MARY STRATFORD is baffled and angry at the increasingly worrying course being charted by our Labour government. We need a rethink, she says, before things become truly terrifying.
Can someone please tell me what’s going on? I have tried to understand this government, really I have. I have given credit wherever possible for actions and policies that can and will make a difference – settling the junior doctors’ and rail disputes, for example; paying remuneration to the mineworkers’ pension scheme; increasing benefits for those at the bottom.
I cheered from the rafters the decision to impose VAT on private schools and the commitment to spend the funds raised on state education, as well as policies to improve workers’ rights and the introduction of much-needed protections for renters. I also applauded Keir Starmer’s immediate and decisive response to the summer riots.
I didn’t criticise the removal of pensioners’ winter fuel tax, even though I believed it was a huge tactical mistake. I worried about the cancellation of major infrastructure projects in the most deprived areas and the shift of emphasis to projects in the south east. And I stayed silent about the betrayal of WASPI women (even though I am one of those affected).
I reasoned that, given the legacy left to them and the disastrous state of our public institutions, having Labour in power was, at least, better than another four years of disastrous Tory rule.
However, the budget in October was deeply disappointing and Rachel Reeves missed an opportunity to start redressing the inequality endemic in our society. The overriding aims of fiscal responsibility and growth, with little explanation of what those actually mean, left me feeling pessimistic (along with, I suspect, much of the rest of the country).
Bemused & bewildered
But these were early days and surely Labour’s leaders knew what they were doing. Right? Now, I’m not so sure. Since the budget I have been bemused, bewildered and bloody annoyed at the government’s direction.
To hear a Labour prime minister and chancellor argue the need for deregulation to spur economic growth is breathtaking, and not in a good way. You only have to look at the effects of deregulation over the last 30 years to see where it leads – to the banking crisis, the Grenfell fire, the shambles of public services such as local transport, energy, water supply, and more.
Watching Starmer and Reeves preach policies reminiscent of Liz Truss, George Osborne and she who must not be named (not by me anyway) has been deeply alarming. It smacks of desperation and a lack of political imagination, revealing an unwillingness to fundamentally change the country’s course.
What’s more, there has been no real explanation from anyone in government for this approach. Why has there been no discussion around taxing individuals and corporate companies with obscene wealth?
To see a Labour government allocate the provision of new housing to the very developers who are creating the present problem is similarly worrying. Why isn’t control of house building in the hands of local councils who know their area, understand local needs, can build affordable homes for rent or buy, and provide the security of social housing?
Then there’s the proposed new runway at Heathrow airport, the commitment to complete the HS2 rail link to London (of course), and to create a new railway in the already crowded region between Oxford and Cambridge. Plus, there seems to be renewed enthusiasm for basing our energy supplies on oil, although nuclear power can contribute to a greener environment and help tackle regional disparities.
And I haven’t touched on the hardline approach to illegal immigration, nor Gaza, nor the attacks on sickness benefit claimants. If these moves are an attempt to counter the rise of the populist right they seem desperate, and worrying.
Authoritarian approach
I have tried to listen to those who urge patience and rightly highlight the pressure from elements in the media who sought to undermine the new government from the outset. But I have lost patience with a party that has adopted an increasingly authoritarian approach to anyone, within Labour or elsewhere, who seeks to raise valid and uncomfortable questions.
I may have disagreed with Tony Blair’s government at times, but at least there was a coherent vision and strategy, one convincingly conveyed by highly effective spin doctors and communicators. And I was able to argue and debate New Labour’s policies, and openly disagree with the changes they made to the party’s structures. I could be a critical friend without fearing the consequences.
Little dissent is tolerated now, and we seem to have a Parliamentary Labour Party frozen with fear at speaking out. A party which can tolerate neither dissent nor constructive criticism is a party in real trouble.
I have always been committed to Labour as a broad church, a party holding together people with a wide range of views. Is this the case anymore, or is one faction committed to the eradication of another, regardless of consequences?
It’s not possible to stay silent at a time of such global turbulence, where the rise of the far right is reaching a very dangerous stage. In my area of the north east, Reform are growing in significant numbers. Trying to outdo Nigel Farage and his followers on immigration policy won’t win back wavering voters in these disaffected communities.
Levels of anger at the abolition of the winter fuel allowance has hit much harder here than immigration, alongside the absence of any real change in people’s economic circumstances, nor any hope for change in the future.
Lack of hope is one of the key problems at the moment, and the government’s mistake in spreading doom and gloom has prevented people seeing beyond their dire position. Empty promises of growth somewhere down the line does not inspire hope in the communities of the former Durham coalfield.
We need a rethink, a new course. Perhaps Labour’s ministers should talk to those communities most affected by economic deprivation and think how to address the very real problems they face. Perhaps, instead of seeing the left as an enemy within, they should see us as allies with whom they can debate and discuss the problems we all want to tackle, maybe even harness our support in overcoming the challenges.
I write this more in hope than anticipation. But something needs to change or I fear waking up on 2 May this year to a Reform-led local authority – a very real prospect in my area. The implications of that are truly terrifying.
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Mary Stratford is a member of the ILP’s National Administrative Council. The views expressed are her own.
