A CONCLUDING THOUGHT? A letter from a regular correspondent to this newspaper
THE votes have been counted. Fenland remains a Conservative-controlled one-party state. I would therefore like to look at the prospects for politics in Fenland. In the ward that I live, Wisbech South, there were five candidates: Conservative, Liberal Demo
THE votes have been counted. Fenland remains a Conservative-controlled one-party state. I would therefore like to look at the prospects for politics in Fenland.
In the ward that I live, Wisbech South, there were five candidates: Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour, UK Independence Party, and the Libertarian Party.
However, I only received election leaflets from the Conservative and Libertarian candidates.
This clearly suggests that the other three were 'paper' candidates.
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For those readers who are not political animals, a 'paper' candidate is one in which no election work is carried out apart from the completion of nomination papers.
Big business and the rich are using the anti-politics reaction to the MPs expenses scandal to try to reduce the Labour Party to a rump at the next general election.
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The model is Italy where there is no major worker's party. This is something that the members of North-East Cambs Labour Party should take very seriously indeed.
It is urgent that the Labour Party in Fenland is turned into a school for socialism just as local branches of the trade unions should be turned into schools for socialism.
Many people ask me how to get a Labour MP elected for Fenland. The answer is that the candidate should say that he will live on a skilled worker's wage of �500 a week.
The candidate should go further and prioritise the fight for democracy, including the call for: annual parliaments; recallable MPs; and the abolition of the House of Lords.
Only by campaigning for an MP on a worker's wage can Labour end Tory domination of Fenland politics.
JOHN SMITHEE
Wisbech
(Editor's footnote: Let us have your comments on today's results. Email: john.elworthy@archant.co.uk)
