When Mansfield resident Roy Bainton sent £3 and applied to register as a Labour supporter, a Labour Party official turned him down. The official explained why prospective party members could be rejected.
“Not being on the electoral register, or having stood for another political party at the last general election, local elections or European elections. People who nominated candidates for other parties at previous elections, and those who are known campaigners for, or members of, other parties.”
Roy says: “I belong in none of these categories. Having been a Labour voter and union member since 1961, I voted Labour in every local and national election for 54 years.
“I was briefly a Labour Party member in the 1980s. I left after Kinnock refused to attend a miners’ picket line, and would have in any case when they ditched Clause 4. In last May’s local council and mayoral elections in Mansfield, I worked hard for Labour’s unsuccessful mayoral candidate, Martin Lee. I wrote speeches, designed leaflets and actively campaigned for Labour on the street.
“I’m an unrepentant, left-wing Socialist, but I always saw Labour, even under Blair, as a valid buffer against the increasing draconian nastiness of the ‘New’ Tories. I’m 72 and still working. Will I ever vote Labour again? I doubt it.
“Will this election end up as a fiasco? I suspect so. The current Labour Party is a very dark, sinister and corporate right-wing shambles. Hardie, Bevan and Attlee must be turning in their graves. Now, can I have my £3 back? Oh, sorry – I forgot – that doesn’t happen under capitalism, does it.”
