Corbyn’s ascent to Labour’s Leadership should not have come as a surprise.

Posted 22 Sep 2015 by Walaa Idris

Corbyn

Yet, it seems it did. For many the Labour party began shifting further left five years ago when they elected as leader Ed and not David Miliband. The 2010 leadership election was the strongest indication the Blair project was on its last leg and drawing its final breath. For five years following that election we watched as Miliband hovered over the centre ground not quite knowing whether to be true to his political beliefs or appease the Blairites and the centrists in his party. His reluctance stemmed from the struggle between what his mind supposed and what’s in his heart. As you can imagine, the two were pulling in opposite directions and it showed. His leadership was littered with mishmash policies that neither gelled with each other nor made a great deal of sense.

So when politicos and pundits say we didn’t see it coming, I wonder if they were watching the same political arena the rest of us were watching.

Besides, didn’t it become clear this May after terribly losing in Scotland that the only way Labour can win back Scottish seat, a core of their electoral majority, is by shifting away from the centre and to the left?

I might be wrong here, yet I don’t believe that I am. Labour electing Jeremy Corbyn as their head is nothing more than the party going back to its roots and returning home to its truth. Now whether his election will make Labour more or less electable remains to be seen. However, it definitely makes it a genuine opposition – one that will give the current government a few headaches – but nonetheless an authentic leftist party.

The question everyone is asking, can a hard left Labour Party offer Britain a better suitable alternative? That too remains to be seen.

There is no doubt Corbyn has embarked on a rough and some would say a brave ride. His politics is of the past. He is not friendly with reporters. He never ran or managed a department nor held a ministerial post before. He spent the majority of his political existence opposing his own party. And, on top of all that he didn’t expect and some would say even intended to win; this is all too new and overwhelming for him. The same goes for most of those he appointed to lead with him. But all of that can be solved by having the right advisers and getting the council of seasoned experienced elders. Even his disrespect to the monarchy and veterans can be rectified by future more positive actions.

Having said that, Jeremy Corbyn’s biggest problem isn’t his old politics or being a novice. Nor is it his lack of experience in frontbench politics, nor avoiding the media and disrespecting the realm plus a large proportion of the very people that elected him leader. His problem is the Labour Party. Will it accept him and his proposed changes, will it collectively stand behind him and support his vision of over taxing, higher welfare bills, anti-aspiration anti –austerity, anti NATO …., and the rest of it. Or will it fight him every step of the way and even fragment?

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Labourites are literally cannibalizing themselves.

Posted 13 Nov 2014 by Walaa Idris

Lately it seems, the One Nation, man of the people Edward Samuel Miliband is not a popular fella — it appears, inside and outside the Labour party he has zero zero appeal and not many like him.

Personally, I never cared about how he ate a bacon sandwich, or that he looks like Wallace from Wallace and Gromit, nor did I care that his jawline wasn’t chiselled enough. Putting party politics to one side, my only issue with Ed Miliband is his disloyalty to his own family, and betraying to his own brother.

To some that might seem like a personal matter between the two brothers, so why do I care? But to me it is not. As someone who highly value loyalty, especially family loyalty, any person who does what Miliband did to his own flesh and blood and his only brother cannot be trusted, because family is extremely important. Having your brother’s back to some might be an old fashion notion, but it’s the simplest honesty test known to man.

So, how can anyone trust someone who stabs his own brother in the back?

And since we’re talking about loyalty, party loyalty is also important — otherwise why pay a fee and become a member? And it is here where Labourites (particularly those behind the latest coup attempt) need to take a long hard look in the mirror. They too are disloyal, and at this stage in the parliamentary cycle, are self-harming behind the pretext of saving the party and serving the public — when we all know it’s neither, and it’s all done for personal gain and gratification.

I am neither a Labour sympathizer nor a Miliband fan. Yet think all Labourites, until the May election, should at least support and respect him at every given opportunity. He is their leader, and from the looks of things the only leader they’ll have this parliament. And despite everything else, the unions’ influence on his election, standing against his own brother and folks making fun of him — Ed Miliband is the person people see when they think Labour. So why should those outside the party respect him when his own comrades don’t? To be taken seriously outside Labour, Miliband needs to be taken seriously inside it, not shredded to pieces by his own people.

Labour is not dissimilar to other parties in that it has it’s a hard left and a soft left. All parties have a hard and a soft side to their central message. But what Labour needs to understand, those of us on the outside, don’t care if someone is a Brownite or a Blairite, we only see them as Labour. That’s why the sooner they get over whatever disappointment they feel about Miliband’s election and personal appeal the better it is for them. Their attitude should be that of what’s done is done and move on. They should carry on with the business of getting elected, articulate and sell their massage, not tear chunks off their leader six month before a general election.

#ZeroZeroLab

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Just watch, Miliband’s Winter Fuel Allowance will end up being Labour's own goal.

Posted 3 Jun 2013 by Walaa Idris

You have got to love Labour. It never fails. Throw them a bait and sooner or later they’ll bite.

What Labour and the two Eds don’t realise is that the Winter Fuel Allowance means testing is a can of worms they really don’t want to open, because once opened its messy and guaranteed to backfire.

Why do they think with all the welfare reforms the Winter Fuel, TV License fees and the Freedom Pass are the only benefits IDS tiptoed around and did not touch? Did they even wonder or ask why despite pressure even from some Tories, he left these three well alone?

He did it, because means testing is a very tricky business. And government, any government is rubbish at administering it. Means testing is difficult to fairly and correctly assess. It is intrusive at best and for some pensioners can be very demeaning.

If Labour is hoping to point score with this move, they picked the wrong benefit and group of people to flex their muscles at.

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Is it culture or politics that makes someone delight in someone’s death?

Posted 10 Apr 2013 by Walaa Idris


I am sure when the time comes; no Tory leader will need to advise his MPs to respond respectfully to the death of a former Labour Prime Minster or figurehead. For Ed Miliband to feel the need to urge his MPs to respond to Lady Thatcher’s death in a respectful manner is shocking. And it says more about Labour, the kind of people that follows and supports it than the great lady and her legacy.

Don’t get me wrong, the capacity to hate and wish ill on those we hate is in all of us. It’s as old as and as common a feeling as the ability to love, feel rosy and fluffy about those we admire. However, neither feeling is an issue here; the issue is the ability to exercise restraint, common human decency and appropriate self-control befitting the occasion itself. This ability is not genetic but learned, taught from an early age and perfected by practice then passed down the generations. Which makes one wonder whose responsibility is it, the society, the state or the family? My bet is on the family.

For years now, we’ve been hearing about the Tory being the nasty party. Recent actions, from holding street parties, to not respectfully lowering flags in some Labour held local authorities not to mention some of the comments on social and the regular media from prominent Labour politicians showed a nastiness from the left prehistoric in its venomousness.

No amount of discontent and dismay merits dancing on anyone’s grave. No religion, culture or any civilised society condone the tasteless celebrations of someone’s death. And no respectable group or organization should accept and allow any of it to be done in their name. It’s discourteous to everyone but mostly to our nation, to Britain. And that’s what pains me, not disliking Thatcher and her politics, but the ugliness and its vigour is embarrassing and impossible to reconcile with as a human-being.

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Is the Labour Party now enlightened, or is immigration their latest bandwagon?

Posted 7 Mar 2013 by Walaa Idris

Fascinating, how when David Cameron ‘a Conservative’ promised an In/Out EU Referendum, Miliband and his party said the Tories are running scared of UKip. They said it was shameful and weak to allow Ukip – a minor protest party – to set the agenda on the EU issue!

I wonder what Miliband and Labour think now about their own party. What do they call his Immigration Party Political Broadcast and Ms Copper’s Immigration Speech? Who set that agenda – and how does it make them feel?

How does all that immigration talk now makes Mrs Duffy feel? Remember Gillian Duffy from the 2010 General Election? In case Miliband and his party choose to forget, we did not. We all remember too well that Gillian Duffy moment – when his former boss and mentor, Gordon Brown, called a concerned citizen and Labour voter a bigot just because she asked him about immigration.

Less than a week ago Labour was pushed to fourth place in a by-election fought heavily by Ukip on a platform of immigration.

My question to Mr Miliband is who’s dictating this agenda? It can’t be the British public, because the Labour party for years hushed anyone who utters the word immigration labelling them a racist bigot. What changed now? Who is pulling their strings and setting their agenda now?

All sensible replies are welcomed, feel free to reply.

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Maria Eagle MP has some nerve blaming this government for Labour’s mistakes.

Posted 2 Jan 2013 by Walaa Idris

Maria Eagle MP

Today’s Rail Fair rises are disheartening to commuters all over the country. As a capitalist I am all for business and services flourishing, they are the backbone of our economy and their success is our success, but I also believe in compassion and common sense.

That is why I feel torn between the Rail Companies need to raise needed funds to improve infrastructure and services without burdening the tax bill while at the same time not over squeezing an already burdened commuter. In cases like this striking a balance is always difficult and the current economic environment makes it even harder.

Understandably today’s increase is a blow to those who need to commute to work, those who want to reduce their Carbon Footprint and everyone who regularly use trains to get around. But for Labour’s Maria Eagle – Shadow Secretary of State for Transport – to blame ONLY this government is disingenuous and barmy. Today’s fair increase is the tenth consecutive annual rise which means these increases started back in 2003 when her own party was in government and continued to rise in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007…,all the way to 2010 under a Labour administration.

What Ms Eagle needs to do is explain why Labour did nothing about the continued upsurge for eight successive years and where did all that money go?

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What kind of One Nation is Mr Miliband hoping to create!?

Posted 29 Dec 2012 by Walaa Idris

I never understood the venomous hatred that emanates from some lefties every time Lady Thatcher makes the headline news. It happened just before Christmas when Mrs Thatcher was admitted to hospital due to ill health and again yesterday when the government released thirty year old documents charting events that happened during her time as Prime Minster.

Both times, like the times before, regardless of the news subject once the great lady’s name is mentioned these individuals lose all self-control and decency plus every ounce of self-respect. They become like hounds at the scent of blood, all they want is the lifeblood of their prey.

We are where we are today, socially and economically as a result of Labour’s policies.

Our welfare systems, NHS, banks, immigration policies, and social injustices …, need fixing due to these policies. Labour does not like to hear it, the public is tired of hearing it and the government is sick of repeating it but we have a duty and must continue saying it.

For thirteen years, the policies that destroyed this country were made and implanted by a Labour government lead by Labour Prime Ministers and politicians. As a result of these policies, today, many businesses are forced to close, thousands of families have lost their homes and millions young and old are jobless, some might never work again and some will find it impossible to get work in the future. Schools produce illiterate students who cannot read, write or count; the Army is stretched senselessly over an impossible war. The country is bursting at the seams with illegal immigrants deliberately invited by Labour not to mention we are now forced to cutback and reduce spending just to stay afloat.

All that was Labour’s doing and is their legacy.

However, I never once heard any Conservative wish Tony Blair or Gordon Brown ill health or death, nor heard a Tory councillor publicly announce on Twitter, Facebook or via a Blog they will have a party and dance on their grave when they die.

While the adversity felt is equal, what shocks me is the clear divide in emotional intellect and restraint. But what truly puzzles me is that most of these thuggish lefties are actually elected and approved representatives of the Labour party. How is that not wrong!?

What kind of One Nation is Mr Miliband hoping to create!?

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Independent enquiries are the Labour party's antibiotics

Posted 16 Oct 2012 by Walaa Idris

Antibiotics

We might joke and laugh about Labour and their obsession with independent inquiries and wanting to launch them at a drop of a hat.

But it is not funny, because it is symptomatic of a serious lack of grasp of what’s important.

Like doctors who prescribe antibiotics for every illness. Some physicians are known to begin writing a prescription for an antibiotic at the start of the consultation, before the patient even finishes explaining what is wrong with them! That kind of one size fits all, masking treatment, can cause serious problems long term.

The same with Labour, they never seem to have the time to investigate or allow organisations to self- examine and assess what went wrong or why…. How is anyone going to learn from their mistakes if they don’t study them? Telling someone what went wrong is not the same as them actually learning what went wrong – either as an individual or a group! Because walking through what actually happened (in any given situation) is fundamental for advancement and moving forward.

Take me for example, I have horrible spelling and ‘for ease’ will many times ask for the correct spelling of a word rather than look it up myself. But most times the words I tend to miss spell again are the ones others spelled for me, the words others showed me how to spell! On the other hand, the words I look up myself I never forget or miss-spell again!

Besides their cost to the public purse, which Labour never seems to consider, public enquiries are time consuming and can also teach very little. Alternatively, an internal investigation, a self-examination exercise tends to cost less; they are also more inclusive plus give confidence to the organization and its members. Not to mention, they allow for genuine vigilance – thus allowing for a more practical approach to change and betterment.

In my opinion, Labour desperately needs to move away from this one size fits all solution to every situation. Antibiotics are strong very helpful and important drugs, they can zap most diseases within a week, but with overuse the human body can quickly develop resistance to them and become immune to their effect. Who’s to say the same won’t become of public inquiries!?

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Labour still doesn’t get it!

Posted 31 Jan 2012 by Walaa Idris

As usual Labour is missing the point and confusing the issue re RBS/Hester/bonus refusal business, plus totally neglecting the possible ramifications that might follow.

Since Stephen Hester made his announcement, Laborites are celebrating and justifying their victory by saying: “look, look even Osborne and other Tories are saying its good Mr. Hester declined his bonus…” when the two are not the same. Hoping someone forgoes a reward is very different to bullying a person into passing up what’s legally and contractually theirs!

Labour in their quest for something, just anything, to become relevant, has missed a crucial point.

RBS was bailed out by public money NOT nationalized and became public. And although the public might own the majority shares they don’t own the company. Moreover, in RBS’ case, the 84% share is held and managed through UK Financial Investments Limited with limited voting rights of 75% in order for the bank to retain it’s listing on the London Stock Exchange….Read it in full here

That difference is what made the Tories say time and time again: “it’s not our place to ask ‘but’ it will be nice if…..” when on the other hand, Ed Miliband and his gang of bullies charged and ‘demanded’ Hester gives up his bonus.

Let’s simplify things a little. In a hypothetical situation; person A, who looks after a large number of people via his business, hit some hard times. So he goes to person B and asks for a loan. The two agreed on an amount, terms and conditions of payments plus how to operate the business going forward. A few years’ later things pick up a little for person A, so he decides – within the agreement – to buy a few thank you presents for some of the people who worked hard to get the business through its toughest time. Person B finds out about the presents and demands the people not to accept them, because things aren’t so good on his end and he cannot afford to reward his own family!

Now, where is the sense in that?

What happened in RBS is an ugly and dangerous precedent. Ugly because it highlights envy with all it’s demoralizing unpleasantness and dangerous because the next time a private bank is going under will rather collapse and drag millions of innocent clients down with it than take a red penny from the government!

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What do incidences such as RBS and Bombardier say about Labour?

Posted 30 Jan 2012 by Walaa Idris

Never ever trust them!

Because when in government they’ll do, say and sign anything that keeps them in office – and when they are out of office, they’ll say, do and sign anything to get back in office!

In their chronic obsession to appeal to people of all political hues, they discarded their core believes and values and lost their identity. In the past twenty years we watched as Labour twisted and turned all over the place to get elected, but once in office, they didn’t have a clue what to do next. So continued to twist and turn some more. No wonder they can’t keep track of what they said or did in any given time!

They stand now an empty shell that represents nothing yet stands for everything as long as it is popular and on trend. Anything, from awarding bank bounces and Knighthoods, then denouncing them – rejecting austerity measures the whole country needs and wants then accepting them – and today Ken Livingston promised if elected as London Mayor to work with LibDems when less than a year ago he described them as “a venal sub-species”. Labour politicians have turned appeasement and jumping on the latest bandwagon into an art form.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still some conviction Laborites who wholeheartedly believes in the Labour cause and its values but unfortunately none of them is on the front-line or leading the party and until then we better prepare for pages and pages of Labour’s ever growing hypocrisy.

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