27th August 2015

It was Margaret Thatcher who thought that her greatest legacy was New Labour.

If this is true, and it certainly sounds as though it could be, then it is a sad reflection on what happened during the three terms that Blair won for Labour.

New Labour was never a Tory Administration, not even as some would now say, Tory Lite.

But in its determination to hold the centre ground, despite some progressive policies, it allowed the centre ground to shift to the right politically and economically.

Relaxed about the super rich, happy to allow the wealthy to buy their way into Education Provision or Health Provision, happy to allow public services to be privatised.

In the end, when the banks failed and the wealthy fled taking their money with them, their debt was socialised and now increasingly we are seeing welfare privatised.

And now the Labour Party is riven by ideological divisions with Charles Clarke referring to Jeremy Corbyn as a 'continuity Benn/nutter' candidate.

Well, how true is this?

Continuity Benn?

Benn saw clearly how the Civil Service can frustrate policies and decisions of popularly elected governments.

He identified the centralised nature of the Labour Party which resulted in it becoming the personal fiefdom of its leader.

He drew attention to the power of industrialists and bankers to get their way by the use of crude economic pressure on Government.

And warned against a media which was always on the side of those who enjoy economic privilege.

Well it seems to me that if this is an accurate reflection of Benn's political views and it was, he reflected, these four points that made him move to the left of politics, then there is little here with which anyone can disagree.

These four principles are pretty key to understanding British political life, the Civil Service continues to exercise disproportionate influence, with the Treasury standing as the key arbiter of what can and cannot be 'afforded'.

The Labour Party has introduced one member one vote leading to an almighty row, a witch hunt, claims of hard left Trotsky style infiltration resulting in what? Corbyn 'the nutter'?

Economic Pressure? What happened during the Scottish Devolution Campaign? Banks and Businesses threatening to leave, which was 'crude economic pressure' if there ever was.

And, from Blair as Godfather to Murdoch's young daughter to the friendships between David Cameron and Rebecca Brooks and the famous 'fast, unpredictable ride' texts, who can deny the role of the press in raising up and bringing down individuals who can be famous one moment and infamous the next.

If Corbyn is elected, and if there is no coup and if he is able to form an opposition, then Trident, PFI and Women only Railway Carriages will be the least of his problems.

He will face a Civil Service committed to maintaining the Status as close to the Quo as possible.

He will face a Parliamentary Labour Party itching to take control back from the Trotskyites, which is it seems most of those who have voted Corbyn.

The more clearly it becomes, with China facing its economic meltdown, that capitalism is transforming itself into post capitalism, the economic pressure to stay with austerity until wages in the third world rise to meet wages in the west as they fall, as non-workers i.e. those who used to work in Blue Collar jobs, most of which have fallen out of the economy to be replaced with fewer high tech jobs and an increase in low paid service jobs, are blamed for claiming welfare the economic pressure to keep the billionaires in luxury so that they can continue to afford to buy the goods advertised in the FT's How To Spend It Magazine will continue and any attempt to resist will hailed as Class War.

And the Media will continue to exercise an influence.

I did on one occasion have supper at a table in Somerset House, our host on that occasion was Charles Clarke, he seemed to me to be a gracious host and committed to ensuring that the Government of which he was a part supported the working people who had elected it.

So his comments seemed a little to quote the title of his recent lectures 'The too difficult Box'

Clarke is of the view that politicians fail if they can't identify the problem, the solution, identify the implementation strategy needed, where the vested interests are, what the legal constraints are, how to bring in legislation and if they lack political energy.

So continuity Benn/Nutter? Not a good call!

I think Corbyn is strong on both analysis and prescription and is channelling the zeitgeist of those who have had enough of blaming the poor, austerity and socialising the indebtedness of failed banks.

11th August 2015

Last week I was invited to a meeting by Tom Watson.

The meeting, in Carlisle, was in the Ballroom of a City Centre Hotel.

The meeting was poorly attended. Most seats were empty and those attending appeared to be members of the Carlisle CLP.

The meeting was Chaired by the Candidate for Carlisle who was defeated in the last election by the sitting Conservative Candidate John Stevenson, during the meeting the person next to me played patience on their iPhone.

I live in Penrith and the Borders Constituency and there was no-one I recognised amongst those attending.

Tom's pitch was based around three topics:

Why did we lose the last election?

What are the issues of current concern?

What is the job description for a Deputy Leader?

During his opening presentation Tom Watson rehearsed much that was familiar to those who monitor the election, post-election and party political coverage in The Guardian.

Labour lost because it did badly in Scotland, because it lost the centre ground, because many traditional Labour voters voted for Ukip, and because it failed to answer the question about the deficit.

All of which is true, but is it the whole story?

I suspect that it lost the election long before May and it lost it because the public believed the Cameron/Osborne narrative rather than the Miliband/Balls narrative.

Certainly the discussion in the room reflected a general consensus around welfare cuts, immigration and the NHS.

One comment, that siding with the Tories over Scottish independence was a mistake and that in the debate about Europe it is crucial that Labour has a clear and distinctive story of its own to tell seemed to me to reflect much  more accurately the problem that Miliband had and that three of the current candidates for the leadership also reflect.

It is also clear that the centre ground has shifted to the right, so that rehearsing traditional Labour views about welfare, nationalisation and health sound dangerously left wing.

Which is of course why Jeremy Corbyn's success has engendered such panic amongst the former big beasts of the Labour Party.

Watson would not be drawn on who he supported for the leadership but he offered a 'job description' for the job of Deputy Leader that was essentially creating a bridge between strategy and delivery that ensured that the leadership could and would hear the concerns of party members and members would be in the loop as strategy was developed.

He made it clear that he could work with whoever was elected.

So what next?

Well the membership of the Labour Party has increased and it looks increasingly likely that Jeremy Corbyn could win in the first round.

Will this be the disaster that many predict?

My heart, and increasingly my head, tells me that this won't be the case.

As Yvette Cooper has said: 'the Tories lied to the electorate' and it is this fundamental dishonesty that places politics and election victories before policies that mean real and significant improvements in peoples lives, which needs challenging by the next leader of the Labour Party.

What is necessary, it seems to me, is for a programme to be developed that promotes a genuine living wage, rather than a renamed minimum wage, which will mean for businesses, customers who have more to spend and for the economy increased income tax revenue flowing into the Treasury.

Alongside this a home building programme that obviates the need for selling off social housing, that creates jobs and doesn't just mean huge bonuses for the bosses of building companies.

Again, the shift to a reliance on financial services which began under Thatcher needs to be re-balanced back towards manufacturing with emerging businesses supported by a public investment bank.

Add an investment in the public ownership of the railways and the country and the economy begins to appear balanced in favour of both poor and middle income families.

This it seems to me from the recent email I received from the Corbyn team is what we might expect if Corbyn wins.

His leadership of the Labour Party, anti austerity, anti Trident pro public ownership, pro higher education that doesn't result in graduating with debts of £50,000, seems to me to be offering more to the electorate than they have currently or are likely to get from the other candidates.

We will know in September and then the real debate will begin ...... imagine a new social movement transforming politics in Britain and resonating with similar anti austerity movements across Europe.