IT’S ALWAYS nice to receive compliments for my blogging. The only problem is that I generally receive them from Tories, rather than from fellow party members.

The latest case in point is the recently-founded Tory Tavern blog, who writes:

So, a fantastic few days blogging from Mr Harris. The landlord has one remaining nagging thought, though. With his common-sense, honest and open approach to politics, his rejection of electoral reform, his commitment to unionism, his criticism of Labour plans to raise taxes on the rich, his dislike of political correctness and his view that Gordon Brown should resign…is he sure he’s in the right party?

So let’s tackle those points head-on.

First off, I don’t think that having a “common-sense, honest and open approach” to politics is or should be the preserve of any one party; there are bloggers from all the main parties who subscribe to those values – and plenty who don’t.

Support for the First-Past-The-Post electoral system is still the mainstream view among MPs and activists in the Labour Party, so supporting it publicly is hardly taking a “maverick” stance.

As far as unionism is concerned, the Labour Party is far more committed to the Union than the modern Conservative Party is. A Tory party committed to making Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs second class members of the Commons would be a greater threat to the United Kingdom than the SNP could ever be.

On taxes, Tony Blair and New Labour won the confidence of the electorate by persuading the country that Labour no longer believed in taxing for its own sake, that if they have to be raised at all, it should be done reluctantly, as a last resort, and to fund a specific spending commitment. That’s what I – and the vast majority of Labour MPs – still believe.

My frustration with political correctness is actually illustrated by Tory Tavern’s citing of it as evidence that I’m in the wrong party: why on earth must the Labour Party allow itself to fall into the trap of defending it? I haven’t met a single person – of any party or none – who can defend the more witless examples of political correctness. The young boy sent home with a note to his parents revealing that he had uttered anti-German sentiments while his class was being taught about the Second World War? The student who was arrested and forced to spend the night in the cells for calling a police horse gay? And don’t even start me on “Winterfest” or “NeutralFest” or “Let’sMakeSureNo-oneCanPossiblyBeOffendedByReferencesToChristianityFest” or whatever. No-one defends that kind of nonsense, and if Labour Party members do, I’ve never met them.

To the above list of indictments, I should ask for my views on benefit dependency and single parents and my robust approach to asylum to be considered as more “offences” to be taken into account. These have been portrayed by the media as being “anti-Labour” or at least “anti-Left wing”. In fact, on the single parents issue, while I did receive some messages of support from Conservative colleagues in the Commons, I was overwhelmed by the support I received from Labour colleagues who told me it was “about time” someone said what I said.

I don’t specifically adopt these views in order to drive up traffic on this blog or to earn praise from right wingers. I believe that the views I hold are shared not only by the vast majority of what most people understand to be Labour’s “core vote”, but by the vast majority of the wider electorate. And I espouse those views because (a) I believe they are right, and (b) I believe Labour would be more popular if more of its representatives at every level were to voice them.

And that’s the whole point: I want Labour to win the general election and to stay in government, because that, in my opinion, would be in the best interests of my country and my constituents.

So, yes, Tory Tavern, I am in the right party. And if I had my way, your party would have a longer term in opposition ahead of you than behind you.