United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The UK is one of the founding signatories to the Declaration of Human Rights.

How many of these articles are being fully supported by the current UK government?

• Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of their rights and obligations ..............
• Article 12: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with their privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon their honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
• Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
• Article 21 (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government .......
• Article 23 (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for themselves and their family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• Article 25 (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of themselves and of their family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond their control.
• Article 25 (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

How Labour can win the 2015 election.

A significant proportion of voters in UK seem to be fed up with cynical politicians who treat them only as electoral fodder to be duped into casting their vote one way or the other. They are fed up with soundbytes and "spin" and evasive answers and misrepresentation of the facts. They are fed up with politicians who sacrifice their political principals for fear of upsetting “public opinion” bandwagons which have been manipulated by the right-wing media. They are fed up with corruption. They are fed up with inequality. They are fed up with an "austerity" which has no economic justification.They are fed up and demoralised by being "managed" as voters rather than being represented.

If Labour are serious about winning the next election they need to return to some of the radical ethos which brought the party into being. The Labour leadership, the shadow cabinet, and Labour MPs should stand up and be counted. Labour; explain to the electorate what good Social Democracy looks like; what a good mixed economy looks like, and how it serves all. Explain to them the failings of the current system, and why the total reliance on free markets and the neo-liberal agenda supported by all the other parties ultimately only serves the “haves” at the expense of the “have-nots”. Don't worry that it may be perceived as unpopular in certain quarters, the majority have had quite enough deceit. Tell the people clearly what your policies are, and tell them with honesty and conviction and sincerity and passion. Seize the moment!

Credit the electorate with the intelligence to become more engaged with politics if they are treated with respect. You might well be amazed how much genuine support there is amongst the electorate for Socialist principles. You will find that there is majority who stand politically to the left of the position currently held by the Labour leadership on many important issues, and this has been supported by poll results. Make the 2015 election the one that breaks the mould. Don't make the mistake of not fully committing to the win through fear of losing. Do not try to chase votes by copying what other parties are saying. Do not let the other parties set the framework within which you operate because you dissolve the perceived distinctions and voters can't tell the difference. You will convince the largest number of voters by being different from the others. By being Labour! By being Radical! Let 2015 be the “Truth and Integrity Election”. If you are seen to be doing this you might just get a landslide victory in 2015.

The Coalition of Self Interest

What have we come to? Tories selling "our" #NHS off to their friends who support the party financially. Austerity measures target the most vulnerable whilst the most wealthy are given tax breaks. Half a million of our people are using foodbanks just to get by. Social and economic inequality is increasing daily with those near the bottom of the food chain increasingly exploited. Many austerity measures seem to be politically motivated instead of being based in economic evidence. Our civil liberties and free speech are under attack, and just in case we might have the temerity to demonstrate our concerns en-masse in public at some stage, the water cannons are on order to wash the protest from the streets. Some Tories are now suggesting that the right to strike should be curbed further. We are sleepwalking into international legislation which will further the dominance of global corporations over democracy. We are constantly lied to by Tory & Lib Dem politicians and repeatedly bashed over the head with the "hardworking people" mantra. The so-called economic growth recently is based on false confidence similar to that which led to the last crash. The national debt has risen from £828.7bn, or 57.1 per cent of GDP, to £1.25trn, or 75.7 per cent of GDP since May 2010, during which time tax-avoidance by companies and corporations has probably been at about £30bn per year.


The government are supposed to be the elected representatives of the people, but instead of serving us they think they can rule us by divine right. If they really represented us they would not need so many ludicrous attempts to deceive us about what they are doing. This is all done by a cobbled together alliance of two parties, neither of whom had sufficient mandate to do anything individually. We have a chancellor of the exchequer whose economic policies are the laughing stock of many expert economists worldwide. The minister for work and pensions seems to be incompetent and callous. The minister for education seems to be a caricature of Dickens' Mr Gradgrind from "Hard Times". In most government departments policy seems to be formulated on personal whim and ideology rather than evidence based political theory. The Royal Mail has been sold off at a price much lower than that suggested by expert analysts, effectively taking a large chunk of taxpayer's money and funneling it directly into the hands of those in the City. Many government departments and ministers seem "captured" by lobbyists and other pressure groups almost to the point of corruption.


This Coalition Government are in my opinion the worst government in the UK within living memory. Everything they do seems to be informed by a #neoliberal agenda which will always make the rich richer and more powerful, whilst making the poor poorer and more easily exploitable.


Yet their PR is powerful in its ability to pretend that their aims are different. As Nye Bevan said in 1948, Tories are good salesmen, because they have to be to sell their shoddy goods. In this grand deception they are ably assisted by the media of the UK, many of whom have a vested interest, or inexplicably, behave as though they do.


I find it beyond comprehension that 30% of voters in the UK still seem to think it appropriate to vote for them. It is totally irrational to think that the members of this government serve anybody other than themselves.


WAKE UP!