Articles by Austin Mitchell MP
Austin Mitchell MP
Get it right!
Don’t be fooled by the media hype that the decision on a new government is urgent or imminent or by the City’s clamour for instant action to save the markets.
It’s essential to get this right. That means take it slowly Bring everyone in every party along. Reduce the risk of [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
IT's TIME!
Now at last it’s time. Time to forget the grievances and grumbles a government in power produces. Time to forget that it could and should have done more to transfer power and wealth to working people.
Time to forget Gordon’s grumbling ineptitude and obvious exhaustion. Time to forget that no candidate [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Crime & Punishment
CRIME
Don’t believe Cameron’s broken society rubbish. Crime is down under Labour and well down in Grimsby where Humberside Police are a small active force that works well in the community.
Look at the latest figures;
All Crime: Reduced by 2480 offences, down 11.9%
Domestic burglary: Reduced by 511 offences, down 32.5%
Vehicle [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
BASKERVILLES REVISITED.
In the Grimsby Labour party we’re always bang up to date with technology. Our latest weapon is the spatula. Not for basting. But for shoving leaflets through letter boxes.
Eager to avoid having my fingers bitten off by dogs I took Linda’s wooden spatula which was marvellous for pushing my [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
VICORIA (AYLING’s) SECRET
Mistakes.
I got her latest pamphlet to tell me what she’s going to do for pensioners like me.
l) She’s going to see that the basic state pension keeps up with the cost of living. She’ll be glad to learn that it already does. By law. And the last increase put [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Election 2010: Week 1 1/2
Exhaustion setting in. Can I stand the pace? “They’re off” yells the press. They’ve been off for years reply the pundits. Gordon has launched an election campaign for a party called New Labour which I thought was as dead as the SDP. The next door neighbours have kindly put up [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Top pay levels: obscene or insane?
Michael Grade, who failed to turn ITV round, leaves with £2.7 million consolation. His successor, Adam Crozier, is to get £3.2 million over 3 years, plus £200,000 in cash as a golden “hello” meanwhile ITV is firing staff and closing studios.
Stuart Rose at Marks and Spencer gets £1.2 million a [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Tory moratoriam means nothing
Don’t be fooled by the Tory proposal to have a moratorium on retrospective rate payments in the ports. Sounds good. Means nothing.
It means they’ve flunked the chance of doing what I was urging them to and writing off the retrospective charges thus forcing the government to act. Bob Neill was [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Tory response to the budget
Darling’s budget got a good press, though not from me; he should have splashed out more. Cameron’s reply was marked down by me as well: petty point scoring with no beef.
But the real lesson was that the Tory Ship Heavy Cutter is lower in the water so they’re chucking Thatcherism [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Mitchell innocent say both fan club members
Austin Mitchell today pleaded not guilty and insane to the charge of demanding money with menaces by asking for a pay increase for MPs. Howls from the Angry Brigade writing for ‘This is Grimsby’. Angry emails from party members. Particularly the young ones.
Except that I didn’t say it. Grimsby Telegraph [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
My Five Pledges
1) Grimsby First - to put Grimsby, and its people, first and foremost and to promote Grimsby.
2) On your Side - to fight for a fairer deal for the low paid
3) Europe - to oppose further transfers of power to the EU
4) Education - to expand education and training opportunities for [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Cut Eurocrap first!
All the talk of cuts to come makes me fear Edward Scissorhand will be the dominant figure in British politics for the next two years.
If he is, and I hope not, then he must turn his attention first to Europe. Thanks to Blair’s insane decision four years ago to give [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Call me Holey Czar
The budget doles out £100 million to fill potholes in roads. We could spend that in Grimsby alone. But it’s for the whole country so I’m offering my services to set up a Holes Hotline with me as Holey Czar.
[...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Reaction to the Budget
Alistair Darling is a calm, dour, dependable Scot so I didn’t expect to be excited by his budget. I wasn’t. Good things come in small packets. Like aid for industry, a tougher approach to tax evasion, and a heavier duty on the cheap cider the kids are getting sloshed on.
Sadly [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Goverment MUST ACT QUICKLY to save our ports
The Tories have now promised a moratorium on claims for the retrospective payments which doesn’t achieve much because if local authorities are forced to begin proceedings with the end of the financial year, it will take legislation to stop it, and, in any case, it doesn’t do anything to remove [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Out with the greedies, in with principles
I watched Monday’s Dispatches squirming with embarrassment. To think that these idiots grovelling for money, ever ready to prostitute themselves and their party, are Labour. Labour. The people’s party.
The greedies are all Blairites treading in the steps of the master. Their day is done. Their party is under new management. [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Principles. Or lack of...
Ever since Ramsey Macdonald, fear of betrayal has always been a Labour anxiety. Rightly so. Labour ministers owe their creation and career to the party and shouldn’t use what the party has given them to betray its principles and sell out its ideals for pelf and place.
Which is exactly what [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Mirror Writing
I’m not sure I’m hearing things right but I think I heard that the Tories are proposing a tax on the banks so they can pay something back from the huge support they’ve been given but a Labour Minister is saying this is dangerous because it will drive them from [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Better not to say anything than to speak truth
I’ve put down an Early Day Motion telling the MPs whose struggled through this much maligned Parliament (The Pathetic Parliament)to cheer up. They’ve had a rotten time but they’ve done their best and its not really their fault but that of the media, the Fees office and the Leaders who’ve [...]
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Austin Mitchell MP
Unite's and Ashcroft's donations are not comparable
The Tories are banging on about Unite, to distract attention from Lord Ashcroft’s dodgy donations. The two aren’t comparable. The money given by Unite to the Labour Party has to have the consent of Unite members and is published and audited. So it’s not the same as money fiddled unaccountably [...]
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