be very proud of her seadragon.

Here's to a Labour government for 2024 although they've got a mammoth task ahead and will cop the blame for 13 years of decimation.

Thanks SueDonim

Thanks sea dragon and Sue. We learn something every day and from what I have read today he sounds like my kind of politician.
Hope your sisters film goes down well sea dragon.

This is a delightful story about Ramsey MacDonald’s family home in Lossiemouth - don’t know if you’ve seen it, Seadragon.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv2wdz5yk1jo

My sister, Yvonne Findlay, has made a film about Ramsay MacDonald. She has already shown her film in Lossiemouth, his birth place, as well as in Forres and Cambridge where she has been invited to return for another showing. She has also been invited to show it in Australia where the Prime Minister is apparently a great admirer of Mr MacDonald..... She will be delighted to hear that he has been mentioned here on Gransnet. "A documentary telling the amazing story of Ramsay MacDonald, a Moray loon who rose from poverty to become Britain's first ever Labour Prime Minister, has had an exclusive preview in his hometown:
'From the Darkness into the Light' received a great reception at Lossiemouth Town Hall where it was screened on Friday evening.
It was the film's first showing, with six more planned so far for 2024 which will be the centenary anniversary of Britain’s first Labour Government. Yvonne Findlay was not just the organiser of the preview event, but also the film's director.
She's done a great job of providing a more complete and balanced view of someone who remains a controversial figure.
www.northern-scot.co.uk/news/ramsay-macdonald-film-review-335528/ " We're so proud of Yvonne.

The Attlee 1945 Labour government was a star. It created the NHS. The Tories have underfunded it and understaffed it. My grandparents were ever grateful for the NHS: their pre-war experience of medicine was of the local doctor amputating two of my grandad's fingers on the kitchen table after an industrial accident. We must never go back to that.

You are quite right Gloriany I mistyped but yes Labour was created in 1900 and won its first election in 1924 with Ramsey McDonald aided by the liberals who had fallen out with the Tories. Their manifesto was to improve housing education social insurance and unemployment. Sounds familiar. ?

The British Labour Party has done so much good for Britain. Not just the NHS but the whole attitudinal thing helping to at least try to dismantle some of the dreadful class barriers which are still very much in existence . I hope Keir Starmer is up to the job of continuing their good work . We’ll see.

Think you have a bit of misleading statement in the OP. The first Labour government was 100 years ago. The first Labour MP was 1906. From 1906-1918 there was a separate branch of the Labour party called the Women's Labour League. Its aim was to get women the vote and get more women into politics.
Let's hope 2024 is the start of another Labour government.

The Tories vehemently opposed the creation of the NHS, now they are, by stealth, slowly dismantling it.

Mum remembers as a child, the Doctor was rarely called it as it was 5 shillings! A fortune in the 30's.

I think it’s interesting that we naturally seem to evolve into a main two party system. There was the Tories and the Whigs. Then the Tories and the Liberals. Then the rising of the Labour Party under Keir Hardy pushed the Liberals to one side as the main opposition. I’ve just realised the implication of what I’ve said - the Tories have been a major party like for ever. Maybe the natural progression is for them to be replaced by a different party again.

Morning silverlining. That's very true. I've known through work a number of people who've been treated for post op complications on the NHS after initial private treatment.

Morning all. That's so interesting Whitewavemark. I'm sure your help was invaluable at election time! I haven't heard the name Gay Gordon's for years but I too danced it as a child.

We know the Tories would love nothing better than to break up the NHS. They've privatised everything else. Essential services should be nationalised not run for the benefit of shareholders.
It's immoral.

I was born days before the NHS and hope too that I don’t see it’s demise, but the creaking and cracking increases as the more profitable parts have been and are still being sold off.
We all know that private hospitals ship off their patients to the nearest nhs hospital if there are any post op problems.

Include me in your labour family🙂. All staunch Labour supporters from its inception as a political party. My grandmother belonged to the cooperative women’s guild with its roots in the Labour Party and as a child I remember so many social gatherings hosted by them, including children’s Christmas parties, beetle drives, dances - the Gay Gordon’s anyone? and jumble sales etc. They were all kindly supportive folk rooted in working class culture.

I always “helped” at election time.

I was born a year before the formation of the NHS. I hope I don’t see its demise before I die.

Night flappergirl,
Zzzzzz

I'm off to bed now silverlining (after I've settled the cat down)! Perhaps we can continue this tomorrow. It's good to find someone on the same wave length.

Oh yes indeed. My father born in 1914 and mother born 1919 were hell fire socialists and I was always encouraged to think and talk about politics. They didn't force their opinions on me but Labour was my natural home.

My father had a scar on his face from the riding crop of the local landed "gent". He had been walking across his land taking a short cut to school, he was just a child. The image of that faded scar has always ratified my beliefs.

But very happy with big bonuses. Imagine if public service workers got bonuses just for doing their jobs, lovely jubbley.
No chance. .

Yes indeed. They hated the idea of a minimum wage as I recall.

Thanks for posting this silverlining. I shall raise my cup of tea in celebration. Just imagine what things would be like without the reforms brought in by the Labour party. It doesn't bear thinking about.

On another thread a while back I noted that Tory voters had not refused to accept the many benefits of social and workplace reform brought about by Labour over the years. Even though their party had fought tooth and nail to veto them, including the creation of the NHS.