Hardly a day goes by without New Labour Ministers in London trying to out Tory the Tories. Today’s policy proposal by Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister is so extreme it makes Margaret Thatcher look like Karl Marx!! Shelter summed up the policy simply by saying if implemented it would return the UK to the Victorian age. Anyone remember the Workhouse?
Downing Street has moved quickly to slap down their Minister tonight, however the comments underline a strategic dynamic that has dominated New Labour thinking since its inception.
In an attempt to triangulate the Tories, New Labour placed itself on the centre right in order to steal the Tories thunder – a strategic move which has led to the building of the New Labour coalition. The problem New Labour has faced is that they have had to continue to betray their founding principles in order to feed the beast of their own making. Today we witness a mass cull of public sector jobs; the squeezing of the wages of frontline public sector workers below inflation, whilst city wages and bonuses are allowed to spiral out of control; the increasing privatisation of public services; the reckless use of the private finance initiative that has already accumulated over £160bn of repayment debt, whilst allowing private firms to refinance incurring extraordinary cost on the public purse – all from a Labour Government.
We witness how a Labour London Government according to the TUC has failed to act on an estimated £25bn per annum tax evasion swindle by the super rich whilst fuel poverty levels go through the roof and little progress is made in addressing child poverty. It’s a Labour Government that has introduced a tax regime which means that average working people pay tax at 33% (income tax and national insurance payments) whilst millionaires are able to declare income on the much more favourable 18% Capital Gains Tax rate.
It is little wonder in such a climate of the betrayal of the founding principles of their movement that someone like Peter Hain finds himself in the mess he is in. So ingrained is New Labour’s ‘sell out’ culture that a politician who made his name as an anti apartheid campaigner willingly accepts money from a financial supporter of the South African National Party! The real damage for Hain is that his own vanity has become more important than principle – a sorry reflection of the type of politics New Labour has fostered.
The Labour party was created to campaign for social justice for working class people. Caroline Flint’s comments are testament to a New Labour Government that has turned its back on these principles. Social justice will never be achieved in Wales as long as we have little protection from a London right wing consensus which has little interest in building a fair society. The sooner we have the tools at our disposal in Wales to get on with the job of creating a prosperous just society the better.
5 comments:
You are joking right, Bethan? This post is meant to be a joke? Take a llok at NormalMouth's comments on this - simple enough for everyone to understand.
No this is not a laughing matter. Have you read Alwyn ap Huw and Hafod's comments in return to his blog? A desperate attempt for a Labour blogger to defend his right wing colleagues.
I happen to agree with that Flint woman on this. We need to restore to an age where people are ashamed to be on the dole. I have no problems with genuinely sick people claiming, and I have no problem with people claiming that are trying their hardest to find a job. But I do object to these career unemployed who are a drain on the public purse. The welfare state is meant to look after people who can't work through no fault of their own, not encourage people to claim benefits as they are better off doing this than working!
It's possible that Rhys is a 20-something "career student" - sponging off the state, if you adopt his tone.
Unfortunately the seeds sown by Thatcher are now blossoming - an entire generation is growing up thinking that greed is good, there is no such thing as society and the sick, elderly and infirm can go and hang. Thatcher's ideology is the norm in Middle England - it's now pervading into Wales too on the back of a New Labour party committed to perpetuating her memory.
As you say Bethan, far better to focus on the filthy rich who avoid and evade taxes, ruin people's lives and buy political power rather than the tiny minority of dole scroungers who live on life's margins.
hafod, to clarify - it is possible that I am a twnety- somethiing, actually not far off thirty! I am not a 'career student', having completed my degree a few months before my 21st birthday, and have since been in the world of work, recently setting up on my own. I think you misread my post so let me reiterate that I do not have a problem with people who are actively looking for work claiming benefits, nor have I a problem with the sick and elderly - after all we all have agood chance of being one, or even both! I agree that more needs to be done on the matter of rich people avoiding/evading taxes, as well as people living in the country who make their cash in foreign countries. I pay a fair wedge of tax, and would like to see it distributed fairly, not on the dole scroungers who are making a living out of not working. The system needs to change from where it is now - encouraging people to be unemployed; and start supporting the people who can't work through no fault of their own. If dole scroungers are bought to book, it may instil a little self respect in society
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