Needed: A Voice for the Left

Like a huge number of people I’ve was left numb by the election result – not so much by Labour losing but by the Tory majority. I had not, in reality, expected Labour to win but I had hoped for a broad coalition of the left (Greens, Labour, Plaid and the SNP). What I certainly didn’t want and what the country doesn’t need is an unrestrained Tory party with scores to settle and points to prove. We don’t always get what we want, and it seems we’re not going to get what we need. Labour has imploded and currently seems more intent on navel-gazing, finger-pointing and playing the blame game, it’s going to be some time before they offer any real opposition to the Tories or pay attention to the electorate – mind you, had they paid attention in the first place they wouldn’t be in this position.  Having spent their time talking with, asking questions of and listening to the electorate whilst Labour’s elite dictated from podiums and expected us to dance to their out-of-time choreography, the more insightful of the left-leaning writers and commentators had urged caution and looked with some disbelief at the opinion polls which to them were at odds with what they’d been hearing. Few wanted to hear that message, including me, we wanted to believe that we were going to get something better than we had experienced over the past five years. Blind optimism and the need to believe the opinion polls persuaded many of us who were, just a few weeks before, convinced that Labour were doing too little to convince the sceptical and the undecided that they just might be in with a chance of being the largest party and able to form a government. We were sorely disappointed, and the upset, anger and fear that was so apparent in the first few days after the election in the left-leaning media and expressed on social media is subsiding, but still there is little organisation on the left nor much idea of what form the wider opposition will take.  A few commentators have put their heads above the parapets and taken a considered and constructive view – most notable amongst them Zoe Williams, Aditya Chakrabortty and John Harris – but the supposed leaders of the left such as trade unionists and activists have been strangely and disappointingly silent. The most high-profile and effective opposition voice to receive wide media coverage so far has been Charlotte Church, and bloody good she was too. A demonstration did take place on Saturday but received little coverage and support, and was marred by some violence and gifted the right-wing press and the tutting soft-left a reason to belittle and dismiss it.

Whilst the Labour party continues to be distracted by its leadership process and fails to at least sit down with the other left opposition to discuss areas of agreement the Tories will run rings around parliament and push through the queen’s speech and subsequent debate without very much to stop them. The mood of disquiet being expressed by the wider public needs to be harnessed and used to show the Tories that whilst they have a small majority in parliament they only have a 37% share of the total votes cast across the country. Before the election results were known the People’s Assembly had already organised anti-austerity rallies across the country on 20^th June, and 38 Degrees continues to host campaigns and petitions posted by individuals. An overarching organisation made up of the many single-issue opposition groups of the left needs to get organised – the TUC and other left campaigning organisations who have the clout, capabilities and strength should work together and set aside individual squabbles and differences. There is too much at stake to waste any time. Too many disabled, sick and vulnerable people face swingeing cuts and uncertain futures, the NHS is at risk of being broken up and sold off, housing is in real crisis, education is being damaged irrevocably, human rights are going to be swept aside and for the bankers it’s business as usual. Action is needed, and people will swing behind a cohesive, strong and united force who they see as willing to take on the vested interests of the parliamentary classes and work with them. We need to agitate for that.

Before finishing: I believe the Liberal-Democrats got precisely what they deserved, and listening to them harp on about how they acted as a restraining force and crow about what they managed to achieve in the coalition then whinge about how they’ve been hard done by the electorate shows the contempt in which they hold the electorate and in turn proves they do not deserve even the eight MPs they have. Had they shown a real commitment to the vulnerable, the NHS, education and public services in 2010 we would be facing such a bleak outcome. Shame on them.

Vote on 7th May – Here’s Why

This is one of the closest elections for more than 40 years with the latest opinion polls showing Labour and the Conservatives tied. There is a great deal at stake, too much for people to sit back and not vote. Not voting in this election will be to condemn the country to five more years of the Tories and their slash-and-burn policies. Not voting will destroy the NHS, push housing out of reach for millions, further crush public services, slash welfare and support to disabled people and the vulnerable. Not voting is a luxury that austerity has taken away. Not voting is to condemn millions to suffer more desperately than they have been forced to suffer over the past five years.

Who to vote for? Easy. Anyone but the Tories, Ukip or other parties of the right and far-right. I couldn’t being myself to vote LibDem, but I don’t live in a constituency where they are the only real opposition to the Tories.

I am not a Labour party member nor do I agree with the much of the way they have behaved in recent years, yet realistically they are the only UK-wide party who can beat the Tories. Personally I hope that their recent statements are electioneering bravado, and once the counts are done and dusted they will calmly sit down and talk with the SNP, Plaid, the Greens, the SDLP and other parties of the left to form a united coalition.

One thing is sure, whatever the election brings we have to stand together. To protest and defend ourselves and each other from austerity, to roll back the dangerous cuts to the NHS, education, public services and housing. To demand a fair and proper tax system.

We won’t be able to do any of this if people stay at home. Vote. Not just for yourself. If you need help visit the ‘About My Vote’ website.

© Bob & Roberta Smith

Trident – An Indefensible Defence

Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous weapons on earth.  One can destroy a whole city, potentially killing millions, and jeopardizing the natural environment and lives of future generations through its long-term catastrophic effects.  The dangers from such weapons arise from their very existence.  Although nuclear weapons have only been used twice in warfare—in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945—about 22,000 reportedly remain in our world today and there have been over 2,000 nuclear tests conducted to date.  Disarmament is the best protection against such dangers, but achieving this goal has been a tremendously difficult challenge.

United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs

 

The United Kingdom spending money on the most dangerous weapons on earth is unjustifiable, economically and morally. Currently the cost of maintaining what the government describe as the ‘nuclear deterrent’ in 2014 was 6% of the total defence budget, around £2.4bn, which admittedly isn’t very much in terms of total UK budget expenditure which was £714bn in 2014. (Welfare cost £112.4bn, pensions £143.2bn, Health £129.5 bn, Education £90.2 bn). The very idea that a free, democratic nation sees spending even such a miniscule amount of its budget on the ownership of weapons whose use would inflict untold suffering on tens of millions of innocent people and effect a response that would wipe out our nation in minutes is, quite literally, indefensible. Indeed the International Court of Justice ruled in 1996 the threat or use of nuclear weapons would be contrary to the rules of international law. For the UK to hold and maintain such despicable weapons is bad enough but, at a time when we are continually told there is no alternative to austerity, all the major UK parties are committed to spending £30bn to upgrade Trident and a further £70bn over the next 25 years to maintain it. That is at today’s prices – the cost of upgrading alone has already increased by 50% since 2009. It makes no sense. The Tories say if returned to government they will cut welfare by a further £12bn, as well as make further cuts to most if not all government expenditure, but will have £30bn to upgrade Trident. Labour and the Liberal Democrats have similar commitments.  Whatever the makeup of the next government,  if it continues with the plans to upgrade the UK nuclear deterrent it will be an indication of its attitude to the most vulnerable in our country and humanity in general. Conventional weapons serve the majority of the world’s nations very well and are all we need to defend us, nuclear weapons serve no real defensive purpose.

As a country we can’t afford it. As a democracy we shouldn’t need it. As a UN member nation we shouldn’t have it. As people we have to oppose it.

Find out more at CND about what could be done with the money to be spent on Trident, and sign the Rethink Trident statement.

Inequality – Another British Growth Industry

Inequality has increased massively in this country in recent times, and should whoever forms the next government continues on the harsh route of austerity it will push our country’s social development back to the levels of inequality last experienced in the 1930s. According to the Child Poverty Action Group, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Oxfam and many other social research groups more than 1 in 5 households are in poverty, affecting more than 1 in 5 children. Age UK say that over 1.6 million Pensioners in poverty, that’s more than 1 in 7, with over 900,000 in severe poverty. Rates of poverty amongst disabled people are twice that of the non-disabled population, with coalition policies forcing more and more off disability benefits under the guise of austerity budget requirements. The Trussel Trust’s food banks increased from 56 in 2009 to 445 this year feeding a total 1.1 million people, whilst the richest 1,000 families in the country saw their wealth more than double from £258bn to £547bn during the same period – an amount larger than that held by the poorest 40% of Britain’s households.

It’s clear that austerity has achieve little other than to begin stripping the country of its welfare system, dismantling the NHS, impoverishing local government, shrinking the public services and it has created a housing crisis that will take at least a generation to repair. Inequality has now started to affect that part of British society most slow to rise up in protest – the middle classes. Many people who would ordinarily not be very interested in politics or not too negatively affected by government policies are finding themselves directly affected by the housing crisis and, realising there is a problem, they look around and see just how damaged the country is. As a result they are beginning to question the sensibility of government austerity policies that leave the poor and vulnerable hungry, cold and homeless. Some do, as we have seen, doggedly believe in Conservative government, some turn to the right and blame ‘those foreigners’ and pledge their allegiance to UKIP, but more and more are looking to the centre left and left-of-centre parties to take action. Unsurprisingly Liberal Democrat support is ebbing away.

The problem with such financial and social inequality is that it creates division and unrest. The country has made huge advances in social equality – who’d have thought that a British government would admit institutional racism was something that existed and needed to be dealt with, or that same-sex marriage would be legislated for? Yet we haven’t gone far enough – women are still fighting social, workplace and economic prejudice, racism is still a problem and, as we have seen, homophobia still exists and there are increases in attacks on disabled people and people ‘suspected’ of being benefit claimants. Hate crime is on the rise across the board, and it is only likely to increase as austerity sets people against each other as they seek others to blame and any difference becomes the excuse.

The left need to stop infighting and work together – an agreement or a coalition between the left is the only way of changing the route Britain is on. It’s too important not to set aside niggling differences, we need a united group of politicians ready to check their egos, work together and repair the social fabric of this country. It won’t be easy, we may need to protest and make demands of the government to ensure that they move us back to a fair and just social economy.

A Broad-Left Manifesto for Social Cohesion

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need

Louis Blanc, 1851

I’m by no means a Marxist, I do not align myself to any party or creed, but I do believe in socialist principals – especially the one highlighted above. I believe that the basics of human life – housing, food, education, employment, healthcare  – should be available to all equally, regardless of income, and that the state has a responsibility to ensure that all citizens have access to a decent basic standard of all of these.  It also has a responsibility to ensure that all have protection under the law and the International Declaration of Human Rights. Not one of the political parties – left or right – have really fully addressed the social and financial pressures the ordinary residents of this country are under, let alone the most vulnerable. They have so far spent the election campaign scoring political points and heaping insults on each other, little wonder that so many feel so disengaged from politics. Under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition living standards are still below the level of those at the time of the 2010 election, child poverty has increased, house rental and purchase costs continue to outstrip wages and  public services – from the NHS to the armed forces – are stretched to near breaking point. Despite this the coalition parties want us to believe that as a result of their policies and fiscal management the country is doing well. I and many others beg to differ. Another term of Conservative government, either as a single party or in coalition, will lead to economic and social divisions unseen since the worst excesses of Thatcherism. The Tory promise to extend the Right to Buy scheme is proof positive of what could happen, indeed we are already well down that road.  The  Equality Trust’s report ‘The Scale of Economic Inequality in the UK’ stated in February:

The UK has a very high level of income inequality compared to other developed countries.

People in the bottom 10% of the population have on average a net income of £8,628. The top 10% have net incomes almost ten times that (£80,240)… income inequality is much starker at the top of the income scale, with the group with the 9^th highest incomes making only 60% of the top 10%’s income. Inequality is much higher amongst original income than net income with the poorest 10% having on average an original income of £3,875 whilst the top 10% have an original income over 27 times larger (£104,940).

Such inequality is inexcusable and serves as an indicator of what is happening in the country – big money and the markets rule.  A small number of billionaire business and media oligarchs appear to be able to influence government and hold sway over an increasing number of  politicians whilst the vast majority of the electorate are at best patronised and at worst ignored. Westminster has increasingly become so far removed from the real lives of ordinary working UK residents that government policy, no matter how unpopular or misguided, is forced through come what may, and the efficacy of such policies seem to be measured by cherry-picking the results most favourable to the government. The 2010-2015 coalition government has forced through socially damaging and divisive policies that are continuing to harm the most vulnerable in society, and blinkered ideological dogma is undermining public service provision in all areas under the pretence that austerity requires it. They have used the 2008 international banking crisis as an ideal opportunity to persuade the public that it was a home-grown failure of Labour’s fiscal policy and the only alternative to swingeing cuts was bankruptcy. The Labour Party’s failure to harness public disquiet over unpopular policies and provide a strong voice for political and social opposition to the harsh and unnecessary level of cuts and reorganisation simply served to prove the Labour leadership’s disconnection from the voters. Once gain the weakest in society came into a government’s sights – not single mothers as in the days of Thatcher but the supposed feckless undeserving sick and disabled poor as well as their usual bogeymen the profligate public services and the thieving foreigners swarming over our borders. In selling us these wide-of-the-mark theories it was willingly aided by the predominantly right-wing media, more than happy to be able to offer their readers tales on the wanton wastefulness of benefit Britain on one page and the lovely luxurious lives of marvellous millionaires on the next.

This election is crucial to stop this country being dragged further from being a social welfare society to a neoliberal capitalist economy. It is an opportunity for the nation to be moved from economics of austerity and despair to an integrated policy of social and economic development which would serve to strengthen communities and re-energise a sense of pride and place, and this means that Ed Miliband and Labour as the probable largest party of the left must swallow their pride and work with the other broad-left parties such the Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP to ensure that this can be done. A broad-left controlled parliament could and should ensure that, as soon as possible:

• The attacks upon the poorest, disabled people and the sick stop, with all benefit reform managed to ensure that people of working age in receipt of benefits no longer have to rely upon food banks or choose between heating, food or paying rent. It is a crime that this happens in one of the richest nations on earth.
• A commission be appointed to look, without government or political interference, at a fair and equitable welfare benefits system.
• Employers must pay the living wage as advised by the Living Wage Foundation, rather than the minimum wage.
• Zero hours contracts be scrapped and replaced with employee-centred contracts.
• The right-to-buy scheme for all council housing and social housing be stopped.
• A comprehensive social housing policy be adopted allowing properties to be purchased and built by local authorities. This can be funded by local authorities being allowed to take out mortgages at favourable rates through state funded banks which will, after all, be repaid through rents.
• Council, social and private rents be controlled by independent bodies, taking into account local pay conditions rather than market forces.
• The NHS and all its properties be returned to the nation, with public-private partnerships.
• NHS reforms to be stopped with a commission, made up of NHS staff, patient and health organisations, charged with looking at the best way of operating a modern, patient-centred service. It should fully independent of government and political interference. Physical and mental health should be funded and seen equally.
• Education should be returned to a state system with oversight by boards and a broad-based national curriculum to cover sciences and the arts equally.
• The bias to an artificial percentage of school leavers expected to go on to university education should be reassessed, with apprenticeships and other fully accredited and overseen professional, technical and employment-based training provision accorded equal status.
• University loans should be abolished and a grant system for all higher/post school accredited education be reintroduced.
• Legal Aid in criminal, family and employment cases needs to be reintroduced.
• A reform of the parliamentary system to reflect the democratic needs of the four nations and to finally remove and replace the Lords should be begun immediately and put to the nation in a referendum.
• In order to pay for this taxation must be reviewed. Income tax should be set at levels aligned to personal income with a higher rate of income tax set at 50%. ‘Non-Dom’ status should be abolished and all UK residents should be required to pay their appropriate taxes, regardless of their national, personal or business status. Business taxes should encourage community enterprise and investment with business taxes aligned to business profits.

A comprehensive review and strengthening of equality legislation in all areas – for women, disabled people, LBTQ people, the black and minority ethnic populations – should be taken in hand as soon as possible. Equality is something that benefits all society and it requires the government to lead by full training in equalities for all public employees, service providers and as a full part of the education system and provided by people expert in the relevant areas.

Funding and policy with regard to policing, national security, the armed forces, devolution and local authority provision, immigration, EU membership and foreign affairs obviously need to be reviewed and addressed in order to best serve the people of the UK, not the political establishment or the markets.

Will anyone listen? I doubt it but I live in hope.

Tower Hamlets Federation of TRAs – Election Housing Hustings

Tower Hamlets Federation of Tenants & Residents Associations

 presents:

The Great General Election Housing Hustings!
Monday, 27th April, 7-9pm;
Collingwood Hall, Collingwood Street, E1.

The main political parties standing candidates in our borough will discuss their housing policy in detail. You can send in questions, email admin@th-federation.org.uk. There will also be contributions from the audience.

All Tower Hamlets residents are welcome

The Leaders Debate – A Sham

Pootler decided not to watch the leaders debate on television last night, (2^nd April), but followed it on Twitter which seems as though it was more illuminating and much more entertaining. Looking at the press today, however, bears no resemblance to a fair appraisal of what was going on but a predominantly right-wing gloss over what was a mediocre performance by Ed Miliband, a poor performance by David Cameron, a display of ridiculous blame shifting for the past five years by Nick Clegg and a the most foul cacophony of racist, xenophobic, homophobic and sexist nonsense from Farage. The three leaders who came out of this with any credit and showed what politicians should be, particularly party leaders, were Natalie Bennett, Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Wood. Is it just a coincidence that they happen to be women or proof indeed that women in today’s politics tend to be more focused, honest and direct and less confrontational whilst still getting their points across? I would hope it is the latter although there are a number of Conservative women politicians – the employment minister Esther McVey chief amongst them – who can bring a chill to the spine and has a manner very redolent of Thatcher, I tend to think – biased as I am – that this is a right-wing trait that may change in another generation or two and Conservative women may too become focused, honest and direct in a less confrontational manner. (Typed with irony). Any way, despite the better performance by the Green, Plaid and SNP leaders, they were generally ignored by the majority of the press, Farage and his foul slurs and scaremongering got more coverage than it should, (I am now guilty of that too. I’m telling myself off as I write), and the most coverage goes to the minutest details of Miliband and Cameron’s performances.

The questioning and responses didn’t appear to elicit much in the way of policy or insight, this is quite possibly the limitations in the format and the fact that seven leaders were vying for attention. This is more than borne out by the post-debate polls which didn’t come to any real decision either and varied dependent upon the gloss provided by the proclivities of the papers that published them. What is shocking is the high showing for Farage who displayed the most awful levels of unbridled racism and homophobia – the most awful comment of the night was, naturally, his barefaced lie that

“You can come into Britain from anywhere in the world and get diagnosed with HIV and get the retroviral drugs, that cost up to £25,000 a year per patient.”

Leanne Wood, leader of Plaid Cymru, challenged him immediately and it is shameful that it was only after the debate that Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg or David Cameron addressed the comment via social media. or more than likely members of their teams who saw the high level of outrage. Most of the rest of the debate, such as it was, seemed simply to be an little bit of an addendum to their election broadcasts and failed miserably to address any of the issues questioners raised. With Cameron blaming Labour for the economic mess caused by the international banking crisis, Clegg washing his hands as robustly as he could as if playing the role of Pontius Pilate in a very bad school play, Miliband trying very hard to land punches on both whilst distancing himself from the SNP and (quite rightly) trying to ignore Farage, it was a bit of a ridiculous affair. The pity is that the three remaining parties didn’t seem to get as fair a crack of the whip as the others. This may be due to the fact that Plaid and the SNP do not cross the whole nation and the Green’s perceived vote is too small, but as these parties may share power or influence policy in some other way after the next election we the voters need to know precisely what their views are in the parts of the UK that do not have much experience of them. Housing, health, education, employment, and transport need proper investment and rebuilding. None of this has been properly addressed and for the major two party leaders to simply shrug and repeat that there is no alternative to austerity is unacceptable. A continuation of austerity with a few little tweaks as promised by Labour or a tightening of the screws as promised by the Tories will both create more hardship and risk unrest. It simply can’t be allowed to happen.

What is clear is that neither Labour nor the Tories are likely to get an overall majority. Clegg has, at least in public, been merrily burning all his bridges with the Tories making another coalition appear unlikely, and Labour would come under very severe pressure from supporters if it attempted a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Farage and UKIP are too toxic and too dangerous to even contemplate any party entering into a coalition with, last night’s performance is proof positive, and the fact that Britain First and the English Defence League seem to be supportive of them adds to the toxicity, although Farage is merrily saying he’d happily work with the Tories. Ed Miliband has to face facts – he has to work with the other parties of the left – Green, Plaid and SNP – if he doesn’t get the overall majority. Better that than leave us to face the complete dismantling of the welfare state and the destruction of the fabric of social liberalism that this nation is famous for. A coalition of the left would serve the country well and the three other left-leaning leaders displayed that they have the focus, skills and strength this country needs. Ed Miliband would be a fool to let this chance pass and the country as a whole would be much the worse.

Priorities…

The dissolution of parliament is still six days away and yet general election campaign has already descended into a ridiculous round of personal attacks and Westminster village navel-gazing, with the political leadership doing their best to promote themselves as ordinary folk yet failing abysmally. Personally I don’t want the leaders of my country to be ordinary folk – I want them to be extraordinary people, people of vision and strength of character. I don’t want out-of-touch millionaires, political careerists who have never lived and worked outside of politics and I certainly don’t want soundbite chasers who try to patronise and distract we voters by the size of their kitchens, oily types who show off their ability to pat the heads of the elderly and kiss babies or duplicitous chancers with an eye to the main chance. The media isn’t helping with its pandering to the party political agenda and behaving as if they and the politicians are all great chums and the rest of us are wide-eyed innocents with little intelligence and even less sense. We’re doomed to get the election result they deserve but, as in 2010, not the one we want or deserve. We all need to get out and ask our wannabe MPs and leaders the questions we want answered, we need to campaign and most of all we need to vote and then we need to keep the pressure on and demand our priorities are heard, understood and dealt with.

Naturally I’m looking to the left but so far I have heard little in the way of hard policies and agendas to support the ordinary people of this country from any party, just their usual platitudes that sound good to the ears of those whose mouths they come from and mean absolutely nothing to the rest of us. I believe that amongst their priorities should be:

Fair taxation: The richest need to be taxed more, the poorest need to be taxed less and those in the middle need to be taxed more fairly. There has to be a radical overhaul and simplification of the whole tax system from VAT to National Insurance so that the largest bills fall on the most able to pay, not punitive bills on those with least money to spend.

Fair housing: Too much emphasis has been placed on home ownership yet those who do the work necessary for us all to enjoy decent lives cannot afford to buy, and social housing has become a byword for failure. This needs to change. Local councils need to be able to build decent housing and bring their existing stock up to a decent standard, and social landlords need to be more closely monitored and stopped from profiteering.

Fair healthcare: The NHS is an amazing achievement that deserves to be properly managed and funded, not a political football to be continually reorganised by ill-informed and thoughtless ministers that is hung out to dry and left at the mercy of the markets.

Fair Education: Again politicians use education as a plaything to constantly reorganise and push about. All education should be free until the age of 18, and then further/higher education should be funded as it used to be – by a fair grant system or with costs met by employers. The idea that university courses are the only or best option and anyone who can’t or doesn’t wish to go to university are failures needs to stop. Equal status needs to be given to apprenticeships and properly accredited professional in-work training.

True Equality: Whilst there may be laws in place to ensure that gender, race, disability and sexual orientation are not a bar to equal treatment under the law, the reality is that we are still a massively unequal society. Decent equality education needs to be implemented and the current laws need to be strengthened and fully implemented. Too many people in this country suffer prejudice and abuse with little or no support from agencies who should be there to stand alongside them and ensure they are not left to fight for themselves or live in fear on the margins of society.

I hope to write more on the above subjects in greater detail over the forthcoming weeks, and will share links to interesting articles and reports as I find them.

Spot the Difference