Charles Clarke and the NEC Elections

It was interesting to read in today's EDP an article about Charles Clarke the former Labour MP for Norwich South who for I have actively campaigned for over the years.

Charles is totally right in his view that the Labour Party must learn quickly the lessons for the defeat if it is to avoid 20 years in opposition as happened after the Labour Government of 1974-79 suffered defeat.

With hindsight when Charles called for Gordon Brown to stand down after Labour disasterous European Election campaign it was probably the right call.

However it would have taken a very special leader to halt the slide as the mood of the country was that it was time for a change even if it did not know what type of change it wanted.

UK politics could over the next few years be very different if plans to reduce the number of MP's from 650 to 450 go ahead along with the introduction of Proportional Representation through the alternative vote system it is possible that we might never see a Labour Government again with an overall majority.

I am pleased to see a friend of mine for my time on the Labour East Regional Board and fellow former Labour Parliamentary Candidate Julian Ware-Lane running for the election to the Labour Party National Executive Committee.

Two Chief Secretaries and more questions

Its been a rather interesting 48 hours at the Treasury firstly it turned out that David Laws had paid his partner £40k of taxpayers money he was not entitled to and now his replacement Danny Alexander seems to have dodged Capital Gains Tax.

It was dodging of Capital Gains Tax that resulted in Hazel Blears resigning from the Cabinet and Ian Gibson giving up his Norwich North seat.

If Nick Clegg and Dave Cameron are serious about restoring the public's faith in politics its hard to see how Danny Alexander can remain in the Cabinet.

With the standard's of MP's exected to be so high at the moment it looks like we will be seeing lots more politians running into scandals in the coming months and years.

UK now under Con Dem

7 years ago I took the decision to resign from the Liberal Democrats as the left of Centre Party that I joined in 1990 which was so opposed to the Tories had changed into a Centre Right Tory lite Party.

Today the Lib Dems now prop up the Tory Administration in the UK Government not really a great surprise as telling the Lib Dems apart from the Tory Party for the past few years has been increasingly hard.

Will be interesting to see how many Lib Dems now cross the floor and join the Labour Party.

Looking at a post from well known Lib Dem activist and Blogger Nick Starling it might be sooner then you think.

www.norfolkblogger.blogspot.com

Press Release London Marathon

John Cowan Labour Parliamentary Candidate for South East Cambridgeshire today wished good luck to people from South East Cambridgeshire taking part in the Virgin Active London Marathon.

Running is a great way of keeping healthy and avoiding the problems associated with obiesity.

Hung Parliaments and recession

Over the last few days their has been talk of what happens in the event of neither the Labour or Tory Party having an overall majority.

The simple answer is that the political uncertainity would cause the financial markets to go into a state of panic not seen since the start of the recession.

All the good work done by the Labour Government in getting Britian out of recession would be undone in a matter of minutes after the election result.

Real Progress on the NHS

The Kings Fund report out today shows the real progress that has resulted from Labour's commitment and record investment in the NHS.

The reduction in waiting times is very welcome.

The challenge for the NHS over the next few years is dealing with the health inpacts of rising levels of Alcohol and the problems caused by obesity.

In England 46% of men and 32% of women are overweight with a Body Mass Index of over 25-30,

Whist 17% of men and 21% of Women are classed at obese ie BMI over 30.

Oh and before you get the idea that I am some mega skinny person telling you about this I have to confess to my own battle with weight I am currently 14 and half stone battling to get down to 13 stone.

Declaration of interests

As the Labour candidate for the House of Commons for South East Cambridgeshire I am making public all my commercial and financial interests in accordance with Ministry of Justice recomendations.

This will be up on my campaign website www.labourparty-secambs.org.uk