Has Labour shed its principles?

YES ...says former party member Gordon Campbell-Thomas

"MY country right or wrong" was an expression in use during the First World War and some people even apply that to political parties today. As a thinking man, I have never been able to follow that maxim.

When I was 16 and living in London, I joined the "Young Socialists". I believed in words such as egalitarianism and socialism, and I espoused the causes of freedom.

Later I was crushed when Maggie Thatcher's government came in and felt I lived under 18 years of Tory misrule.

However, there was a new star on the horizon. Tony Blair promised a new age, a new vision, where egalitarianism and social democracy would flourish, where people could be free.

Six years on where are we? What legacy has this leader left us?

Yes, we have a minimum wage. Yes, there are more people in work; hip hip hooray. But what else is there? If you ask a Labour politician, they will trot out a list of things done, a list of money spent. However, would they be able to answer the following questions:

Do we as a people feel better off? Do we as a nation feel more secure knowing that our public services are in good hands? Are we, as citizens, confident about the future? Can we rest easy in our beds knowing that politicians are being tough on the causes of crime? Is travel either by road or rail better than it was six years ago? Can we wake up in the morning and go to work confident we are reducing the pollution that causes asthma and respiratory disease? Is an integrated transport network taking us to work and back on time?

However, I could have forgiven all these things, I could have said in my heart of hearts that the Tories had 18 years destroying the country, let's give Labour 18 years to put it right. That was until Iraq came up.

I am not a pacifist. I hated Saddam Hussein. But I saw the hypocrisy of the West behind the rhetoric. When 9/11 happened, I knew Bush would be out to get scalps. I hoped that the government I had worked hard to get elected would be honourable, would be legitimate, would be constructive.

But when I saw the toadying way that Tony Blair went round the world peddling Bush's war ideology, I knew there was soon to be a parting of the ways between me and the Labour Party.

Added to that was the York factor. As a selected Labour candidate in the recent council election, I was leant on by the then leader of the council, Dave Merrett, and the chair of the District Labour Party to tow the council line on Coppergate. The last straw was my MP Hugh Bayley, a man I respected. He said one thing to the party faithful on Iraq and the need for a UN mandate for war, and then voted another way in the Commons.

I won't be voting Labour again, or Tory, so that leaves...?

Gordon Campbell-Thomas resigned his Labour Party membership over Iraq and Coppergate

NO ...says York's MP Hugh Bayley

SINCE its foundation in Bradford a hundred years ago, the Labour Party has been committed to full employment, tackling poverty, improving public welfare and international justice - and it still is. We have achieved a lot in six years in government, but there is much more to do.

We have more than halved unemployment. In York it is at its lowest level for a generation. Youth unemployment is down by 83 per cent, thanks to Labour's New Deal.

We have cut the number of children living in poverty by a million by helping their parents into work, introducing the first national minimum wage and increasing benefits for those who cannot work. The Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit have increased the incomes of 5,000 families in York.

Some 35,000 York pensioners are getting the £200 winter fuel allowance, free eye tests, higher pensions and the first national scheme for half-price travel on buses and long distance coaches.

Mortgages are at a 30-year low and income tax rates are lower than under the Tories. Inflation is low too, which protects people's savings.

The NHS in North Yorkshire received £395 per person in 1996/97 under the Conservatives. Now it gets £763 per person. York's NHS will get a record 48 per cent real-terms increase in funding over the next five years. York Hospital treats more patients now than ever before. The waiting list is down, but only by 400, so we need to keep expanding the NHS.

Education spending in York has risen from £52 million when we came to power to £72 million this year. We now have more teachers and more money for York's schools.

North Yorkshire has more police officers than ever before and crime is beginning to fall, after trebling under the Tories, who did not provide a single extra officer for North Yorkshire in 18 years.

Labour led the international campaign to write off the debts of the world's poorest countries. We have doubled aid to Africa, but we have brought in new rules to make sure aid goes to poor people and is well spent.

Animal welfare is high on Labour's agenda with a ban on fur farming, improved standards for hens and pigs, better standards for animals in transit and the introduction of 'pet passports'. We are determined to ban foxhunting, despite opposition from the unelected House of Lords.

The Labour Government played a crucial role in getting international action against global warming. We have made good progress with renewable energy and cleaning up our air, rivers, beaches and water supply.

There is much more to do, but we need to keep Labour in power to do it. If Labour were to lose the general election the Tories would be back. They would cut public expenditure - leaving less money for the NHS and education and less for pensioners.

You shouldn't take Labour for granted. Voting for small radical parties may seem attractive when Labour is in power, but I remember 1987 when I lost the election by 147 votes. The Green Party took 637 votes and the Liberals 9,898, and it gave York a Tory MP for another five years.

Updated: 10:55 Thursday, July 31, 2003