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.