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Welcome to my little election site. Not the most glittering but it will include verbs. Plus my my own views rather than Party line porridge. You`re electing an MP who should think for himself, not a parrot.
Date first. The election will be 05.05.05. That must be true `cos I read it in the Sun. Tony told them, as he usually does with such top secret things. He can`t tell MPs. We’d only blab it to the papers.
WHY STAND?
I’ve been working for Grimsby since 1977. I love the job and want to go on doing it. I’ll do it to the best of my ability. As always! You’re as old as you feel. So if you can put up with a teenager here I am!
To be honest, as we Pols say, seventy is a bit old. But it also means well experienced and the Commons should cover a range of types, old and young, male and female, black and white. I’m learning all the time and hope to master the job in the next few years. I`m a compulsive activist and couldn’t think what to do if it wasn’t this job. Don`t force me to sell my new house or send my wife out to work.
WHO’S AUSTIN MITCHELL?
Old Labour. Even heritage. I was on the right of the party and haven`t moved, but the rest have gone so far right behind me that I`m now left. Chair of Five All Party Groups including Fishing and Trading Standards, Ranking Government member of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. Chair of its Report on Fishing. Member of the Fabian Society Executive and Hansard Society Council. Chair of Labour Euro Safeguards and Labour Economic Policy Group.
MPs are there to support the party but not by abandoning independent judgement. If you want a party puppet plenty are available. I’ll use my judgement on what’s good for Grimsby and its people. That’s the job of an MP. Not repeating Tony`s press releases with some deterioration in the style and grammar.
I will continue to campaign for publicly funded care for the old an increase. For the basic pension an a restored to tie earnings, the ending of the mess the Tories created by privatising the railways and an end to the regressive council tax which places a welfare burden on lower cost housing on the areas which house most of it, to be replaced by a fairer financial deal for local government. I believe a more equal society is a better society.
WHY VOTE LABOUR?
Can anyone who believes in the betterment of the people, a fairer more equal society our responsibility to the disadvantaged and the less well off and better public services to improve the lives, health and education of us all do anything else? There`s a long way to go to make Britain a compassionate community with public services and education up to world standards. We still need better and you don`t get that by cuts.
Labour`s not as radical as we used to be. We had to live down eighteen years of failure and suspicion and fear of us by being cautious. We`ve made mistakes. But we’re still the party of progress. You know Labour government works. So let us get on with the job of building the better, caring community.
WHAT’S THIS ELECTION ABOUT.
Its your opportunity to give your verdict on the overall performance of the government. We’ve not been perfect - I’ve not been a Minister – so there were mistakes. But to look at them and not the big picture distorts everything.
Good as it is to have Labour back in power after eighteen years I’ve still had to abstain or vote against some policies but an election is about the big picture not the little niggles and quibbles. It’s not even about Iraq. The question is have we improved things for you, for Grimsby, for Britain?
Living standards are higher. The UK economy has grown every quarter. Employment has gone up by 2 million and unemployment is at its lowest level since 1975. We`ve delivered the longest period of sustained low inflation and interest rates since the 601s. Services have improved. We`ve 19,300 more doctors, 77,500 more nurses, 28,000 more teachers and 12,500 more police officers; Education and the Health Service are improving steadily. That’s the job you asked Labour to do in 1997: end Tory cuts and make things better. That takes time. Your decision now is whether to let us carry on with that work. Elections are fought poorly, government yearns to please. Yet the recordis pretty good and things are moving foreward.
WHAT’S LABOUR DONE FOR GRIMSBY?
Look around. The new Mother and Baby Unit at Princess Diana. Europarc, pioneered by the Regional Development Agency Labour created is providing 1,200 jobs. The Child and Working Tax Credit awards help 8,400 hard working families. Three and a half thousand free nursery education places for three and four year olds were taken up in 2003 and we`ve half a dozen Sure Start centres. We`re promised massive capital investment in our secondary schools in the first two years of the next term. We`ve got more police, new neighbourhood police stations with new community wardens and an expanding CCTV coverage.
WHAT WE’VE BEEN LESS GOOD AT.
Housing. We`ve provided more money but not built enough housing for rent and no council houses at all. Instead of allowing councils to repair and renovate their own council houses as they could if they were allowed to keep the money in their Housing Revenue Accounts, John Prescott has waged a campaign for privatisation, spending millions to give away billions in houses and land. North East Lincolnshire had enough money to bring its council housing up to the decent home standard. It chose to give away its council housing to Shoreline. Now we`ve got to ensure that works for tenants not the bankers.
We never made up the Tory under-spend when NEL became a unitary authority, though this doesn`t justify the savage cuts the Lib-Cons have imposed for ideological reasons. That`s a ghastly warning of what would happen nationally if the Lib-Dems or the Tories got in. We`ve taken too long to deal with the asylum problem. What we`ve done lacks humanity. We`ve over-reacted on security issues. Yet still on the broad improvement we`ve delivered.
I’m a Labour loyalist, not a rebel. More an activist who thinks we should move faster and be braver. Taxes could be higher, particularly on the wealthy. Local government needs more freedom (and money). Privatisation has gone too far, particularly in the railways which should be renationalised. I support Proportional Representation, a fairer system which gives parties in Parliament the same proportion of seats they get of vote. It ensures that parties have to work together rather than fight and shout Yah-boo-sucks at each other.
IRAQ.
What can I say? Tony over-egged the pudding for going in. Yet we did get rid of an awful dictator. No chance of pulling out this year. We can`t leave them to kill each other.
WHAT ABOUT EUROPE?
I can hardly keep the excitement out of my voice. Tony is naively enthusiastic but Gordon has kept us out of the Euro and wisely we offer a referendum on it (if the time is ever ripe) and another on the wretched European Constitution which would weld us into a European Super State where the British people don`t want. “Thus far and no further” is my view, “As much EU as the British people want and will vote for”. I will oppose the Constitution and the Euro, both damaging to Britain. The Common Fisheries Policy has been disastrous for conservation and Grimsby and I introduced the Bill to take us out. The Common Agricultural Policy costs £30 a week for every family. Both should go.
WHAT’S THE ELECTION PROSPECT?
The Conservatives can only get in by default if Labour voters don’t turn out. It`s a disastrous prospect because they`ve learned nothing and forgotten nothing and have only a vague bag of grumbles in place of a policy, plus the old Voodoo economics which claims to be able to spend more but tax less. Let`s not return to interest rates at 12%, negative equity affecting 1.5 million households, unemployment over three million, and irresponsible spending cuts which put people out of work.
The Liberals are more promising. Today's most promising Party yet they can`t form a government so they can promise anything. Yet in North Eat Lincolnshire with their cuts in youth clubs, advice services, libraries, lavatories and help for young mums they`ve shown a greater passion for cuts than for people. So the real danger in this election is that they take enough votes to give the Tories power and, what’s worse, Grimsby. Don’t let The Tories ruin it.
You don`t like `Yah Boo Sucks” but politicians inevitably criticise other parties because we’re all in competition for power. Each party has its good points. My advice is “Voter given an honest curse. Defend the bad against far worse”.
Then there’s the fourth party: Apathy. No vote no say. Yet it could still have an effect because apathy works against Labour. In America only half the people vote that means that everything is focussed on the interests of those who vote while the interests of the poor, the working class, and the less well off are neglected. Apathy helps the Tories but government by default isn’t democracy.
ANY QUESTIONS?
I can`t deal with everything here but I’ll try and deal with any queries on
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Give us a go. PLEASE GIVE YOUR ADDRESS AS YOUR RESPONSE MAY COME IN WRITING. We politicians need to be in touch all the time, but we can only stay in touch if you tell us.
I`m also doing an election Weblog on austinforgrimsby.blogspot.com
PREDICTIONS
It looks as though Labour will win. I hope we do. But the polls puts us only three per cent ahead. We`re a bit rattled and there’ll be eddies and counter currents all the way through. No excitement means a lower vote. I’m fighting Grimsby as the marginal it is. That’s what’s owed to the people of this, the best constituency in the country and one which it`s been my pleasure to serve for 28 years. Let’s have your predictions on
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MORE TO COME.
Here as things come up, and on my election Blog. Hit me! Hit me! Hit me! Please. Candidates are in purdah during the campaign. If I walked naked through the precinct in a desperate attempt to stimulate interest the Grimsby Telegraph wouldn’t cover it (unless the other candidates did the same). If I updated Einstein`s theory I`d never get on Radio Humberside, beautifying with Botox won`t get me on telly. All the attention focuses on the national campaign which stars inexperienced teenagers like Blair, Howard, Charles Kennedy and “I`m a Celebrity Get Me out of UKIP” Kilroy Silk. We candidates are the silent service. So it`s wonderful to have somewhere to say summat. Even if no one listens.
Except You Dear Elector.
Oh, one last thing. Please vote for me. |
