Shades of ’79

Talk of rebellion is not far from the ears of us political bloggers today. In a year of unfortunate press articles, the past two weeks has to have been perhaps the worst two weeks of Gordon Brown’s miserable premiership. Backbench Labour MPs convinced the party is doomed, their seats in dire trouble, and the future of the Country almost guaranteed to cross to Tory hands for the next half a decade at least, is enough to suggest that the Brown era may be over quicker than Number.10 might have wished. Labour’s 1997, appears to be the Conservative’s 2009.

If we take our political time machine back two weeks we would find ourselves amidst yet more Labour scandal. Ex-Labour advisor to Brown, and spin doctor Damien McBride sends smeer emails against several Tory backbenchers, to Labour Party Blogger Derek Draper, all of which were fabricated by McBride, and sent directly from McBride’s No.10 Email account. It is thought the blog would act as a place that McBride could post rumours he had invented, about the private lives of senior Tories including the Cameron family and the Osbourne family.

Shortly after that, as reported on a previous blog entry, the Government decide not to allow the majority of Gurkha’s who have fought for this Country, the right to live in this Country. They introduced a motion which would allow, according to GurkhaJustice, only 100 or so Gurkha’s to live in the UK, and only those who served over twenty years. Deciding to ignore the fact that most Gurkha’s only sign up for fifteen years service. The motion angered the British Public who feel a moral debt toward the Gurkha’s.
The Liberal Democrats managed to convince backbench Labour MPs to vote against the Government, and so in the form of extreme embarrassment to an ever weakening Government, the Government lost the vote . The willingness of backbenchers to vote against their Government, and in line with the third party of British Politics, the Lib Dems, is of intense importance to the continuing downfall of the Labour Government.

Gordon Brown, then hastily, and without scrupulous attention to the media fall out, posted a frankly bizarre video on Youtube outlining plans to scrap the controversial MPs Second Home Allowance, that allows those MPs with Constituency Seats outside of London to claim up to £20,000 on furnishings, a mortgage and other expenses; by replacing it with a clocking in system, in which MPs get paid extra…. for turning up to work. A daily payment, for clocking in to the Commons. Of course, he didn’t think this plan up himself. MEPs in the European Parliament have a similar clocking in system, which it turns out, is more open to abuse than the current Second Homes Allowance. In fact, MEPs actually refer to the process as “SOSO”, or “Sign on Sod Off“. Given that the system doesn’t work in Brussels, i’m not entirely sure why Gordon thought it’d prevail here. Brown was forced to scrap those plans he so gleefully put forward on Youtube, adding insult to an already dreadfully embarrassed government.

In a fortnight of majestic failure after failure on the part of the Government, it was inevitable that talk of dissent among back benchers and former Labour front benchers was going to grab the headlines. Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke is quoted as saying “I’m ashamed to be a Labour MP”, he added that he had “worked half my life to get Labour into a position where it could be a good government and I do see that fading away.”
According to former Liberal Democrat Leader Paddy Ashdown, several senior MPs have become so intensely disillusioned with the malignant Labour front Bench, that they have considered defecting to the Liberal Democrat benches if Labour were to lose the next election.
To top it off, Downing Street attempted to show just how connected they are with the general public, by offering an online petition program, in which the public could start an official petition regarding anything they so wish, straight on the Downing Street website. Today, the most popular petition, gaining over 40,000 signatures is simply entitled “Resign”.

In my humble opinion, these past two weeks could indeed be the beginning of a storm that threatens to destroy the Government before they themselves choose to call an election in 2010. They could indeed be forced to call an election much earlier than they had planned, if 1979 is invoked, and a Conservative driven vote of no confidence placed on the heads of the current administration. If that were to happen, I cannot imagine the Government would win the vote in their favour. It could indeed get that serious.
The only possible way I can see Labour clawing back the 19 point lead the Conservatives have over them, is a change in leadership, a complete Cabinet reshuffle. Some new blood. The Party looks old, out of touch, with largely fatuous Department heads. That needs to change. There needs to be a burst of energy thrust into the Government and into Whitehall, otherwise the ghost of Callaghan will continue to strangle the Party and the Government.
Shades of 1979, exactly 30 years on.

What’s next?

“The real debate today is about finding the right balance between the market and government. Both are needed. They can complement each other. This balance will differ from time to time and place to place.” – Joseph Stiglitz

If the 1970s marked the death of social democracy; the flawed ideals of Socialism and it’s proponents, then 2005-2010 marks the death of the neoliberalist experiment. Thatcher, Reagan, New Labour, Alan Greenspan and other prominent neoliberalist proponents were wrong. The Banking crises with it’s roots lodged deeply into the cancer of the sub prime market spread and infested the very concept of neoliberalism itself; exposing the financial system for what it is – a corrupt entity, focusing on monetary value only rather than a mix of monetary, environmental, and human value; a germ that feeds on deregulation and a sub standard FSA.

This neoliberalist concept has forced itself on other nations. They have to allow Coca Cola and Starbucks to destroy their land and exploit their resources and workers, because if they don’t, they fail – falling further and further into poverty. Just because America loves it, doesn’t mean we all should.

There is of course one big problem. There isn’t another coherent philosophically sound economic theory that could replace the system we currently have. When the Callaghan government fell in 1979, it’s social democratic form was replaced by a Thatcherite Conservative movement which sparked the beginning of the neoliberalism experiment; thirty years later causing the biggest financial crises in modern history. The left wing didn’t cause this mess, we merely sat by and let it happen. We were theatre goers. We watched on as the boys in suits on stage attacked each other and set fires, whilst exclaiming to the audience that everything is great, that this system of setting fires and destroying each other, is the height of human nature. We watched helplessly as tax was set on fire, investment in public goods was set on fire, poor nation’s resources were set on fire, the environment was set on fire, financial regulation was set on fire, human kindness was set on fire, and we stood back and merely said “we told you so” when the money itself was set on fire.

The problem the Left has, is we do not know how to put those fires out. We have nothing new. We have no great intellect. We have no one like Milton Friedman who has a clear economic way forward. We lack a coherent set of economic strategies to combat the global recession and create a new World based on fairness and equality.

Conservatives and Republicans alike appear to be under the naive impression that if you’re not a supporter of deregulated markets and financial institutions, then you’re a communist. Well i’m neither. Socialism cries that the State is the answer to everything. Neoliberalism cries that deregulated free markets are the answer to everything. Neither ideas are right. Neither proved themselves worthy. The right mixture of market values and State supervision along with a safety net and assurances, is the right way forward.

We need to fight the attacks made by the American Right Wing, that any thing other than reimplementing Neoliberalist ideas is Socialist. We need to look back to Keynes for answers. We look to people like the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who insists on striking the middle ground when he mentioned a new order known as “Social Capitalism” . We need left wing intellects and prominent politicians willing to think the unthinkable and publicise it. For twenty five years not only have the Conservatives and Republicans dedicated themselves to neoliberal concepts, even our centre-left Parties have embraced neoliberalism. Tony Blair and New Labour embraced deregulation in all it’s disastrous glory. Thatcher herself, a a dinner in Hampshire was asked what her greatest achievement had been, she replied “Tony Blair and New Labour. We forced our opponents to change their minds“. The failure of New Labour and it’s ties to Thatcherism is evident today. They deregulated financial markets further, which in turn allowed 3.5million house holds to brave the winter months in fuel poverty; they sold industries further reducing Britain’s exports and social responsibilities whilst simultaneously killing the unions off further. The Tories are offering the same nonsense that got us into this mess in the first place. There is nothing new. They simply suggest that the super rich should be able to accumulate even greater wealth in the short term, whilst the rest of us get ever so slightly richer as the years pass by.

Economic growth along with the ability to accumulate great wealth at the expense of whoever they saw fit, has been considered a moral “right” and true “freedom” for thirty years, rather than a by product of social inequality and spectacularly wrong ethical standards. That, has to change. Let’s stop claiming London is such a powerhouse purely because the super rich in Mayfair have a number of yachts to their name; and let’s stop measuring the success of a city by how those less fortunate people in places like Peckham could benefit from huge investment in public education, policing, job creation, community support and healthcare. Let’s measure the success of a city by the way they pull together to help each other. Let’s stop considering houses to be “investments” and start seeing a house as a home primarily. Let’s stop considering the water supply in Indian slums as perfect places for Coca Cola to drain the water for profit to the detriment of local communities. Let’s stop claiming that poor nations are “lazy” when in fact most bi-lateral trade agreements favour the West in general and have very little benefit for poor nations. Let’s stop teaching our kids that it’s perfectly acceptable and necessary for the future of the concept of “freedom” to allow your child to get superbly over weight, whilst another starves to death. It isn’t right. It never was right. And the ethical system based on this flawed concept of “freedom” has been nothing but a disaster. Conservatives and Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to support it.

The State, which has been the centre of attack from Neoliberalist proponents across the globe, now has the task of saving us and those Neoliberalists from themselves through bail out schemes. The State has been resurrected and has a duty to regulate the financial markets, invest in public healthcare, housing and education, lead the way on climate change and make sure the hungry are fed.

Whilst this is a small window of opportunity for the Left to present it’s ideas on climate change initiatives, social welfare, bank regulation and new rules on global trade to include help for the poorest Nations, and ways out of this crises, there is nothing to be heard from them. As a leftie, liberal, green, hippy – this stands only to disappointment whilst we wait for Cameron and the New Thatcherites to start fighting the fire, by pouring petrol onto it.

So if Social Democracy failed; Communism failed; and now Neoliberalism has failed. What’s next?