Wednesday
May282008
Labour vote "heavily bruised"
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 On the back of yesterday's fuel tax demonstration, the Press Association has quoted Brian Iddon, MP for Bolton South East:
“I’m getting complaints from our core Labour vote that they feel the Labour Government is just hitting them left, right and centre. They are heavily bruised at the moment.”
Dr Iddon, adds the PA, cited the ban on smoking in public places and rising alcohol and food prices as other causes of anger.
The message, I think, is getting home, but it is more important than ever that you write to your MP to illustrate the depth of feeling on this issue. It only takes a handful of letters on a single issue to make MPs sit up and take notice.
Reader Comments (8)
I hope you're right Simon, although when it comes to the "popular" smoking ban, dying New Labour, along with the other parliamentary parties including Nu-Tory, does not have the courage to go up against what has become a very out-of-order medical establishment. It is not the job of doctors to dictate to us how to live our lives.
Blad, isn't it more that MPs, just like everybody else, believe what the medical establishment is telling them? The only power that the medical establishment have lies in the very considerable confidence that is placed in them. Once that confidence starts to slip, and the medical establishment comes to be seen as being made up of ordinary and very fallible people, their authority will evaporate. Our current megalomaniacal medical establishment is really only issuing "doctor's orders" on a far larger scale than they have ever been allowed to in the past - with our permission. We should withdraw that permission.
Frank, I personally can't understand how the medical industry can be getting away with this when there's so many needless deaths within their own sector. I think they should get their own house in order before they start preaching to us.
There's so many deaths through medical negligence and the smoking ban has caused even more. To me, the smoking ban can be classed as medical negligence, and they know it, but won't admit it.
I think we need to start spinning our figures, just like they do theirs. 1200% increase in death rates as a result of the smoking ban.
As for writing to my MP about the smoking ban, I've already done so twice, for what good it did. They don't listen. The only thing to do is to vote them out. And that's what's happening.
1200% increase in death rates as a result of the smoking ban. - Helen
Where does this figure come from? Is everybody dying 12 times faster than they used to?
But, yes, it's definitely a case of the pot calling the kettle black as medical authorities demand smoking bans, while thousands die in their hospitals of MRSA.
My mother and uncle both died in hospital, both smokers.
Mum had to be wheeled outside, in winter, to have a smoke,(in her eighties), she smoked all her life. My uncle could not sit in a wheelchair, (in his eighties) this old soldier did not get a last smoke.
They were not long in hospital and I am ashamed I did not light up a cig and let my uncle have a last smoke, If I am ever in that position again I will.
I’m just relieved that one Labour MP has been willing to come out and say this. It seems to be the only aspect of Labour’s troubles that almost no-one is willing to discuss or even acknowledge.
I’ve been a member of the Labour and Co-operative Parties for more than 30 years (and I’m still a member, on the grounds that it’s my sodding party, not theirs; I plan to outlast the faux-Tory cuckoos.)
During those decades I have know periods when people were unwilling to support Labour - but this is the first time I have ever experienced actual hatred of Labour from habitual Labour voters.
The smoking ban is a significant element in this. Many of the people who are now abstaining in elections are people who, whether or not they smoke, or use pubs, see the ban as epitomising the fact that Labour today is not only a wholly middle-class party, but that it is also deeply, and viciously, anti-working class. As one friend (a lifelong Labour voter, who says he will never vote Labour again) put it to me: “They hate the way we smell - they just want us to disappear from their country.”
The smoking ban sums all that up in one easy target; so does the fact that it was a direct breach of Labour’s manifesto. Politicians think no-one gives a damn about that sort of thing. They're wrong.
Do you remember in 1992, when Major and Heseltine broke the Tories’ word, and closed all the coal mines? I heard many of my Conservative acquaintances at that time saying, with a disgusted shake of the head, “That’s it - the final straw. I will never support those bastards again.” The smoking ban is Labour’s quieter - but just as politically deadly - version of the pit closures.
The frustrating thing is that none of it is necessary. A simple amendment - to allow unstaffed smoking rooms - would probably satisfy the great majority on both sides. Neither lot would be 100% happy, but what’s wrong with compromise? Isn't that how democracies work?
If the Conservatives were to start a campaign this week with a slogan something like “Leave the smokers alone - it’s gone far enough!” they would make their greatest inroads into the Labour vote since 1979. Luckily for those of us who want an “I can‘t believe it‘s not Tory“ government even less than we want a “Non-Labour” one, they won’t. Both parties will continue chasing the chimera of the middle-class vote, while ignoring the real votes of real people.
I see that an attempt by the Chinese government to introduce a UK-style ban has been defeated by public opposition. It must be great to live in a democracy ...
I attended an Engagement Party last night as my cousin was getting engaged to a doctor. When he saw me outside lighting up he nonchantly walked up to me and told me that I could live 20 years longer if I gave it up. I replied, 'What are the lottery numbers for Saturday.' He walked off in a huff.
Alun C, excellent.