Message to Labour International from Gordom Brown

I want to take this opportunity to thank you, as a member of Labour International, for all you do for our party. Your support has never been more vital than today.

For in the coming months the British people will vote in one of the most important general election of modern times. We are campaigning not for a forth term Labour government — but for the first Labour government of a new global era. Wherever in the world you live, you will have seen the effects of the global financial crisis, the worst in sixty years, and the global recession that it caused. Countries all over the world took action to stimulate their economies back to growth, and so have we in Britain.

Only the Conservative Party disagreed. Thanks to our action, and to the shared efforts of the British people, repossessions in Britain have been running at around half the rate at which it peaked in the Tory recession of the 1990s; and the rate of job losses has been four times lower.

Today the economy is still recovering, and the big choice this year will be whether to secure growth or choke off recovery. It will be whether to create an age of aspiration, or to condemn Britain to the “age of austerity” that the Tories promise. It will be whether to keep Britain strong internationally, or to leave our country isolated under the Tories.

That is why this year’s election will be so important. And we will fight the campaign as the underdogs against a lavishly funded Conservative Party. Your help, as a member of Labour International, is crucial. If you have compatriots around you who are not registered to vote, please encourage them to do so. You can remind other British voters abroad of the big choice at the coming election. You can also help by telephone canvassing via the virtual phone bank.

Visit: http://labourinternational.net/wordpress/

Labour Party through the years

The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been regarded as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales since 1920. However, it has only recently begun to organize once more in Northern Ireland. Labour first surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s.

Since then, the party has experienced several spells in government, at first in minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and again from 1929 until 1931. It then became a junior partner in the wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, ultimately forming majority governments under Clement Attlee from 1945 until 1951 and again under Harold Wilson from1964 to 1970. Labour was also in government from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan.

The Labour Party won a majority in the 1997 general election under the leadership of Tony Blair, its first general election victory since October 1974 and the first general election since1970 in which it had exceeded 40% of the popular vote. It has 13 members in the European Parliament. The Labour Party is a member of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International. The party's current leader is Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Tips from Marc Fortuna ( 1 ) - Politicians & Candidates

No one wins the election the day before. The candidate who thinks he is elected a year or six months before, hardly awake in time to rescue his favoritism.

The campaigns are not just to win elections. It´s the time to build the basis of future government policies. Many candidates, confident in their popularity and certain of their victory, do not bother to prepare a government plan.

The candidate is negligent if he/she does not have consistent goals, projects and government program. Populism help to win elections, but rarely lead to sustained government.

There are also those who lose elections by underestimating the enemy or overestimate themselves. Do not start a campaign claiming victory ahead of time, no one is elected before the final counting of votes.

A campaign is a track full of mazes, tricks and traps. It´s not a place for amateurs. They involve money, people´s reputation the fate of the nation. There is everything in a campaign: spies, dossiers, intrigues and vanity.

A campaign is a tripod: content, networks of support and marketing. When you´re sure of your candidacy, form a campaign committee. Only then, listening to your advisers, and especially aware of your financial structure, select your marketing strategy.

The strategy should provide the general tone that will guide the dispute, setting out the key ideas and concepts.

Be careful not to change everything all the time. It takes time to implement the strategy and confirm their accuracy or their error.

Choose well the people who will be part of your team. One requirement is that the team member understands you, has depth knowledge of your political background and respect your opinion. The team member is a kind of guru of campaign. He has the ability to filter all the issues and determine which one is best for the candidate.

Beware of flatterers. Select the team that will work, talk to each member and distributes tasks according to their individual abilities.

Train yourself to speak in public, or through the media, or directly with your constituents in direct encounters. If possible, get advice from a speech therapist to correct diction and inappropriate ways of speaking in public.

The candidate must have the humility to accept criticism, willingness to change and good discipline to avoid making the same mistakes. A poorly worded sentence out of context, can shake the foundations of a campaign.

Gordon Brown's speech on immigration

In a speech in Shoreditch, East London, the Prime Minister outlined that Labour's reforms are controlling immigration – net migration has fallen 30 per cent between 2007 and 2008.


People recognise the positives of migration - economically and socially - but they also want to see fair rules that nobody can duck. Labour’s new Australian-style points-based system means that only those who have the skills to benefit our economy can come here.


Skilled jobs must now be advertised here for four weeks before employers can bring someone in from outside. And as our investment in the training of young people and adult workers raises our local skills levels - the need for skilled migrant workers can be substantially reduced.


While Labour is committed to fair rules to control immigration and benefit the British economy, the Tories' proposed quota system would be arbitrary and bad for business.


Gordon Brown said:


"The system we have introduced gives us the ability to secure the skills we need and to secure our borders against those who are not welcome here".


"And I believe the responsible way to debate migration … is to debate how we can use this system over the coming years to continue to control migration fairly, to reduce the overall need for migration, while continuing to attract the key people who will make the biggest contribution to the growth of our economy."

Tony Blair in Sedgefield

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair addressed Labour party members at the Trimdon Labour Club in Sedgefield, his former parliamentary constituency, Tuesday March 30, 2010.

Speaking in support of current Prime Minister Gordon Brown for Britain's forthcoming election, Blair said that while Britain was not yet "out of the woods" following the financial crisis, it was "on the path out" as a result of the actions taken by Brown.

"At the moment of peril the world acted. Britain acted. The decision to act required experience, judgment and boldness. It required leadership. Gordon Brown supplied it," he said

Britons trust Labour over opposition on economy

Britain's opposition Conservatives, whose overall opinion poll lead has narrowed in the run-up to an election, have fallen behind the ruling Labour Party on the key issue of economic trust, a poll found on March 26.

Britons are more likely to trust Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government than the Conservatives to run the economy, which has just emerged from its deepest recession since World War Two, the ComRes poll showed.

The poll, conducted after finance minister Alistair Darling's annual budget on Wednesday, found 33 percent of those questioned trusted Brown and Darling most to run the economy.

That compared with 27 percent who favored Conservative leader David Cameron and his finance spokesman George Osborne, and 13 percent who favored the Liberal Democrats.

The last time this question was asked in a similar poll on December 10, the Conservatives led with 33 percent and Labour was on 26 percent, with the Liberal Democrats on 19 percent.

*****Read the full article on Washington Post