By Ken Coates MEP
It is not a bit surprising that the heavy spin from Millbank Tower has misled a lot of people about our protest against Prime Minister Blair's war on the welfare state.
First of all, the spinners said that we had left the Labour Party. When they realised that the claim was completely incredible, they said that we should "do the decent thing and resign". It is strange to hear talk of the decent thing from people who have just mugged many single mothers and their children.
The truth is that I haven't threatened to leave the Labour Party. Rather, I am consulting all the members of my European constituency party - over 4000 of them - about what to do next. How do we make an effective protest against the new government's attacks on the welfare state, its cutting of benefits for single mothers and their children and the systematic harassment of many disabled people on benefits and unemployed people claiming jobseeker's allowance? Surely there is something that we can do about the fact that the Labour Party has been led so far away from the principles which drew us all to join it?
Certainly, an overwhelming majority of those party members who have already responded to the consultation agree that a protest candidature in the European elections might do some good. But even more significant, there is a rich fund of proposals for other types of action as well.
(From a letter to the Morning Star)
