John McDonnell Enters the Race for the Labour Leadership.

John McDonnell's Web Site

This week, Labour Members of Parliament are faced with a choice: either one of the former frontbench who've been committed to the New Labour experiment for the past 16 years or a return to traditional Labour values like community, co-operation and hard work.

Whilst the Labour government has undoubtedly been responsible for some triumphs such as the Minimum Wage and the rejuvination of the National Health Service, our time in office as been marred by what many of our core voters present and past feel to be a desertion of their values.

Millions of pounds have been spent pursuing wars in the Middle East which were opposed more vociferously by the voters who entrusted the nation to us in the hope of fairer representation than by anyone else.

We cannot afford to rely on those who now claim to see in 20/20 hindsight the importance of listening to the public, but who had dismissed the opinions worries and fears of the progressive community we were all elected to represent.

Our history is one of giving a voice to the voiceless. Of supporting the masses of hard working British citizens in their endeavour to gain the right to have their voices heard in the work place. Of helping to make Britain a country in which people are paid decent wages to do the jobs which contribute to creation of a strong economy for the nation as whole. And of making sure that those who benefit most from the infrastructure, from education, to hospitals, to roads contribute fairly to the cost of those services.

Labour is at a junction. Through our incarnations we have been given the opportunity to interface with different sectors of society in different ways. New Labour gave us more opportunity and more traction to communicate with the business community on a new level. But we must never forget that whilst business provides the country's footprint globally and is the crucial power behind sustaining our economy, the people who must be looked after first are the people on the shopfloor, the people in the back office and the people facing the customers.

We are faced with a golden opportunity now to unite not merely workers with each other, but workers with their employers, too.

New Labour is no longer 'New'. But we can all work together to ensure that Labour is ready, willing and able to lead this country and for MPs to be worthy of the faith that the position reflects.