Blog name change

You may notice that this blog has a new name, as have the Tweets associated with it. Why?

I have just cancelled my Labour Party subscription. This has been done with great sadness. I am a socialist, so Labour should be my political home. Even living, as I do, in a ward, district, division and constituency in which there is no prospect of electing anyone who can represent my views, I have actively supported and campaigned for Labour, because of its values. Labour should be the government for this country but when the current leadership opted to support Brexit, I could no longer see it as worthy of its name and heritage; nor of my subscription.

Socialism has always embraced internationalism and solidarity among working people and the disadvantaged everywhere. 40 years of building on this principle in Europe has now not even been defended; nor have those on either side of the Channel living and working as Europeans.

By adopting a 3-line whip in Parliament, Corbyn failed to fight for what the vast majority of Labour supporters voted in the referendum; as he fails to oppose the government effectively while he concentrates on factional in-fighting. He is not the only guilty one. The right wing of the party has disloyally failed to support the elected leader, making this infighting inevitable. Were there any sign in Labour of either a potential leader who could rally the party; or a vision for Labour's future raison d'etre which anyone in the shadow cabinet could articulate, staying in could be more worth fighting for but at present even opposing the Tories seems beyond them.

I shall continue to challenge and rail at politics as it evolves. Ironically, I shall be no more on the side-lines outside Labour than inside, because of where I live. I have a number of like-minded friends both inside and outside the Labour Party; and believe there to be thousands in similar electoral conditions who may yet sympathise with and respond to the position I am taking.

In sorrow and in anger
Tom Serpell