Owen Jones.
Apart from the last one (there are better ways of approaching that, although they also require State action), these are exactly what the 1950s Tories would have done, or did do.
Apart from the last one (there are better ways of approaching that, although they also require State action), these are exactly what the 1950s Tories would have done, or did do.
Absolutely horrific. He really is a sort of pure materialist Thatcherite.
ReplyDeleteEvery single manifesto commitment is about money.
Nothing to say on education, crime and disorder, national independence, liberty, the married family, British culture, morality, or indeed anything other than pound coins.
I see what Ed West means about "the Lefts blind spot".
They are just amoral liberal economics-obsessed secular materialists now.
The baleful influence of Marx's economic determinism can be seen everywhere in the New Left. All they care about is money.
You are thinking of the Right.
ReplyDeleteAnd this article is specifically about poverty. I realise that you insist that there is no such thing.
But there is. There are now more than a thousand foodbanks in this Third World country.
No wonder that Second World Bulgarians and Romanians have no desire to come here. Incontrovertibly.
10. Abolish the immoral and illegal Trident weapons of mass destruction and save £80 billion...
ReplyDeleteGaitskell’s Campaign for Democratic Socialism explicitly supported the unilateral renunciation of Britain’s nuclear weapons, and the document Policy for Peace, on which Gaitskell eventually won his battle at the 1961 Labour Conference, stated: “Britain should cease the attempt to remain an independent nuclear power, since that neither strengthens the alliance, nor is it now a sensible use of our limited resources.”
ReplyDeleteNumerous Tories with relevant experience – Anthony Head, Peter Thorneycroft, Nigel Birch, Aubrey Jones – were sceptical about, or downright hostile towards, British nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s. In March 1964, while responsible for Polaris as First Lord of the Admiralty, George Jellicoe suggested that Britain’s nuclear deterrent be pooled with the rest of NATO.
So, another policy that the old pragmatic, patriotic, paternalistic (in the good sense) and populist (in the good sense) Tory Party, expressed as various organisations in different parts of the country, would have supported if it had not been killed off by That Woman.
No wonder that cancelling Trident was UKIP policy at the 2010 General Election. But UKIP is just the second Thatcherite party now.
This is hardly "Owen Jones' Agenda" for a fairer Britain. More than half of what is in here is already official Labour Party policy. Let's go down "Owen's" list.
ReplyDelete1. A Living Wage: Labour (who introduced the minimum wage in the face of Tory/Lib Dem opposition)have been actively campaigning for a Living Wage. Ed Miliband has repeatedly made the point that the tax payer should not be subsidising low wage employers. Labour accept 100% of the recommendations of the low pay commission.
2. Affordable Housing: Labour have already announced the promise to build 1 million new homes, forcing construction firms who sit on land to use it or lose it. Miliband has already argued the economic benefits of capital investment.
3. 50p tax rate: Owen rather over-estimates how much this would afford. But some key points here. 1) Labour have already announced (and re-announced) that they will restore the 50p rate as part of a their fairer deficit reduction strategy. 2) Labour have already announced plans for jobs training and apprenticeships 3) Labour have already announced a compulsory jobs guarantee paid for by a tax on bankers bonuses (unlike Owen, Labour's plans have to add to add up).
4. Labour's Margaret Hodge has put tax evasion on the agenda of course the next Labour government would deal with it.
5. Local Banks: Ed Miliband has announced that Labour would brake-up the larger banks. Labour councils all over the country are supporting local credit unions. Labour have long since announced setting up Regional Development Banks with a mandate to support small businesses in each region.
6. Green Jobs: Labour have announced massive investment in this area.
7. Energy/Rail: Ed Miliband has announced Labour's plans to freeze energy prices while intervening in the market to make it work for the consumer. A rail passengers charter making fare fairer was announced in the 2013 Labour conference.
8. Workers' Rights: Miliband was the first to highlight and criticise zero hour contracts and has already announced plans to abolish them (except where they are wanted by both worker and employer).
9. Child Care: Labour have a costed pledge to give 25 hours free child care to all working parents.