Both of last night’s by-elections tell us much about the toxic state of mainstream politics. The Liberal Democrats, sadly, were nowhere, the Tories are all over the place, but it’s Labour chickens coming home to roost that must concern us most.
Politics in Britain today is not really about UKIP but about the failure of Labour in particular to present a coherent, desirable and feasible alternative to the Tories.
Whether you are a Labour supporter or not, everyone in Compass, in the short term at least, needs the party to deliver but right now, intellectually and organisationally, Labour feels like an empty vessel.
Yes some big moves have been made – on energy prices and against Murdoch but none of it adds up and even where the policies are right too few believe they are deliverable. One Nation, always a mistaken move, not least because of Scotland, has been dropped but nothing has taken its place other than the word ‘together’. The theme of responsible capitalism was never developed. Austerity has been accepted. Living standards and NHS are all that’s left to campaign on. There is no coherence and there is no real alternative. Jon Cruddas is developing a rich mix of policies on the devolution of power but the leadership largely ignore it. Arnie Graf the community organiser has been rejected.
The Tories could still be toxic enough to lose next May, but then what? With its talk of benefit cuts, austerity with a human face and concerns about immigration Labour are simply building a cage for any victory that might fall into their lap.
Meanwhile the debate, because of the space given to UKIP, veers off to the populist right. Let’s get this straight. Most people don’t vote UKIP for any other reason than they hate and despise mainstream politicians. They don’t think UKIP have any answers but they don’t care. They just want to stick two fingers up to Miliband, Clegg and Cameron. Come May, UKIP will find it difficult to win seats as their resources are spread thinly but that doesn’t mean the underlying issues go away. Below the water, discontent and alienation fester. In Scotland, the SNP could make a big break through and frankly they might deserve to, so bad is Labourism north of the border. Labour has taken its core vote and the marginalised for granted for too long – believing they had nowhere else to go. Now they have UKIP, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Greens, or they can just stay at home.
So what do we do? We need a politics that totally, one hundred per cent, addresses the social and economic alienation that people feel. We need good jobs, fair pay, investment in affordable homes for all, an adequate social safety net and public services that are there for us whenever we need them. We need politicians that listen and political parties that are driven by their members.
But we also need leadership. Progressive politics right now needs leadership that says “we understand you feel powerless and anxious but this is not the fault of people in your community or in your country that are different from you.” This is about bankers not Bulgarians. We need leadership that says that our common humanity is what makes us and our country special. We need leadership that says the richness and diversity of our country is something to be cherished and embraced not ditched at the first whiff of Nigel’s cigars and beer. We need leadership that says we are better because we are different and that tolerance, empathy and love for others are the hallmarks of a good society. These values cannot be traded for votes or hidden from view until an appropriate moment. There will never be an appropriate moment, only a worse moment, unless we stand up and speak out now. Even it was just about wining votes, progressives can never out UKIP UKIP. That way only misery lies.
And one more thing we need from our leadership. The Tories, as they pander to UKIP, are now gung ho in their determination to rid us of The Human Rights Act. Compass bangs on a lot about democracy – and rightly so. Democracy is the means by which we help ensure equality, participation and knit our multi-cultural society together – as we have always managed to do. But democracy isn’t enough on its own. It has to be underpinned by a basic and essential framework of Human Rights. Democracy can lead to division and oppression. Last night it started doing just that in Clacton and Heywood and Middleton. It’s why we need a legal foundation to underpin our common humanity.
Back in 2010 Ed Miliband said a lot of these things – but has been too silent since. But leadership isn’t something we should expect from others – it’s something we have to create and do ourselves. As ever, we are the people we have been waiting for. We should wait no longer.
Totally agree- a useless Lab government will help drive up Ukip numbers even more. Policies need radicalisation!
http://paperblogwriter49.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/tory-policies-are-godsend-for-labour.html
Why oh why is no one asking UKIP the right questions..? for expample they are so against the EU and yet they are standing by or sitting on the fence while the EU and the USA are doing a secret deal to the United Kingfdom and the democratic system in the country that thousands have paid for, often with their own lives! I refer to the TTiP the secret trade deal that is being negotiated at this moment in time and is more than likely going to get passed on a Nod and a wink.. from UKIP. If they are to be taken seriously by the mass’s when thye say the NHS is safe with us. Then prove it and stop this going through now, Stand Up and speak up Nigel about TTiP !
If your really serious about Getting us out of the EU
Agree with all your sentiments. 2015 could be the most depressing since 1974 when none of the main parties deserved to win. The only way Labour can win is by default not because of the strength of their vision or policies. It is and remains a rightist agenda.
Press speculation is around Johnson mounting a challenge. Milliband is a liability and frankly does not inspire electoral or indeed supporter confidence. Lets have a leadership challenge for goodness sake Alan throw your hat in the ring and give at least one disillusioned Labour party supporter hope rather than despair.
Let us win because we have the values and policies not by default. We need to secure human rights to have a realistic foreign policy and to promote fairness and equality in our social and economic governance
You say that ‘Austerity’ had been accepted … Not by me or anyone I know it hasn’t. ‘Tougher than the Tories ‘ was the shortest political suicide note in history referring to the attitude of Nu Labor to variabled people. If you think swapping the deck chairs on the Titanic is going to save your job creation scheme for another brand of Toff you can think again. We have all moved on. Your policy on Austerity is to accept the Tory lie and your policy for benefits is ‘Tougher than the Tories’. When you had a chance to make a difference you were all fixed on the ministerial cars. Nu Labor? You know where you can shove that.
The mood in Scotland is very different because there does seem to be a political alternative which amounts to rather more than the SNP. First, it is not unlikely that there may be some sort of electoral pact for the next Westminster election which in essence will be anti-labour.
Second, and much more importantly, there is a revival of engaged politics in Scotland. It never was the case that the mass of people but politically active but enough were to maintain a real politics as part of everyday life. That is now dead in the water in England. The referendum campaign has breathed new life into it in Scotland. My part of Scotland as the only directly elected Tory S MP but even here we are having meetings of radicals, many of whom were not active at all before the referendum, looking for a different future.
This could all run into the sand if we get politics as usual but it is there. In contrast on Tyneside, one of Labour’s absolute strongholds, there is no sign of any real popular politics although there are campaign groups on specific issues. However, they have so little impact, for example around planning policies where labour controlled authorities basically do whatever the developers want, but they have the dreadful effect of reinforcing people’s sense of their own political impotence.
Labour is no longer the lesser of two evils. Labour has failed as opposition and has endorsed too many Tory policies. I lost faith when Blair dragged Labour over to the right; and UKIP is just a bunch of bigoted nut-cases. For the first time I will be voting Green. It has been so refreshing to read about their progressive policies and for the first time in many years, my interest in party politics has reawakened. They haven’t had fair media coverage (unlike UKIP) but have still managed to more than double their party membership in one year. They are the only party talking sense to me.
I do hate it when so called democrats, faced with a democratic decision that they don’t like (human rights), throw their rattles out of their prams. Regardless of party we need someone to stand up and echo Ken Clark’s statements, giving a principled lead to controversial subjects such as this, the EU and immigration.
Main stream politics is toxic because it has been captured by big business, which makes all the main parties toe a narrow line. UKIP says things outside of the mainstream and this gives them the appearance of being different. Rather than tackling this problem we encourage it by allowing businesses (and trades unions) to fund our political parties, by allowing lobbyists easy access to our politicians, by seconding business people into government and by oiling the revolving door between politicians, bureaucrats and business.
If these things are tackled, particularly if political parties are mainly funded by their members, then we might encourage our political parties to come up with policies that its members and the public wants, rather than policies that the business community wants.
Tories are appalling. LibDems a bad joke. UKIP has touched a nerve.
Faced with this opportunity Labour avoids the key issues or takes the wrong position, eg on war, austerity, neoliberal dominance.
You don’t have to be an extremist to see that Labour has abandoned Labour principles and become Tory-lite. Labour activists should get out now and join the only credible parliamentary alternative – the Greens.
Ed Miliband’s father, a Russian exile wrote something that is very true, politicians forget it at their peril. He said that “The English are a bunch of raving nationalists”. UKIP are the closest thing to a ‘nationalist’ type of ideology with what appears to be a strong positive leader. The British respect a strong leader in the vein of Churchill or (heaven help us) Thatcher! The Brits like their leaders to be forthright and positive even if they disagree with them. We English have had enough! When we look at all the political parties it is none of the above! They are all the same old, same old! If we are fortunate and there arises a strong direct person no matter what their political persuasion, they will sweep the pool. At the moment only Farage looks and speaks in that way so look out for a major upset in the next election because I think that the Tories or Labour will need UKIP to form any kind of government. We are therefore looking at the demise of the Labour party in British politics.
As ever, Neal Lawson puts it succinctly and accurately. The mystery, for me, is Milliband. He seems to understand what the moment needs, he shows flashes of courage and daring – but then gets back in his box, frightened and feeble. The Green party currently presents the most radical, decisive vision, in my opinion.
An excellent and succinct analysis which rightly points the finger at Labour for continuing to be in thrall to establishment interests for fear of losing the Shire Counties vote. Or maybe it’s not that – maybe those at the top genuinely believe in dancing on a pin-head in the centre ground – whatever that is. The media claim that both Labour and Tories are retreating to their core supporters in the run-up to the election next May. That may be true of the Tories as they swing to the Right but there’s little evidence of Labour shifting ground. And no doubt it suits the media’s purpose to polarise the debate in such a way since it makes for easier reporting and headline-grabbing sound-bites. I was an enthusiastic supporter of Ed Miliband once and have waited patiently but in vain for a breakthrough to give us the vision that Neal’s statement so eloquently articulates. But he has proved to be a grave disappointment if not a disaster. At best it’s been a case of one step forward, and two back. The failure to follow through on any radical or fresh thinking or to challenge the lies peddled by the Coalition government concerning the deficit and Labour’s role in this beggars belief. Whether Miliband remains in a Blairite straightjacket or just lacks the qualities (and gut instinct) needed to mobilise the Party and its supporters in a new direction is not relevant now. There is a serious vacuum at the heart of what Labour now stands for and as long as that persisists there will be plenty of nasty forces, and an unforgiving media, ready to occupy it. I am Scottish living in England but had I had a vote in the recent referendum I would have voted Yes without hesitation, not because I subscribe to some form of populist nationalism or because independence didn’t carry risks (it does) but because it seemed the only available instrument or weapon to break the mould and bring about the sort of disruptive innovation we so desperately need to put our broken political system on a new footing. UKIP isn’t doing that – it’s just disruptive and wants to turn the clock back to a mythical ‘golden age’. But in England where is one to go when Labour just isn’t fit for purpose? To the Greens? Sadly, at present I fail to see why on earth I should continue voting Labour. Reading Neal’s statement gives me no cause for changing that view. Unless Labour can be changed from within and pretty damned quick, we need another voice. It’s said UKIP will split the Tories. Maybe it will split Labour, too.
Politics in Britain today is not about the’failure of Labour’. What nonsense. It’s about the Tories.
Milliband and all the others have no idea what people want or need, this is no longer the labour party, all its principles have been lost. None of the top people, I will not call them leaders as they do not have a clue, they are all professional politicians, who have never done a days work in their lives. The majority of people out there have simple needs, a decent, fairly paid job, good schools for their children, a fully functioning, depoliticised NHS and a pension they can live on, and when they do have a job they want to be secure in the knowledge that the job will not kill them or make them ill, and that they will receive justice and fair treatment in every thing that affects their lives.
As a Labour PPC in SW Norfolk in 2010 and again for 2015, as well as Chair of Norfolk Local Campaign Forum, I and every party activist I know, including many PPCs, are in despair at the feeble offering we have on the doorstep. The feeling is that Ed Balls is the problem, as he is driving an austerity-lite programme which is underpinning and undermining every other area of Labour’s thinking. We came away from Conference distinctly underwhelmed. The only relief nd hope came from fringe meetings, with excellent people like Lisa Nandy, the Eagles, Jeremy Corbyn and Kelvin Hopkins, an outstanding economist who should be in the Shadow Cabinet.Here in the East we are close to a full scale rebellion. The only area which we can campaign on with confidence is the NHS. Yet there are so many good, and popular, policies which we could and should have, including the public ownership of rail, the return of all schools to LA control, public ownership of all the utilities , a progressive tax system which includes robust anti tax avoidance legislation policed by a much expanded HMRC, a Robin Hood Tax and strong environmental policies which address climate change and phase out fossil fuel dependence. We simply cannot support any fracking. Oh, and proper investment in a military which has its purposes redefined at the same time as rejecting the ludicrous renewal of Trident. And we must go for a Living Wage for all..In short,,we must create a very distinct set of bold policies which give hope to a demoralised electorate.
I absolutely agree that Labour needs a ‘coherent, desirable and feasible alternative to the Tories’, but they need, also, a coherent strategy to get their ‘message’ across. The right-wing media in Britain is a huge problem for the Labour Party and they need to find a myriad of ways to reach the electorate. They should also, in my view, take advice on presentational skills. The message needs to be appealing to the majority of the population but it needs to be fully heard and understood by them.
I agree with pretty well all of Neal Lawson’s points in his post-by-election analysis. But what are Compass putting forward as the solution to the dire state of our democracy? There are plenty of people banging on about the terrible state of things, but nobody seems to have a coherent plan to fix it.
There are some real issues that have to be sorted, like immigration. It is NOT racist to believe that our small overcrowded island cannot take the current rate of immigration. It is the abject failure of all three main parties to deal with this issue which is mainly responsible for driving people into the UKIP fold.
So, Compass, what would YOU do about the immigration issue? The numbers have to be reduced – the question is, how? And can it be done without the UK having to leave the EU?
I agree totally with the views you have expressed although I am not prepared to support Milliband. His views miss out on the vital concerns for the future of humanity and our ecosystem and that is the reason that my vote will always go in support of the Green Party whenever thy are standing.
I think that the public are having a honeymoon with the UKIP (BNP by any other name) but once they really notices UKIP’s true colours they may change their ideas- i.e. the Homophobic issues and other minority groups!
How very sad it all is. I joined the Party just after the war and rose to the important position of Polling District Treasurer in North Paddington – collecting the subs of 6p a month from fellow members.
There are still millions of people like I was then still around – but who will inspire and lead us?
It is still possible to have a better fairer Britain. The Scottish vote showed that a whole community is still interested in its own destiny – even if not agreeing. But as issue u,noted them.
What is our Issue?
The biggest problem is that our political elite are just that, drawn from too narrower a band of us and they really fail to hear, understand and act on the messages that they get.
Bottom line is that we desperately need a new political party made up of a broad band of views, backgrounds and interests, BUT ONE that listens.
Having been a Labour member for many years and a councillor, I became disillusioned with Blair and Brown, since then the party has drifted ever more to the right but without conviction, it is in a sense a ship minus the rudder.
Come the next election I will not vote Labour, and I take no pleasure in saying that, so I’ll be looking for some where socialist, green and Welsh……..but will I find it?
I have great respect for the Green Party but the reality is they will not hold power after the next general election. It will either be Labour or the Tories. I am not impressed with the current government’s performance over the last four and a half years. Whichever party wins the next election there will be difficulties ahead with no magic wand. The NHS is in crisis, the national debt is at an all time high. Quantitive easing has been happening for several years and the growth of poverty and those using food banks has grown. I feel that Milliband is a sincere politician but he needs to be much stronger at getting his message out. He has raised the question over the energy companies, zero hour contracts, the minimum wages and rip off landlords. All of which I am in favour of. The myth that the last Labour government was responsible for the global financial crash needs to be dispelled and the “open door” policy on immigration. I would like to see Labour bring back the “points” system for immigrants from outside of the EU which was abandoned by the current government. Labour does have a very strong team in the Shadow Cabinet. I would like to hear and see more of them in the public eye.
immigration must come top.
It was an issue in the time of enoch powell and it has bee allowed to festrer ever since. The three major pariets have refused to listen to the opinion of the so-called silent majority who have seen massive incursions into what they considered was the British waty of life while having their fears roused by a media which has little regard for the realities.They have never wanted immimgrants
UKIP has articulated their attitudes promising to enact a simplistic policy of getting out of Europe so solving the curse of immigration and save money at the same time. Powerful persuasion for the silent masses who are convinced the Westminster village never listens to them.
Then there is the economy. The Tory conference cheered Cameron when he promised them more easing of taxes and they approved Osborne’s startegy of taking more from the most poorly paid. Robin hood in reverse. Labour’s response to these announcements was, to be polite, tepid. Consider how the poorest paid feel when they hear nothing from the opposition in support of their needs..
I may be an admirer of Ed Milliband who is a genuine and caring person but he has the charisma of wilting cabbage and the oratory of university mute. Surely there must be people in the Labour party who can speak about matters like trying to buy a house, finding a secure job, and saving for a decent pension, and having enough money to pay the bills. It woud not hurt to remind this nation that we were closer to achieve these objectives before Thatcher than we were now.
I am old enough to remember with pride the Labour Party in the 1950’s and 60’s. I was a member then. I am now but was not during the Blair era. I have voted Liberal and Green in that period but felt that it was getting possible to rejoin Labour. I am having doubts again, the Green manifesto is looking good but our ‘first past the post’ voting system is a big problem, and I hate to waste a vote.
My hair stood on end when I read this – it’s exactly what needs saying about the paucity of policy and lack of leadership on the left. I’ve voted Labour every time for the last 43 years even when it didn’t count locally, but I see a leadership content to kowtow to Tory agendas and I might vote Green on principle.
So how do we get a leadership that has conviction, policy and personality (this latter matters and we all know it: afraid to say it)?
The message of “it was bankers not Bulgarians” (wonderful line) has got to come again and again from us and that leadership; we cannot be afraid of the 1% or we’ll fail to the Kippers, to the anti-vote, to the disillusionment with lack of challenge to those who want to own us.
“Another day dawns grey, it’s enough to make me spit. But we go on our way putting up with it… So you bought it all, the best money can buy, and I watched you sell your soul for their bright shining lie. Where are the principles of the party I once knew? I guess you let them fade from red to blue” (with some apologies to Billy Bragg).
I am exasperated, A Green Party member for 27 years i have watched as the urgent need for a move to a completely new paradigm of ecological democracy and global internationalism has been pushed back by labour, the unions and of course the Tories in a push for free market globalisation. There have been many ideas from contraction and convergence, negative interest economics and monetary reform, citizen income but no heed taken. The media have carried believing in a hopeless dream. I remember election night 1997, being at the count in Lancaster where Labour celebrated winning and walking back through the streets feeling anything but jubilant. I saw nothing to indicate that the huge shift needed was being talked about at all. Sadly it wasn’t and a few wars and economic collapses later here we are.
I sympathise with views expressed but returning to welfare state social democracy is not viable or even appealing! We need to move beyond private profit and the accumulation of surplus value as the foundation of our economy! We need a non-growth economic model of even distribution whilst retaining the human right to buy and sell on an individual basis.
Having taken in comments all over social media today, I sense there is a growing appetite to replace Ed Milliband. What does anybody else think? I voted for him because I felt he would move the Labour party just far enough to the left of the rejected New Labour to become once again the automatic and only choice for working people. This has not happened and in wondering why, I do think Labour missed a trick with responsible capitalism and predistribution. I fear it is too late to change the leader but unless something happens very quickly, well another 5 years of Cameron et al is quite unthinkable!
I believe that since 2009 there has been an opportunity for radical economic change with very wide public support. The majority of people want a society in which businesses pay fair taxes, where the inequality of income and wealth is less, where the values within organisations prevent, interest rate fixing, the selling of unwanted services and the manipulation of targets. I believe support for these values goes across across party lines.
I am disappointed that Ed did not go down this path. But i guess we should realise that the existing parties can not make the initiative for change because they are too entwined in the past.
I conclude we must take action into our hands to give people the opportunity to express their support for such a change. If anybody wants to explore this please contact.
Support your analysis of UKIP,s appeal and the void where Labour should be. The appeal from the left must broaden to include trade union leadership, health workers the TUC as well Compass membership. The loudest cheer Harriet Harman got on Question Time last night was for the health and care service and the means to pay for it. Austerity is not working and sticking to Government targets will ensure that Labour is supporting the Conservative ideology of withering the state. Miliband must speak out and oppose the Conservatives’ neoliberal economic agenda clearly so that everyone understands what is at stake.
I agree with everything you say! Am particularly concerned about TTIP because if that were to be agreed to none of the things that Ed Miliband has talked about could be realised! And yet, there is no clear message about TTIP from the Labour Party. I sent Ed M. John Hilary’s booklet on TTIP, but of course one does not know whether it reached him.
At the their conference the Tories laid out clearly in which direction the intend to go, tax concessions to the rich and further billion cuts for the poor, get rid of the HR Act, the best thing that Blair did.
What can we do??? Can Jon Cruddas not DEMAND TO SEE Ed M and tell him how fed up we all are with the lack of leadership, policy and candid opposition to what the Tories are doing and planning? I am active in our local branch and everyone I speak to says the same thing. Are the leadership asleep? Jon would have Compass members behind him, so why not ACT?
Thank you.
I am a huge fan of Neal Lawson and Compass but I must say I read the above analysis by Neal with a heavy heart. In the 827 word article the word IMMIGRATION was only mentioned once and in a rather unclear way:
With its talk of benefit cuts, austerity with a human face and concerns about immigration Labour are simply building a cage for any victory that might fall into their lap.
This implied that if Labour wins –something I fervently hope for- then expressing ‘concern about immigration’ will be a ‘cage’.
Neal asserts that Most people don’t vote UKIP for any other reason than they hate and despise mainstream politicians. WRONG the reason most people vote for UKIP is immigration immigration immigration.
He then goes on to compound this error by saying They don’t think UKIP have any answers On the contrary they know Ukip does have a plausible answer to their major concern of uncontrolled EU immigration, Its to get out of Europe and take back control of our borders but they don’t care. They just want to stick two fingers up to Miliband, Clegg and Cameron. But why do they want to do this? Oh course part of it is the bland automatom speak, expenses scandal memories, austerity cruel to austerity lite, etc but mostly its because all three political parties want to be in Europe and therefore have to accepted uncontrollable EU immigration. Of course all parties now talk about tinkering with migrants benefits (whereas for most people it’s the numbers involved and the lack of controls that is the problem). Cameron’s latest wheeze hoping that he can get a deal to force NEW EU members to wait up to ten years before they get total freedom of movement- which wont happen till 2019 if ever. Miliband said NOTHING substantial today of course on the ‘I’ word, when welcoming the new Labour MP who squeaked in by 617 votes, rather he intoned a variant of Neal’s point that voters despise politicians and he is listening.
I of course agree with all of the rest of Neals analysis, I’m not in the Labour Party but will be door knocking for a Labour MP in the May election and I desperately want Labour to win BUT Compass and the rest of the left and indeed the Greens (generally equally hopeless about immigration) must start talking about this and give people an idea of what they will do about uncontrollable European migration.
My take on what Labour should do was in the inevitable Guardian letter:
It’s time that Labour took seriously the majority’s concerns about uncontrollable European immigration and rising economic insecurity and so start a debate with its allies in Europe to allow countries to cooperate to take back control of their borders over people and money and goods for progressive goals, such as reducing inequality and rebuilding flourishing local economies. This could result in increased political support for a reformed Europe which actually addresses the majority’s fears for the future, rather than making them worse.
Whether you like it or not the Lib Dems sold out to the Tories, UKIP are the Tories zombied from the 1930’s if not the 1830’s and unless you have a big idea to build a party on in six months; that means backing and improving the Labour Party. You yourselves are part of this silly phenomenon pushed by the Tory press to cause all their enemies to quit the field in which the word has been put about that regular politics is a waste of time – very Marxist as the big firms have bought up everything. Now if you wan t to put some sparkle back into getting rid of Tories and one party safe seats and wider deeper political discussion then join your local Labour branch and canvass like hell till May and at he same time get to know the amount of time and knowing your area and your neighbours involved effort it takes to get up a political head of steam and connections. For a start Farage could not do what he is up to without the finances of his one or two discreet wealthy backers and we should be exposing the cowardly brat by letters in all the local press and social media. We do not need more Murdoch style indirect government. Canvass and agitate for changing the voting system to STV so that we can vote for an individual candidate within a party list and fire some dead legs. Canvass and agitate for breaking up the media empires or at least cutting foreign ownership to under 50%. The US forbids foreign media ownership.
I wholeheartedly agree with what you have written, but I don’t know what to say about what should happen. I have become involved with the Stop TTIP campaign and I think that and the Save our NHS – could be the way forward – as everyone I speak to even people I’ve never alked politics with before show interest and anger – the tipping point that gets people involved in our democracy might only be just coming now as TTIP and ISDS represent the loss of any shreds of democracy left – but all 3 parties support it.
If Labour politicians were standing up and saying what you are saying in this article I would feel able to get out and canvass for them even though I have never canvassed before because I am in despair about UKIP taking the votes of people who don’t feel listened to. Sadly, Ed Milliband is not someone I can see as prime minister. As Dorene McCormack says below, maybe we need to hear more from the rest of the Shadow cabinet to inspire some faith in Labour’s abilities.
The independence debate in Scotland has fired up people to debate what they want out of their government. We need to do the same here without turning into a nation of ‘little englanders’.
it’s so sad that Labour are so timid about challenging the current Government policies and offering a real alternative. About 3 years ago, I wrote to Ed Miliband and the then shadow energy minister, Caroline Flint, asking them to seriously consider the proposals presented in the publication ‘ One million Green jobs’, written by a consortium of organisations, including trades unions. I never heard from either of them.
I agree the policy aims set out above, and perhaps some Labour MPs do too, but our newsprint media, in particular, would crucify a Labour leader who spelt them out that explicitly. This, I think, is the problem faced by successive leaders of the Labour party.
Tony Blair sold the labour party down the drain. Gordon Brown, lets down to. Finally Ed, is not man to lead the labour party or the people.
It like Labour in no-mans land yet again due to Blair bad management. it is not labour! having know Authur Utting and Trevor his son. The labour party are in onwhere land. Another 18years going nowhere! They need leadship who understand what it like to be disable and treated like a criminal, just because your ill and can’;t work!
Pledging to keep tory budget cuts instead of raising receipts (remember Labour ran a surplus before 2008 crash, and never remind us of that) is a mistake the tories are loving !
The tories are pandering to the Grey-vote (bus passes. cruise-aid, tv licences, NHS, tax-free pension-pot hand-ons) and the wealthy-vote because they vote, and the transient–poor, young and working classes–don’t! Something must be done to motivate the young and working classes to get out and vote–and same budget cuts as tories is not the message to motivate them with?
Raising taxes is unpopular but necessary to balance the books, and poor workers and the unemployed can’t bear the load any longer, nor in a genteel and humane society can any more spending be cut back –which leaves only the corporations, land-banks, aristocratic estates, inherited wealth, excessive remuneration (at the expense of lower paid workers), tax-dodgers, dividends and capital-gains as places to get the necessary revenue.
The Tories budget-bribes are irresponsible and must be exposed for the fiction they are–their sums don’t and never will add-up! A real problem is being stored up and held back, and INTERGENERATIONAL TROUBLE (war) is a real possibility if the young see no future for themselves while the older wealthier generations hoard and donate money to bogus charities for gold-plated-zebra-crossings, export their wealth on cruises and holidays while demanding their votes be bought by free busses and tv licences (the young don’t watch TV any-longer)!
Jon Cruddas should leave the Labour party and concentrate on a new form of governance.
Labour are just a reflection of what is common in the 2.5 and combination of career politicians, big business and media moguls has derailed effective governance.
The tribal nature of politics and obvious regional differences creates a bipolar situation that causes huge damage to key institutions such as education, the NHS and welfare.
The problem is the system and party politics and the actual idea of voting for a party that will have a few running everything for a short 5 year term so the next lot can change things for their term is just fubar is you think about it.
I don’t want to vote for a party any more, my interests are in key policies in my region.
So John form a new governance service that doesn’t like the term party that is free of agendas and manifesto.
Embrace diversity and push for regional assemblies and a more transparent and participative democracy.
Stand for your ward or constituency and act on their behalf and stop the gerrymandering of the party line.
The current system is about the few and this is the opposite of the literal definition of democracy.
Participative and regional democracy for me are vote winners.
I’m sympathetic to Labour, apart from the Iraq years. I like Miliband. But forgetting parts of what may have been the most important speech of his life? Is he serous?
Ed Balls makes that lapse – and most other things – significantly worse.
I sent this comment below last night but it has not appeared on the site yet, when I resent it an automatic reply said I had sent it but it does not appear in the posts below. I am I missing something?
I am a huge fan of Neal Lawson and Compass but I must say I read the above analysis by Neal with a heavy heart. In the 827 word article the word IMMIGRATION was only mentioned once and in a rather unclear way:
With its talk of benefit cuts, austerity with a human face and concerns about immigration Labour are simply building a cage for any victory that might fall into their lap.
This implied that if Labour wins –something I fervently hope for- then expressing ‘concern about immigration’ will be a ‘cage’.
Neal asserts that Most people don’t vote UKIP for any other reason than they hate and despise mainstream politicians. WRONG the reason most people vote for UKIP is immigration immigration immigration.
He then goes on to compound this error by saying They don’t think UKIP have any answers On the contrary they know Ukip does have a plausible answer to their major concern of uncontrolled EU immigration, Its to get out of Europe and take back control of our borders but they don’t care. They just want to stick two fingers up to Miliband, Clegg and Cameron. But why do they want to do this? Oh course part of it is the bland automatom speak, expenses scandal memories, austerity cruel to austerity lite, etc but mostly its because all three political parties want to be in Europe and therefore have to accepted uncontrollable EU immigration. Of course all parties now talk about tinkering with migrants benefits (whereas for most people it’s the numbers involved and the lack of controls that is the problem). Cameron’s latest wheeze hoping that he can get a deal to force NEW EU members to wait up to ten years before they get total freedom of movement- which wont happen till 2019 if ever. Miliband said NOTHING substantial today of course on the ‘I’ word, when welcoming the new Labour MP who squeaked in by 617 votes, rather he intoned a variant of Neal’s point that voters despise politicians and he is listening.
I of course agree with all of the rest of Neals analysis, I’m not in the Labour Party but will be door knocking for a Labour MP in the May election and I desperately want Labour to win BUT Compass and the rest of the left and indeed the Greens (generally equally hopeless about immigration) must start talking about this and give people an idea of what they will do about uncontrollable European migration.
My take on what Labour should do was in the inevitable Guardian letter:
It’s time that Labour took seriously the majority’s concerns about uncontrollable European immigration and rising economic insecurity and so start a debate with its allies in Europe to allow countries to cooperate to take back control of their borders over people and money and goods for progressive goals, such as reducing inequality and rebuilding flourishing local economies. This could result in increased political support for a reformed Europe which actually addresses the majority’s fears for the future, rather than making them worse.
I am 88 years old and VERY depressed politically. Having started out christian, communist, labour, I now feel hopeless.Maybe we are in the million year cycle called chaos.
Utterly betrayed by Labour on ‘Workfare’, which both enslaves claimants & kills real, paid, work, & by their voting for wars (why not give arms to the Kurds?). Labour sent me an email re fox-hunting, but have said nothing on the welfare ‘reform’ deaths. It was the Green Party who produced the excellent video on Saving the NHS for the Common Good, & oppose TTIP, fracking, & Trident. As for Ed endorsing that piece of filth, ‘The Sun’, it stinks.
After the by-elections: the political leadership we need now.
It appears to me that it doesn’t matter which politicians are either in favour or against immigration. The whole thing seems to be driven by right wing, small minded individuals, owners of the media with their own particular axes to grind. UKIP is merely the face of this phenomenon with opportunists like Farage sensing the openings being offered by these individuals. It’s about time that some sense percolated down to the electorate, with the true facts, for good or ill, being laid out, so that people can make a properly informed decision!
Labour should not let Conservatives alter the European Human Rights . British Human Rights sounds well enough but would they protect British people abroad?
Let us not be mean-spirited but generous to the poor. Where can they get jobs, or jobs which pay decent wages? Read Alan Johnson’s autobiography “This Boy” to remind yourself how easy it was to get a job and change jobs in the 1960’s Where were the skivers and scroungers then? At work. Do not demonise the poor.
Emphasise green issues – climate change is still happening. We need to be called upon to CARE and be seen to be led by a Party which cares about our future.
Remind people about how wonderful 1948 was, never in all our history have working people had such good lives so God bless the NHS.
Emphasise the good points of Europe. Europe’s culture is more protective of working people than that of the U.S. where workers’ rights are little regarded.
Give honour and respect the Trade Unions which are the true protectors of workers’ rights and have been the strength behind the Labour party. Finally- can some passion be injected into labours policy presentation? UKIP trades in meanness and selfishness. As a Middleton labour voter said “We need some fire in the belly.”
More common sense from Neil. Many people in the UK feel the have nowhere to go, e.g not so long ago residents of the South Wales Valleys voiced their opinion that the UK should leave the EU. They are obviously aware that a lot of European funding has been spent there, but is has made, as far as they are concerned, very little difference to their lives. Ever since the old Objective One days a high percentage of it has been wasted.Quite a lot of these people, unless Plaid can fill the gap, will vote UKIP, because as said before, they feel that they have nowhere else to go, no one is listening or giving them any hope for the future.
The people of the South Wales Valleys are typical of a lot of people in similar industrial areas, hard working, but feel let down, taken for granted, no one seems to be listening or offering any future. This is the need that UKIP ‘appears’ to filling.
Ed Milliband’s ‘job interview’ remark is revealing on reflection. It is almost as if he is treating the leader of the labour party role as a day job: you turn up, work the office hours, answer the phone and mail as best you can, go for lunch, attend meetings and contribute thoughtfully then go home. Job done! Who could ask for more?
I like many others, could sign on to what you have written and happily vote for it. The problem is the politics we have at the moment can’t provide for that opportunity for a number of reasons of which you are aware. In particular our media simply does not serve democracy: it serves corporate power and the politicians who have sold their political souls to it. Ill informed voters are therefore prone to making bad decisions or ignoring politics altohether. If TTIP is agreed as it currently stands, and Labour seems to be supportive of it, the neo-liberal ecomic model of crony capitalism will be entrenched and very difficult to work against. The EU, which I want to see as supportive and enabling of progressive politics will be even more a playground for international capital rather than an enabling structure for creating a fairer Europe and World. I can only hope that people will become more aware as they see the Planet and economy being destroyed. The next economic collapse may not be very far off.
I feel obliged to correct Neal in his assertion: ” Let’s get this straight. Most people don’t vote UKIP for any other reason than they hate and despise mainstream politicians. They don’t think UKIP have any answers but they don’t care. They just want to stick two fingers up to Miliband, Clegg and Cameron.”
If you carefully listen to new UKIP voters you will repeatedly hear the refrain: ” I am against immigration because they come over here and take our jobs”.
“The customer is always right” was the saying of many family businesses when quality of service and product was essential to keeping their customers, business and livelihood. Our business is politics and we must apply this axiom if we are to keep our voters. Collective common sense sometimes contains much unwritten wisdom.
UKIP voters are making a very salient point that is falling on deaf ears: they want to safeguard British jobs. And what is the reason for the narrowness of opportunity in the current labour market? I would argue it is the free movement of goods, capital, services, concomitant of free movement of labour under the Treaty of Rome, that is the cause. And this is because British businesses have found it impossible to compete in a great many areas resulting in the diminution of the country’s economic base.
In reality, the voters are unknowingly questioning if unrestricted international free trade is good for them. They may well be right.
I think it is all about “belief” and if Miliband and Labour could get people to have faith then anything is possible. The problem is the tactics rather than the policies and the triangulation mentality just has to go. I would far rather Labour failed dismally next May than campaign on “Not As Bad As Tories.”
Rachel Reeves, for instance, goes on about the negatives, promising to be “tough on benefits” when she has no idea of the realities of life for the sick and disabled. She has offered nothing for anyone, even the most ardent supporter of cuts, to actually be in favour of. People need something to vote FOR and not just something to vote AGAINST.
If Miliband does not get hold of his party and lead them in a positive manner he does not deserve to be PM no matter how much of a capable and caring man he is as an individual. I want my leader to have just a hint of ruthlessness and I hope he finds that edge in a reshuffle fairly soon.
Whilst I agree with most of this, I think it underestimates UKIP’s appeal to people on Europe and immigration. We’ve not managed to refute its popular attack on these and it’s association of one with the other has been toxic. It’s almost as if “the devil has the best tunes”.
Its time we went on to strongly argue the case for both instead of
Labour keep saying we made mistakes over immigration etc. and
associating this with the expansion of the EU. This just gives oxygen to UKIP.
Labour – and I’m a Party member – to a lot of people seem only to offer
‘more of the same’: austerity, cuts,etc. We might know things would be
better – by how much? – under Labour but we have yet to set out a realistic and realisable over-arching vision of what this would be.
We need people from EVERY background to represent us. What better way than using the jury service model to select 500 people for the Commons and 500 for the Lords. A true representation of the people. Elections and politicians are too easily bought by the rich and powerful. We could experiment at local level to find the best way to do this. What term limits and lobbying would be allowed. Otherwise we seem doomed to watch democracy die. I know something this radical will take a long time, but what is the alternative?
Voting Labour with Ed Milliband and Ed Balls at the helm is a none starter for me. I’ve voted Labour all my life, except last time when I voted Liberal and what a big mistake that was. I want to vote Labour, but not sure what I would be voting for. The leadership seem to be out of touch with the problems facing ordinary people and they really don’t know how to communicate. Saying they will fund the NHS is not enough, we want to know the detail. Are they aware for instance that NHS workers hours are being cut (that translates into lower wages), and at the same time foreign workers are being hired to replace those hours who are happy to work for less money. This is not anti-immigration, it’s about what is happening to ordinary people trying to keep their head above water. Ed Balls telling us that there will be more austerity is not a vote winner – we need to know why? how? Where are the plans to deal with greedy and corrupt banks – what are they, how will they be implemented?
We need a Labour Party that can lead and make us believe that meaningful and coherent change is possible and will happen. I don’t see either of these happening and so right now I feel completely disenfranchised.
Hear , hear ! Agree with all you say which is why I resigned from the Labour Party some months ago, primarily because they appear to support Fracking. Now they are also silent on TTIP and many other things that concern us all. Seem to have become” Tory light ” It is only the Greens who see to have a grip on what is going on, but I have never voted other than Labour all my life…where does a socialist go now ?
I am working with Acorn a tenants group (1100 of us in Easton) to define an ethical tenancy; 3.5% return on 150,000 is 5200 a year thats 425 a month; plus say 50 a month for repairs. Why should tenants pay more than that interest; they share nothing in the accumulated capital, live “at the grace and favour” of their “lord”………a something for nothing culture of petty tyranny has developed in the “liberal bourgoisie”. It is insidiously undermining investment in manufacturing/energy etc and the rights are less than that of a medieval rights of common; a modern serfdom.
As Neal says above leadership is something we have to create and do ourselves. We are looking at creating a new party for a new social contract. We believe that there would be very wide public support for radical change to our version of capitalism. We are trying to give the public the opportunity to tell politicians that they want a new social contract that makes capitalism work for the good of all. This requires a big shift in the values of our capitalist system. The existing political parties are too entwined in the past to be able to make this initiative. We have to create the opportunity for people to express their wish for this change. The existing parties will then adapt.
The capitalism that people want would reduce inequalities of income and wealth nationally and globally.
The capitalism that people want would mean that people in all organisations would know the difference between right and wrong and would not fix interest rates sell unwanted products or fix public sector targets.
The capitalism that people want would place high value on the quality of our caring services, the NHS and social care. People see the benefit of mutuality, sharing the cost of these services through public provision and providing access according to need.
The capitalism that people want would increase the pay of the lowest paid workers and poorest families. Particularly the pay and status of the lowest paid workers giving care to people in hospitals and in their homes. People recognise that quality care cannot be given to the ill and aged by employees on minimum wage zero hours contracts, in 15 minute slots
The capitalism that people want would require individuals and companies to pay fair taxes and implement pay and rewards policies that reduce the differentials between the richest and poorest in society.
We have to make this change because otherwise things will get worse.
If interested please contact Greg_Burland@yahoo.co.uk
Neal Lawson’s statement hits the right notes but I did not understand his last paragraph. I fear that, in Ed Milliband, Labour does not have a leader who conveys authentic understanding of how people live and what a good society looks like. He may understand these things, but he does not convey it.
It may yet be possible for Labour to position itself to meet sufficient electoral approval but will that make a real difference in the long term. The good society might be more attainable in the longer term if leadership articulated the values, annunciated principles, mapped put a direction and stuck to its guns. If a majority reject it this time around, they will know there is a real alternative when things get just too alienating and unfair.
The analysis is fine though depressing and the question of leadership fraught with difficulties. In the short term, just a few months from a general election, it seems almost intractable. Ditching Miliband is not the answer because, despite his limitations as a public communicator, he grasped the need to move away from New Labour, has developed a partial critique of modern capitalism, and has recognised the widespread mood of economic and political alienation. His team however, with some exceptions, is clearly not up to the task in hand. Their media performances lack passion and penetration; they frequently seem unable to make the most obvious points when faced with Tory claims notably allowing the great lie about Labour’s responsibility for the economic crash to sink into public consciousness. The acceptance of the austerity agenda may mean that some of them feel they are fighting with one hand behind their back and it is possible that if policy and strategy were not simply determined in top down fashion by the key players a different posture might have been adopted.
First class leadership is unlikely to emerge in a party which has not recovered from the democratic hollowing out of the Blair years; nor will a coherent and inspiring vision mature if there is not meaningful and influential debate within the party itself. It is depressing to learn that Jon Cruddas is struggling to be heard despite all the rhetoric that we get from members of the of the Shadow Cabinet about the need to listen. It is a story that could be told countless times about the thousands of individuals who have either not joined the Party or joined and then left because of the poverty of debate and lack of influence. There is some truth in the frequently heard allegation that it is the similar and limited backgrounds of the current generation of leaders (Oxbridge, student politics and political advisorships) which is responsible for producing sound-a-like, speak-your-weight, technocrats. But this itself is only a by-product of the structures and culture of the Party which is unable to throw up a choice of truly talented leaders.
Nothing much can be done about this in the short term. If it were at all practical to produce a more dynamic and imaginative shadow cabinet a partial reshuffle might help; but this is undoubtedly risky at this juncture and must involve the replacement of Ed Balls whose primary commitment to austerity and whose lack of imagination on other issues has a deadening effect.
Beyond that the membership of Compass has a choice: it can either campaign for a radical remodelling and democratisation of the Labour Party or it could conclude that it would be more profitable to contemplate the creation of an alternative one.
The rush to UKIP is unsurprising given the total failure of Labour to provide a convincing narrative and to offer alternative solutions to the drab diet of austerity, so leaving the door wide open to the easy and false nostrums of UKIP. Neither the EU nor immigration caused the present crisis, but that is what many people will believe given no alternative version.
The truth is that the economic model that has prevailed for the last 35 years is broken beyond repair. It does not work. It has made some few grossly wealthy from trading in money. It has impoverished many. It is a disaster. A wreck. A dead parrot.
Of course the Tories won’t admit this. They prefer the tale of “Labour’s mess.” Their remedy of austerity is economic illiteracy. It makes matters worse for everyone bar the super rich.
Until Labour starts addressing these fundamental issues, confronting right wing myths, and providing its own way forward, it will not be listened to. The “cost of living crisis” is true enough for many but describes effects not causes. It is not good enough to offer a Tory-lite analysis, to accept the austerity mantra.
Miliband made a good start with “responsible capitalism.” He needs to revisit this, and fast. After all, even Henry Ford, no socialist, realised he needed to pay his workers enough to buy his cars.
The money men have had their chance. They have failed miserably to create a good society. They have had their noses in the trough for long enough. It’s time for a real change to make the economy work for all and the top priority has to be to get money flowing through the system again, rather than resting in the sclerotic arteries of the new aristocracy.
Sent from my iPad
Neil Lawson seems to think that people are only voting UKIP as a protest. Unfortunately, he is as put of touch as the Labour hierarchy. Many of the working classes ( especially the young)have either lost their jobs to cheap labour from Eastern Europe, or have seen their wages go down because of it. To add insult to injury, they are laffected in terms of housing, health and education. The bosses love it however because they and the middle classes are largely unaffected. This is what happens when middle class people lead working class movements. The WC know that Labour has been complicit in this and are voting for Ukip because they are the only ones who will stop it!
I agree with all of the above. We need clear, strong, humane policies from Labour. Added to the above we need clear statements on Nationalisation not just of transport, but of utilities too and a clear, unwavering commitment on climate change and green jobs. Austerity light is not the answer, nor is tacking to the right on immigration.
Why I sadly agree with the assertion that “With its talk of benefit cuts, austerity with a human face and concerns about immigration Labour are simply building a cage for any victory that might fall into their lap” – what I found in Middleton is this is what so many did want to hear!! We have failed as a movement to get the people to see the real enemy – the greedy elite and there globalised system which now they control and will even more if TTIP goes through!!! I think it is too late to try to talk to many in generalities – Ed has actually said much of what you suggest but many do not listen. They are too angry they wanted to blame someone. Currently sadly the poor, immigrants, weak politicians, the EU. However, if we directly take on the enemy watch out for the horrendous reaction we will get using their controlled mass media.
On Ed’s election as leader I re-joined the LP after many years of disillusion.
Sadly I have now let my membership lapse. I’m afraid Ed is proving disastrous and his conference speech the final straw.
Balls is a fifth columnist for the Tories.
I fear that it might now be too late for Ed to get some fire in his belly and backbone so he can stand up for our people (all working Britons and those less fortunate).
He MUST be a real leader and call out the Tories for their divisive self serving policies, the IDS destruction of our welfare state, the unprincipled bankers and all their fellow travellers..
Get some balls Ed and attack the rentier class that are raping our country and do it NOW.
Yes, indeed we have to lead with new ideas ourselves. But learning from others also helps. Visit http://www.positivemoney.org and realise that MONEY is the key to attractive political action.
The transformation of monetary policy towards the adoption of Sovereign money proposed is probably not yet adotpable as a manifesto item. But because it would save the NHS, provide new infrastructure, etc., and address the equality problem it deserves serious study.
In the same vein, restoring the Post Office Giro bank could reassure voters that Labour cares for them. Or a UK Public Bank in each major town (beat the banksters at their own game!), that feeds 50% of its profits directly into the NHS.
And a golden rule for any manifesto drafter: look for where underutilised resources (eg unemployed) can be matched with unmet needs (eg gainful occupation). 4000+ complementary currencies in the world do just that. Time banks, too.
But there must be other more conventional ways of manipulting the present economy which Labour could offer as a way of giving the unemployed meaningful work. How about volunteering for work with local councils and being paid in vouchers that are reimbursable in future university education? Etc. All under the banner LABOUR INNOVATES FOR BRITAIN (or some-such phrase)
1) Labour have to be concerned about immigration, we cannot accept every go-getter hungry for a chance to prove himself/herself – we just can’t and we must say that to Europe and let them know we mean it.
2) Does our Democracy include our children and grandchildren, in which case you cannot ignore Climate Change and the National Debt?
3) Hard times ahead as the burgeoning world middle class does many of our jobs for half the salary, which can only acerbate the rich/poor divide. We must ask ourselves are we paying the top fifty percentile government jobs too much? Peace on the streets may depend on our answer?
4) Democracy? Why not have Local Government handle all Benefit payments: that would engage so many people and no one need be paid to sit down and keep quiet.
Listening to the people flocking to UKIP means keeping immigrants out (and down) cutting taxes while spending more money on public services and leaving people to smoke, drink and eat themselves to death. In other words taking on board a host of reactionary and contradictory policies which are the politics of the mad house.
Lets face it. Capitalism is the problem.
Please read 91 year old Harry Leslie Smith’s letter.
We need:
all encompassing health care,
free education, including universities, for all,
affordable housing.
nationalised Utilities;
in other words, OLD LABOUR.
How do we pay for all of these social necessities?
We UP taxation to the level preceding Margaret Thatcher’s reign of terror.
Well, I agree with most of the comments in the newsletter, but with the woeful lack of political education in our system, the public are still going to be totally swayed by the media and hence its owners….. International big business. Even the BBC is not immune from that.
Because of the power the press has over the ill educated public they can distract people quite easily on to relative side issues.
No political party of any description can get into power unless International big business agrees with it, and therefore, Milliband has to stick to their agenda. Blair managed this well. Big business runs government and will do so as long as the public carries on reading the ‘free ‘ press (not really free as it has been bought and paid for by big business)
Labour needs to stop fiddling around the edges and develop a strong radical raft of ideas, including:
a one off wealth tax to deal with the debt
bring in higher tax bands – as one German official said, those with the broadest shoulders should carry the most weight
nationalise energy companies, rail companies (and look at others)
examine new ways of creating democracy by using the internet
support initiatives to create new jobs – there is a lot of work to be done which is currently unfunded or underfunded
and look at the structures within the Labour party – internal infighting is viewed with disgust as pettiness.
I agree with 75% of what Geoff Naylor posted above. Free movement of labour worked when the UK was simply ‘In’ with France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy etc, because it was balanced. It is breaking down when we are ‘In’ with Bulgaria, Rumania etc because people from those low-wage countries will do anything for the UK minimum wage, including doing jobs which would otherwise have attracted more than the minimum wage. Also, since they are migrants they need accomodation which their employers may arrange for them with a profit margin, which results in the employer’s hourly employment cost coming out at less than the minimum wage. Presumably that at least could be legislated against, if we are allowed to, but the rest cannot. There is no balancing desire for people to go from the UK to work for ultra low pay in Sofia or Bucharest. All this MIGHT have been viable in the years before the bankers’ crash, though I note that income inequality started to grow around 2002 not 2008, but it does not work now. Labour needs more answers than the ones I heard from Caroline Flint on Radio 4 Any Questions yesterday (through an earphone, while I was holding a protest placard outside the Tory office in this marginal constituency – but that’s another story), saying that we should crack down on sub-minimum wage pay, employment agencies which only recruit abroad etc.
Why don’t we learn from history because it always repeats itself. The rise in UKIP comes as no surprise, whenever the general masses hit hard times and an insensitive elite emerges which cashes in and increases the inequalities extremes, begin to emerge as people do two things:
a) they look for someone or a group of people to blame in this case as in years before its the immigrants not the ‘Financial Sector’ shielded by a Tory smokescreen of blaming an overspending Labour (rather than try to understand that as times get harsh the ruling elite makes sure they do not suffer any hardship in fact they gain from the situation with public subsidies to failing banks and little expectation of having to pay back to Britain with interest – claiming a trickle down effect);
b) they look to someone for inspirational leadership to get them out this mess and they do not care about their politics no matter how extreme so long as it gives them a chance of making a better life. Remember Hitler went under a national socialists banner when he first came into power.
We are at a time where this country no longer makes things and is now even steadily losing its service sector market share to developing nations it has put all of its economic eggs in one basket the finance sector whose lack of any sense of moral compass now knows no bounds and where selfish greed is seen as good and there is absolutely no sense of obligation to society. These banks are not supporting the private and social entrepreneurs who are out there struggling to survive as all the capital is sunk elsewhere.
How can massive capital investments be made of public money into technologies which remove the opportunities for employment of the lower social classes e.g. driverless trains, automated check out counters etc. What is the human and societal cost of such decisions?
Also cutting the public sector has led to mass unemployment which has gone uncharted due to the average age of the public sector workforce (being over 40yrs) many took early retirement with the difficult prospect of finding a job so they will be spending their redundancy checks to care for their families before living close to poverty in older age. Some local authorities have lost over 40% of their workforce and the remaining staff are seriously affected by stress as they struggle to care for communities facing increasing levels of poverty with less resource to help address their basic needs.
Devolution in local government was beginning to work and local people were having a say and some control over what happened in their communities, this is all being rapidly lost due to these cuts and we are going back to a ruling class and losing all what our ancestors had fought so hard and bitterly for in the last century.
The recent changes in the legal system with loss of Legal Aid, the weakening of trades unions to a point of being ineffective combined changes in Employment Tribunals and now using anti terror legislation (a splendid ruse to use to gain back control) we now face a threat to our fundamental human rights which means that unless we are careful we will be back to being subjects of the Crown and not citizens with rights.
We need BOLD LEADERSHIP which focuses on positive values and not Tory like ‘One Nation’ or ‘Big Society’ sound bites and slogans which value community and human rights, inclusion, diversity and what they bring to our economy. We need to bring a clear vision of an alternative economic model which encourages growth which values society and the environment and recognises that massive disparity in wealth and welfare is bad for all.
I agree Labour cannot win if they try and match UKIP for right-wing, immigration policies. Labour must develop policies it believe in rather than alight on policies just to keep other parties and the press at bay. Research has shown people want the utilities & transport brought back under public ownership so make that a commitment. People don’t want fracking so let Labour ban it. It’s time to return to the spirit of the origins of the Labour Party and the development of the Welfare State: greater redistibution of wealth; collect taxes that multinationals and wealthy individuals are evading; say to Trident and High Speed 2 so that money can be spent on the NHS, housing education, & social care. If not, then what is the point of the Labour Party?
The labour party is clearly focused on avoiding any policies that upset the middle class voter. The green party are filling that void but lack the financial clout to make a sufficient impact, the two should join together? But the real “elephant in the room” is climate change! No political movement or party is taking this seriously! Including Compass et al.
This will be the defining issue is our lifetime and yet the world is quietly ignoring it. So are you…………….
It has been said so many times but without any follow through! We have an elected dictatorship where actual parliamentary control is simply a joke. In such circumstances anything can happen. The decisive “latent system” which actually calls the shots is a fairly mindless cash nexus “represented” by the City of London – and of course this lacks any overt or explicit “constituency dimension”. We should admit that parliament has very little to do with any of this, and as a practical matter any individual MP who challenges it (i.e., our “elected dictatorship”) will face, at best, a career on the back benches. So what’s new then?……Nothing at all! But Margaret Hodge, as Chair of our Public Accounts Committee, is our one ray of hope (http://mcconaghy.jimdo.com) if she can only get our “Comptroller and Auditor General” to do a bit of of actual controlling; asserting Parliament’s control over national budgets (i.e., action!) and the impact of all that on our national welfare and on the constituencies of our nation!!!
I’m in full agreement that the Leadership of the LP should take note of the recent By-Election results. Immigration needs to be tackled by renegotiating with the EU the Free Movement of Labour by insisting and enforcing the Minimum Wage in each country, and de-register those companies who break this Law by means of fines and other sanctions. The Families of those who are not UK Citizens should not be allowed to migrate to join the wage earner until there are sufficient housing and educational services available for them.. . .
Local people should be encouraged to apply when the Minimum Wage is enforced
Who is going to listen and respond to working people with millions paid too little to live on; with contracts that are too insecure to build a life around and with housing costs going through the roof? Labour has betrayed the working classes. Tories want to go back to pre-union conditions. The media doesn’t allow us to know the fuller picture of the Green Party ideas. Who is going to deliver decent humane living standards for all citizens? Who cares about Market Growth if it doesn’t deliver that!
Confronting this problem on a personal level, my view is that Ed Miliband has recognised what he sees as the ‘Kinnock factor’ – the danger, at this point, of too much mouthing on controversial topics about which the right-wing Press could have a field day through deliberate misinterpretation. But, still, the new pint-in-hand working man’s friend is surely there to be shot down when it comes to Labour defending the Human Rights Act, employees’ rights, and freedom to express political opinion between now and next May.
great comments and points – whether I agree with them or not. all written with warmth and care – which is what we should expect from Compass
I’m desperate to hear Labour shout against corporate fascism: TTIP is an abomination! Corporate domination must be thwarted. Where IS the Labour party? We must all vote Green! Where is the voice of the working people who keep this country afloat: The nurses, doctors, teachers, train drivers, street cleaners, bus drivers, hospital workers, etc etc? Ed! get your act together and turn this country around and away from selfish individualism!
Whatever happened to justice, compassion and solidarity?
Enough of these vague generalities ! Scrap Trident and use the billions saved for good purposes.
I am a Labour party member, but can understand why ordinary people are fed up with politicians. There is much too much top down control. I think that labour would have lost the recent Bye-election if they had been stupid enough to put forward anyone other than a local candidate. It would have been a disaster if they had picked one of the ‘Metropolitan elite’ we have foisted upon us much too often.Thank goodness they picked Liz McInnes, a scientist, who has worked more than 30 years in the NHS. A labour MP who has actually had a proper job and is familiar with the issues that ordinary people have to deal with.
What disturbed me was the jeering by a bunch of aggressive UKIP supporters, who definitely have a problem with women.
Their policies are typical scape-goating. Apparently we would be great without the EU and immigrants. Lets just try it and see who we can blame for the next lot of economic woes. Perhaps its all those women who wear trousers and God forbid work outside the home.
Perhaps its all those human rights we have been given or the usual businesses are better without all those health and safety regulations.
To the labour party please get back to your core values. Decent jobs, a living wage, houses, education and health. Stop all this in-fighting and please ensure that your candidates are connected to the communities they hope to represent. Please listen to the concerns of your core voters and please ensure the majority of your candidates have actually had proper jobs other than politics for a number of years prior to standing for election. Liz McInnes is a very good example . Very well done to her.
Less concerened about the Clacton result, after all they re-elcted their MP albeit for a different party. However there was a wake up call for the Labour party in the Heywood and Middleton by election. They now need to crawl out from the rock they’ve been hiding under and give working people a voice, give the unemployed a voice and give the many vulnerable groups who have been consistantly atacked by the coalition a voice.
Ed Milliband ought to be aware of the dangers of a combined right and left wing politics. It was called national socialism.
1997 was the time to bring in constitutional reform in order to protect out liberties . We are reaping the consequences now of the failure to address this when we had a huge majority to enable it.
The Scottish Referendum bears witness to the truth that the people of England and Scotland know that a completely different kind of politics is needed. Pandering to big business and being more Tory than the Tories may seem a good idea to Mandelson and Balls, but now is the time for courage and commitment to communal and democratic values
You are right it is time for courage and a commitment to community, democracy and a more equal society. The dangers of a right wind left wing alliance had been shown to be extremely dangerous, it was called national socialism.
More than anything we need constitutional change to protect our human rights , not to lose them
I agree with everything Neal wrote, and would only add that we need to devolve power in a meaningful way that will involve people in the whole political process – and we also need to talk about raising income tax to reduce pay inequality and fund a decent society.
The Labour party came to power in 1997 when people thought that some reform would rescue us from Thatcherism. Pusillanimity reigned and nothing radical happened. The opposite.
The Labour party got rid of clause 4 and now our utilities are owned by and make profits for other countries’ nationalised industries like EDF.
The Labour party embraced globalisation and our country is now largely owned by foreign countries and corporations. The US and France and Germany would not have allowed that to happen.
The Labour party stopped caring about housing for the workers and allowed private landlords to charge what they could get.
The Labour party began the PFI contracts and opened the gates to the privatisation of the rest of the NHS
The Labour party ignored the environmental crisis and it’s getting worse and it is as if it does not exist..
The Labour party embraced managerialism and has a parliamentary party of suited graduates with little experience of ordinary working life.
The Labour party went to war with eyes open and opened the doors to torture and rendition and massacre of Iraqis and Afghans. Ordinary people would see that we were lied to.
The Labour Party did so many Tory things that it is unrecognisable as the party even of Wilson.
The Labour party is happy to punish those on benefits and at the same time pour money into the coffers of bankers industrialists and accountants- a socialism for businesses has resulted together with a corruption of our political system, largely subsidised by the state…
The Labour party did not ensure a maintenance of decent wages and allowed the inrush of non-unionised cheap labour to undermine any market response that would have raised wages. The people were not pleased.
An infantile trust in the fraudulent banking sector and market manipulators replaced their trust in the good sense of their supporters. The Westminster village became Thatcherite.
The Labour party is afraid to get rid of the unusable and ridiculous Trident that is draining even more money out of the system [and into America]
The Labour party elected a man without a trace of socialism in him as its leader and loved his shallowness. Both he and Brown loved American systems. Both cultivated the demonic press and obeyed it when they should have scorned it. cf. Ginger Brooke’s ‘my Tony’.
The Labour party’s leaders showed more solidarity to the wealthy than to those at the bottom.
The Labour party helped the unspeakable tories destroy an attempted reform of the electoral process that might have let more left-wing parties into parliament.
Drift and opportunism rather than courage and imagination and leadership. Alas.
I also think that Neil needs to read Naomi Klein and capture thee nervy that was present in Central Hall last week when she spoke.I am a Labour Party member but Neil and the Par need to be alive to what the Greens have to say about the honest discussion we must have about the sustainability of our economic model in the broadest terms. Ed was a good shadow environment minister but that has all seemingly gone out the window. Don’t we or don’t we accept the rules of globalisation? For too long we have seen it as some sort of useful trojan horse for our liberal internationalism that was always uncomfortable with nation states and nationalism. But maybe a heathy dose of protectionism for our nascent green industries and advanced technologies that a government led programme of repatriation of production for example would be a start?
Time to get some fresh faces with the ability to communicate policies relevant to our present problems and distinct from the failed Tory neolib bunkum! Mr Balls has unsuccessfully mined a slightly left of the Tories New Labour route. Change him and advance some realistic aspirational policies. Mr Milliband needs to stop the Tories with many more fresh ideas and he also needs to enthuse and refresh his team or move over, whatever the consequences and let someone else lead from the front. No point falling into power with a mass of half baked inconsequential policies which will make little difference economically except to make matters worse!
It’s all very well to criticise Ed but no doubt you were praising the time devoted to Lab’s leadership campaign which is now disparaged as allowing the Tory lie abt ‘ the mess Lab left us’ to take root. It was a worldwide crisis and people like Osborne, plenty of Libs, whom you seem to love so much, and Angela Merkel have pressed austerity as the solution. You never talk abt the press ownership problem. I read once that Jeffrey Archer, don’t laugh, once said in reference to the newspaper imbalance that for Labour every match was an away match. Just see how the Evg Std smiles on Boris’s misdeeds. I expect you think that bias can magically be neuralised by democracy. The papers have their anti Lab news stories and values solemnly reported on radio and TV as if what they say is simple common sense. The BBC takes its news priorities and many of its judgements from Fleet Street. Many are from that world and have one eye on a possible return. Despite this, maybe you really think we’ve got a fair and balanced free press.
Can’t write more as I’m no typist. Just give Labour more support and don’t keep talking as if the Lib-Dems are of the political left. After 4.5 years of the Coalition I want nothing to do with them.
I’m not signing this as I don’t want to be hounded.
At one time the Labour party was a broad church with a “bottom up” structure. Clause 4 was a corner stone of aspiration, a fertile base from which the Welfare State could grow and the unions develop responsibly. Sadly pompouse civil service management combined with thatcherite market place economic policies and political insecurities by the likes of Kinnock laid foundations of sand accepted and develpoed for expediancy by Blair et all. The Labour party structure and economic beliefs of public ownership need to be revisited with some urgency. The 1945 Labour Government gave the UK so much it is often forgotten that they ran an Empire as well. History suggests that Milliband as a Leader will always be looking behind him given his actions re his brother and the Unions. For the labour party to become stronger then it must once again become a ” bottom up party” If that is unpalatable for LabourParty MPs so be it. The group to unmask UKIP is the Trades Union movement, attacked by Thatcher as a threat to democracy they were only ever a threat the Civil Service mandarins.The trades unions never caused a war and they never ruined this country’s economic structure and culture the way the financil institutions have done and are doing.
Comment There is much good common sense in the foregoing and in the comments which follow on.
However, I feel that a basic major reorganisation of our government is essential and have described this in detail in a book which I have had published. I sent you a copy a few months ago but it was not acknowledged. This treats the UK as a single body and creates some 10 separate “sub-governments”, similar to those created for Scotland and Wales in such as “North-West (including I Of Man). Midland, London and so on. At this stage, the House of Lords would be abolished, but a second, monitoring body would be elected by the 10 Sub-governments. It would then be possible to “rule” the country at a more local level with greater understanding of the real problems.
Too long to continue, but I will gladly forward a copy of my book
Dear Team,
I read your post by-election article with interest.
I disagree with this statement:-
Politics in Britain today is not really about UKIP but about the failure of Labour in particular to present a coherent, desirable and feasible alternative to the Tories.
We do not have a true democracy in the UK. We are always ruled by minority governments, that is, most voters have not voted for them.
Politics is about:
• the failure of democracy in the UK. The system is corrupt.
• the failure of the three main parties which are distrusted by many if not most voters.
• governments being unrepresentative of the voting population.
Politics is about addressing the apathy of the British voter and persuading that person to vote. The parties will fail in this for a variety of reasons_
• The voting system itself.
• Ed Milliband is quite hopeless as a leader and Mr. Balls is a liability.
• Nick Clegg fatally broke a promise over student fees and cannot be trusted.
• Mr. Cameron heads a party perpetrating unfairness for the poor and undeserved privileges for the rich. He is not inspiring and Mr. Osborne is not telling the truth about the economy.
• Nigel Farrage speaks with passion and is a much more inspiring leader. Many will vote for him because of the damage he will do to the clapped-out old parties. Many will vote for his policies. One thing is clear; he is frightening all those three parties. It’s a joy to see the Westminster bigwigs running around in panic.
• Immigration does need discussing openly, even if the views expressed could be offensive. There are some very good points to be made as to why immigration should be further controlled. If we could keep politicians out of this we may find out what he real reasons are for controlling or not controlling immigration.
• Membership of the EU needs discussing in public by people who actually know the subject and who are NOT politicians. Then we may get at the truth and be able to make an informed decision.
The Labour party is not he old socialist one that believed in a mixed economy and defended the poor and the workers. It is just another form of the Tory party and this imitation is being badly carried out. It is fairly pathetic.
The voting system has to be changed to enable a true democracy until then, forget it.
• People should be discouraged from voting for the main parties.
• Posters and adverts could be displayed along the lines of “why are you voting for these tired failing parties? Do they listen, are they fair etc. etc?
• Polling stations could be the targets of flying pickets all across the country protesting against the sham democratic process. The danger here is that it is probably illegal under the Representation of the People Act. Certainly those demonstrating for a fairer system shouldn’t be seen preventing people from voting.
• If the powers that be refuse to listen to sense, then a more radical protest could be invoked, disrupting proceedings, keeping to the law or the spirit of law and order.
It is pointless supporting Labour, Conservatives or the LibDems. You will get the same as before.
Go for changing the system.
The near success of the TES vote in Scotland shows what the average citizen can do as compared with the creaky, dishonest party machines.( I thought Mr. Brown’s intervention was really counter-productive, considering what damage his time in office did to the country.)
Yours sincerely,
Robert Hall
Milliband demonstrated very poor judgement when he stood against more experienced MPs and was elected not by the members or by the MPs but by the unions. This left him in a weak position from the start and he has not demonstrated the imagination or ability to place the LP in a strong position for the next election. The successes of the LP were not constantly restated and the CP and LDP were able to get away with blaming the LG for the banking disaster. The changes to the NHS have not been challenged strongly enough and the government’s ludicrous claims about saving money and greater efficiency have gone unchallenged. All examples of poor judgement by Milliband I’m afraid to say.
I still think I had the right answer 4+ years ago, after the general election, when I suggested that Labour should make a determined effort to break up the coalition by making the Lib Dems an offer they couldn’t refuse.
If Labour had offered to sign up to the Lib Dem manifesto in toto then almost all supporters of both parties would be feeling better off (and I don’t just mean financially) than they are now. We’d also need more devolution — for the English regions as well as for Scotland, Wales and N Ireland — to win over the SNP etc. Add the “million climate jobs” policy and we’d get a mix that would have made a break from the divisive policies of the Tories (and to some extent New Labour and the Lib Dem coalition supporters) and would not have left a vacuum to be filled by the xenophobic and reactionary policies of UKIP (though I don’t think they are racists).
Incidentally, I believe that if the Lib Dems are needed to form a majority government next time they will be under immense pressure to ally with Labour rather than the Tories, because if they stick to their present allies they will lose all credibility as a “third way” party.
I believe in tactical voting, but let me ask 3 questions:
1. Would you vote Tory to keep UKIP out ?
2. Would you vote UKIP to keep the Tories out ?
3. Would you vote Lib Dem to keep the Tories out ?
For me the answers are no, no, yes.
Just wondering what happened to my posting? I’ll try again
brianddonovan@hotmail.com
October 2014
Each time I receive an email from Compass my conscience is pricked about my failure to renew my annual membership but something always seems to hold me back? Then the latest email from Neal lands in my inbox and in a nutshell it demonstrates to me most of the reasons why I have not renewed my membership.
In his first paragraph with regard to the recent by-elections Neal says “The Liberal Democrats, sadly were nowhere” (part-quote). Why the tears for the LibDems? Their actions with the infamous “Gang of Four” were the direct cause of eighteen years of rule by what was then the most vicious Tory Party in history.
Today we now have the fact of the unholy trinity of Alexander, Cable and Clegg having propped up this disgusting Tory government for the full-term of office “Day One”, metaphorically speaking, of this deceitful coalition brought us Clegg’s shameless act of reneging on the promise made that there would be no increase in student loans. Amidst the uproar over this the LibDem rank and file maintained a deathly silence. Perhaps this was because of their long held dream of having even the tiniest vestige of power rather than their normal impotence.
Clegg has gone on to demonstrate his embarrassing lust for power, not in the least bit bothered that he was and and still is directly responsible for the collapse in his party’s share of the electoral vote. He must have had visions of a financially rewarding future on the speech making circuits and of course the fortunes to be made from his auto-biography! His actions bring to mind the brilliant misquote of Jeremy Thorpe about Macmillan’s “Night of the long knives” when he sacrificed most of his Cabinet in a desperate attempt to cling to power, “No greater love has any man than he lay down his friends for his life”.
The only arguments I have with Neal’s paragraph three is the view that some big moves have been made on e.g. energy prices and against Murdoch?
The big energy companies are already acting in part to undermine Labour’s stance on not hiking prices by starting to promise some longer-term hold on prices. Leading up to the election they with their Tory party cohorts will probably make even bigger promises about energy prices. With the compliant Press it will appear to be the energy companies altruistic actions rather than any thing to do with Labour’s promise. “Moves against Murdoch”? Where? Sounds more like a chess match than any action being taken against this media tyrant!
I do not believe that any actions taken between now and May 2015 can do much other than slow down the UKIP bandwagon. Labour should plaster hoardings, in potential danger spots, with direct quotes of some of the policies favoured by UKIP on the NHS, NI contributions, etc etc.
Neal asks “what do we do”? Then goes on to say what we need, not one word about action. I think we all know what we need let’s not preach to the converted.
In his paragraph eight Neal still bangs on about our needs and then rather patronisingly, I am afraid, states that the people need to be told “this is about bankers and not Bulgarians” Does he not think that the average person knows it is the bankers that brought on the austerity measures we are now facing but to non-organised working class bearing the brunt of these measures it goes deeper than that. It is the “Bulgarian”, through no fault of his own, that is driving down costs for the employer, undercutting basic wages and making the imposition of zero-hours contracts a mere matter of formality. Please do not fall into the usual trap politicians and the intellectual classes without fail stumble into, that is of arrogantly underestimating the intelligence of ordinary working people. It is this political arrogance displayed by the three main parties that has directly led to the massive increase in UKIP support. Most of the electorate are well aware that UKIP is a right wing group of carpetbaggers, but almost certainly but see no other way of registering a protest vote against the non-listening political elite.
In paragraph nine Neal moves the attack directly on the the tories and the possibility of them getting rid of the Human Rights Act, the trap-door is creaking slowly open again. Neal says “Compass bangs on a lot about democracy – and rightly so” He goes on to say how democracy has helped to ensure equality, participation and knit our multi-cultural society together as we have always managed to do but we need more than democracy!! Democracy is not enough on its own!! Democracy is fine as long as it falls in line with our views. Trap-door open much wider now. Imagine Nick Farage coming out with such a statement, what would we on the left say about that? If we have managed all of the above things with democracy then an old adage comes to mind, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” At a conservative guess I would say that at a large proportion of the populace are fiercely opposed to the Human Rights Act and the uses it has been put to in this country. With the trap-door wide open now and democracy pushed aside Neal dives head first into the void. Why bother with what the majority of the country think, we know what is best for the masses so we shall make sure that we impose a very unpopular law on the country. Still we do need to increase the wealth of our poor lawyers, a lot of whom inhabit our parliament. They would most certainly be the main beneficiaries of this Act
Of the people, for the people, by the people. Yea gods!!
Brian Donovan
The rush to UKIP is unsurprising given the total failure of Labour to provide a convincing narrative and to offer alternative solutions to the drab diet of austerity, so leaving the door wide open to the easy and false nostrums of UKIP. Neither the EU nor immigration caused the present crisis, but that is what many people will believe given no alternative version.
The truth is that the economic model that has prevailed for the last 35 years is broken beyond repair. It does not work. It has made some few grossly wealthy from trading in money. It has impoverished many. It is a disaster. A wreck. A dead parrot.
Of course the Tories won’t admit this. They prefer the tale of “Labour’s mess.” Their remedy of austerity is economic illiteracy. It makes matters worse for everyone bar the super rich.
Until Labour starts addressing these fundamental issues, confronting right wing myths, and providing its own way forward, it will not be listened to. The “cost of living crisis” is true enough for many but describes effects not causes. It is not good enough to offer a Tory-lite analysis, to accept the austerity mantra.
Miliband made a good start with “responsible capitalism.” He needs to revisit this, and fast. After all, even Henry Ford, no socialist, realised he needed to pay his workers enough to buy his cars.
The money men have had their chance. They have failed miserably to create a good society. They have had their noses in the trough for long enough. It’s time for a real change to make the economy work for all and the top priority has to get money flowing through the system again, rather than resting in the sclerotic arteries of the new aristocracy.
I find the fact that you feel the need to moderate my submission amazing but of course if we push democracy aside when it gets a bit awkward free speech will have to go with it. If you moderate the submission it is no longer mine so do not publish any edited version.
Thank you
Hi Brian,
We don’t actually moderate anyone’s comments. The approval system is in place just there purely so we can filter out any spam that makes it past the system. Hope that clears up your concern
Compass Office.
All good stuff as far as it goes but only one side of the story. If this country is to succeed in moving forward towards a better society by electing a Labour government then we must be clear and convincing about generating the money to pay for this, and to pay off the debt. Not just reduce the deficit but pay off the debt. Because labour should recognise this part of its history: working people were always better off without debt. Control the money or it will control you. I accept a country needs to have some debt but I would like to my country financially strong through the effort and production of its people. I would like to see us setting money by for the hard times, building a cash surplus, so that we are always secure from the twists and convulsions in the world economy.
I want a pound for every `write to your MP and ask them to vote’ e-mail I get – only to find that the vote is on Friday so its pointless even to ask. My MP like most others will be in his constituency and so misses all the Recognise Palestine, NHS, ban wild animals in circuses and all the others held on a Friday.
We really do need to accept that there are 2 often conflicting reasons why we vote for an MP – and being a good constituency MP doesn’t make you someone who will campaign on moral or global issues or the things that people with universal values want from their MPs.(unless you are Caroline, Tom or Lisa and some others who manage both of course) Isn’t it time we voted for 2 people in the same team – or a different team even so that one might be at looking after local issues, engaging with the electorate etc and one could be there voting for me on a Friday.
I was interested to see the reference to a sense of alienation and discontent mentioned in this article, and felt by so many ordinary people in this country. This country is the home of the English language, but I cannot think of a single politician here who has the courage to voice this as succinctly as the US politician Elizabeth Warren, speaking at the National Summit on Raising Wages in Washington two days ago:
“When I look at the data here—and this includes years of research I conducted myself—I see evidence everywhere about the pounding that working people are taking,” she continued. “Instead of building an economy for all Americans, for the past generation this country has grown an economy that works for some Americans. For tens of millions of working families who are the backbone of this country, this economy isn’t working. These families are working harder than ever, but they can’t get ahead. Opportunity is slipping away. Many feel like the game is rigged against them—and they are right. The game is rigged against them.”
Now I am not saying that the history of the last few decades in the US is the same as the UK. However, the underlying causes of a growing impoverishment of ordinary people are obvious to all who are well-informed about the malfunctions of our undeniably linked economic systems. Working people also have their direct experience of the savage effects of a ‘boom and bust’ economy, and the long decline of affordable housing that has continued to blight their hopes and aspirations.