Dear Sir,
I am seventy-one years old and have been a Labour supporter all my life, but after this latest farce with MPs’ expenses, I will never vote again.
I always thought it was Tories, bosses and bank executives who fiddled at the expense of ordinary working people, but now we find that the Labour MPs we elected have also got their noses in the trough.
Enough is enough. When they say it was within the rules, it makes it sound even more of a con.
Yours faithfully,
ex Labour
Ron Hackwood.
I’ve already got Grandad to promise to vote in the Euros; now help me win him back for the next General Election. Post a comment to give your reasons why my Grandad should vote Labour again.
Project Grandad 
Matthew Said:
on May 25, 2009 at 6:21 pm
The Equality Bill.
Okay, so it’s not necessarily the most grandparenty of Acts of Parliament, but it is really really good and has been all but ignored by the media in all the furore about expenses. And it contains specific provisions which are likely to directly make your grandad’s life better.
Firstly, the Equality bill establishes “socialism in one clause” by introducing a duty on public bodies to consider socio-economic disadvantage in all of their strategic decision making and the planning of service provision. They will also have a duty to consider how their policies will affect people on the basis of race, gender, sexuality etc.
Secondly, it actually takes effective action to promote equal pay for women. The Equal Pay Act has existed for a long time. This gives it teeth. Both public and private institutions over a certain size will be required to publish their gender pay gap
Thirdly, it enables employers and organizations to take positive action in specific circumstances. I would love to see positive action used to smash the ‘old boys club’ that still dominates business. At the moment 11 out of 12 directors of FTSE 100 companies are men. And they’re doing a fantastic job.
Fourthly the act specifically prohibits age discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services to the provision of health and social care. Your grandad is set to find car and travel insurance suddenly a lot easier to come by.
The equality bill isn’t about discriminating against oppressed straight white men, and it goes further than protecting just the obvious disadvantaged groups. Pregnant women and religious groups are explicitly protected by the bill, while men may find it to their advantage when it comes to walks of life where men are typically under represented, such as teaching, nursing and child care. And, it will directly benefit your grandad as all of the provisions in the bill apply to age-discrimination too.
Needless to say, the Tories, the CBI, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express really really hate it. And as a general rule, anything which all of the above really hate is almost always good. (Apart from paedophiles.) The act clearly shows that there still are major differences between the political parties, and that for all its flaws, the Labour government is doing a lot of good for ordinary hard-working people in this country.
Matthew Said:
on May 25, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I like the theme on this blog by the way. Maybe you could adapt it and use it on your main blog?
Matthew Said:
on May 25, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Whoops, there I go commenting away, and then I realise you’ve already actually blogged about it. Oh well, I just really really like the Equality Bill.