New Labour - friend or foe?
I was going to post this on Friday but had to leave it - but have come back to it as it's too good not to finish. A key question for 'traditional' Labour supporters, and indeed radicals who are too young to remember anything before Blair, is: is New Labour worth voting for? Friday's Guardian carried contrasting views on this topic. On the credit side is an article by Robin Cook entitled 'Blair has delivered on some of the left's historic demands'. Cook argues that Labour [drop the 'New' for a moment]'s commitment to full employment, the minimum wage, ending child poverty, and attempts to push a more radical agenda on foreign aid, consitutes a radical programme, undelivered by previous Labour administrations, which Old Labour can embrace.
Meanwhile, Guardian Economics Editor Larry Elliot makes the exact opposite case from a similar political starting point, in his article 'Despised and patronised by New Labour'. Elliot cites the case for the prosecution: huge falls in manufacturing output, a failure to address growth in underlying economic inequality (rather than just redistributing income through the tax-benefit system) and "support for globalisation, free trade and an independent Bank of England" with opposition to "industrial policy, nationalisation and protection".
Who's right? Probably neither. Cook is right that the progress on the minimum wage and child poverty is genuinely to be welcomed, and puts the achievements of most previous Labour governments in the shade. Also, some of Elliot's criticisms are of the way the world in general is going, rather than anything New Labour has done. Globalisation, by its nature, demands a co-ordinated global, or at least continental, policy response. Socialism in one country - or even managed capitalism in one country - is no longer possible. Also, the rise of multinationals in many sectors of the economy makes those sectors difficult for state-owned companies to compete in. For example, what would the point of nationalising Rover have been when it could never have achieved the minimum efficient scale necessary to produce cars profitably?
But New Labour still leaves a sick taste in the radical mouth, as its failures probably outweigh its achievements. Constitutional reform has been a mess, and Westminster elections are still governed by a ridiculous electoral system. Huge reforms to the delivery of health and education have been launched in the name of 'choice' as an act of faith, and no-one really knows what the hell we will end up with - or whether it will be more efficient or equitable than what we had before. Public transport is worse than it was in 1997. And towering over all this, we have stood four-square behind the most reactionary US government in recent history in a monumental act of military folly, whilst mortgaging our civil liberties at home for the promise of a 'freedom from terror' that no candidate standing on May 5th knows how to deliver.
My own choice on May 5th will be Labour - but only because my sitting MP only had a majority of 358 last time round, and the Tory challenger looked like a bloody shoproom dummy when he was handing out leaflets the other morning when I was getting my train. I mean it really was the kind of Tory you used to see in Essex all the time in the 80s and early 90s - all the neighbouring constituencies are bedevilled by these cretins, and it scared the bejeesus out of me, I can tell you. I just said "I think I'll pass on that, thanks", and carried on walking - didn't even bother to take his leaflet and deface it. A risk of contamination, I guess.
There is a good choice of other candidates in Braintree - Lib Dem, Green, or UKIP, but what would be the point of letting the Tory in? At least the current Labour MP supports rail re-nationalisation (which might have got him Larry Elliot's vote as well.) But in the circumstances I couldn't blame anybody for voting for the Lib Dems, Greens, even "Respect (George Galloway)". There are problems with all these parties, but maybe what New Labour needs most is a good kick in the balls. Or at least a majority in the area of around 42... incidentally, does anyone know what has happened to the Socialist Labour Party? Their website is nowhere to be seen... have they disbanded?
Meanwhile, Guardian Economics Editor Larry Elliot makes the exact opposite case from a similar political starting point, in his article 'Despised and patronised by New Labour'. Elliot cites the case for the prosecution: huge falls in manufacturing output, a failure to address growth in underlying economic inequality (rather than just redistributing income through the tax-benefit system) and "support for globalisation, free trade and an independent Bank of England" with opposition to "industrial policy, nationalisation and protection".
Who's right? Probably neither. Cook is right that the progress on the minimum wage and child poverty is genuinely to be welcomed, and puts the achievements of most previous Labour governments in the shade. Also, some of Elliot's criticisms are of the way the world in general is going, rather than anything New Labour has done. Globalisation, by its nature, demands a co-ordinated global, or at least continental, policy response. Socialism in one country - or even managed capitalism in one country - is no longer possible. Also, the rise of multinationals in many sectors of the economy makes those sectors difficult for state-owned companies to compete in. For example, what would the point of nationalising Rover have been when it could never have achieved the minimum efficient scale necessary to produce cars profitably?
But New Labour still leaves a sick taste in the radical mouth, as its failures probably outweigh its achievements. Constitutional reform has been a mess, and Westminster elections are still governed by a ridiculous electoral system. Huge reforms to the delivery of health and education have been launched in the name of 'choice' as an act of faith, and no-one really knows what the hell we will end up with - or whether it will be more efficient or equitable than what we had before. Public transport is worse than it was in 1997. And towering over all this, we have stood four-square behind the most reactionary US government in recent history in a monumental act of military folly, whilst mortgaging our civil liberties at home for the promise of a 'freedom from terror' that no candidate standing on May 5th knows how to deliver.
My own choice on May 5th will be Labour - but only because my sitting MP only had a majority of 358 last time round, and the Tory challenger looked like a bloody shoproom dummy when he was handing out leaflets the other morning when I was getting my train. I mean it really was the kind of Tory you used to see in Essex all the time in the 80s and early 90s - all the neighbouring constituencies are bedevilled by these cretins, and it scared the bejeesus out of me, I can tell you. I just said "I think I'll pass on that, thanks", and carried on walking - didn't even bother to take his leaflet and deface it. A risk of contamination, I guess.
There is a good choice of other candidates in Braintree - Lib Dem, Green, or UKIP, but what would be the point of letting the Tory in? At least the current Labour MP supports rail re-nationalisation (which might have got him Larry Elliot's vote as well.) But in the circumstances I couldn't blame anybody for voting for the Lib Dems, Greens, even "Respect (George Galloway)". There are problems with all these parties, but maybe what New Labour needs most is a good kick in the balls. Or at least a majority in the area of around 42... incidentally, does anyone know what has happened to the Socialist Labour Party? Their website is nowhere to be seen... have they disbanded?
2 Comments:
Hi Hal, Well written and a good update for a Canadian visitor. There are parallels with politics in Canada, namely the child poverty state and in Canada's case, a terrible multi scandal waste of Millions of our tax wealth. The Liberals have been in too long here. This current Sponsorship scandal or Adscam (shorter) is huge. Senior ministers are falling and incriminating other VIPs. They should all go to jail, but Canadian's are so forgiving, or apathetic, one can only be amazed. The world is going to laugh at us when they get the whole picture. Anyway, great bolgs to look at are: BeingAmericanInToronto....blogsCanada.ca. I have only been a blogger for a matter of days, yet I had the seagull's gall to make two bolg sites, namely BendGovt.blog.ca and BendGovernment.Blogspot.com 73's Ol man, TonyGuitar
Thanks Tony, I am woefully ignorant of the Canadian political scene but it sounds pretty crazy. I have a good friend working in Vancouver and I thought he would be following events in Canada but he seems to know less than I do! I will check the blogs. Cheers, Hal.
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