Lansbury's Lido

George Lansbury, c1935 (Photo credit: LSE Library ) This is why George Lansbury is my hero, he tells it as it is or as it should be. The workers must be given tangible proof that Labour administration means something different from Capitalist administration, and in a nutshell this means diverting wealth from the wealthy ratepayers to the poor. Those who pretend that a sound Labour policy can be pursued nationally or locally without making the rich poorer should find another party. - George Lansbury 1922 Would that we had someone of the calibre of George or any of the other Poplar councillors with us today! Related articles Rebels, strikers and anti-fascists

Listening to Neil Young's Let's Impeach the President when I heard these lyrics. Somewhat apt given the current controversy surrounding Snowden/Prism etc. Let's impeach the President For spying On citizens inside their own homes Breaking every law in the country By tapping our computers and telephones 

Unite logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Good to read Len McCluskey's article in the Daily Mirror: If your son or daughter fancies becoming a Labour MP, forget it. They have more chance of cleaning in the Commons than being elected to it.That is what the row over Labour selection procedures is really about – who can play a part in our politics. Today, Parliament is increasingly the preserve of an out-of-touch elite – Oxbridge-educated special advisers who glide from university to think tank to the green benches without ever sniffing the air of the real world. That is what Unite is trying to change. We want to give our democracy back to ordinary working people. We say they need to be given a fair crack of the whip in the Labour Party in particular – the Party that was founded to represent working people, because the establishment of a century ago ignored them. The Unite General Secretary lays it on the line about what has happened to the Labour Party over the last few dec...

4. Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority take part in welcoming and briefing New Members (Photo credit: UK Parliament ) Can you believe the arrogance of it? Give MPs a pay rise or risk another expenses scandal, says IPSA chief http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10161649/Give-MPs-a-pay-rise-or-risk-another-expenses-scandal-says-Ipsa-chief.html So says the well paid Chief of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, 'Sir' Ian Kennedy. Here's a third option: Pay MPs the average working wage and let them truly be representative of those whom they represent, not the swivel eyed, money trousering, big business arse licking career politicos that a lot of them are and aspire to be. Related articles I can force through rise in MPs' pay, says watchdog MPs including cabinet ministers 'claiming housing and travel expenses for their children' An open letter to David Cameron What has turned so many Christians off voting Labour? ...

Well it's a happy 65th Birthday to the NHS! And I for one am very happy that it exists. If people like Clement Atlee and Aneurin Bevan hadn't fought for it's creation in the rubble and austerity of postwar Britain then certainly I wouldn't be here. You see, my Dad developed rheumatic fever when he was a teenager through swimming in the Kennet and Avon canal down in Bath. When war was declared he tried to enlist in the Navy but was declared medically unfit as the fever had caused issues with his heart's mitral valve. So he spent the war in the Home Guard guarding a building up at a reservoir overlooking Bath. We say guarding as he had a rifle but no ammunition! One day him and his friend decided to break into the building to see what was in there. Turns out to have been stacked to the rafters with potatoes! After the war and a short stint at a soap factory he went to work for BOAC's engine plant in Nantgarw. Whilst lodging with a local family at Trele...