Fighting Talk

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A kind reader from South Lanarkshire sent me this email from the former leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, who is now enjoying a post-election family holiday in Ibiza according to all the news reports.

Now the reader wrote to Ed Miliband originally to highlight the appalling tack record of South Lanarkshire Council in relation to equal pay: the widespread pay discrimination and the long FoI campaign which ended only after the UK Supreme Court forced the Council to admit the huge pay differences between traditional male and female jobs.  

South Lanarkshire Council being a long-standing Labour-run council, of course, and whose deputy leader in Michael McCann went on to become the Labour MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow.

But it seems that Ed and/or his office didn't bother to read the letter properly, if at all, as they seem to have regarded the contents as 'fan mail' rather than a damning complaint exposing the reality of Labour's windy political rhetoric about 'fighting for the working people'.

So the reader who sent me Ed Miliband's valedictory message had a great laugh about the sheer insanity and dishonesty of it all.         

Apparently Unison has sent out its own post-election message pledging to go on fighting for the workers which will have a hollow ring in places like South Lanarkshire where the unions completely failed to stand up for their members, even siding with the employer on occasion, during the long fight for equal pay.

If anyone can send me a copy of the Unison rallying cry, I'd love to see what it says. 


Dear M,

This is not the email I wanted to be writing to you today. I am profoundly sorry for the defeat we suffered, and more grateful than I can express for the support that you have shown me, and our party, throughout this campaign.

I take full responsibility for the result of the election, and that’s why it’s absolutely right that I step down as Labour’s leader today.

It has been the utmost privilege to serve this party as your leader, and to spend the last four-and-a-half years fighting for the millions of British families who need and deserve the fairness, compassion and opportunity that only a Labour government can provide.

Yet while defeats are hard, we are a party that will never stop fighting for the working people of this country. Britain needs a strong Labour Party and it is the responsibility of each of us to continue the fight. The stakes are too high to wait for others to lead.

It isn’t simply leaders who achieve change, it is people that make change happen. I will never give up on that idea, I will never give up on our cause and I will never give up on our fight.

Thank you again for everything, and please, keep on fighting too. The course of progress and social justice is never simple or straightforward, and change happens because people like us don’t give up.

Yours,


Ed

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