Have a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year

I got back home this morning from a really well attended meeting of Labour Party Members and Trade Unionists in Halifax last night. The political discussion was superb and enthused us all in our campaign.

Alice Mahon and Linda Riordan MP came along to support me. It was good to see Alice who following her retirement from Parliament has thrown herself into political campaigning in the real world outside of Parliament like Tony Benn. Linda is such a political find. She is a solid principled, socialist and such a worthy successor to Alice in this constituency. If, as they say, you are judged by your friends, these are the people I call my friends and by whom I would want to be judged.

I am taking a break over the Christmas holidays to spend time with my family. This largely involves my wife Cynthia and I playing football, tennis, snooker and virtually every sport you can think of with our ten year old son Joseph.

I will be back on the blogisphere on 1st January.

I would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Thanks to all those who have worked hard in support of my campaign and all those who have contributed to this website and participated in the blog discussions.

I have really enjoyed the last 6 months, campaigning and engaging in the political debates and discussions both at the various meetings I have spoken at and on the website.

I hope that my leadership campaign so far has stimulated people into greater political engagement, debate, discussion and activity.

Have a good Christmas and see you in the New Year.

Best wishes,


John

Contrast the Government's Attitudes to City Bonuses and the Unemployed

Contrast two news stories over the last week.

On Thursday it was confirmed that City Christmas bonuses this year will come close to £9 billion, with the average payout for Goldman Sachs employees amounting to £320,000 and with 4,200 city workers gaining over £1 million each. This is an increase of 18.3% on last year.

Some church leaders have condemned the obscene scale of these bonuses but we have heard not a peep out of Government Ministers in response except from the Chancellor of the Exchequer who has recently warmly praised the City for its income earning success.

Contrast this with today's speech by Secretary of State John Hutton, which launched an attack on the unemployed following the publication of a leaked memo that revealed the Government is gearing up to remove all benefits from unemployed people who he claims "play the benefits system" and refuse offers of work.

I wonder how many of these unemployed were offered jobs in the city?

John Hutton's speech was clearly designed as part of the softening up of the media and MPs for the debate on the Welfare Reform Bill taking place when Parliament resumes in January.

This debate should be broadened to include the much more important and wider issue of inequality in our society and the role of taxation as well as welfare payments.

Prem Sikka and Austin Mitchell's recent booklet, "Pensions Crisis: A Failure of Public Policymaking," highlights the policies which have contributed to this increasing inequality.

Whilst John Hutton lectures the unemployed the Tax Justice Campaign discloses that tax avoidance by the rich is resulting in between £90 to £154 billion uncollected taxes widening the gap between rich and poor to the extent that we now live in a society which is more unequal than at any time over the last century.

According to the Government's own statistics, when New Labour was elected in 1997 the most wealthy 1% in our community owned 26% of the marketable wealth. In 2003 the wealthiest 1% owned 34%. The top 50% now owns 99% of the wealth.

Just to even up the situation a little I suggested a short while back a windfall tax on city Christmas bonuses of 10%. Of course the Treasury and Number 10 refused.

As grotesque inequality in our society continues to be ignored we are increasingly witnessing our country slowly but surely replicate the US model of extremes of high crime, alienation, poverty and political disengagement.

Labour in government could offer an alternative but only if we accept inequality is an issue to be addressed.