Stopping the war
Three Leeds Labour MPs, Fabian Hamilton, Harold Best and Paul Truswell, along with a former Leader of the Leeds Council Jon Trickett, MP for Hemsworth, voted for the adjournment resolution during the parliamentary debate on Iraq. Effectively they were showing how worried they are about Blair's single-minded determination in taking the country towards war.
They should all be congratulated.
This is quite significant when three out of the eight Leeds MPs voted against the government line. It is also known that four others -- John Battle, Colin Challen, George Mudie and Colin Burgon -- have serious doubts about the direction Blair is going in sucking up to Bush. Even Hilary Benn, despite being a junior government minister, has been rumoured to be expressing doubts privately.
Each of the MPs has a wide variety of motives for feeling uneasy about a war with Iraq and all of their actions both public and private involve a certain amount of political and personal calculation. None of them want a war.
Jon Trickett
Jon Trickett, besides been former leader of Leeds City Council, was also the leader of the Leninist faction in the old Independent Labour Party, a scholar of Vietnamese affairs and has always presented himself as a person of the left. Like many on the soft left he has emphasised the importance of peace. Iraq becomes a testing ground for his basic beliefs. However, again like all on the soft left, he is hoping that if there is a war then Blair and Bush will be able bully the United Nations Security Council into providing some legal figleaf to allow him to fall behind Blair.
As all you regular readers of this column know, when Jon went into Parliament, after his famous Mars-bar by-election victory, he bizarrely became Mandelson's Private Parliamentary Secretary before the first of the Prince of Darkness' many falls from grace. Afterwards, despite been offered various minor unpaid posts in the Government, he preferred to remain a backbencher. Some said this meant the end of his parliamentary career. During this period he faced increasing problems within his constituency of Hemsworth. The deliberate destruction of the coal industry left thousands without proper jobs creating enormous social tensions. Each weekend on his return home he contrasted the optimism of the well-dined Blairites with the growing misery in the former mining villages.
The return of New Labour for a second term with a huge majority should have been the opportunity to take the area forward. Instead the workers were offered jobs in call centres and warehouses. Some from Hemsworth travelled each day to work in the giant Selby coalfields. These too are now threatened with closure. Jon contrasts the hundreds of millions of pounds being poured into the uneconomic nuclear power industry with the complete lack of support being given to coal. His old Leeds City Council assistant John Grogan, MP for Selby, has failed to campaign to defend the coal miners' jobs. Instead he calls for alternative jobs to be created, inevitably paid less. In fact Grogan seems to spend a considerable amount of his time organising conferences for businessmen to meet various New Labour dignitaries. My old Left Alliance colleague Garth Frankland came across Grogan on Leeds City Railway station a couple of weeks ago but he scuttled off before he could raise the question of jobs in Selby.
Voting against Blair for Jon was a wrench but also a necessary step in proving to the Blairites that he cannot be taken for granted. In the old days Hemsworth with its large mining population was Labour's safest seat in England. He still has a large majority but he has to deliver proper jobs to keep his own. In the past a Social Democrat managed to win Hemsworth in a Council election.
Jon knows well the links between the destruction of the coal industry, the support for nuclear power and the growing dependence on oil supplies increasing controlled by the Bush cartel. This not only endangers world peace but also endangers his job as an MP and his pension.
Harold Best
Harold Best, MP for West Leeds, has been the most consistently left-wing of the Leeds MPs. His support for the adjournment debate resolution caused no real surprises. He has always been a supporter of the peace movement right back to his days as a full time official of the old Electrical Trade Union. Harold has however never been a real
organiser of any consistent opposition and when the going gets really tough he tends to fade away. An example is his failure to join the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs.
He has already expressed his opposition to the war at several meeting in Leeds. The question for him now is: will he actually sit down with others and help organise an opposition that will actually stop the war?
Where will he be on 31 October?
Fabian Hamilton
Fabian was the only beneficiary other than Colin Challen himself from Colin's tenure as New Labour's disorganiser in Leeds. His motives for voting on the Iraq war are the most complex of all the Leeds MPs.
For some weeks he has been flagging up in interviews in the media his unhappiness if war was declared without the figleaf of the United Nations. He stresses the importance of seeking a peaceful solution. At the beginning of the year he signed an advert in the Jewish Chronicle condemning the Israeli Government policy in Palestine and calling for serious efforts to be made to find a peaceful solution to the problems. There is for him as for many others a close political link between the events in Palestine and the developing war in Iraq.
Leeds North East constituency has one of the largest Jewish populations. They are predominantly pro-Israel. The constituency has a significant number of Muslims who are predominately pro-Palestinian. Fabian has to be politically balanced between the two communities.
When a student, Fabian became a founder member of the British Anti-Zionist Student Organisation. After his election as MP he made several sponsored trips to Israel and became Vice Chair of the Labour Friends of Israel. However he shares with Gerald Kauffman (originally from Leeds) despair over the aggressive policies of the present Israeli government. He also realises that another bombing war on a Muslim country such as Iraq will increase the hostility to the Israeli state and perhaps more importantly for him break down the balances he has built among the various communities in Leeds North East.
He has a further political problem not faced to the same extent by the other Leeds MPs: the continued strong presence of the Left Alliance. After six years they were supposed to go away and although they have not so far achieved the fast political breakthrough they were looking for, their numbers and influence have continued to rise. In fact with the collapse in Labour Party membership and the failure of the Liberal Democrats and Tories to grow, the Left Alliance has the largest numbers attending its meetings of any political party in the area.
Fabian may have some personal reasons for not wanting a war on Iraq, which I am investigating further.
The present political situation is presenting Fabian with some strong challenges but he believes that he can turn them to his advantage. He has always had a great faith in his ability to get by on the fly as in his numerous business and personal adventures. This year he started another round of reinventing himself. He has begun his first steps up the greasy parliamentary pole by moving from the House of Commons Administration Committee (see previous Umbrellas) to the much more prestigious Committee on Foreign Affairs. And he has, perhaps as a result of living with his mum (one of our more eccentric Judges, now retired and so able to devote more attention to her son) when in London or perhaps as a result of some New Labour training programme, developed a distinctly more plummy accent.
This is unlikely to save him from the attentions of friends in the Left Alliance.
I will return to the MP's who didn't vote in detail in my next column.
Snippets
Public Finance Initiative (PFI)
At the Labour Party conference both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown went out of their way to defend PFI. Over a year ago David Hinchliffe, chairman of the House of Commons Health Select Committee (and MP for Wakefield), expressed his concern about the design of PFI hospitals. His committee has uncovered a number of problems:
- confusing layouts
- corridors being too narrow to be able to turn a hospital trolley round
- difficulties for nursing staff actually seeing patients because of the layout of the wards
Health Secretary Alan Milburn's response was to invite the Prince of Wales to be design champion for the new hospitals. But the Prince has preferred to send off letters defending fox hunting.
But the move has failed to impress Mr Hinchliffe:
"I don't know what experience Prince Charles has of working in hospital kitchens, or taking clinical waste to sluice areas, or removing bodies from hospital wards to mortuaries.
"If he has got experience in that then I think he would be ideally suited to offer advice to the government.
"If he hasn't then I think we would be better talking to people who have had that experience who can offer relevant comment as to how future layouts and design can enhance the work that they have to do within the hospital sector."
David is a former strong supporter of the peace movement and he too is very concerned about the developing situation over Iraq.
Tom Murray, a leading member of Leeds City Council, made this totally irresponsible statement in the aftermath of the New Labour Party conference: that "people didn't care where the money came from as long the new schools and facilities were built". Of course it's his job to explain that they and their children and grandchildren are going to pay through the nose for these facilities. No wonder the Leeds councillors are considering awarding themselves 50% pay rises.
Bin Laden
For weeks various US intelligence sources have been propagating the idea that Bin Laden is dead, having been killed by US bombing just before Christmas. However now two stories have emerged indicating he might be still alive. My own theories about him, living in Tel Aviv or still having a larger enough military forces to allow him to roam through Afghanistan and Pakistan at will, have been outlined in previous Umbrellas.
However the Bush administration wanted Bin Laden dead. Afghanistan is seen increasingly as an irrelevancy compared with the main question of Iraq. Bush with help from Straw and Blair is pushing aside any attempts at peace. Given the collapsing US economy the Bush cartel need Iraqi oil sooner rather than later. One collateral success will be that war will help the Republicans in their mid-term elections.
Banstead Park
Mela Iqbal and his many friends have to be congratulated for organising the first youth-orientated Mela in Banstead Park, Harehills, Leeds. Hundreds turned out enjoy the lively music and delicious food on a bright sunny Saturday. Those sociable socialists from the Left Alliance had their brightly decorated stall as did the Stop the War Coalition. Both got good responses.
Marxism and God at All Hallows
I always enjoy the high-level discussion at All Hallows, Leeds. Their very left-wing Vicar, the Reverend Ray Galston, had arranged for three excellent speakers: Mike Marqusee (Socialist Alliance), Jack Conrad (Weekly Worker) and the Reverend Ken Leech (Church of England). They had a remarkable level of agreement both on social issues and issues of the spirit.
Unfortunately Sean Matgammna (Editor of Workers Liberty) turned up and then left. Apparently he had been part of the original line up but was asked to withdraw and unfortunately this message failed to reach him. But before he left I noticed he had quite a strong argument with my close colleague Garth Frankland about how many nuclear bombs Palestine will need to be truly independent of Israel.
Councillor Neil Taggart
I notice that after several attempts to get Neil to speak at Forum 2000 held at Horsforth Social Club (President: Mike McGowan) they have invited his replacement as Chair of West Yorkshire police to speak.
Perhaps, given a certain amount of crossover between the Forum's speakers and the Chapel Allerton Left Alliance speakers, Chapel Allerton will invite him to speak. At least that would ensure he spent some time in the area.
However he will have to wait some time as the Left Alliance have an imposing list of speakers well into 2003. And given their growing attendances they are having no problems in attracting high-quality speakers who actually turn up.
The patient good folk of Chapel Allerton are still waiting for twice delayed Chapeltown South Police Forum.
Jeremy Hardy
I had a wonderful time at the Leeds City Varieties with a very large group of friends and members of those sociable socialists of the Left Alliance. Jeremy Hardy was on fine form although I felt he could have updated his story of the Roundheads failing to find King Charles II up a tree. This story comes from the highly romanticised version written by the King himself. And today of course the British and American armies still can't find Bin Laden despite him wondering around on a white horse and a 5,000 strong bodyguard.
The packed Leeds City Varieties, with a mainly young audience for one of Britain's most left-wing comedians, shows how far out of touch with popular feeling New Labour has become.
Unity Housing
Unity Housing's AGM was the scene of some well-deserved congratulations. This black-led association continued its steady growth. I was very impressed and enjoyed the delicious buffet afterwards, meeting many old and new friends.
Stop the War
I was able join one of ten coaches which left Leeds for the huge demonstration in London in support of the Palestinians and against the war in Iraq. MPs in Leeds and elsewhere would be very foolish to ignore enormous groundswell of opinion against the war.
I know that some of the Blairites are arguing that once Bush lines up the United Nations and the war starts then public opinion will spring behind them. Unfortunately Bush is not interested in giving Blair any kind of figleaf. He wants to be seen as dominating the world and this will push public opinion even further against Britain's involvement in the war.
A couple of quotes about the big London Demonstration from across 'the Pond, courtesy of my good friend and Leeds peace activist Alasdair Beale. The first from Condoleeza Rice, Bush's Director of National Security, and the second from Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist Ron Kovic (author of Born on the Fourth of July):
"Only 350,000 in a country whose population runs in millions is just a drop in the bucket. No wonder the New York Times did not find it news fit to print." - Condoleeza Rice
"Congratulations on your victorious and massive antiwar demonstration on Saturday! You have inspired the world, and all of us here in the United States! If there is anything that I can personally do to help your organisation in future demonstrations or activities concerning stopping this war...please let me know! Again congratulations! With great hope for peace!" - Ron Kovic, Vietnam Vet, author of Born on the Fourth of July, Redondo Beach, California, USA
Leeds West Indian Carnival Prizegiving Dinner
Another wonderful meal, and a chance at least to dance the weight off until the early hours of the morning. This year Arthur France, Ian Charles, Susan Pinder and Brenda Farrara have excelled themselves. And of course I must congratulate that maestro Hughbon Condor for creating a masterpiece in winning the Carnival Queen competition.
Austin Haddock MP
My good friend Austin (formerly known as Mitchell) has changed his name to highlight the plight of the fishing industryin his constituency. He certainly managed to hit more headlines than the Yorkshire Tory Euro MP who has been handling this issue since 1990.
Austin has become more fun to be with over the years. At Yorkshire Television we all regarded him as rather pompous and I still remember a semi-serious discussion in the car park over whether we should run him over. But to be with him in the late lamented In Vitro Veritas and its reincarnations is to have a great night out, especially as he's now on the far left of New Labour without changing any of his political opinions.
Austin also has rather wonderful website (www.austinmitchell.co.uk) which other MPs could do with copying if they could.
Is David Blunkett a racist?
This question has become a major political question. His repeated attacks on both asylum seekers and people from different ethnic minorities display all the hallmarks of a racist. He dresses them in the sort of language Enoch Powell used, in that he is only trying to ensure the best for them. However he refuses to celebrate the multicultural nature of Britain. He says his line is necessary to stop the growth of the far right as has happened in the rest of Europe.
This political capitulation to racist and extremist elements and the failure of the Labour Party to publicly condemn his reactionary utterances must raise serious issues of the nature of the Labour Party itself. I intend to return to Blunkett's evolution and New Labour relation to it in a future column.
-- Half-Celestial Khan
