Perhaps we should give our Labour MPs something more worthwhile to do than pick on the elected Leader of the Labour Party?

Monday, 4 July 2016

Perhaps we should give our Labour MPs something more worthwhile to do than pick on the elected Leader of the Labour Party?

The Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG — affectionately known as 'Kwug') includes members of various political parties, including Labour. Kwug's 'heartland' is focused on the London Boroughs of Brent and Camden, separated as these are by the Kilburn High Road and Edgware Road; and all the Members of Parliament for the Parliamentary constituencies in these two boroughs are Labour:

Tulip Sidiq is MP for Hampstead & Kilburn, which takes in the Kilburn wards of both boroughs and other wards from each borough, though mainly focused on the Camden side(1)
Dawn Butler is Labour MP for Brent Central(2)
Barry Gardiner is Labour MP for Brent North(3) and
Keir Starmer is Labour MP for Holborn & St Pancras — the seat that comprises the rest of LB Camden.(4)

Declaring 'no confidence' in Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, Keir Starmer — with backing from Camden Council Leader Sarah Hayward — resigned from Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet; they and "a groundswell of Labour MPs" accuse Corbyn of "weak leadership" regarding the Remain vote in the UK's EU Referendum when he was only telling the truth regarding the demerits of a capitalist EU. Hampstead & Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq has said that there must be another election for Labour Party Leader to take Labour into the next General Election.(5)

I am a Green Party of England & Wales member myself, but believe I speak for my Labour Party comrades within the KUWG in saying that Labour MPs would be much better occupied standing up for our rights than involving themselves in a coup against Jeremy Corbyn MP who was elected leader of the Labour Party in 2015 by a very popular vote made up mainly of ordinary party members, including Kwug activists. That contrasts with the weighting of votes in favour of what members of the Parliamentary Labour Party over ordinary party members, and the weighting of incomes between Members of Parliament on £120K salaries compared with those on benefit level incomes.

The Camden New Journal (CNJ) comment observes that "the coup against Corbyn will leave a bitter taste."(6)

There is more to life than the Punch & Judy Show of political pantomime and MPs stabbing their leaders in the back

All that political pantomime within the Parliamentary Labour Party is a real distraction from representing the people these Members of Parliament are supposed to serve, as I am not the only person to observe. Kate Belgrave puts it very bluntly: While politicians amuse themselves, austerity runs rampant, etc ....(7) The CNJ reveals further that £150m worth of Camden Council homes [are] to be sold off every year under housing reforms.(8)

Against this backdrop, Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty gives priority to our democratically elected representatives securing

social security
affordable homes and
adequate incomes in work and unemployment,

and proposes a template for drafting "a letter to our MPs and the Councillors of Councils which are taxing social security with Council Tax."(9) Those who live in the boroughs of Brent or Camden have website addresses on this page to facilitate the MP correspondence bit.

Regarding

Brent Council members and (10)
Camden Council members, (11)

Web address details are given below. For everywhere else within the UK, there is They Work For You.com(12)

A few finer points regarding emailing your MP

Getting your MP's email address via the Parliament website may have added advantages, in, say allowing you to Cc in Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader — leader@labour.org.uk (13)
Remember, when writing your constituency MP, to include your postal address with postcode to help verify that you are one of their constituents! (14)

KUWG on Twitter

Monday, 4 July 2016