The tip of the iceberg

Since LLB last went to press, our New Labour Government has:

• exempted Formula One from the proposed ban on tobacco sponsorship, a move accurately characterised by Clive Bates, director of the independent and utterly respectable Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), as “a naked and ill-judged capitulation to powerful business interests.”
• doomed the bill to ban fox-hunting by refusing to give it Parliamentary assistance.
• insisted on scrapping lone parent benefit, despite a chorus of voices pointing out the immediate material damage it would do to single parent families.
• (according to the Guardian) developed plans to tax, means-test or eliminate outright a variety of essential benefits for people with disabilities.
• refused to revise the criteria for cold weather payments to pensioners, despite promises made in opposition.
• announced long term plans for compulsory second pensions to top-up the basic state pension. Turning its back on the increasingly militant pensioners’ movement — which rightly demands improvements in the basic state pension — the Government now plans to hand over our social security to the private pensions industry which mis-sold millions of pensions in the last decade.
• insisted that its promise to stick to Tory spending plans was sacrosanct, even as it was revealed that it is running a £5.7 billion surplus in the public accounts, and is actually spending £3 billion less than Ken Clarke planned to.
• announced that it would prepare the country for entry into the Single Currency following a referendum after the next general election. This means that when the pledge to stick within Tory spending limits expires it will be replaced by the deflationary monetary and fiscal discipline of the Maastricht and Dublin criteria.
• resisted French and Italian attempts to push job creation measures at the EU employment summit in Luxembourg; instead, Blair once again insisted that EU efforts be confined to “making people more employable”.
• broken with the precedent set by previous governments of all stripes by refusing to allow a specific Parliamentary debate or vote on the Defence Estimates, which remain magically immune to the pressures weighing down on all other forms of public spending.
• given unequivocal support — almost alone among western states — to the US sabre rattling against Iraq.
• Stood by helplessly as hospital waiting lists soared to a record high, despite Labour’s election pledge to cut lists by 100,000.
• presided over the closure of hospitals, fire stations, coast guard stations, and libraries and the continued contraction in local education authority budgets. .
• shown not the slightest remorse over continuing high interest rates, despite the negative impact on exports and jobs, and despite Labour’s manifesto pledge to maintain “low interest rates”.

The overall picture is becoming painfully clear to more and more Labour Party members. It’s feelgood sound bites and “hard choices” for the masses, and special favours for the elite. Those who have portrayed Blair and his clique as solely obsessed with cold electoral calculation have missed the big picture. The most recent British Social Attitudes Survey confirms that on taxation, public spending, welfare, and employment, voters of all ages, and especially the young, are more likely to support the prescriptions of the left than the policies of the New Labour Government. But that cuts little ice with Blair. Likewise, the huge popular majorities in favour of banning tobacco advertising and fox-hunting. The people Blair wants most desperately to please are those who have amassed great wealth and power. Politically, he believes that elections can only be won, and office retained, by their grace and favour. Ideologically, he is committed to neo-liberalism, as a consequence of which he identifies the ‘national interest’ with the interests of big business.

That is why some manifesto promises — notably on the top rate of income tax — are more sacrosanct than others. That is why, prior to the election, Blair put far more effort into courting favour with Rupert Murdoch than winning the votes of million of pensioners, trade union members, or single parents. That is why the same Government that cut corporation tax (already the lowest in western Europe) has ruled that benefit claims can only be backdated by four weeks, effectively punishing claimants for the DSS’s errors and delay. That is why, while planning permission on out of town superstores is being eased, the second most powerful man in the Government, the Minister for Mendacity, Peter Mandelson, is seeking wide-ranging exemptions from the minimum wage. In this context, the Formula One fiasco is merely the tip of the iceberg. The danger here is that disillusionment with the New Labour Government will lead to deepening cynicism about democracy.

In these circumstances, the role of the Labour left is more important than ever. We need to turn up the volume of public opposition. If we fail to promote our humane and feasible alternative to Blairism, not only the labour movement, but the mass of Labour voters, will be effectively disenfranchised.

Labour Party and trade union members must get to grips with the severity of the attack on working class rights and living standards which is now being prepared by the inner core of the Blair administration. In the past, when LLB or others on the left have warned of betrayals to come, we have been accused of sour grapes, hysteria or paranoia. After the events of the last month, surely it is time for a less complacent view.

December '97 index of LLB

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