The lesson of Corbyn Labour must be proud of ideals AND of country

A JANUARY PROMISE TO CHEER KIDS

Janine Aldridge has faced the unimaginable. The police kept her five-week-old child Leah’s organs for evidence – without telling her. And she’s not alone.

Now this brave mum is taking legal action against them.

Not for compensation but for justice for Leah, who was shaken to death by her father.

Janine wants everyone to know how betrayed she felt.

The people she trusted to deliver justice let her bury her daughter without her heart, brain and other organs.

If Janine wins, it may open the floodgates to hundreds of families whose grief was prolonged after discovering parts of their loved ones were in mortuaries and hospitals.

There is no argument against police retaining some body parts for evidence or in case of appeals. But the widespread “oversight” of failing to inform families – especially after cases were concluded – is horrendous.

Janine faces a lengthy legal battle… but why should she?

Surely families should have been offered payments for their distress long before now?

Some will argue families have already received criminal compensation for their loss.

And that there is no public money to fund a mass payout.

For Janine and many families this is not about money. It’s about recompense for the inhumane way their dead relatives have been stripped of organs without permission.

It’s about redress for standing by a grave, believing you are burying your child whole when you are not.

The Government should financially acknowledge the pain of all involved.

THE race to be Jeremy Corbyn’s successor is hotting up.

But round one of Labour’s Got Talent should be a simple quiz with a single question. Why did we lose?

Unless contenders convince us they know why Labour crashed to our worst result since 1935, they’ll never become Prime Minister. Because you can’t lead if you can’t listen.

And what I heard on the doorstep was some pretty clear advice.

Such was the demonisation of Jeremy Corbyn that hundreds of voters I met thought Labour’s leader was a communist terrorist sympathizer who wouldn’t push the nuclear button or sing the national anthem.

Laugh

So they voted for Boris Johnson – a man they thought a charlatan – because on balance they believed it was the more patriotic option.

Here, then, is a lesson for Labour’s next leader. Whoever wins, you’ll take a pasting from the British media. That’s what they do. Always have. Always will.

But we cannot and must not ever again leave unsaid our love for our country. The great joy of

Britain is found in the contradictions.

We like a laugh at our own expense. But we’ll always stand up to a bully.

What other realm could boast both Mr Bean and James Bond? We love a bit of ceremony and a healthy dose of anarchy. We revel in both panto and the Proms.

I WOULDN’T be in politics if it wasn’t for my dad Dermot.

The charismatic, bright and chippy son of Irish immigrants, he gave an inspirational life to public service. He was my childhood hero but he had a fatal flaw – a deep dependence on

Narrow, nasty nationalists are different. They’re vicious, power hungry, always obsessing with prestige.

Real patriotism is something else. Because you can’t truly love your country unless you care for the people who live in it.

What I see in my work collecting food for foodbanks or helping groups that feed the homeless is the gigantic seam of kindness that runs right through this country’s

soul like words alcohol that ultimately took his life.

Supporting him throughout his struggle broke my heart. Every child of an alcoholic learns that we can’t change things for our parents. But we can change things for our through a stick of rock. Think of the people honoured by the Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain awards. They’re proper heroes. But real patriots want the best of Britain’s freedoms to be the rights of all, not some. That’s why trade unionists marched and suffragettes died. It’s why we founded the Labour Party and built the NHS.

Labour’s new leader needs to be someone who can champion this kind of patriotism. Someone determined to advance both Britain’s interests and its ideals. Both our values and our virtues.

That means campaigning to save the children. So, if you feel you’ve overdone this Christmas, have a think about joining me and millions of others and take the Dry January challenge, cutting out booze for the month. It won’t just be you that feels the difference.

NHS, to make homelessness history and end the scandal of foodbanks.

But it also means standing against Scottish nationalism, the threat of new borders in Northern Ireland and leading the alliance against the menace of Russia, whose allies are busy funnelling cash to the Tories’ war chest.

After defeats like this, people always ask can Labour win again? Of course we can. But it’ll take Labour’s next leader mixing the idealism of Mr Corbyn with a whacking great dollop of British pride – and a determination to build a more United Kingdom.