What is the point of us being Labour MPs if we cannot protect the poorest?Interpret that how you like.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Frank Field: What's the Point of Being a Labour MP?
I have just been reading Frank Field's column in this week's Spectator in which he reckons that the abolition of the 10 tax rate shattered the contract on which New Labour was based. This sentence jumped out at me...
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Dear Frank Next time you Talk to Gordon (Head of the Scottish Master race, be Frank) not to be the Pratt who gets sucked in to the old Bliar lingo, we are listening (HE He He )
It's something that's echoed by many Labour supporters and Labur MP's including the rebels led by Frank Fields, and a second faction within the "Fields Faction" led by NW Leics MP David Taylor.
A lot of voters I have been speaking to on a casual basis who used to be died in the wool Labour supporters now swear and say that "This lot isn't Labour to me." and will probably vote Tory at the next election.
Would it be heresy to say that I think Frank Field is overrated?
The answer is not to reinstate the 10p tax band, it is to take the lowest-paid out of taxation altogether - as long as FF is asking for State handouts, he is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Here's the bit which got my attention;
"That the means of delivering such help was by way of a tax credit system that might as well have been designed at the Mad Hatter’s tea party was ignored."
That's Gordon's flagship policy and Field is trashing it! If the Tories have any cojones then they'll promise to scrap tax credits and instead use the money to take the lowest paid out of tax altogether.
See, Frank, the point of being a Labour MP is to keep the poor dependent on benefits and then tell them that if "yer Tooooories" get in, they'll have their benefits cut. This ensures that
1/ there will always be Labour MPs and
2/ there will always be lots of poor, especially under Labour.
So the point of being a Labour MP is to ensure the cosy existence of more Labour MPs.
OK Frank?
He called for an early discussion on the Scottish independance question on R4 question time tonight. He ALSO called for an English vote on the necessity of having an English only assembly.
This an appeal on behalf of Gordon Brown. Poor Gordon has been so shamed in PMQ's since, well, forever, and help is needed.
Just last week he could not give an answer to the Wendy-SNP-Bring it on, question.
He said 'she never said that'.
Well clearly that is pathetic, even by his own very pathetic standards.The PLP and SpaDs are totally ineffective against wit, and Gordon himself can only handle large figures or small words.
He could have said .. 'Yes its true, we are not afraid' or 'Wee Windy is right to challenge..' or even 'Salmond is as afraid of an election as I am'
So please, this week, we KNOW that Mr Cameron will ask him
"Even Tony Blair has been called in to give you advice. Can't you decide anything on your own you ditherer?" or similar.
So please, for the sake of little Fraser, help to give his dad some dignity and let me hijack this post to ask you to supply a response.
A witty one liner will cause a 2% swing to Labour.
A comment containing a soundbite about Boris could help reduce the scale of the 42 day detention defeat by 13 or more.
A perfect fightback tag line could stop the knives appearing in his back on Thursday.
So please, dear blogger, give a line to Gordon and help prevent another humiliating fold-up of a much maligned public figure.
You can post directly here or make out a witticism and take it to a post office if you can find one.
Even a feeble 'up yours Dave' will surely be better than another tractor figures response. So please, post generously and help end this tragedy.
[I AM GORDON BROWN AND I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE]
So what happened to Frank's fellow guest on "Any questions" this evening? The non appearance of Charles Kennedy- allegedly missed the train at Euston but could not even comment via phone link.
You don't think drink was involved do you?
Frank Field himself was pointless.
Why did he cave in and withdraw the motion? He didn't win any meaningful or material concessions.
He could have made a point, but chose not to.
There is now no point to being a labour MP except to line your own pockets as much as possible until you are sacked in 2010.
Depose Gordon and call a confidence vote prove you have some principals or is it just the expenses?
I find it strange that all the Tories are sucking up to Frank Field, when surely he doesn't agree with any of your views. There's more than one way of being critical of clunking fist, y'know.
Is this a rhetorical question?
I normally agree with Judith but anyone who took on Militant in their own backyard deserves all the credit he can get.
I do hope he joins the Conservative Party...now that really would be a good news story.
Never Mind Frank Field!!!
When will Dave say something sensible about taxation of the low paid? Why is he still going along with the inefficient, costly and State intrusive tax credit system?
Yes do away with the 10p tax band BUT ALSO Increase personal allowances Dave, free the people from the State and start being a Conservative!!!
I actually have a lot of time for Frank Field as he is one of the the few MPs who understand the underclass and how successive Governments have made a bad situation worse. Labour have let down their traditional supporters (which include a lot of decent hard working people believe it or not) The Cons must look after their supporters next time (instead of kicking them in the bollocks like they did with the Poll Tax thereby losing all the terraced house seats, Rossendale, Pendle etc etc) I also have a lot of time for Peter Kilfoyle another proper Labour MP. Have a nice week-end.
freedom to prosper
Iain - the get the answer to the question, just imagine that you were a Labour Party member. What would you say?
You'd tell Frank that it is better to fight for "change from within", wouldn't you?
Someone said Labour betrayed the working class various times, including abolishing the grammar schools, and the 10p tax rate is the latest.
It was a Tory government who gave us the right to buy, so only the Conservatives are the true party of the working class, middle class etc. Blue-collar people in Crewe & Nantwich (and Morley & Outwood, for Pete's sake) realise this! Brown just doesn't get it.
I too took advantage of the 'money-off' coupon in yesterday's Telegraph.
Frank Field will not cross the floor of the house. He beat Militant and he'll remain to do the same again if he feels he needs to. Watch who he backs for the leadership next time round...
I've known Frank Field since he was my 'O' Level Economics lecturer at a SE London FE College in 1964. A really genuine, sincere and thoughtful man.
He fought off attempts by the Merseyside Trot entryists to have him deselected in the 1980s from his Birkenhead constituency and was later sacked after a year as Welfare Minister having been charged by Blair with 'thinking the unthinkable' he was shafted by Brown.
As a parliamentary colleague he was refeshingly unpartisan on Welfare Policy and spoke with real authority having seen the impact of the benefit culture in his constituency.
Yep, and Brown et al have admitted their silly error and Field et al have won a re-think. Which is a reason for celebration not rebuke. Hopefully what follows will be better for the poorest than the 10p tax rate. Reinstating it is not the answer.
The thing is for all this talk from the siliest Tory commentators about a defection that Frank knows taxation on the poorest 40% of the population was MUCH HIGHER under Thatcher and Major and that he would not have won such a battle there.
Asquith makes this point too. Why are Tories so tiresomely in favour of Frank Field? You don't share an ounce of his belief or, ahem, intergrity.
anyone listening to frank field on "any questions"...
he's saying some strong stuff about Gordon Brown's government.
"government underestimates the anger on the backbenches"
10p tax issue might bring down Brown's premiership...
anger on the backbenches is not going down , its going up...
and such like...
frank field as leader of the labour party? i have to admit, he's a good man, with his heart in the right place.
"any questions" - looks like frank field is a bit of an ENGLISH nationalist...
got a huge round of applause. i might be wrong, but is frank tapping into a populist vibe in the electorate, merely by just being himself?
just saw this comment on politicalbetting - pretty much sums up what Frank Field has said on "any questions":
BBC radio 4 - question time 1.45 today- in a nutshell he said unless he gets what he wants and he has not got it yet when the 10 p issue comes back to parliament then the mood of the back benchers which is getting increasingly angry they will vote against - this was clarified by dimbleby as a vote of confidence in the government
Frank Field is effectively setting government policy on this -Brown must dance to his tune and not get one step wrong or resign - it seems to be be clear cut
GB will have to do as he is told
Those of us who worked for Lynda Chalker in Wallasey in the 1987 GE will know first hand how courageous Frank Field is, and the political courage he demonstrated to help ensure the defeat of Lynda's Militant Tendency-backed Labour challenger, Lol Duffy.
Wherever he sits in the House, he is a man of outstanding personal and politial integrity.
Chris Paul - now really, we've had this discussion before (why do I bother, there's none so blind etc. etc?)
It wasn't a "silly error" to abolish the 10p tax rate - Gordon Brown MEANT to do it. How could he not have known what it would do? Chancellor for 10 years, Treasury (allegedly) employing the best brains in the country, of course he understood the implications and the effect on the low-paid. That's what he wanted - after all, we heard lots from his various creatures before the local elections on the subject - the low-paid and pensioners had done very well out of the Labour Government, couldn't expect any more, they'd done enough, and so on........
The difference is, when he (didn't) announce it in the House - came out in the small print afterwards - Labour were riding high in the polls and he was trying to get Tony Blair's job, so he wanted to hear the MPs cheer at the reduction to 20% rate. Now the polls are at a record low and his own supporters hate him -so it's all a mistake.........
There's a song by the Who which is most appropriate - it's called "We won't get fooled again"!
I too think that Frank Field is overrated. Yesterday in BBC
Radio4 question time I had difficulties in understanding what he was saying/arguing ( may be my age or intellegence but a few years ago I was one of the few who understood what that BBC chief political commentator from Northern Ireland was saying!!) In a way he is like Gordon Brown a circumlocuter and in that meeting he had with Brown about 10P tax I guess the two circulocuters were going in circles so long that they were timed out!
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