Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 92

Labour Can Win: From .99p

 

Labour Can Win is an abridged version of my dissertation Turn Left to Power. The Labour Manifesto for the General Election on June 8th contains proposals which echo many of the principles which I have set out in an easy read format. Labour now has the chance to spring an historic surprise on June 8th. If you want a Labour victory, this is a must read. It will give you ideas and inspiration to drive you forward. A message of hope over fear in under 100 pages.

Click image to buy. Just 99p for download £4.50 for paperback

Can Labour Climb The Mountain?

Everything is possible. Never has a party and a leadership suffered from such a negative media coverage, for which the New Labour element of the parliamentary Labour party have much to answer for. You cannot rubbish your own leader for months on end, then expect everyone else not to follow suit when an election is called. At least if there is a massacre they will be the first to fall. However it is not over, the mountain is climbable, though to do so would make history on the style of 1945. So go and make history!

There are some pointers. Everywhere Corbyn goes he is greeted by large and enthusiastic crowds. He is clearly enjoying campaigning and is having the time of his life. May relies on rent-a-crowd  supporters, is awkward when questioned and mostly looks haggard and ill at ease, unless mouthing her favourite platitudes. The polls are constantly moving ever so slowly towards Labour, but the gap is still wide. The unknown element, and this is the ground where Labour is strongest, is the fifteen million who have given up voting. A good five million of those would vote Labour and if this ground breaking manifesto, ridiculed by every section of the establishment, from economists, throughout the media, think tanks and of course the Tory electoral machine, catches attention on the doorstep, then all bets are off.

Because whatever the cries of the high and the mighty, the wise and the good, their system is failing the many and if the many vote, Labour can win. So turnout is the key.  Labour must keep calm, work hard, persuade the young to vote, re-energise the Labour supporters Blair lost and June 8 can still be your day. Big Ask but the reward could be the biggest prize in UK electoral history.

 

Washington Must Get a Grip

Trump has now tweeted that he shared terrorist information with the Russians and he was quite entitled to do so, more especially because it concerned IS. Russia has already lost a planeload of holidaymakers to an IS missile so, as they are US allies in that conflict, it was the right thing to do. I have learned that the President has the absolute right to do as he likes on matters of national security. He can classify and declassify as he chooses, so this was all a storm in a tea cup brewed in Washington and stirred by the New York Times.

It is up to the politicians,  their staffers and press corps in Washington to now get behind the office of their President, whether they like him or not, whether he follows protocol or not. They are a democracy and the people elected him. So either Washington gets a grip of itself or, instead of a seat of government, it will look like a pantomime. It is one thing to oppose as in democratic opposition, but it is another to obsess, undermine, and obstruct. Because it is in the end not Trump who is demeaned but America itself.

 

Two Handbooks To Help Labour: A Must For Activists from .99p

Turn Left To Power is an explosive dissertation in book form offering a fundamental redirection for Labour’s return to power, with bold ideas for a new economic and social settlement, including economic and taxation reform, restoration of responsibility in government and a renewal of democracy. The ideas are relevant whether Brexit goes hard or soft. Frank and at a times brutal, Turn Left To Power offers a collection of fundamental reforms which amount to a political revolution which can propel Labour back to government. Published in 2016 and circulated to the Labour leadership, Turn Left To Power was a trailblazer for the manifesto.

Click image to buy Paperback £4.99   Kindle £1.99  

  Labour Can Win is an abridged version of my dissertation Turn Left to Power. The Labour Manifesto for the General Election on June 8th contains proposals which echo many of the principles which I set out, giving Labour the opportunity to spring a historic surprise on June 8th. If you want a Labour victory, this is a must read. It will give you ideas and inspiration to drive you forward. A message of hope over fear in under 100 pages.

Click image to buy. Just 99p for download £4.50 for paperback

 

Trump Intelligence Leak: Really?

Washington is now embroiled in arguments as to whether Trump inadvertently said something revealing top secret intelligence, when talking to the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador during what seems to have been a productive meeting in the Oval office, designed to improve American-Russian relations generally and cooperation in fighting IS in particular. Whilst denials have been issued, what is being denied and what is being alleged are mis-matched so the suspicion lingers. Coming on top of all the fuss about the Comey sacking and the seemingly unending investigation into the Trump campaign’s links to Russian officials, this has now reached such a level of noise that it is starting to drown out the management of real issues.

I suspect that in America the judgment is more or less split on party lines. Trump supporters see everything is good and those who oppose him think he is erratic, muddled and unsuitable. The problem for America is that all this is beginning to impact on America’s influence  worldwide. The international community is not used to an unstable presidency, which is how the Trump administration is beginning to appear. Whether the appearance is true or false, in today’s world appearance counts for almost everything. It is of course correct that Trump is not a politician, but a businessman, who has been elected  because people have become fed up with politicians. Too much of politics is a detached spectator sport and too little of it addresses the issues which affect everyday lives. Nevertheless the reason the people chose a non-politician is that they thought he would do better.

There are signs, especially with China, that Trump’s preference for building understanding with strong leaders and doing deals is a lot more more effective than the conditional, prescriptive approach nation to nation, block to block, favoured by his predecessors since 9/11. His use of targeted executive orders, while there have been some high profile failures, have already begun to make a real difference in key areas. The markets seem happy.  But all this will come to nothing if scandal, rumour, innuendo and suspicion run amok in Washington. There needs to be in the White House a blend between the new broom approach and a better ability to pull the levers of power to allow smooth forward travel. At the moment the wagon is in the ditch as often as on the trail.

 

Turn Left To Power: A Road Map For Labour

Turn Left To Power is an explosive dissertation in book form offering a fundamental redirection for Labour’s return to power, with bold ideas for a new economic and social settlement, including economic and taxation reform, restoration of responsibility in government and a renewal of democracy. The ideas are relevant whether Brexit goes hard or soft. Frank and at a times brutal, Turn Left To Power offers a collection of fundamental reforms which amount to a political revolution which can propel Labour back to government. Published in 2016 and circulated to the Labour leadership, Turn Left To Power was a trailblazer for the manifesto.

Click image to buy Paperback £4.99   Kindle £1.99  

Tories Vulnerable On Issues: Labour must Concentrate Its Attack

It cannot be denied that the Tory lead in the polls is more or less unprecedented. Nor can it be denied that they appear to be running a slicker campaign. It is also a fact that if Labour is to win (and denying May an increased majority on June 8th would be a very big win) it has to orchestrate one of the biggest political upsets in our electoral history. But it is possible because of a major Tory vulnerability when it comes to specific issues. And in the end it is the issues which drive the votes.

The Tory campaign is all about leadership and Brexit. But as the campaign develops leadership will become a less potent weapon as problems affecting the quality of everyday life for millions increasingly begin to dominate. Housing costs, train fares, social care, the NHS, tuition fees, funding of public services, utility prices, low wages and productivity, a failure to create a fairer economy which can deliver enough growth and revenue to pay the bills of properly funded public services and markets which work for people. The list is almost endless. And because the Tories have boxed themselves in with an economy which favours the few above the many and because they have been in power for seven years, failing to keep the promises to remodel the economy and cut immigration, they are on the defensive along a huge front.

Batter their flimsy defences and they will crack. Already with the manifesto leak and other pledges Labour is beginning a slow advance in the polls. Now is the moment to put in the effort to pick up speed. History beckons.

Labour Can Win: Download or Paperback from 99p

 

You read my blogs and many of you are Remainers and also Corbyn supporters who want to see a Labour victory. Especially younger readers who own the future.

I have enjoyed a lifetime as a political observer and at times a participant. My first election memory is of 1945 and grown ups around me expressing disbelief at the rejection of Churchill and the scale of Attlee’s victory. My first general election, as a Tory activist,  was in 1959. Later I became a founder member of the SDP and as the inequalities and injustices of the Thatcher economic model began to emerge, I turned to the Left.

Labour Can Win is an abridged version of my dissertation Turn Left to Power. If the Labour Manifesto for the General Election on June 8th contains proposals which echo just some of the principles which I set out, Labour will spring an historic surprise on June 8th. If you want a Labour victory, this is a must read. It will give you ideas and inspiration to drive you forward. A message of hope over fear in under 100 pages.

Click image to buy. Just 99p for download £4.50

NHS Cyber Event: It is Worse than Vista!

Yes, according to reports large parts of the NHS are still running on Windows XP. This maybe alright if you are a failing department store about to shut down, or an elderly pensioner who occasionally uses a PC to book a holiday, but as the beating heart of the NHS it is an outrage.

Sooner or later we have to bite the bullet and understand that the current model of competing trusts and a score of quangos underfunded by a government dumb about raising enough money to pay its way, is no way to manage a modern health service, nor to pay for it. And sooner or later the remarkably forgiving British public will have to stop listening to sound bites and slogans and elect a government with a proper plan to set things right. Strong government as a slogan is clever, but entirely useless if all it does in practice is screw up on everything.

Think about that before June 8th.

Labour Can Win: Buy Now from .99p

You read my blogs and many of you are Remainers and also Corbyn supporters who want to see a Labour victory. Especially younger readers who own the future.

I have enjoyed a lifetime as a political observer and at times a participant. My first election memory is of 1945 and grown ups around me expressing disbelief at the rejection of Churchill and the scale of Attlee’s victory. My first general election, as a Tory activist,  was in 1959. Later I became a founder member of the SDP and as the inequalities and injustices of the Thatcher economic model began to emerge, I turned to the Left.

Labour Can Win is an abridged version of my dissertation Turn Left to Power. If the Labour Manifesto for the General Election on June 8th contains proposals which echo just some of the principles which I set out, Labour will spring an historic surprise on June 8th. If you want a Labour victory, this is a must read. It will give you ideas and inspiration to drive you forward. A message of hope over fear in under 100 pages.

Click image to buy. Just 99p for download £4.50 paperback