Posted in Ideology

The economy, the state and my crisis of faith

11858987_sLast week I had a crisis of faith in Labour. Looking at the Scottish polling, it looks as if Labour’s journey back to government may be longer and harder than we thought. Yet that is not what caused my questions to synchronise into a cacophony of doubt.

My worries are for what happens if we do get into government in May 2015.

It’s not just about policy, it’s about attitude too. On Thursday I was watching Question Time with Tristram Hunt and Caroline Lucas. Hunt fudged all his answers, limited by the narrow set of opinions permitted by Labour’s current policy set. Lucas, free to say what she thinks, answered convincingly and honestly. Continue reading →

Either Labour starts to do politics. Or politics will do in Labour

working classOblivion is a shuffle, lurch, and crawl away for the Conservative Party. Even if by some dark miracle they are returned to power next year, the terminal crisis enveloping them cannot be sidestepped. Either the hard right lunatics decamp to an ever-so-pure and ever-so-irrelevant electoral lash up with the purple people bleaters, or they don’t. And for as long as they lay claim to Toryism, so the Conservative Party will be permanently hobbled. Yet things aren’t too great for Labour either. Demographics, economics, and culture are chewing up the Tories. But they’re doing the same for Labour too.

Consider the big shocker during the referendum campaign. Honourable members, party workers, activists and trade unionists who trekked north were deeply shocked by the awful state Scottish Labour was found to be in. As the SNP boast of passing the 100,000 member mark Scotland’s former ruling party is languishing on something like 12,000 members. That’s just utterly, utterly pitiful. Local conditions have a role to play, but when stagnation and decline is too often the lot of Labour parties outside of London something else is going on. Just as the Tory collapse cannot be stymied by a few more canvassing sessions and new returns entered into Merlin, so it is true with Labour. Keeping calm and knocking on doors is not sufficient to see off the shadow on Labour’s lung. Continue reading →

Labour HQ censors 91-year old veteran’s reference to welfare cuts and austerity

Harry Leslie SmithYesterday, I received an email appearing to come from Andy Burnham about what I’m sure he did describe as “one of the most moving speeches I’ve ever heard“. It deserved strong praise — that’s why we featured 91-year old Harry Leslie Smith’s demand for David Cameron to “keep his mitts off my NHS” on Left Futures last week. It received not one but two standing ovations. Unfortunately, unlike our blog, Labour HQ’s emails censored references to welfare cuts and austerity which are no doubt seen as inconvenient by some.

Harry Leslie Smith, occasional Guardian columnist and author of Harry’s Last Stand, addressed conference(you can watch the original here) during the NHS debate about the poverty and hardships of his youth in the 20s, the tragic death of his sister from TB and why, “after a long hard Great Depression and a savage and brutal war” he voted “for Labour and for the creation of the NHS“. But in his conclusion, he compared those privations of “another era of austerity” with: Continue reading →

Tony Benn: Will and Testament, at a cinema near you next week

benn_film portrait adTony Benn, the longest serving Labour MP in history, is also, arguably, the most popular UK politician of all time. Across the globe and in particular over the last five years his brand of socialism has struck a cord with people of all ages and social backgrounds. For the first time ever through intimate, quasi confessional interviews and his personal, photographic and film archive ‘Will And Testament’ reveals a very human face behind the political mask.

In this feature length film, Tony Benn also criss-crosses the UK bearing witness to major social and political upheavals and events. This documentary is an exclusive and deeply personal look at the life of a national treasure, a frank, candid and sometimes painful exploration of the great themes of life that affected him and affect us all, love, loss, hopes, dreams, fears and death. Never before has a person of his calibre and reputation spoken to camera in such a direct way.

The film is in local cinemas from 3 October. See here for a list of which cinemas and links for timings and further details. There is also a special screening on 5 October, at 4:30pm with a panel discussion afterwards with guests including Labour MP for Islington North Jeremy Corbyn, convenor of the Stop The War Coalition Lindsey German, former BBC Political Editor John Sergeant and Director Of Photography on Will and Testament Michael Miles. This is live from the Genesis Cinema, Whitechapel in East London but linked to cinemas throughout Britain live by satellite – further details here.

 

Convince me, Ed, by convincing Josephine and Xiomara

Miliband Hope imageLabour could elect a leader equipped with movie star sex appeal, a double first in applied astrophysics, Churchillian oratory, the ability to juggle three flaming torches simultaneously and serious talent as a hard bop tenor saxophonist. And still the first thing the Tory media would say about her is that she was ‘unconvincing’.

Such is the designation that the Quentin Letts of this world have made stick to everyone who has held the top job throughout my adult lifetime. Variously they have been lambasted as donkey jacketed coffin-dodgers, Welsh windbags, staid Scottish bank managers, satanically-possessed crypto-communists or closet autistics who only bother to get up each morning to advance their own prime ministerial ambitions.

Whatever today’s variation, the charge has been that “Labour is out of touch”, and that those who head it understand average voters about as well as they understand colloquial Swahili. The latest victim is Ed Miliband, routinely portrayed as the Sheldon Cooper of British politics, a geeky loser with all the stage charisma of those I-speak-your-weight machines once found at tacky 1960s seaside resorts. Chin up, mate. It kind of goes with the territory. Continue reading →