In the middle of a hugely busy day, here’s another message from a voter (Ian in Highgate) who didn’t vote Labour in 2005, but is now ‘coming home’.¬† Please take a moment to read Ian’s message – particularly the last line.
I didn’t vote for Labour in 2005.  In fact, I left the Labour Party completely and cancelled my membership.  This was a really difficult decision; I’d been a member for over 20 years and had always voted Labour.  Whatever the election, it had always been a cross in the Labour box.  I voted this way because I believed in Labour values:  fairness, equality, justice.  Today I’m a successful businessman, but I’m also the product of a state education.  I believe that everyone has the right to a decent school and hospital.
But I stopped voting Labour for one simple reason РI didn’t agree with the Iraq war.   The Labour Government had done great things – the minimum wage, re-building public services, investing in jobs – but I disagreed, passionately, with the decision to go to war.
For me, one thing hasn’t changed.   I still think the war was wrong and I doubt I’ll ever change my mind.  But, this year I’ll be voting Labour again and I’m re-joining the party.   The decision to come back to Labour is a decision I’m comfortable with – I think the time is right.  I look now at the choices we face – not just in Hornsey and Wood Green, but across the country – and my mind was easily made up.
I firmly believe that Cameron’s Conservatives haven’t changed.  They would take us back into recession.  As a businessman, I don’t trust Osborne to make the right calls.  He lacks experience and judgement.  He would walk away from people when the going gets tough.  He’s wrong to think we can cut our way to economic growth.  He’s wrong on national insurance. I want my vote to help keep the Conservatives out of Government and it worries me that the Liberal Democrats have said they might back them up.
But I have also been persuaded by Gordon Brown and his team.  They are steady and steadfast.  It has been an incredibly volatile period for the economy and Labour has taken firm, decisive action.  They also have a plan for the recovery Рgrowth, investment in jobs, a vision for the future, but not abandoning Labour values and joining the Tories in a charge to cut where cuts aren’t needed.
We can’t afford the luxury of not voting Labour in 2010.
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