Tony, mate, it's over. Time to move on.

I'm not one to pour scorn on the achievements of the Labour Governments of 1997 - 2010, or indeed Blair's success as a leader.  I'm going to pointedly ignore the whole "possible illegal war" issue and remember what life was like as a parent of young children and the expansion of nursery provision, increases in Child Benefit, extension of maternity leave and positive acceptance of parental leave directives.  I applauded the reintroduction of Trade Union Rights at GCHQ and yes, I'd have liked the trade union reforms to have been much stronger but I'm glad that there was some progress.  I miss those times, before the Bedroom Tax, the NHS break up and the ongoing devastation of public services. I want a Labour Government back, of course I do, what kind of socialist wouldn't?  

One thing I don't want, though, is for the former Leader of those years to write patronising, self-important, histrionic nonsense in whichever paper will have him about why voters like me are stupid and can't see what Uncle Tony sees - that we're all on the road to crazy left-wing Doomtown if we vote for Jeremy Corbyn.  You'd think they'd be happy wouldn't you?  Labour gains tens of thousands of new members and registered supporters.  Young people climb walls to peer through windows at a Labour Party meeting, rooms are so packed out, speakers have to climb on fire engines.  A politician seems to be genuinely liked and respected.  What's not to love?  It all looks great to me, but not a day goes by without some grizzled suit appearing in the media, waggling a finger and warning us we're all going to hell in a handcart, if we carry on with this nonsense.  And strangest of all, they think we'll all stop the silliness and go to our rooms to think about what we've done, shamefaced like teenagers caught smoking by the bike sheds.  As if we're not adults capable of rational decisions. Someone sneered on Twitter today "Is there anyone Corbyn supporters WILL listen to?"  Well, actually, love, yes. For me, there are over 600,000 people I'll listen to.  They're called the voters in this election and I'll listen to them and trust them to make the right call.  And whoever is elected, especially if it's a convincing first round win, will have my support.  Yep, whoever. Because that's how parties work, isn't it.  

So, here's some free advice for Blair, Johnson, McTernan and all the others waggling the finger and offering me so-called advice.  Get. Over. Yourselves. Stop behaving like jilted boyfriends, whining about what we see in this bloke with a beard.  He hasn't even got a decent car, you snigger to each other over glasses of Sancerre.  Why can't we see how great things were with you, Tony?  Why can't we go back to those days, you wonder morosely.  Stop issuing warnings about how terrible our lives will be together, trying to claim he has a dark side and he'll hurt us.  We know you think we were NOTHING until you came along.  You cleaned us all up, put a shiny New sticker on us and it's as if we're not even grateful.  We're like Eliza Doolittle, thinking Oh, fuck it, I like talking Cockney.  Yep.  We are. And again, you need to Get. Over. It. Perhaps Alastair could take you all out, get you really drunk.  You could sing along to classic break up songs - Don't You Want Me by The Human League, Irreplaceable by Beyoncé - cry into your beer and pick a fight with some guy with a beard, who looks like HIM.  As the evening wears on you could tell each other you're the BEST and that we never really deserved you.  Late at night John Prescott will show up with the Jag, as you're all semi conscious and help you up.  "Come on, let's get you home," he'll say kindly and you'll ask him "Why, John, why don't they love me, I gave them everything". "It's over, mate" he whispers gently, "It's over and you need to move on". He's so right. 

If Not Now, Then When? Why I'm voting for #Corbyn4Leader

*This post is written in my personal capacity as a Labour Party member, a trade unionist and feminist.  But most of all it expresses my view as a human being about the kind of world I want for my family and the vast majority of people of this country and indeed the world*

I have mixed feelings about any internal Labour Party elections. I'm glad we have such a strong democratic voice and it turns out the Collins Review has opened up democracy in a way we didn't see at the time.  Deciding which individual should lead the party feels difficult when I believe in the collective, and when you add the white noise of Brownite/Blairite/Progress/Moderniser commentary it feels as if it drains the life out of any honest debate.  

I started out thinking that we probably should have elected Andy Burnham in 2010.  I genuinely believe he has a strong stance on the NHS and that he could show a more normal face of MPs.  But then Yvette Cooper is a clever, experienced, strong woman and I'm tired of wishing there were more women in leadership positions. So, I wanted to support one of them.  I really did. But I can't. Well, I could.  But I won't. Because I've had enough.  

The 8 July Budget, announced by Osborne, to the sickening cheers of IDS and others, signalled full steam ahead in their unfettered attack on the poor.  This was a shock and awe budget, reducing the Welfare Cap to £20,000 outside London, regardless of family size and restricting child tax credits to two children in future. Women who become pregnant as a result of rape will have to prove this and I can only imagine that women will also be offered free abortions as an act of compassion, or perhaps sterilisation, so that the poor don't breed irresponsibly.  Maintenance grants are to be abolished, affecting only the poorest students and housing benefit scrapped for the young.  Tax credits for many workers are to be reduced and the Government tells us employers must pay higher wages to make up the difference.  Except public sector employers who are banned from paying more than 1%, sending a sneering message to public sector workers that there is no escape from poverty wages and pay restraint.  My 17 year old daughter earns more than most teaching assistants as a shelf stacker at Tesco - are many more public sector workers to be driven out to the private sector in order to survive? And the so called Living Wage was introduced by Osborne; an appalling insult to the real Living Wage, a cheap, shoddy imitation intended to deceive and distract, rather than provide dignity to workers.

What should our response be in the face of such an unprecedented attack, exposed by the unlikely allies of the Institute of Fiscal Studies as a Budget which robbed the poor to pay the rich?  For some in the Shadow Cabinet and in the Labour Leadership Election, in the face of the first piece of legislation, the Welfare Bill, it is to abstain from opposing or to support.  An amendment to change the Bill was tabled by Labour but if it falls, many, including Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper are to abstain on the Bill.  To sit on a fence while the poorest families are robbed by a Government that calls them scroungers and shirkers. Because otherwise 'voters' - an anonymous mass of people whose identities are rarely known outside of Daily Mail comments sections - might not trust them.

Well, I'm a voter.  The families facing losses of thousands of pounds from already impossibly low incomes are voters or they would be if they thought anyone cared. My friends are voters as are my colleagues and many of the people I meet through work or in the community are voters too.  And we're done with appeasing this anonymous mass of drones who gorge unquestioningly on right wing lies and distortions, carried off with an audacity of which Goebbels would be proud and want someone to start telling the bloody truth.  To stand up and say how outrageous these attacks are and offer an alternative.  To oppose the Big Lies being spewed out day in and day out by a media controlled by powerful corporations.  But most of all, to offer an alternative or some bloody hope, for once. I'm fed up with being told to be patient, to understand that if only Labour can be more like the Tories, they can get back in power.  Well, I don't want the Tories in power - if I did, I'd vote for the real ones. And I know - yes, I really do know - that Labour aren't as bad.  But I'm not sure the electorate get the subtleties of these neoliberal beauty contests.  I think that this cobbled together, fearful consensus of lies and deceit turns everyone off except those willing to continue the attacks or to hope for the best.  Except the best never arrives. 

So, I'm voting for hope over fear, but most of all to express my disgust with any politician to expect others to live on wages that they wouldn't do themselves; my refusal to sit back and watch an increasing divided society leave the most vulnerable to the scrap heap and and my desire for someone to tell the truth about what is happening.  I'm voting for Jeremy Corbyn, because I can't stomach doing anything else.  Because I think he will bring some much needed dignity and gravitas back to a discredited Parliamentary system. Because it's just the right thing to do and in the light of the shocking abstentions on this vile Welfare Bill, I don't believe any socialist could do anything else.  

I'm tired of being patient and waiting for the equal society of tomorrow while supporting the unequal society of today. If not now, then when? It's time for us to be brave and vote for what we believe in. Not what we hope others might believe some time soon. It's time for real Labour values. It's time to support #Corbyn4Leader.