Tagged with Frank Field

Destroying the Labour Party in order to save it

Inside Labour Corbyn‘We had to destroy the village in order to save it’; that maxim – a paraphrase of words famously uttered by a US Army major to a journalist during the Vietnam war – now stands a metaphor for the perspectives of a sizeable chunk of the Labour right. Cast aside pious invocations of the interests of ‘those that need a Labour government the most’, a staple of boilerplate anti-Corbyn polemics throughout the summer.

Maximising our chances of forming the next administration is but a secondary consideration when jobs for life are at stake, and a number of Labour rightwingers are openly proclaiming their readiness to terminate Corbyn’s career with extreme prejudice. Continue reading →

A rejection of tribalism or just class treachery?

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Left Futures doesn’t do “Class Traitor of the Month” – sectarianism on the Left is bad enough without seeking out traitors on a regular basis – but John Hutton’s decision to chair a Con-Dem coalition inquiry into containing the cost of public sector pensions does require pause for thought, as did Frank Field’s decision to head their poverty review. Continue reading →

Frank speaking on welfare dependency?

You have to hand it to the Tories. Hiring Frank Field as ‘poverty tsar’ to do a seven month study with no implications for the ‘financial’ side of things (e.g. benefits) is a brilliant stroke. Not only will they be able to parade in their non-partisan laurels when the report is delivered, but it’ll be tweedle-dum to Iain Duncan-Smith’s tweedle-dee.

Banging the education drum will be met with Tory plans to ‘individualise’ education provision by reintroducing credits for kids to go to private schools. Any action recommended to reduce poverty already has handcuffs placed upon it – it must be ‘consistent with the government’s fiscal strategy’ – and IDS has already made clear what that means. Continue reading →