Clare Short - Too Little and Too Late

I look forward to Tony Blair's piece tomorrow sayong that he was going to get her de-selected anyway.

Coltan and Clare Short

I googled this and found myself, at blairwatch, and ringverse.

Coltan and Clare Short. While difD minister i heard her interviewed on R4 about the Rwandan Army's coltan-activities in the Congo, and WHY the britgov continued aid. Instead of answering the question, she diatribed hysterically about genocide ...
Nice work by Merrick,(ringverse?) .

When she's wrong, very wrong..., but...

Why not stand as an Independent ?

The tide IS turning!

as said on previous thread:
As more people like Ms Short realise they have been duped, the tide will turn. The ELT WILL hang and his accomplices will go to prison.

The Birmingham Post is speculating that Clare Short might be thinking of joining the Lib Dems (via Bob Piper).

Clare has wobbled along the way (no, that's not a sizist comment !), but basically she is sound and liked.

I'd have thought the 'Independent Labour' ticket would be her best bet.

No change of Government will make any difference in the UK. You all might as well accept more war, more erosion of civil liberties and more lies.

Western civilisation is in terminal decline because there simply is not enough resources to go around. When Bush said a few days ago that the fighting on Iraq streets was a fight for civilisation this is what he was hinting at.

China and India are what keeps these guys awake at night. The Arabs are just piggy in the middle, US/UK know they have to take complete control over the oil fields because they simply can't let the giants of the east have free access to it, what will the the West do without it life blood?

World War III is West (US, Europe, the English speaking nations) v East (China, India and maybe Russia), these guys know it and are laying the ground work for any future confrontation. The only reason Iran has not been bombed already is because of China.

Our press never mentions the Shanghi Cooperation Organisation, this is the counter-weight to US hegemony and the US don't like it. It is more a threat to Western civilisation then any number of terrorists. This is the real enemy US/UK is preparing for. China will simply not be pushed around by the US and something will have to give sooner or later.

There is a new cold war on the horizon, don't be distracted by what's happening in the Middle East, the West know where the real 'threat to civilisation' is and it's not Arab terrorists.

The US is working on biological weapons that target particular ethnic groups, now why would they be doing that?

http://www.alternet.org/story/41368/

I was a pissed off as the rest of us at Clare's non resignation, but the one time I met her she charmed the socks off me, so I must confess myself to be an unabashed fan.

I can't see her as a Lib Dem, but "Independent Labour" - would get my vote. What she was saying this morning was pretty much what I [we] have been saying for the last couple of years...

It is now reported that Clare Short may have the Labour whip taken away from her over her comments.
Pity they do not use the whip to drive out the poddle, Gordimmo & cocktail sausage. They are a bigger threat to NuLabor loosing the next election than Ms Short's remarks.

Despite all New Labour's promises they've never been interested in electoral reform.

A good drubbing at the next two general elections might change that mindset, also battered Labour supporters must realise that Blair was an inside Tory. Labour were never in power over the last ten years.

Just a Slow-Learner, poor Clare Short ?

Apart from the now-losing Tony, and the War she did not QUITE disagree enough with, where does she stand on Privatisation ?

Seems to have been all for it, for the Developing World, where the money most often came back HOME, and the rest was plundered by nasties.

The old american "pork" system.

Why should China go to war? She already holds America's credit cards for the War On Terra and they are up to their eyeballs in Generations worth of debt. China doesn't need to go to war she can bankrupt the Americans anytime.

Iran is becoming a strategic interest for China. China is developing many interests in Africa for accesss to other resources.

For Chinese economy to continue to grow it needs more resources. Whenever there is competition between nations for limited resources there is often war.

Once the Chinese economy becomes as large as the US then those two countries will consume over half of everything on the planet, there's simply not enough to go round.

I havent even included India's economic demands on raw materials. The pattern is as the economy grows so people buy more, so there's more demand for materials and energy. If the new economies are large enough they will be in direct conflict to US economic interests which rely on unfettered access to the planets resources and markets.

Too little too late etc...

I don't agree with this. There is more rejoicing in the kingdom of heaven that one sinner should repent...and so should there be at Blairwatch. The article in Thursday's Indie was a clear, frank and devastating analysis of New Labour and the current failure of our constitution and parliamentary democracy. A remarkable statement from a former cabinet minister, and someone who is respected as honest and listened to by the British public (if not exactly loved). Blairwatch and its regulars should be supporting Clare Short.

short fan, you have a point. Personally I think her campaign for a hung parliament is bats.

But campaigning for real electoral reform is something we are very much in favour of. Perhaps her experience is a cautionary tale for any MP wishing to keep hold of their principles.

And if ringverse was charmed by her, then she must have a lot going for her. It's just such a shame because the one candidate for Labour ladeship we would like to see, Robin cook, isn't here anymore and we're all the poorer for that.

Quarsan - Thanks for that. Let me take issue with your opinion that camapigning for a hung parliament is bats.

I'm afraid I don't know enough about your political stance, but let's take an imaginary person who supported Labour before, during and after 1997, giving Blair lots of chances, but finally giving up on him over Iraq. That person would have happily gone back to Labour under a Cook leadership, and may harbour some crazy idea that Brown might be sufficiently different to Blair to tempt him/her back a Brown-led Labour fourth term at the next Gen. Elec.

I think the departure of Clare Short from the party is a hammer blow to those who imagine that Labour under Brown (or anybody else who might conceivably win the leadership) might be worth returning for a fourth term. If Clare Short is no longer backing Brown, this is a sure sign that Brown has ruled out any serious shift in policy or approach. If she is no longer backing Labour, it's a sure sign that she doesn't think anybody who would make any serious shift can win the leadership.

So what then? The three possible outcomes of the next Gen Election are: (1) Labour absolute majority, (2) Tory absolute majority, (3) hung parliament. So if Clare Short says (1) is not worth supporting, then what are we left with? (2)? you must be kidding: Cameron would simply be Blair Mk 2. So we are left with (3) as the only outcome worth hoping for. To quote Clare Short, with a hung parliament, parliament would matter again, cabinet government would have to return. If the LibDems stuck to their guns, then only a Labour-Tory grand coalition could prevent electoral reform from being put to the people. At last we would have our chance to change our crap unreformed broken system, instead of four more years of the same old shit.

So if a hung parliament scenario is our only hope, then why not get out there and campaign for it? It's quite easy to do: the General Election is 620-odd individual constituency battles. It is very easy to calculate which seats need to change hands to ensure that Labour lose their overall majority, but the Tories do not get one. On the ground you don't campaign for a hung parliament as such, you simply campaign for different parties in different seats across the country. In England it means backing the LibDems, Respect and others in some seats, but of necessity backing the Tories in some Labour-Tory marginal seats - those needed to ensure Labour loses its overall majority. But backing Labour in those seats where they need to fend off the Tory challenge if a Tory majority is to be avoided.

What should Clare Short campaign for personally at the next General Election? Here's my hope and suggestion. To defend her Birmingham seat as Westminster's only sitting Green Party MP.