So the Milliballs have entered the debate.
Austerity. Deficit Reduction. Keeping to the Osborne numbers.
Yawn.
Perhaps, as co-operators they could have offered a vision of a co-operative future?
Perhaps as Labour they could have invoked the Spirit of '45?
I wonder what a really radical manifesto might look like?
The Home Office could lead on immigration and Europe proposing a more open and integrated approach.
Welcoming, as the Bible encourages us, the stranger, who will, as immigrants to these shores have for centuries, enrich our social and community life.
Still with the Home Office, policing should become local again, more Dixon's and fewer Jack Regan's with costs remitted back to local authorities to manage budgets.
Education could help us engage with the future by helping us to learn how to research and discover knowledge and information, as the Academy I helped to come into being in Bradford, debate could inform both pedagogy and governance.
After all true knowledge was defined by Samuel Johnson long before google, as not necessarily knowing a thing but knowing where to find out about it.
The DTI could become the DCD, aka the Department for Co-operative Development tasked by the Milliballs team with encouraging and promoting co-operative solutions across the whole industrial sector from manufacture to finance and retailing.
A co-operative Britain would be a Britain in which we all had a stake because we were all members, who knows, maybe even those who are agitating for a little England solutions might change their minds when every half year instead of paying tax, they received their divi', from the treasury, the first and continuing fruits of Co-operative UK.
Defence, well here is one strong candidate for a radical solution, Trident is enormously expensive and in the new world order, as Jack Reacher teaches us, we need a different form of defense, tanks and nuclear subs belong to the old order, now we need light, fast response teams who can be deployed in support of friends around the globe.
Indeed, the first victim of austerity should be a massive saving in the defence budget, releasing funds for ensuring that in the future we need have no fear of being nuked out of existence.
Health, by now we know full well that big is not necessarily good. So close big hospitals. Open or re-open or where they exist, use local cottage hospitals. Invest more in nursing and allow nurses to do more. GP's should operate from District Hospitals with fewer consultants and high cost specialists. Strip out the bureacracy and high cost management. In India heart surgery can be undertaken for £2000 not £200,000 with similar results and standards of care.
Agriculture, food, fisheries and all that well we needed to be reminded that we are digging a huge hole under our feet, we are encouraging the despoliation and defoliation of the earth beneath our feet. Our way of living is unsustainable over the longer term. The natural world is buckling under the weight of the demands we make for energy and in particular fossil fuels.
Again as the Bible reminds us, the Earth is the Lord's and all therein is. So those industrialists and exploiters, oil companies and energy providers need to be reminded that they are stewards not owners, the riches of the earth are not theirs for exploitation but for careful, long term nurture.
And, of course, the high point of the vision shared by the Labour leadership would be the nationalisation of the energy companies, the natural resources whether it is gas, oil or coal are a national treasure owned by us all. Properly stewarded we could all enjoy the benefits of co-operative energy into a sustainable future.
In Norway the state's direct involvement in the energy industry has brought huge benefits a strong economy and generous welfare provision. The profits instead of disappearing into the coffers of international companies shareholders, they bring benefits to the people of Norway, through the arts, culture, welfare and personal and individual security for the citizens of Norway.
Which brings me to one final radical thought, perhaps an incoming Labour Government should be concerned to ensure that the wealth generated by Co-operative UK should be shared equally across the generations through a massive programme of house building, employment creation in the arts and care sectors as well as in manufacturing and energy.
Promising a national wage related to responsibility.
Certainly not simply echoing the rhetoric of austerity, deficit reduction and Osborne's numbers.
Austerity. Deficit Reduction. Keeping to the Osborne numbers.
Yawn.
Perhaps, as co-operators they could have offered a vision of a co-operative future?
Perhaps as Labour they could have invoked the Spirit of '45?
I wonder what a really radical manifesto might look like?
The Home Office could lead on immigration and Europe proposing a more open and integrated approach.
Welcoming, as the Bible encourages us, the stranger, who will, as immigrants to these shores have for centuries, enrich our social and community life.
Still with the Home Office, policing should become local again, more Dixon's and fewer Jack Regan's with costs remitted back to local authorities to manage budgets.
Education could help us engage with the future by helping us to learn how to research and discover knowledge and information, as the Academy I helped to come into being in Bradford, debate could inform both pedagogy and governance.
After all true knowledge was defined by Samuel Johnson long before google, as not necessarily knowing a thing but knowing where to find out about it.
The DTI could become the DCD, aka the Department for Co-operative Development tasked by the Milliballs team with encouraging and promoting co-operative solutions across the whole industrial sector from manufacture to finance and retailing.
A co-operative Britain would be a Britain in which we all had a stake because we were all members, who knows, maybe even those who are agitating for a little England solutions might change their minds when every half year instead of paying tax, they received their divi', from the treasury, the first and continuing fruits of Co-operative UK.
Defence, well here is one strong candidate for a radical solution, Trident is enormously expensive and in the new world order, as Jack Reacher teaches us, we need a different form of defense, tanks and nuclear subs belong to the old order, now we need light, fast response teams who can be deployed in support of friends around the globe.
Indeed, the first victim of austerity should be a massive saving in the defence budget, releasing funds for ensuring that in the future we need have no fear of being nuked out of existence.
Health, by now we know full well that big is not necessarily good. So close big hospitals. Open or re-open or where they exist, use local cottage hospitals. Invest more in nursing and allow nurses to do more. GP's should operate from District Hospitals with fewer consultants and high cost specialists. Strip out the bureacracy and high cost management. In India heart surgery can be undertaken for £2000 not £200,000 with similar results and standards of care.
Agriculture, food, fisheries and all that well we needed to be reminded that we are digging a huge hole under our feet, we are encouraging the despoliation and defoliation of the earth beneath our feet. Our way of living is unsustainable over the longer term. The natural world is buckling under the weight of the demands we make for energy and in particular fossil fuels.
Again as the Bible reminds us, the Earth is the Lord's and all therein is. So those industrialists and exploiters, oil companies and energy providers need to be reminded that they are stewards not owners, the riches of the earth are not theirs for exploitation but for careful, long term nurture.
And, of course, the high point of the vision shared by the Labour leadership would be the nationalisation of the energy companies, the natural resources whether it is gas, oil or coal are a national treasure owned by us all. Properly stewarded we could all enjoy the benefits of co-operative energy into a sustainable future.
In Norway the state's direct involvement in the energy industry has brought huge benefits a strong economy and generous welfare provision. The profits instead of disappearing into the coffers of international companies shareholders, they bring benefits to the people of Norway, through the arts, culture, welfare and personal and individual security for the citizens of Norway.
Which brings me to one final radical thought, perhaps an incoming Labour Government should be concerned to ensure that the wealth generated by Co-operative UK should be shared equally across the generations through a massive programme of house building, employment creation in the arts and care sectors as well as in manufacturing and energy.
Promising a national wage related to responsibility.
Certainly not simply echoing the rhetoric of austerity, deficit reduction and Osborne's numbers.
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