Luke Sorba is one of my dearest friends. He’s an improviser, writer, facilitator, teacher, and one of the best-informed people I know. While we don’t agree on everything, we have common ground on many things, especially politics and, even where we divide, I always find his thinking valuable. (Except about how many sports gums it’s appropriate to eat in one go. He’s wrong about that.)  Luke’s also a Labour councillor for Lewisham.
In December we were talking about the election and Labour and I expressed my concern that too many people who might vote Labour are not won over by Ed, and they find this a problem. This irritates the hell out of me (not least because we have a Prime Ministerial government rather a Presidential one so it shouldn’t matter anyway) primarily because too many people seem to think a great speaker/charmer/leading man* (insert other surface-relevant term here) is what’s needed in a political leader. As opposed to, you know, politics. (*and yes, they do still want a leading MAN. sigh.)
So I asked Luke to write me a guest blog on why people should vote for this Labour party. Here it is.
(I reckon plenty of people would happily give Labour their vote purely due to reason 35.)

Luke Sorba’s 35 REASONS to Vote for Labour under Ed Miliband

ON POVERTY
The National Minimum Wage will be increased by 20%
Employers will get tax breaks if they sign up to the Living Wage
The Bedroom Tax will be abolished
Abolishing “exploitative” Zero Hours Contracts – if in practice you work regular hours, you get a proper contract for those hours

ON THE HOUSING CRISIS
200,000 extra homes will be built each year to shorten social housing queues and help first time buyers
Abolishing private tenants being charged a Letting Fee
Rent rises will be capped in private sector
Properties worth over £2m will be taxed

ON HEALTH
£2.5bn extra per year in real terms for the NHS funded by taxes on wealth not extra borrowing
Repeal of the privatising Health and Social Care Act
Merging Health and Social Care so the elderly are better looked after in their homes
Guarantee to be given appointment by a GP within 48 hours

ON VESTED INTERESTS and PRIVATISED CARTELS
PRESS First Party Leader to stand up to Rupert Murdoch over phone hacking and to Daily Mail over slandering his father
ENERGY COMPANIES Freezing Gas and Electricity Prices for 20 months
RAIL COMPANIES allowing public-owned Directly Operated Railways to compete for Private Rail Franchises
PRIVATE SCHOOLS will lose their right as “charities” to business rate relief unless they do much more to help local State schools.
FREE SCHOOLS no more allowed unless it can prove there is a local need of more school places

ON FOREIGN POLICY
Recognising the State of Palestine alongside State of Israel
Voting against sending of British troops to fight alongside Islamist and other Rebels against Syrian government
Voting for British jets to defend Kurds and Yazidis of Iraq against brutal invasion by ISIS
Appointing Lord Cashman as Party’s Global Ambassador for LGBT rights

ON IMMIGRATION
Recognising positive contribution by migrants in the UK
Prosecuting employers who pay and provide sub-standard wages accommodation to migrants and undercut local workers
Banning recruitment that is open only to people abroad and excludes British applicants

ON THE DEFICIT
Extra spending funded by increasing revenue not debt –
• The Mansion Tax
• Levy on Tobacco Companies
• Closing Tax Loop hole for Private Equity companies
• Restoring the 50p rate of Tax for top earners
• Reducing tax relief on pension payments for those earning over £150,000 per year
• taxing bank bonuses.
• Raising wages means more direct revenue through income tax and more indirect revenue (VAT, Duty etc) through the extra spending it allows

ON BEING PRIME MINISTERIAL MATERIAL
Being a person of substance, of conscience and of high intelligence who actually listens
Adopting a team approach to government
Jettisoning the cultivated swagger, bonhomie or false charm of Boris Johnson or David Cameron or Nigel Farage

ON HAVING A VISION TRULY DIFFERENT FROM THE COALITION and DIFFERENT FROM NEW LABOUR
Ed Miliband in 2015 committed a Labour Government to “putting working people first” and creating “not only a fairer society but… a more prosperous one”
Tony Blair condemns Labour under Ed for becoming “a Left wing party” and claims “I am still very much New Labour and Ed would not describe himself in that way, so there is obviously a difference there.”

Luke Sorba, January 2015