Author Archives: James Blessing

Opinion: Who do we want to win the Labour leadership election?

It’s been interesting to see the final list of nominations for Labour Party leader which, for those that missed it, is:

Diane Abbott
Ed Balls
Andy Burnham
David Miliband
Ed Miliband

The response from all quarters about the list first that its very ‘samey’, with much said about tokenism and the inclusion of Diane Abbott, not because she’s black or a woman but because she represents the old left of the party. That got me to thinking about who would be the best from a Lib Dem point of view.

A Leftie

Dianne Abbott is the only real left leaning candidate. A Labour party under her ministrations would …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 13 Comments

Opinion: View from the sidelines

For many years I’ve been a quiet Lib Dem, helping out where I have time but not going to any major effort. Watching the last week to ten days has been very interesting for me.

First came the launch of the Lib Dem manifesto, better organised and easier to watch than the previous Labour or Conservative launches and full of policies that are have been honed and developed of a long cycle of policy refinement. The only thing missing was a serious commitment to investing (or find a way to invest) in the telecoms infrastructure but one omission (admittedly one close …

Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
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Recent Comments

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    "Treating people as individuals" - these traits can and are seen by people on the left. Social liberalism is not a classic centre right liberal philosophy. It i...
  • Tim
    So glad you are a councillor again. Still miss you here....
  • Chris Webb
    Excellent piece. I really like the "I'm a Liberal because..." idea, and will prod my local association along just those lines....
  • Mick Taylor
    Hi Chris. A brave man to take on a seat on Lambeth. I suspect that the great increase in casework is at least partly caused by the huge cutbacks in Local Govern...
  • David Raw
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