To Cut or to Build - THAT is the question.

I watched the Labour Leadership election results on BBC as will have many others. I was not surprised at the result, and quite frankly I am pleased. Why is that you may wonder? Jeremy Corbyn is a man I can respect. He has his principles, and perhaps most of all he appears to me to be honest. This is something quite special these days. Quite how such an honest and open approach will sit with the position as leader of HM Opposition is yet to be revealed. Politics is a funny game, and decent straight talking honest and open people tend to find themselves out manoeuvred. Politics seems to have much in common with poker.

Following the announcement, pundits have been quick to come out with their views both for and against both the man and his politics. I feel it is time that Labour revisits its roots and rediscovers what it stands for. When clause 4 was thrown out and rewritten in 1995, I lost my respect for the Labour Party as they abandoned a core principle of Socialism. Having done so it followed by the landslide victory of 1997, and New Labour took power. But what was that all about? Many said at the time that in order to grasp power the only way to do it was to put on the Conservative coat that had been carelessly left lying around. As a traditional Tory voter when Tony Blair went to the country seeking a 2nd term, I was very tempted to vote Labour simply because I didn't believe the name represented the party in power. The distinction between Left and Right had gone, there was no clear water. This has continued in the Labour party for years now with them seeming to pay lip-service to their core supporters who clung onto the name and colour.

Finally in Jeremy Corbyn I see the party will regain the clear water in politics that has been missing for so long. What I feel he must be careful is not to take the party back to the last century and the problems of the party and its members back then, but rather pick the best of what it stood for, and resist the temptation to resurrect the bad parts.

One of the things he said is "Britain cant cut its way to prosperity. We have to build it" works for me in a way, after all I and my business are part of old England in that we still make our products here in the UK. However, I see that the cuts were necessary as much of the government machine was bloated. Here's the point you see, and it is a business head that sees you need to keep expenditure under control but maximise output. This benefits the team - aka company because all the members get to benefit. Nothing de-motivates a team more than a few of its members not pulling their weight, or being perceived not to be doing so. Indeed experience has demonstrated to me that to cut out those who do not pull their weight does not put any more on those who do. They simply feel much better because they do not see anyone having a free ride. The Conservative route is to cut, the Labour route is to build, but I believe the best way to prosperity is to do both.