As the Labour leadership election picks up pace, and some of the dividing lines between the candidates are beginning to emerge, I feel that it is becoming increasingly necessary for the some of the so-called frontrunners to revisit the career of Barbara Castle.
One of the most esteemed figures from Labour’s history, Castle proved that power is not incompatible with principle and providing a real opposition to Tory policy. Her politics in government and opposition always drew the red line of championing the cause of ordinary people. What would she have made of some of the triangulations over fundamentals, like welfare and immigration, on display today? I imagine she would have had stern words for those entertaining the idea of supporting a welfare cap or playing dog-whistle politics about “factories where no one speaks English”. Continue reading
On Monday, the House of Commons voted by a majority of 123, against the wishes of the Government, to support a motion moved by Michael Meacher. It was not reported by the BBC or any British national newspaper apart from the 
Osborne and IDS (both members of the Nasty Party, and each as nasty as the other) have under the new rules announced at the Tory conference put thousands of young people into a double bind leading in many cases to destitution. With 200,000 long-term unemployed now targeted by Osborne (the same who gave 40,000 millionaires a ta break of more than £2,000 a week), the longer a person is out of work, the tougher the rules become and the more punitive for even the slightest infringement, even ones that are the fault of the DWP and not of the jobless person himself. 
mantra, which will reach a crescendo this weekend as the cascade of cuts kicks in, is that those on benefits are a millstone round the nation’s neck which cannot be afforded, and they should be made to work, with severe sanctions to force them to do so. This ugly vilification of the poor is riddled with stereotypes, ignorance and prejudice which are a caricature of reality:
Today, what Osborne prided himself was a smart move will be launched to put Labour on the back foot by challenging it to vote against his bill cutting benefits and tax credits by 4% in real terms over the next 3 years and thus be portrayed as the scroungers’ friend. He misjudged.