The Genuine Democratic Alternative

Jeremy Corbyn writes:

Our democracy is being systematically undermined by David Cameron’s government.

Having narrowly won the general election, the Tories are now trying to rig the political system to keep themselves in power and weaken the opposition, both inside and outside parliament.

By driving through a new voter registration scheme that will slash the number of young and inner-city voters, while cutting the number of parliamentary seats, the Conservatives are gerrymandering the electoral system to benefit themselves.

By directly attacking Labour’s funding through their trade union bill, and by cutting public Short money support for opposition parties’ research, they are deliberately setting out to enfeeble democratic accountability of their own administration.

Add to that their lobbying and transparency “gagging law”, which prevents charities, unions and thinktanks from taking part in political debate; their naked threats to use the BBC’s charter renewal to hack away at its independence; their packing of the House of Lords with Tory peers; and their move to outlaw councils from boycotts of oppressive governments – and it all adds up to a serious attack on democratic rights and freedoms.

Clearly, the prime minister doesn’t like not getting his own way. For the rest of us, from all parties, this Tory power grab has to be resisted.

Every political leader has to be aware of how our rights were won, and our duty to defend and extend democracy.

But the responsibility to lead effective opposition to this government, which has proven to be so casual with our democratic freedoms, lies with the Labour party.

Which is exactly what we will do.

For all the media sound and fury, last week’s shadow cabinet reshuffle has made us a stronger, more diverse and more coherent leadership team. 

Along with the huge increase in our party membership in the past six months, it will help make Labour a more effective champion of the people who need us to give them a voice, to win elections and change our country for the better. 

This government is failing the country and the large majority of its people.

It is carrying out the largest ever fire sale of public assets in a reckless attempt at a short-term fiscal fix – while banking on rising household debt to keep the economy afloat.

It is slashing public services, especially at local level, for those who rely on them for security and a decent life. It is driving the NHS and social care into crisis, while accelerating the privatisation and break up of our health and education services.

It is failing to invest in the economy of the future. No wonder George Osborne is getting his excuses in first about the “cocktail of threats” to our economy. 

We will hold Cameron’s government to account: on its self-defeating austerity; its redistribution to the wealthiest; its deliberate stoking of house price inflation, which is fuelling the housing shortage; its threat to the NHS, social care and education; its attack on rights at work; its failure to invest in everything from flood defences and the arts to manufacturing and green infrastructure.

We have already shown that this government’s excesses can be curbed by a determined opposition. We defeated them on working tax credits, on cuts to the police service, and on their scandalous prison deal with Saudi Arabia. 

But we will also offer a real alternative. My leadership is based on three main pillars. 

The first is a new politics that offers people a say in the decisions that affect them, in communities and workplaces, as well as more direct control over their own services. We want to see the democratisation of public life from the ground up. 

The second is a new economy that puts public investment front and centre stage: in science, technology and the green industries of the future. 

Instead of Osborne’s economic house built on sand, our focus will be on the reindustrialisation of Britain for the digital age, driven by a national investment bank as a motor of modernisation – and sustainable growth that will slash the welfare bill in the process. 

The third is a different kind of foreign policy, based on a new and more independent relationship with the rest of the world — and one where war is a last resort. 

For more than a decade, Britain has been at the centre of a succession of disastrous wars that have increased, not diminished, the threats to our own national security. Labour will never leave Britain unprotected, but we will put peace, human rights and real security first.

The same goes for the choice we face in the next year or so on Europe.

We are determined to build alliances across Europe for progressive reform to make the EU work for working people. Labour backs Britain’s continued EU membership as the best framework for trade and co-operation in 21st-century Europe – along with defence of the European convention on human rights. 

But we need to make EU decision-making more accountable to its people, put jobs and growth at the heart of European policy, strengthen workers’ rights in a real social Europe, and end the pressure to privatise services. 

We are already working to turn those three broad principles into policies: from an economic alternative that delivers for the majority, to a publicly owned railway, democratic control of energy, integrated social and health care, a lifelong education service, universal childcare and a large-scale housebuilding programme. But those policies will be developed through the democratic participation of our own hugely expanded party and supporters. 

We need to draw on the experience, knowledge and talents of our communities, workers and specialists. That’s part of how we can rebuild the confidence of voters we need to elect a Labour government in 2020. 

The Tories won no landslide in May, with less than a quarter of eligible voters supporting them. And last month’s Labour by-election victory in Oldham, where we sharply increased our share of the vote, showed we are already moving in the right direction.

However, we know Labour has an electoral mountain to climb. We failed to convince voters last May that we offered a genuine alternative, and our support fragmented in all parts of the country. 

But if we focus everything on the needs and aspirations of middle- and lower-income voters, and if we demonstrate we can develop a viable alternative to the government’s insecure and credit-fuelled economy, I’m convinced we can build a coalition of electoral support that can beat the Tories in four years’ time. 

The real middle Britain – of insecure self-employment, rip-off private pensions, unaffordable housing, mounting tuition fee debt and crisis-ridden social care – is crying out for a Labour government committed to fundamental reform. 

Millions in self-employment are as exploited as those in work, with fewer benefits. My election as Labour leader represented a deep-seated desire for change and for a new direction in our politics. 

It’s hardly surprising if some find that shift difficult to adjust to. But we will maintain a broad-based leadership, with space for a wide range of views and all the talents. 

In reality, there is in fact now a greater Labour consensus on domestic and economic policy than at any period in my lifetime. 

Even on foreign and security policy, where differences have been sharper, the Syria debate last month showed there was a clear majority in every part of our party for opposition to Cameron’s bombing campaign. 

To win in 2020, and make the changes 21st-century Britain needs, we need to build a broad alliance for progressive change that draws on the participation and ideas of all parts of our society.

Labour stands for social justice and prosperity for all. It exists to deliver the jobs, security, services and life chances denied to so many. That is what Labour is for. 

That’s why we are building the genuine democratic alternative that the Tories are so determined to stifle.