Britannia Radio

I have spent the whole of that part of my life concerned with 
politics fighting Socialism.  (That rather than fighting FOR 
conservatism )  So I don't agree often with socialists.  But in the 
earlier parts of my life I never doubted the sincerity of the best of 
the Labour party even when I thought their policies would lead to the 
further impoverishment of the poor.  Alice Mahon was one of those.

Her reasons for resigning are cogent enough and most of you will have 
read them elsewhere.  But - to the best of my knowledge - this is the 
first time that the broken promise over the  EU Constitution ("Lisbon 
Treaty") referendum has been mentioned.  So I send it out now.

It also contains a corruscating attack on the whole concept and 
methods of New Labour under both Blair and Brown

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INDEPENDENT 20.4.09
Alice Mahon: Why I could stay and fight no longer

It became clear to me during my 18 years in parliament that, with the 
phenomenon called New Labour, two things would change the politics of 
the Labour movement forever.

One, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown would adopt with great enthusiasm 
the free market economics pursued by Thatcher and the US neo-cons. 
Two, they would have to change the structures and policies of the 
party to achieve their goal.

A machine was put in place to crush anything remotely connected to 
Old Labour. Conference was changed beyond recognition, any dissent 
ruthlessly stamped on by the new spin masters. Delegates were sought 
out and pressurised into supporting New Labour policies even if they 
were against what the local party had decided.

This nastiness was a hallmark of New Labour and they exercised it at 
every level of the movement.

I have stood for conference arrangements committee twice and the 
party machine has moved in and spent enormous amounts of money 
supporting the candidates who would always support the leadership's 
bidding. No expense was spared when it came to defeating an 
independent voice. Party members have effectively been banned from 
any decision making.

For those of us on the left, the weekly parliamentary Labour Party 
meetings were not a happy event.

I remember asking for a two-day debate on the Iraq war and the sky 
almost fell in. The Blairite foot soldiers ran out to brief the press 
and sure enough on the front pages the following day it was reported 
that I and other usual suspects had been ridiculed and "roundly 
booed" for opposing the leadership position.

There are very few of what I would call real Labour MPs in Parliament.

I stayed in the party hoping that with a new leadership we might go 
back to being a really progressive and caring party. In the event I 
could not have been more wrong. Under Brown things are just as bad. 
The decision to privatise the Royal Mail is inexplicable and simply 
wrong. We said in our 2005 manifesto we would not privatise Royal 
Mail; we lied.

That manifesto promised a referendum on the European Constitution, we 
renamed it the Lisbon Treaty and reneged on that promise also.

Now we find out that a website was to be set up in our name whose 
sole aim was to smear members of the opposition and their families. 
Well not in my name and, from the response I am having to my decision 
to resign, not in the name of many party activists either.

I have spent most of my life working for and representing the Labour 
Party. I always took the view that I should stay and fight within, 
but New Labour have done such a good job of demolishing our 
democratic structure that I realised there was nothing I could say or 
do to change things from within.

There was only one thing for me to do and that was to resign.

Alice Mahon was the Labour MP for Halifax until 2005