By JB
January 1910 Labour Party General Election Manifesto:
A general election has been forced upon the country by the action of the House of Lords rejecting the Budget. The great question you are to decide is whether the Peers or the people are to rule this country.
Each Session since the last general election important Bills, upon which the House of Commons had spent much time, have been mutiliated or destroyed by the House of Lords, an irresponsible body which represents nothing but its own class interests. Not content with this, they now claim the right to decide what taxes shall be paid, upon whom they shall be levied, and for what purpose they shall be spent. They also claim to dictate the date at which Parliament shall be dissolved. The time has come to put an end to their power to override the will of the Commons.
The country has allowed landowners to pocket millions of pounds every year in the share of unearned increment, and yet they object to pay a small tax upon what, in justice, should belong to the State. They wish at all costs to preserve their power to plunder the people.
The Labour party welcomes this opportunity to prove that the feudal age is past and that the people are no longer willing to live on the sufferance of the Lords.
The issues you have to decide are simple. Our present system of land ownership has devastated our countryside, has imposed heavy burdens upon our industries, has cramped the development of our towns, and has crippled capital and impoverished labour.The Lords must go
At this crisis the Labour party mertis your support. It comes with great achievements and with a determination to do much more.
In 1906 it pledged itself to restore to trade unions the same liberty as capital enjoyed during trade disputes.
THAT PLEDGE HAS BEEN FULFILLEDIt pledged itself to insist upon old-age pension.
THAT PLEDGE HAS BEEN FULFILLEDIt pledged itself to help drastic housing reform.
THAT PLEDGE HAS BEEN FULFILLEDIt pledged itself to work for the relief of the burdens on persons of small or moderate means by the taxation of unearned incomes and land values.
THAT PLEDGE HAS BEEN FULFILLEDIt pledged itself to pay special attention to the unemployed, and to compel any and every Government to contribute to the solution of this problem.
THAT PLEDGE HAS BEEN FULFILLEDThe experience of the last four years has demonstrated the value of the Labour Party acting on independent lines. There still remain many problems to be solved.
The right to work has still to be won, but is now well within the range of practical politics.
The Poor Law must be broken up and pauperism abolished.
Old-age pensions must be extended and increased on their present non-contributory basis.
Restrictions upon the franchise, including the sex bar, must be swept away.
The working and middle classes are still overburdened with rates and taxes. All these problems will demand the attention of an active, determined, and independent party, drawn from the people and in touch with the people. The Labour Party, therefore, appeals to you to renew your confidence in it, to add to its ranks, and increase its power. Vote for the Labour candidates. The land for the people. The wealth for the wealth producers. Down with privilege. Up with the people.
Keir Hardy signed this manifesto!!!
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
But … Lord Foulkes and his bar buddies , many of them Labour Peers , are working assiduously ( if secretly ) to remove this stain on democracy . Only 124 years have passed since Keir Hardie pledged to abolish the HoL – these things take time !
But , as Keir Starmer has pledged – a pledge is a pledge to this man of honour – CHANGE will come . Just be patient – and vote Tor…Labour and , before you can say ”Starmer U-turn!” , there will be another pledge commiting a future Labour Government to abolishing this anachronism .
And to ensure that this is fulfilled , Lord Starmer and his fellow Labour peers (Baroness Raynor , Baroness Reeves , Lord Streeting ….) will pledge to do all in their power to see Keir Hardie’s pledge come to fruition …sometime ….in the future …be patient !
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“Keir Hardy signed this manifesto”!!!……
Keir Hardy…..is he related to ‘Oliver’ as in via a past comedy partership……as was that not the mistake Labour, under Richard Leonard as leader, used in their Labour party conference in Scotland….where they misspelt his , Hardie’s, surname…..instead of Keir Hardie….they had his surname as ‘Hardy’.….in a large bold sign behind the stage that they stood on…..
For Labour that speaks volumes….a Freudian slip especially now since the Labour party has evolved now into a Tory tribute act …….and also at the time Richard Leonard was considered a bit of a joke as a leader….
Sorry could not resist as it brought back a memory of a mistake that we all witnessed with the Labour party in Scotland…….
Seems their mistakes and promises…..no matter how bad a mistake or, as promises/pledges, they are never really fulfilled…are ones that some people are perhaps too willing to forgive and forget…..mind you there was a touch of the ‘Stan Laurels’ about Richard Leonard was there not….so perhaps it was fitting , that via a misspelt surname, an association was made with his buddy Oliver……as in ‘another fine mess’ with Richard at the helm in the branch office…..LOL
Leonard was another (supposed Lefty) that Starmer decided to get rid of as leader at the helm of Labour in Scotland….and not just because of his, Leonard’s, incompetence but because of his support for Jeremy Corbyn……
Good article BTW……so where is the “Change” with Labour then and now ?
NMRN
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Sorry my fault not John’s……predictive text…….I did type in correct spelling but forgot to check.
JB
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No please do not apologise my comment was not meant to be a criticism of you and having re-read my comment I realise that at the outset it looks a wee bit snide and sarcastic which was not my intention.
I think I could have reworded it to only make the real point I was trying (yet failed ) to make and that was in respect to it reminding me of how when RL was the Labour leader in Scotland he made (or allowed) the mistake of the misspelling of Keir Hardie’s surname to be emblazoned behind the stage at a Labour in Scotland party conference.
So I think to be fair it is I who should apologise to you for my choice of words…..where my intention, in what I was trying to communicate (badly) was not meant to be so insensitive or crass when read.
Predictive text is a b*gger (* u) for sure….and, at times, is the bane of many who comment on social media…….and I can hardly talk when many of my comments on here are littered with mistakes…..so once again sorry for stupid response to you…which was not intended to be, as a comment/response, as bad as how it read initially.
Have a nice day
🙂
NMRN
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Thanks but no apology necessary, your point was spot on……..also I reckon that Stan and Ollie were better piano delivery men than Keir could ever have been!!!😊👍👍👍👍👍
JB
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That photo of Starmer demonstrating how he could fly scared the daylights out of Boeing…
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Levitation (illusion), an illusion where a magician levitates somebody or something……….only Starmer is a rubbish magician……you can still see the what he is sitting on…………SCOTLAND’S WEALTH!!!
JB
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