THE following is the letter sent by the four Islwyn councillors to the Prime Minister.

The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

Dear Prime Minister We believe that the Labour Party is no longer the democratic Socialist progressive party is once was.

We have become evermore disillusioned withthe Labour Party and your government over the last few years, however a number of recent events have resulted in our continued membership of the Labour Party being untenable.

The continued failure to reform the House of Lords after thirteen years in government is unforgivable. Not only have we been let down by the failure of reform, we have had to witness the chamber been stuffed with the great and the good, who hold huge executive power without being elected. How can any democratic socialist agree to this?

Your government did absolutely nothing to contain asset based inflation of 10% year on year and indeed at the time seemed pleased that it was occurring.

The asset bubble has not only taken UK plc to the verge of insolvency, it has resulted in many young people in the communities we represent who earn £12,000 unable to buy a home. This accompanied to the fact the Labour Party has prevented Local Authorities from building council housing has made the housing situation young people face in this country far worse than it need be.

The asset based inflation which brought the UK banking system to its knees, we believe should have been prevented by government regulation.

However, when the banking crisis began, we agree that your government had Little choice but to re-capitalise the banks. However, we do object to banks which we are majority shareholders in, lending our money to foreign companies to buy much loved British companies, who then go about making British workers redundant.

What is the point in having a Labour government, who just watches from the sidelines whilst such practices occur?

Why does your government do nothing about billionaire bonuses being paid to brokers in a bank that we own and a bank that will not lend to small businesses in Islwyn?

The MP’s expenses and profiteering scandal has disgusted us all.

Tory claims for moat cleaning and duck islands came as no surprise. The claims however from Labour MPs who are supposed to be democratic socialists were scandalous.

Labour MPs who supposedly were elected to represent hard-working people who earn £12,000, making outrageous claims, turned our stomachs.

The situation we believe was made worse by Labour MPs appearing on television saying it was within the rules.

We believe this situation simply highlights how out of touch and arrogant Labour MPs have become with the people who elected them.

On the announcement of the retirement of our MP Don Touhig, many party members instructed to the “General Secretary” of the Wales Labour Party that the shortlist to replace Don would be chosen by the members from within Islwyn and that local members should be given the chance to be considered to be the Labour Party candidate.

However similar to Blaenau Gwent, the Party hierarchy, who know absolutely nothing about Islwyn has given us a list of candidates to choose from, all of which are from outside our constituency.

We know nothing about them and they know nothing about us.

We believe similar practices have been deployed across the UK where favoured candidates have been “parachuted” into safe constituencies.

It appears that the Labour Party have learnt no lessons from Blaenau Gwent, when the Labour Party imposed a candidate upon local members and suffered the humiliation of Independent candidates overturning a 19,000 majority.

We believe there are now few, if any conviction politicians left in the Labour Party and the only people who get on within the Party are “yes” men with no principles, but simply want to further their own political careers.

This we believe has been proven by Labour MPs campaigning to save Post Offices in their constituencies whilst voting to close them in Parliament.

The glaring double standards is frankly sickening.

We have stayed in the Labour Party and argued many of the points we have raised in this letter, to try and change policy amongst the party hierarchy and to fight from within.

However we have come to the conclusion that the Party forces are too strong and powerful and change from within simply cannot be achieved.

Therefore we are resigning from the Party we once loved and which we have dedicated so much of our lives to.

We will remain democratic socialists and will continue to fight for social justice for the people who elected us.

At the pending General Election, we will give the people of Islwyn the choice of a true democratic socialist candidate. A person who believes in putting the interests of working and vulnerable people before the interests of powerful lobby groups.

We will give the people of Islwyn the choice of a person who lives in Islwyn and who knows the problems we face, as oppose to the Labour Party candidate, who we believe just wishes to use Islwyn to further their own careers.

We and the people of Islwyn want an MP who will be Islwyn’s man/woman in London, not London’s man/woman in Islwyn.

It is with a heavy heart that we leave the Labour Party. However, we look at the situation as being, not us as having left the Labour Party, but the Labour Party having left us.

Yours Sincerely

Cllr Dave Rees, Cllr Jan Jones, Cllr Phyl Griffiths, Cllr Jonathan Wilson