Ex-MP Mahon leaves Labour Party

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 005581.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Former Labour MP Alice Mahon has resigned from the party saying she has "lost faith with it".

Mrs Mahon, 71, was a member of Parliament for Halifax from 1987 until 2005, when she quit the Commons.

She considered resigning in 2005 but remained to see if Gordon Brown could make Labour "caring". Mrs Mahon added: "I couldn't have been more wrong".

A Labour Yorkshire and the Humber spokesperson said she had been "a good servant for the people of Halifax".

'No referendum'

Mrs Mahon, who had "totally disapproved of everything Tony Blair was doing", told the BBC she "couldn't have stood another term under his leadership".

Alice Mahon: "It is not a party I recognise"

But when he stood down she stayed in the party, hoping for a change of direction when Gordon Brown became leader.

"I hoped we might go back to being a caring and progressive party. In the event I couldn't have been more wrong."

Mrs Mahon said her decision to leave the Labour Party had a lot to do with its policies, claiming many promises in the 2005 election manifesto had been broken.

"For example we said that we would not privatise the Royal Mail, and we're going ahead and privatising part of it," she said.

"We said we would give people a referendum on the [EU] constitution. And yet the Lisbon Treaty has just been rushed through Parliament with no referendum and that's another promise we've broken."

"It is not a party I recognise - I have lost faith with it," she added. "I am very very sad, the Labour Party has been my life."

'Bewilderment'

Mrs Mahon said it had taken "months of agonising to reach my decision."

She said the final push came after the recent scandal surrounding emails sent by Mr Brown's special adviser, Damian McBride, who sent e-mails proposing unfounded slurs about senior Tories.

Mrs Mahon is also angry at the government's Welfare Reform Bill saying it was "an assault on people with disabilities and the poor" and that it was remarkable it was being inflicted "in the middle of a recession".

She expressed her frustration at the failure of the government to tackle the excesses of UK bankers.

"There is bewilderment… that as a government we have not taken on the bankers, who are still doing as they please and taking large bonuses," she said.

She also lambasted the "energy fat cats" who were "hiking up prices".

"Government seem unwilling or unable to take them on, we expect the Labour Party to take people on in that situation."

"I have reached the conclusion that there is not any avenue left in the structure of the Labour party for people like me.

"Any threat from anybody marginally from the left and… the party machine comes down on them like a ton of bricks."

Her resignation letter has been sent to the Halifax Constituency Labour Party.

A Labour Yorkshire and the Humber spokesperson said: "Alice Mahon has been a long standing member of the Labour Party and a good servant for the people of Halifax, it is a shame that she no longer feels she can continue as member of the party.

"However the Labour Party in Halifax and across the country will continue to make sure people get the real help they need in these difficult economic times."

Peace activist

During her time in the Commons she was one of Labour's most consistent backbench rebels, opposing the government on a range of issues from cuts in lone parent benefits to National Missile Defence.

She is a self-proclaimed socialist with a long record of peace activism and was one of the most vocal critics of the war in Iraq.

Mrs Mahon has also spoken on feminist issues, and against curbs on abortion.

In addition she is a strong supporter of gay rights and reform of the House of Lords.

[k979aaa]

New labour has now become old tory and as such anyone with labour values should look elsewhere as it is not the party it was before tony bLIER and gordon the gopher brown the clown!. It should be welcomed that Alice Mahon has ended her association with this corrupt and decadent party i can only hope that she finds a party which will accept and triumph her views and that of her constituents and the LEFT of center and not the FAR RIGHT as GORDON BROWN HAS DONE!.

[Yahoorsur]

[k979aaa]

The NEW LABOUR can should be on the right and spinning with :mfo on top after all i heard he is when cabinet is in session!.

[Big Daz]

"I have reached the conclusion that there is not any avenue left in the structure of the Labour party for people like me.

"Any threat from anybody marginally from the left and… the party machine comes down on them like a ton of bricks."

Says it all really!!!!

:mfo

[k979aaa]

"I have reached the conclusion that there is not any avenue left in the structure of the Labour party for people like me.

"Any threat from anybody marginally from the left and… the party machine comes down on them like a ton of bricks."

Says it all really!!!!

:mfo

And it is no surprise too us all in royalmail that the far right and their bullying tactics are being used by NEW LABOURS most loyal servant :cfo!.

[Big Daz]

New labour has now become old tory and as such anyone with labour values should look elsewhere as it is not the party it was before tony bLIER and gordon the gopher brown the clown!. It should be welcomed that Alice Mahon has ended her association with this corrupt and decadent party i can only hope that she finds a party which will accept and triumph her views and that of her constituents and the LEFT of center and not the FAR RIGHT as GORDON BROWN HAS DONE!.

There are a number of smaller political parties she might feel at home in.

The Green Party if you look at its policies can only be described as being on the left of the political spectrum.

The Liberal party see's itself as a party of the radical left.

[k979aaa]

New labour has now become old tory and as such anyone with labour values should look elsewhere as it is not the party it was before tony bLIER and gordon the gopher brown the clown!. It should be welcomed that Alice Mahon has ended her association with this corrupt and decadent party i can only hope that she finds a party which will accept and triumph her views and that of her constituents and the LEFT of center and not the FAR RIGHT as GORDON BROWN HAS DONE!.

There are a number of smaller political parties she might feel at home in.

The Green Party if you look at its policies can only be described as being on the left of the political spectrum.

The Liberal party see's itself as a party of the radical left.

Well the less said about the lib dems = new labour mk2 and the greens lets stop life party they advocate reducing the human population ie the Nazi party did the same thing the real socialist parties are gaining ground like the socialist workers party and the new communist party in the uk!. These are dangerous times even the BNP could well profit from the ineptitude of brown and his fellow clowns!.

[kingtubby]

and the greens...they advocate reducing the human population

Population growth is a serious problem in a finite world and it has to be tackled in some way soon.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

and the greens...they advocate reducing the human population

Population growth is a serious problem in a finite world and it has to be tackled in some way soon.

The don't advocate reducing the human population but reducing the birth rate. It is a fact that the current world wide birth rate is unsustainable and some even consider that the UKs population growth at present is also unsustainable.

[norbert]

New labour has now become old tory and as such anyone with labour values should look elsewhere as it is not the party it was before tony bLIER and gordon the gopher brown the clown!. It should be welcomed that Alice Mahon has ended her association with this corrupt and decadent party i can only hope that she finds a party which will accept and triumph her views and that of her constituents and the LEFT of center and not the FAR RIGHT as GORDON BROWN HAS DONE!.

where's everyone's mate Tman ? , to come on here and defend New Labour

[Big Daz]

k979aaa

I said the Liberal party not the Lib Dems.


Not all Liberals joined the new set up with the SDP and they stayed behind and kept the Liberal party going.

Greens certainly dont want to stop life and to compare against Nazis is bonkers!!!

Please have a read of the link, I think its a very sensible way of dealing with population numbers.

http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/policyp ... lation.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



The UK tax and benefit system is geared up to reward people for having lots of children.

Ive got two children aged 8 and 6 one boy one girl both happy and healthy, so it could be said I have no need for a third child. I get tax credit and child benefit.

At the moment I do not have the income to provide for a third child, but If myself and my partner were to do so the increased child benefit and tax credit would cover the cost if not leave me in profit.

Luckily I had a vasectomy 4 weeks ago,so no more breeding for me.

Ask yourself what is a sustainable human population level for planet earth? Even at current levels some human beings end up without shelter, food and water.

[BELIAL]

and the greens...they advocate reducing the human population

Population growth is a serious problem in a finite world and it has to be tackled in some way soon.

thomas Malthus, just common sense really ,but no one put it in writing before: too many bugs on a plant, it dies and so do the bugs,simple. If there's profit in upping the bug population then the fat cats will do it by any means,but at the end of the day the plant dies,and so do even more bugs They died free bugs though

[k979aaa]

Well it seams i have touched a nerve or two on here who will decide who can have kid's the green's (university educated non workers/ future royalmail management) or the liberal party even the socialist workers have more street presence are the liberal party hosting their next conference at the 318 bus stop in Hyde park on a Sunday in the middle of the night!. But let us discuss Alice Mohan and her decision too end her relationship with NEW LABOUR!.

[belle smith]

and the greens...they advocate reducing the human population

Population growth is a serious problem in a finite world and it has to be tackled in some way soon.

The don't advocate reducing the human population but reducing the birth rate. It is a fact that the current world wide birth rate is unsustainable and some even consider that the UKs population growth at present is also unsustainable.

Old argument. I'm with k979aaa on this.
some of the early fabians went along with this a centuary or so ago George Bernard Shaw for one. Finite resourses unsustainable population growth, the poor would be the worst effected, it really would be in their best intrestest that we sterilised them, even flirted with the the idea of eugenics.

not suggesting any malice intent. but the road to hell........and all that.