My favourite bits of Jon Cruddas’s recent speech. First quote I think rebuffs the nonsense that the coalition up to. The second two quotes are about why I joined the Labour party and why I hope that others in Reading will be coming forward to help build up the Labour movement.
“…the public well knows – about who needs to pick up the tab for the crisis.
There’s something absurd – there’s no other word – about coming out of the crash and picking not on Bob Diamond, or Fred The Shred, or Philip Green, but people on welfare and struggling migrants.”
“Labour’s future is our obligation.
Make it once more the defender of society against the power of the state and the market.
Organise the powerless. Give voice to the voiceless. A new covenant with the people of England and with the nations of Britain. Built on identity and nationhood; neighbourliness and belonging; kindness and solidarity; duty and obligation. Critically it is a politics located in and respectful of the ordinary.”
“For Labour to be part of the solution it must rediscover a rich English tradition of volatile, inspirational cultures of non-conformity, rebelliousness and creativity.
The task at hand is quite simple: to make hope possible rather than despair convincing. Literally by rediscovering a sense of purpose for a nation.”