A vote for Labour is...A vote for Trident. `A new Labour government will retain Trident', last year's Manifesto said, and Blair has said he would be prepared to press the button. Only after there is `verified progress' towards the elimination of nuclear weapons would New Labour `ensure British nuclear weapons are included in such negotiations'.
A vote to sell weapons of mass destruction to barbarous regimes through the world. This includes the continuing sale of Hawk fighter-bombers to Indonesia. But then this is an example of continuity: it was the last Labour government which sold the first batch of Hawks to the Suharto regime, and these were used in the genocidal war against the people of East Timor.
A vote to keep working class pensioners in poverty. New Labour will not restore the link between the level of the state pension and the rise in earnings. Breaking this link has cost single pensioners �20.30 per week since 1980, and couples �33.00.
A vote to keep the Job Seeker's Allowance. Although officially `under review', this is code for keeping it. New Labour in government will target social security for cuts; its high-profile local government campaigns against `benefit fraud' are a foretaste of the oppressive regime it will institute against claimants.
A vote to retain Tory trade union legislation. `The key elements of the trade union legislation of the 1980s - on ballots, picketing and industrial action - will stay'.
A vote for minimal employment rights. New Labour will not reduce the qualifying period for minimal rights at work to the old level of six months, so that those who need a union most - those who have been employed less than two years - will still be sacked for union activities regardless.
A vote to retain selection in education. `We will not close good schools' - whether they be grant-maintained or grammar schools. `The future of remaining grammar schools is up to the parents affected' - and since when have the middle class ever voted to give up any of their privileges?
A vote to continue moves to privatise the NHS through the Private Finance Initiative, and a vote to retain GP fundholding in all but name.
A vote to retain the Criminal Justice Act.
A vote to retain the current immigration laws and a vote for racism. Again, Labour have abstained as the Asylum Bill has passed through Parliament, confining themselves to minor amendments which would make it an even more reactionary piece of legislation.
A vote to continue the British military occupation of the North of Ireland. `We have supported the present government strongly in the Northern Ireland peace process. We will continue to do so.' New Labour have been true to their word: their complicity with the government in attempting to isolate the Republican movement over the last two and a half years has been unwavering.
(all quotes from the last year's Manifesto document)