Why socialists should vote Lib Dem.
Kate Belgrave posed this question on this very site when replying to Jennie Rigg. Kate seems to be slowly warming to the idea but nonetheless I think it is a relevant question. The first thing to note is that there are doctrinal differences between liberals and socialists; they largely arise in different attitudes to capitalism and how to deal with it. Socialists want to replace it and liberals want to promote it while protecting the most vulnerable members of society. Of course, this is a sweeping generalisation which doesn’t do nearly enough justice to the complexities of the issue but it will have to do for now.
However, if we are being entirely honest, socialists don’t really have much of a clue what to replace capitalism with anymore following the failure of social democracy and communism. This is not the place to discuss why those two things failed but it does lead us to make an important discovery; the doctrinal differences are narrower now than at any time in history. Liberals and socialists share a common interest in the preservation and protection of the lower strata of society. continue reading… »
Cameron: more than Maggie masquerading as Morrissey
Now the spotlight shifts to The Novice; with some recent opinion polls putting support for the Tories at 50%-plus, David Cameron is presumably in a buoyant mood as he gears up for the Conservative Party conference that starts in Birmingham next week.
In a set piece interview with Sky – extracts here – he deftly counters the Great Clunking Fist’s accusations that he’s still wet behind the ears, pointing out that for all his experience, Gordon Brown has made rather a hash of things over the last year. There’s even the by now de rigeur sideswipe at New Labour from the left:
I just make this argument: who in the last year has thumped the poor and the working poor with abolishing the 10-pence tax rate? That was an appalling decision taken by a Labour prime minister.
Quite. Welcome to the world of Cameron’s Conservatives; environmentally friendly, socially liberal and completely at ease with multiculturalism. Not the Nasty Party anymore. continue reading… »
Bevan or Thatcher: who’s relevant?
At the end of Greg Dyke’s programme on Nye Bevan, Michael Heseltine says Bevan is “irrelevant today.” I can only hope that remark was made some time ago, because from where I’m sat, it’s gibber. Bevan is a highly relevant figure.
Our complaint against Nadine Dorries MP upheld
A few months ago I submitted a complaint, with the help of some Liberal Conspirators to the Parliamentary Standards Commission against Nadine Dorries MP. In short, it was regarding her blog. Last weekend I had a response.
The most relevant parts of the letter stated:
The rules of the house, however, do require Members to make a clear distinction between websites which are financed from public funds and any other domain. At the time of your complaint, Mrs Dorries’ website did not meet that requirement. Nor was it appropriate that she use the Portcullis emblem on the weblog given its contents. And the funding attribution on Mrs Dorries’ Home Page should have been updated to reflect that the funding came from the Communications Allowance and not from the Incidental Expenses Provision.
To these three technical aspects, our complaint was upheld. But, the Commissioner adds:
continue reading… »
The struggle within New Labour
Sunder Katwala had a brilliant rant yesterday at the Fabian Society’s Question Time fringe (alongside Zoe Williams (Guardian), Jon Cruddas MP, Ed Balls MP, Gaby Hinsliff (Observer) and Fraser Nelson (Spectator)).
His point was this – there is little point in the government trying to attack the Tories at a time when their own credibility was at such a low ebb. This much is spot on – the approach underlined by Brown and even Prescott (who unveiled a GO4 campaign this weekend) is to try and win the next election by exposing Cameron’s Conservatives as the ’same old Tories’. Given the electorate is already switching off New Labour – why should they take attacks on Tories seriously?
What the government should be doing, Sunder added forcefully, is laying out a positive new vision that contrasts with Cameron’s lame ‘broken society’ narrative. And this is the problem with the plotters and doubters of Brown – they know they want to get rid of their leader but have no alternative vision to push. Intellectually, they’re as much in the wilderness as Brown himself.
I agree with all this, though Sunder thinks my view that the story should be ‘Westminister isn’t Working‘, won’t work because its too negative. As a secondary narrative perhaps but not the primary one, he says.
I’m not convinced because you can say ‘WIW‘ and lay out a radical and postive vision of how the political system could be made more responsive to people, and acknowledging New Labour had made mistakes.
continue reading… »
What Tories say, and what they do
What Tories say:
The voluntary sector should be neither poor relation nor a cut-price alternative to government. lt is absolutely central to the life of the nation, but with a character and contribution all of its own…I have great ambitions for the social sector in this country, and I make no apology for that. I simply do not believe that we will make serious progress in tackling relative poverty and deprivation, in creating communities fit for the 21st century, unless we inspire a revolution in social provision.” – David Cameron
What Tories do:
A financial crisis is theatening the Scrine Foundation charity for the homeless in Canterbury. More than 100 people living in properties managed by the charity could be forced back onto the streets and nearly 70 full and part-time staff could lose their jobs.
It follows a decision by the [Conservative-run] city council’s housing benefits office to drastically cut payments to the charity’s clients.
via Though Cowards Flinch
We need to take on New Tories better
In ‘Is the Future Conservative?’ we argue (pdf) that it is time for the left to take on the New Tories and that this challenge cannot be separated from creating a post-New Labour social democracy. By critically engaging with Cameron’s Conservatives the left can rethink its principles and renew itself.
Whoever wins the next election, the future does not belong to the Conservative Party. Nor will it be a re-run of the neo-liberal economics of the 1980s and 90s. Three decades of restructuring and liberalisation have been brought to an end by recession and the credit crunch. Neo -liberalism has done its work and its creative destruction is now undermining capitalism itself. The financial bubbles make it structurally unsustainable.
continue reading… »
What do the Eurosceptic Tories want?
Valery Giscard d’Estaing – who left the Elysee Palace in 1981 – was always an odd choice to Chair the Convention on the future of Europe, which eventually produced the document formerly known as the Constitutional Treaty.
Now, the Grand Old Man of a United Europe has been breaking bread with the Tory ’sceptics’ at a conference sponsored by the Daily Telegraph. And his argument that Britain can have a “special status” (where Britain is allowed to opt out of future Treaties) seems to have cheered them up.
Well, almost. John Redwood thinks its just a clever trap to suck Britain in, while leading sceptic MEP Dan Hannan would prefer Britain to take a similar ‘special status’ outside the EU to … err … Switzerland.
continue reading… »
Re-thinking Obama (pt2): Why the left is frustrating
Barely had Barack Obama been crowned Democratic nominee for presidency that the doubtful editorials started. How badly will he disappoint us, the liberals, lefties and greens started asking in earnest. Everything from his stance on national security, foreign policy, the environment and even (bizarrely) abortion rights have been held up as examples of his betrayal and coming disappointment.
I can’t begin to tell you how much such attitudes frustrate me. But they do offer a brilliant illustration of why the left in Britain today remains at the margins of political power.
To me there are two ways of shifting the political consensus in any direction. The first, by getting into power and enacting policies that become part of the furniture (welfare state, NHS, BBC, minimum wage etc). The second way is to build grass-roots organisations and put pressure on politicians and shift the public discourse. (Being over-exposed on, or controlling the mass-media is a third option, but you’re not Rupert Murdoch so let’s keep it simple).
It is often said that left-wingers want all the power but none of the responsibility. In watching Barack Obama’s run for president unfold, this has never been more true.
continue reading… »
Income inequality – Tories v Labour
Looking at the above graph (via), would you say income inequality has increased more under this Labour government, or under earlier Conservative governments?
I think it may be obvious but someone may want to explain this to Chris Mounsey of Devil’s Kitchen, the idiot with tourette’s syndrome and a penchant for writing sexual fantasies about newspaper columnists, who thinks this is rubbish. It doesn’t help does it, if you’re angry at someone saying nasty things about right-whingers, and then get it wrong yourself with irrelevant statistics.
Update: Unity at Ministry of Truth sets the fool right, decisively.
Osborne’s failed attempt to woo lefties
There are two ways to look at George Osborne and the Tories’ latest kite-flying exercise, this time on social justice, equality and fairness.
You can accept it takes a great degree of courage that it’s the Tories recognising their past mistakes and moving onto the New Labour agenda; or you can just be staggered by the chutzpah from a group of politicians that don’t seem to have any limits to how far they will go to prove that they really, honestly, truly care about subjects which they previously had very little time for.
On the basis of Osborne’s article, it’s difficult not to come to the second conclusion.
It’s with a piece with most of the recent articles by the Conservatives that have appeared in the Guardian – big on rhetoric, minuscule on actual policy. The one thing that Osborne’s has going for it is that unlike Oliver Letwin, who managed to write over 600 words without naming one specific policy, he actually suggests what the Tories would actually do were they to win power. The problem is that we’ve heard it all before multiple times, and indeed, some of it is what Yvette Cooper covered in her piece on Monday.
continue reading… »
Why Gordon and Boris are in trouble
What do Gordon Brown and Boris Johnson have in common? The answer is that both are currently getting a beating in the media.
And I think this is central to answering to points: (1) Can a new Labour leader help the Labour party? (2) What’s going wrong with Boris Johnson?
continue reading… »
Insane? But it’s what these Tories are about
David Cameron yesterday called the latest report from Policy Exchange ‘insane’. As well he might. But for the modern Conservative Party, the only thing insane, was to say this stuff out loud.
Because for the think tank, the ranks of which make up a large chunk of the new Tory establishment, these views are nothing out of the ordinary.
Have the Tories misunderstood ‘equality’?
To those of us whose political views were formed in the 1970s and 80s, Michael Gove’s speech yesterday looked disconcerting.
He said:
Our social policy is…explicitly redistributive…we’re concerned about growing inequality…
When we talk of a broken society today one of the fractures we are concerned about is the growing breach between richer and poorer.
What world are we in, where a Tory can claim to care about equality? Is Gove sincere here – in which case he is flatly repudiating Thatcherism, or is this just another exercise in “decontaminating the brand” of Toryism?
continue reading… »
Can Cameron’s big ‘nudge’ idea work?
The Spiritual Civilisation Construction Commission has the job of curbing anti-social behaviour in Beijing whilst cultivating courtesy and civility instead. It has issued booklets and launched campaigns to minimise littering and China’s problem with public spitting, it has issued edicts on sartorial and social matters from handshaking to the length of one’s skirt. It has also been accompanied by a zero tolerance, broken windows approach to minor infractions such as spitting.
This is interesting for one major reason: it sounds very much like an extreme version of policies suggested by David Cameron, a whole suite of policies that might be labelled “soft paternalism”.
continue reading… »
But will it actually work?
Just how much bigger will this week’s ‘biggest shake-up of the welfare state since the 1940s’ be than ‘the biggest shake-up of the welfare state for 60 years’ unveiled by David Blunkett in 2005?
Will the impending ‘Labour Blitz on Dole Scroungers’ hailed by the Sun be more or less of a blitz than the ‘Brown Blitz on the Black Economy’ similarly praised in the Murdoch press eight years ago? Luftwaffe, eat your heart out.
Come to that, how is it that those people singled out in pensions secretary James Purnell’s work for dole proposals are exactly the same people name-checked in Peter Lilley’s ‘I have a little list of benefit offenders who I’ll soon be rooting out and who never would be missed’ speech to the Conservative Party conference in 1991?
Tory bloggers should have more confidence
For those of us who lean centre-right the most dispiriting thing about the row over the crime statistics is the paucity of confidence it demonstrates in some Tory supporters, particularly among bloggers.
We’ve established a near-constant 20pt poll lead, notched up significant electoral victories in London & Crewe, garnered the sort of positive press coverage they’ve only dreamt about for c.15 years and seen even Labour’s most loyal and optimistic supporters in the press now talk about the ‘scale of’ rather than ‘likelihood’ of defeat.
That’s the sort of context most oppositions would shed a limb for.
continue reading… »
If Tuesday is Soylent Green Day, is Sunday Hangover Day?
Spirit of 1976 has found a secret video exposing the Gay Agenda to Take Over the World.
Steph Ashley can’t understand why everyone quotes Iain Dale as if his views actually matter. I share her mystification on this.
Alix Mortimer compares Lib Dem and Tory campaign slogans and (surprisingly!) finds the Tory one somewhat wanting.
Dreaming of Simplicity wants to pee on Aaron’s bonfire in linking to this article on Digital Spy about the BBC’s commercial impacts.
Aberavon and Neath Lib Dems examine the Tax Credit train wreck.
And finally, Lady Mark Valladares has been up in my neck of the woods. He (and Ros) will be in Bradford today and I shall, if I can drag myself out of bed, be going to have a cream tea with them. The perils of Lib Demmery…
Let’s have a party for Thatcher
So, a state funeral for Maggie? Why the hell not. Let’s do it.
And whilst we’re at it, let’s have a frantic choir of badly-dressed midgets singing the ding-dong song. Hell, I’m only 5ft tall myself, I’ll lead the chorus. Let’s have a party. Let’s have a gigantic piss-up to see the old girl off, and with her what remained of industrial Britain: its hatred.
Because once the witch is dead, maybe the progressive left can finally move on.
We lost, back in the mid-80s. Well, in fact, I was watching The Poddington Peas and eating a rusk on a sofa in Islington at the time, officer – but, vicariously, I lost too. We all lost. We need to face that, forgive ourselves and move on.
continue reading… »
What does Cameron’s “broken society” say about us?
Reading the Grauniad’s interview with David Cameron and the accompanying article, it’s very difficult not to become depressed that after 10 years of Blair, within a couple of years we’re going to be under the thumb of his very real heir, and with not just the Labour party but the entirety of the left raising barely a whimper of defiance.
Cameron’s broken society gambit is almost certainly the one detail that makes me despair the most. He knows it’s not true, we know it isn’t true, the government knows it isn’t true, even the Times, whose sister paper has done the most to perpetuate the notion knows it isn’t true, and yet I don’t think I can recall a single politician, whether they be Labour or Liberal Democrat who has directly challenged Cameron to provide some real evidence that British society is any sense broken.
Here’s Cameron’s incredibly weak case for it:
He denies he is giving a false picture of Britain by talking of a broken society, saying: “There is a general incivility that people have to put up with, people shouting at you on the bus or abusing you on the street, or road rage. There is a lot of casual violence; and I think it is important to draw attention to it.”
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» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
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» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
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» In defence of these fraternal nominations
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