Kay Phillips

"The Respect party have launched their manifesto. They sent a delegation to the MEN offices yesterday to make sure we didn’t miss it.

"Their policies include protecting public-sector jobs, the immediate end of military action in Iraq, taking more public services into public ownership, replacing VAT with direct taxation, and a fully proportional voting system."

"Respect have set out their conditions for supporting a Labour government in a hung Parliament.

"As they launched their manifesto the party said they would not back a Tory government "under any circumstances".

"But they would support Labour if troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, more council houses were built, there was electoral reform and an end to cuts.

A great night was had by all at the Laugh, I almost Voted benefit for Respect, Greens and TUSC/Hazel Must Go campaigns on Sunday night. A big thank you to all the acts - Mark Steel, Lewis Costello, Katie McCabe, Matt Green, Andrew Ryan, Joe Lysett, Rosie Phillips and Jack Williamson who made us laugh, to the Dancehouse Theatre for hosting the event, and to all the people who came, had a good laugh and put a few bob in the campaign coffers.

With just two weeks to go until polling day, Respect is out and about campaigning for peace, justice and equality. We have a powerful message but still too few of know about what we stand for. Had George Galloway or Salma Yaqoob gone up against the old three party leaders, I'm convinced that it wouldn't be Nick Clegg the country was talking about. So in the absence of media attention it's down to our supporters to do what they can to argue for Investment not Cuts in this election

If you can help out this weekend and into next week, we love to welcome you.

Sunday 25th April
Fundraiser event with Mark Steel, starts 7pm The Dancehouse Theatre, Oxford Rd, Tickets £10, (Tickets will be available on the door) 

For all the hype and hysteria of the pundits, last week’s ‘great debate’ was largely a sterile affair. As all three parties have already committed themselves to ‘savage’ cuts in public services (largely unspecified until ‘next year’), for much of the hour and a half of ‘debate’ there was little new to be learnt from Tweedle Dee and his arch enemies Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber. However several things stood out.

Every poll suggests that Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat came out on top. This is apparently due to his ‘fresh’ or ‘revelatory’ performance or media skills. Perhaps this misses the point. In policy, Clegg made some effort to place himself to the left of Brown and Cameron. He called for scrapping Trident and ID cards and a permanent tax on bank profits. Maybe he grasped that millions are looking for progressive change?

The Stop the War Coalition is asking voters to lobby prospective candidates to find out their opinions on some of the great issues of the day - from Trident to Afghanistan. As a supporter of the Coalition, from its beginnings in the days after the atrocity on September 11th 2001, I'm happy to give my answers. I'm wholeheartedly for peace, against nuclear weapons  and the demonisation of Britain's Muslim community and fully in support of defending our hard-won civil liberties.


In answer to the 7 Stop the War Coalition questions:

1.  Do you support the immediate withdrawal of British and NATO troops from Afghanistan? Yes
2.  Did you support the war in Iraq? No
3.  Will you oppose any military attack on Iran by the United States or Israel? Yes
4.  Do you support the immediate closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison? Yes
5.  Are you opposed to the renewal of Trident nuclear weapons? Yes
6.  Do you oppose the attacks on Muslims and the growing Islamophobia in British society? Yes
7.  Do you agree that the use of anti-terrorist laws to restrict the right of protest is an attack on civil liberties? Yes

“I fully support the demands of the PSC Make Palestine the Issue campaign.
Therefore I . . .

• Call on Israel to end its violations of international law, including ending its illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza;
• Oppose any attacks on universal jurisdiction and support bringing those responsible for war crimes to justice;
• Work to end the siege on Gaza;
• Call on the government to ban the import of settlement goods;
• Call on the government to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement;
• Call for an end to Britain’s arms trade with Israel.”

Labour is soft on the bankers. The Tories are the bankers.

So it’s not surprising that each of them is planning massive cuts to public services if they win the next election. The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, promises cuts that will be “deeper and tougher” than those carried out by Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980s.

Those cuts, we should remember, led to city after city in Britain becoming industrial ghost-towns, as millions were thrown on the scrap heap of the dole. Meanwhile from Toxteth to St Pauls, Brixton to Handsworth our inner cities burned as riots erupted out of anger and frustration.

So we have Labour’s manifesto in a nutshell. ‘A future fair for all’ translates as vote for us and we’ll deliver cuts deeper and tougher than the axe woman herself.