Harris-ment

Poor old Tom Harris, who is a quite decent Scottish Labour MP representing Glasgow South. Some Labourites have been branding him a "right-winger", which he is not averse to, but now he has apparently had suggestions that he jump ship and join the Conservatives!

It must have been getting a bit tiresome, as he has today put his case for the defence, as he calls it, listing his views. It turns out that most of what he has been supporting policy-wise has been Labour party policy and broadly accepted by people in the country. Even I would agree with much of it, though not the 42-day detention without charge policy.

The comments to his post are interesting, dividing into two distinct camps - the traditional wings of the Labour party that go back decades. The broad consensus is that Tom H is correct in his assertion of speaking with the majority of the country, not against or in spite of it.

At least he "gets it", unlike the more rabid (and obviously so!) lefty types who so often come across as if they inhabit in a completely different world from the rest of us.

A negative comment on another site comes from councillor Bob Piper of Sandwell, who calls him the Scottish C-nut,which I take to be an abbreviation for "Conservative-nutter". Well, it's a lot better than being a Labour-nutter (L-nut, perhaps) as at least Mr Harris is speaking and acting for those who elected him, not his own warped view of the job of an elected member.

Piper piped up, but got it wrong, quoting a short section and following it up with his only contribution:

"Yes, Tom… did you actually notice we lost the election by any chance?"

Of course, the rest of us are well aware why Labour lost the election this year, and that was because they had reverted to type in government under Gordon Brown. All the by-elections in the Brown years (apart from those with mysterious and suspected fraudulent outcomes) showed a significant swing away from Labour. Tony Blair would have had a different impact on the voters of Britain this past May, and the rest of us all know that. Piper doesn't seem to.

So, why doesn't Bob Piper at long last realise that he is the odd one out in this post of his, and along with others of similar mind are the dinosaurs that Britain will never need or want again? We, the people of Britain, have learned from our own history, and (like Tom H but unlike Bob P) we too "get it"!