Hello LabourHome

There has been much recent talk of the failure of the left to initiate a significant blogosphere (see here and here) but Alex Hilton of Recess Monkey appears to have taken a pregnant step to change that this morning.  Alex and friends have established 'labourhome.org' citing this site as an inspiration.  I wish labourhome every success and hope that it seeks to do what this site does... and give a voice to the grassroots activists of the party.  Thanks to Guido for alerting me to labourhome's birth.

Related links: Labour's new Let's Talk online chat and Why aren't Labour's webroots mobilising against Tony Blair?

Comments

[comstock]

Wow, I think I may have found my natural home :)

I've always said this site was well put together, even though I disagree with (almost) everything it says. Thanks for pointing this new site out- i'll check it out.

[Richard Carey]

I clicked on the labourhome.org link out of morbid curiosity (more like gauging mood on the other side of the fence) and got the following 503 message:

"The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later."

Ironic, isn't it? The Labour government have been suffering from capability and capacity problems for the last nine years!

[Nigel C]

I got the following just now
"The LabourHome.org site will launch at the end of the week. Thank you for your interest."

[william]

As an alternative, the threads below Guardian online articles give an insight into the left-wing anti-Conservative mindset - actually more like a stuck record.

[comstock]

"The LabourHome.org site will launch at the end of the week. Thank you for your interest."

It was definately there earlier. Oh well, looks like you are stuck with me for a few days more...... :D

[David Belchamber]

Stick with us, Comstock. It is very refreshing to hear genuinely held opposing views. If we are to be the next party in government, we have to govern for the whole country, not just the right wing, and DC's compassionate conservatism could well be a version of Nulab that actually works in practice.

[Alexander Drake]

I logged on early afternoon my time (around 4-5am your time in the UK) and on it was:

1. A story noting, with irritation, that a Labourhome.org team member had leaked its launch to Guido;
2. Speculation that Labour could be well-placed to regain Cambridge at the next general election; and
3. The welcome note that Guido captured in the snapshot accompanying his story on Labourhome.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

It was only a matter of time I suppose.

Pat yourself on the back Editor - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all.

(The biggest surprise is that the domain name hadn't been hoarded by the leader of the forces of imagination.)

[Kevin Davis]

Typical labour - can't run IT projects - the site is down!

[kingbongo]

Pity they couldn't even get the credit to Tim correct, just what you'd expect from Labour.

[Chad]

"The biggest surprise is that the domain name hadn't been hoarded by the leader of the forces of imagination"

:-) I'm with ukip now DVA! Anyway, I do have ToryHome.com; not sure what to do with it right now. ;-)

[Annabel Herriott]

As a one time midwife, this long labour does not bode well for the new baby! It may well run out of oxygen before it arrives.
In contrast, CH had a quick invigorating conception,pregnancy, birth, and has been gathering strength ever since!

[Serf]

I look forward to a libdemhome.com

The public might actually see what they really stand for.

[comstock]

"Stick with us, Comstock. It is very refreshing to hear genuinely held opposing views"

Thanks :) I'll still be around.

[Rob Knight]

Typical New Labour - copying Tory ideas, right down to the name!

As usual, the liberal community breaks the two-party consensus!

[Yet Another Anon]

DC's compassionate conservatism could well be a version of Nulab that actually works in practice
Not much point in that, surely the whole point of replacing the government is to effect changes not continue what that government is doing and merely transfer support across while the former party in government implodes in arguments between Trotskyite Radicals (as most of it's grass roots and core voters are and the more Social Democrat parliamentary party) - surely the hope is that those with opposing views are cast permanently into the darkness and marginalised - the First Past the post system allows this, if smaller parties were to grow in strength, for example if the Liberal Party and Respect and the Greens were to take votes off Labour and the Liberal Democrats, then the Conservative Party could govern almost indefinitely on 30-40% of the vote once they got back into power.

[comstock]

"if smaller parties were to grow in strength, for example if the Liberal Party and Respect "

I think Respect have peaked. They were a one trick pony- an anti war pro muslim party, and Galloway has become something of a joke. They couldn't even take Tower Hamlets (the LA with the highest % of muslims in the country) so I don't see them as a serious national threat.

As for the Liberal party- how many members (or even voters) do they have, three men and a dog? Can't see them ever getting more than the odd local councilor.

The Greens are possibly a 'threat' but they take votes just as much (if not more) from the Lib-Dems and even 'soft' Tories as from Labour. Personally (I'm a Labour voter, not a Labour member) I'd like them to take Brighton at the next GE, a green MP would be good, but I'm far from convinced about them as a ruling party!

[David Belchamber]

YAA @ 14.00 "DC's compassionate conservatism could well be a version of Nulab that actually works in practice".
"Not much point in that, surely the whole point of replacing the government is to effect changes not continue what that government is doing".
I agree that we want to effect changes but the changes I would like to see are generally not so much in the overall objectives but rather in the way in which things are managed.
I think Blair genuinely wants to improve e.g. education, the NHS and to counter terrorist threats, to improve law and order etc but Nulab has been - and continues to be - shambolic in trying to put aims into practice. Witness things like the Home Office, the recent budget problems in the NHS, Defra, the tax credit scheme, any large IT project etc.
We have to show that the administration of all of these (and especially the economy) will be better off in our hands.
The question is: can we really improve on Nulab?

[Yet Another Anon]

As for the Liberal party- how many members (or even voters) do they have, three men and a dog? Can't see them ever getting more than the odd local councilor.
The point is though that smaller parties main effect is to take votes off the larger parties and effect who ultimately wins - in fact the Liberal Party in recent years have come second in Liverpool West Derby and if there is disillusionment with Labour small though the Liberal Party's total national vote is it is not entirely inconceivable that they could nick a seat from Labour, equally by taking voters who would otherwise perhaps vote Liberal Democrat they might be helping Labour hold that seat, equally the most likely Green Party effect in Brighton might not be to win the seat but rather to split opposition votes and so make it easier for the Conservative Party to hold, in Bethnal Bow and Green for example the split between labour and Respect of the vote there could help a Conservative or a Liberal Democrat take the seat, in some previously safe Labour seats switches of Labour voters to the BNP could result in a Conservative or Liberal Democrat being elected.

Out of the smaller parties - UKIP is probably the most likely to take a seat although they are aimed more at the Conservative vote than any other party, but since 1997 the main loser from the small parties has been the Conservative Party as there is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of those who voted Referendum Party or UKIP in 1997 would have voted Conservative otherwise, but just as with Labour facing competition from the Communist Party in the 1940's and 1950's who never had more than 2 seats in parliament but who in a number of seats took enough votes off Labour for the Conservative Party to take the seat.

[Yet Another Anon]

but I'm far from convinced about them as a ruling party!
A Green Party government would be a disaster, there'd be power cuts because of their obsessive hostility to nuclear power which in the short term has to take the slack in reducing use of non-renewable fossil fuels, they would strip Britain's defences to the bare bone and leave it unable even to defend national boundaries and they'd wreck the economy through said power cuts and through high taxes and debts from their grossly extravagant proposals on public spending and high regulation. But there isn't going to be a Green government any more than there is going to be a BNP or National Front Government or Respect Government - at least not with them in their current form, the leading small parties are all potential future governing parties though - the ones that succeed tend to have become more pragmatic and to have developed coherent affordable spending plans or at least within the realms of affordability and have abandoned policies that have no basis in reality.

If as I think will happen when Labour eventually lose in 2024 they will then probably fragment - who knows a smaller party might be emerging that will eventually replace the Labour Party perhaps with elements from the Labour Party, might be a return to traditional Labour policies or some kind of party combining moderately redistributive policies with extremley Socially Conservative policies on Personal Morality, it might even be Fascist and as Labour included many who had previously been in the Liberal Party so it might include many Ex-Labour MP's.

I can see there being one day possibly a UKIP government and I don't think the country would fall apart.

[designer]

Surely nuLab aren't meant to think for themselves?? I thought Tony had managed to ensure that they were all either entranced or left.

[Richard]

"I'd like them to take Brighton at the next GE, a green MP would be good, but I'm far from convinced about them as a ruling party!"

If they became the government I would emigrate before they had time to shut down the airports.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

"some kind of party combining moderately redistributive policies with extremley Socially Conservative policies on Personal Morality, it might even be Fascist"

Sounds suspiciously like the BNP to me.