Cruddas separates from the pack

LiamM Mon May 21, 2007 at 11:26:57 AM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

Cruddas policy announcement attack private sector in health, the role of academy schools and criticises Hodge's capitulation to the BNP




I presume those scouring the web for deputy leader stories will have seen this in the Guardian...
Labour contender calls for halt to privatisation in NHS

Cruddas has separated himself from the pack by calling for a halt to privatisation in the NHS, and is expected to criticise the government's record on city academy schools saying they have done little to improve school standards and is creating a two-tier state system.

He has also attacked Margaret Hodge's disgusting comments on housing 'Briton's first' over immigrants here. It would be interesting to hear Peter Hain respond to this with his ANL past.

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Cruddas separates from the pack | 18 comments (18 topical)

Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#1)

by grimupnorth on Mon May 21, 2007 at 11:31:36 AM GMT

Credit for raising the issues but it's too late.Brown won't pay a blind bit of notice.And it loks as though the DL job is going to be utterly relegated.


Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#2)

by alsoleeds on Mon May 21, 2007 at 11:38:19 AM GMT

Is this a softening from the position of boycotting Cruddas, if it is a non-job why not suggest people spoil there ballot paper rather than attacking 1 candidate. A pox on all their houses rather than 1 individual, although I am not suggesting you start a campaign to do that as I am supporting Cruddas for the reasons stated in the article.


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#8)

by grimupnorth on Mon May 21, 2007 at 12:26:50 PM GMT

Maybe.We've all been outmanoevred by Brown.Together the left and soft-left could have taken him on. I think the Cruddas camp has blown it and I'm very angry. But we are where we are. The bottom line is Brown doesn't listen to anyone and wemust find a way of working together on issues otherwise we will continue to be stuffed.


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#13)

by Wiseman on Mon May 21, 2007 at 05:18:45 PM GMT

Dear comrade grim has a right to be upset, she is a good socialist who works hard for the left. I will be backing McDonnell all the way. Although deal was on the table agreed and then rejected by John Crudda's team. I am committed to the cruddas campaign but lessons have to be learned. John


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#3)

by Glass House on Mon May 21, 2007 at 11:39:55 AM GMT

I've said numerous times that I felt that Cruddas was saying good things about party reorganisation and grassroots renewal but that I had a horrible feeling that it was just a front for a sharp move to the left.

Clearly I was right.

Unless any of the other candidates say anything equally moronic, Cruddas will now appear last on my ballot paper.


Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#4)

by LiamM on Mon May 21, 2007 at 11:46:35 AM GMT

Of course, there is no evidence that of the success of the academy schools programme. And can I take it you endorse Margaret Hodge's comments which seem remarkably similar to those of Richard Barnbrook and the other BNP group on Barking and Dagenham Council...


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#5)

by Glass House on Mon May 21, 2007 at 11:56:30 AM GMT

How did Margaret Hodge get into this?


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#6)

by LiamM on Mon May 21, 2007 at 12:07:11 PM GMT

I put it in. In the opening post.


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#7)

by Glass House on Mon May 21, 2007 at 12:26:32 PM GMT

Ah, didn't see.

Well, as I said on the other thread, I know very little about housing allocation, but if people feel that economic migrants are getting special treatment they will be less inclined to be tolerant towards them. That's why I disagree with Dunc's characterisation of the issue as "Government thinks that it will make people more tolerant by being less tolerant itself".


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#9)

by LiamM on Mon May 21, 2007 at 12:32:45 PM GMT

This is part of Hodge's statement. I am dumbstruck. A Labour MP should not be saying this. "We prioritise the needs of an individual migrant family over the entitlement others feel they have. So a recently arrived family with four or five children living in a damp and overcrowded, privately rented flat with the children suffering from asthma will usually get priority over a family with less housing need who have lived in the area for three generations and are stuck at home with the grandparents. We should look at policies where the legitimate sense of entitlement felt by the indigenous family overrides the legitimate need demonstrated by the new migrants."


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#10)

by Glass House on Mon May 21, 2007 at 01:10:33 PM GMT

Why are you dumbstruck? I don't think she's saying that, in that situation, indigenous families should get priority.


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#12)

by doctordunc on Mon May 21, 2007 at 05:12:41 PM GMT

Why should a 'sense of entitlement' take priority over 'need'? I think she's getting into some very difficult territory here. Where I agree with you (and I suppose indirectly with Hodge) is that if people feel the system is fair, they will be more tolerant. But Hodge's suggestion that someone with greater housing need should not take priority over someone with a 'sense of entitlement' because of their longer residence is not fair. It only seems fair if you accept the idea that 'indigenous' families should have more rights than new immigrants. The problems with housing demonstrate the massive need for more social housing, and the massive need - on a community level - to counter BNP lies about housing. After all, I was campaigning once and a guy was telling me that some 'new immigrants' had got a flat and a relative of his was still waiting. It turned out the 'new immigrants' were second generation Asians. On another occasion someone claimed that a British Asian family had been given a Mercedes by the Council (actually - obviously - they had a successful business and had bought it). The principle problem is not real lack of fairness, it's real social exclusion/poverty, real frustration, and the careful manipulation of that frustration by the BNP. The main problem that I can see with Margaret Hodge's statement (assuming that new policies won't follow her prescription) is that the next time those frustrations are being manipulated, Margaret Hodge will be quoted in support of the assertions (and they won't take a lot of care to ensure her views are truthfully represented).


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#14)

by Glass House on Mon May 21, 2007 at 05:25:02 PM GMT

But there's ALWAYS an element of prioritisation of 'sense of entitlement' over 'need'.

If UK government spending was allocated according to need rather than on the basis of a sense of entitlement of UK citizens, we'd be spending 99% of GDP on foreign aid projects - almost all of which address a 'need' greater than those which UK citizens face.

It's why we spend more on providing Healthcare and Education to our own citizens than providing those services to the citizens of developing countries - who would clearly benefit more from it. We recognise that the government must, first and foremost, looking after UK citizens.


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#15)

by doctordunc on Mon May 21, 2007 at 05:48:04 PM GMT

The circumstances you're referring to is preferring entitlement over need, not 'a sense of entitlement', which is something quite different.


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#16)

by Glass House on Mon May 21, 2007 at 05:52:57 PM GMT

It's not black and white though.

The legal entitlement and the 'sense of entitlement' are not independent of one another. There is a relationship.


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#17)

by doctordunc on Mon May 21, 2007 at 05:59:03 PM GMT

True.


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Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#11)

by otware on Mon May 21, 2007 at 01:41:35 PM GMT

This certainly is a welcome development. Despite the McDonnell nominations fiasco, I still have a lot of respect for Cruddas. He has a lot of sway in the unions, and he seems to be following the Party Conference line. I can't see why he isn't worth a shot. At least he has policies, not like the other useless New Labour cronies.


Re: Cruddas separates from the pack (#18)

by grassrootsgal on Sat May 26, 2007 at 11:16:16 AM GMT

Cruddas refused to say he disagreed with Grammer schools at the Progress Hustings, he voted for the Iraq war, he wouldnt deal with McDonnel, he says he wants to rebuild the party but his CLP only has 200 members and his nominators are pale male and stale. I'm sorry but without all his Union cash, Cruddas would be nowhere in this election.


Cruddas separates from the pack | 18 comments (18 topical)