Post 60: What Have Labour Ever Done For Us?

 What have Labour ever done for us?

Beware, beware the fourth Estate
The dangling fruit of a right wing gain
But is the price our welfare state?
How much of that will still remain

These niggardly Tories with indifferent rigour
Have battered the weakest with belt tightening vigour
Ignoring the many who’ve had to make do
With services scattered, so far and so few

The choice will be made, one way or another
It’s what’s coming after we have to discover
Who’ll pay for the cost of a decade’s decay?
It won’t be the ones who have squirrelled away
Vast profits invested on some foreign shore
Most of it stripped from the backs of the poor

Whatever the cost it has got to be spent
So choose those who spend it with care
Do you trust that the promises are truly meant?
And are made with a vow of honest intent
To take up the reins and start to repair
A shattered society; distrust everywhere
So many in need with no money to spare

July the fourth beckons; beware our fate
And hope that our rescue will not be too late

 

No apologies for that overt support for a Labour win. This year I will be 80; and I can honestly say that I have never felt more exorcised at the state our country is in. And, I must point out, that I have not been a rabid Labour supporter all my days.

My parents always voted Liberal; as did I when I came of age. But that bubble burst after the Liberal Democrats supported Cameron’s coalition; and U turned on their pledge to abolish tuition fees; which gave credence to the specious argument that they ‘are all the same’.

So, who to choose? We hear from ubiquitous media that the populace are confused, undecided and distrustful of all the parties; and, to be fair, with good reason. Obfuscation, vaguely worded promises and downright lies seem to be the order of the day. My policy is, when in doubt about the intentions of the two leading parties, check their records. The following references and facts have, mainly, been lifted from Wikipedia.

Regarding the Tories, I didn’t bother to check their recent history; seeing as we have suffered their ideology for the last fourteen years. We have all lived through their austerity policies and the Brexit debacle; and I personally, don’t trust them to clear up the mess that they have left our country in; meaning that health, housing, education, agriculture and the climate crisis have all been starved of attention and financial support. This has resulted in the catastrophic collapse of vital infrastructure necessary for a decent standard of living for all the populace. Instead, all we have seen is the rich getting richer (and often via spurious means) and the poor feeling even more desperately deprived.

My personal desire is for a government whose basic intention and beliefs are slewed towards creating, as near as possible, an equatable system of governance for all the populace; and again, my personal opinion, based on what I have gleaned from research of the subject, is that the Tories have never been of this persuasion.

Their aims, often with good intentions, have nearly always been concentrated on wealth creation; coupled with the lazy assumption that the ‘Trickle Down’ effect http://post 32: Trickle Down? was alive and working for the general good. This mantra was encouraged by Mrs Thatcher in the eighties, with her short term ‘Right to Buy’ policy, which didn’t put in place the checks and balances needed to replace the social housing stock removed from Council ownership. Subsequently, a large proportion of social housing ended up in the hands of private landlords; who put up the rents!

When the Labour Party was formed in the 1920s, it was becoming glaringly obvious that the ‘working classes’ needed political representation; This was partly the inevitable result of a rise of protest against profiteering by private landlords, who put up rents in the face of rising wartime prices. Back then 90% of housing was privately rented (sound familiar?) and the range of protests forced the government to fix rents at pre war levels.

As quoted by the British Historian Andrew Thorpe, this showed Labour to be the party to defend working class interests and “Added credibility to the idea of state action, to control market forces which disadvantaged the working class”.

I don’t want this post to become too long winded regarding the scenario as to ‘What have ‘Labour ever done for us’, and so I will try to keep the evidence as concise and as informative as possible.

Labours first government (1923 – 1924), a minority one under Ramsey Macdonald, still managed to:

pass the Wheatley Housing Act; which built Municipal Housing for rent to low paid workers. Around 508,000 houses were built under this act.

1930

Raised unemployment pay, improved wages and conditions in the coal industry

Passed a Housing Act focussing on slum clearance

1931 to 1940: Labour in opposition

1940 -1945: Labour in wartime coalition

In 1941 the Labour Party Annual Conference adopted a manifesto which claimed that:

“A year after Labour joined government, the war has been fought with much greater efficiency, and with higher regard for social equity as well”

1942: The National Insurance Act of 1911 was expanded to include contribution insurance against illness, unemployment, retirement and other benefits. This system would provide a minimum standard of living  “Below which no one should be allowed to fall”.

During the war, Labour

Raised unemployment benefits for agricultural workers

Introduced new national minimum wage of 43 shillings

Better arrangements for housing and billeting of evacuees and workers in industrial areas

More and better civic and industrial restaurants and canteens

War time nurseries for kids of female workers

Compensation (for industrial injury) limits increased; and introduced (for the first time) for wives

Training at Ministry of Labour Training Centres

1945 – 1951 Labour landslide victory

After the second World War the national debt stood at £21 billion. Despite this, the term of Clement Atlee succeeded in accomplishing the following policies:

Nationalised a fifth of the Economy; including the Bank of England, Coal Mining, the Steel Industry, Electricity, Gas, and Inland Transport; including Railways, Road Haulage and Canals.

Created ‘Cradle to Grave’ Welfare State, including the NHS

Joined NATO

Opposed the Soviet Union during the Cold War

Granted independence to India and Pakistan (1947)

1964 – 1970 / 1974 – 1976 Labour government under Harold Wilson

1976 – 1979 Labour government under James Callaghan

Promoted economic modernisation; re-nationalised British Steel (had been de – nationalised by Conservatives in the 1950s), British Leyland, British Aerospace, the remains of the shipbuilding industry, British National Oil Corporation.

1976: Introduction of Development Land Tax of 80% on Development gain

Social reforms during the 1970s

Quote by Historian Eric Shaw: “In the seventeen years that it occupied office, Labour accomplished much in alleviating poverty and misery; and in giving help and sustenance to groups – the old, sick and disabled – least capable of protecting themselves in a market economy”

Social Security, Civil Liberties, Housing, Health, Education, Workers Rights

Liberal Social Reform (Roy Jenkins, Home Secretary) including:

Partial decriminalisation of Male Homosexuality, Abortion, Divorce Law reform, abolition of Theatre censorship (1968),

Death Penalty (1965, with a few exceptions eg High Treason) Legislation re Race Relations and Racial Discrimination.

The easing of means testing for non contributory Welfare Benefits; linking of Pensions to Earnings

Replaced Family Allowance with more generous Child Benefit

Job Security and Maternity Leave for pregnant women

Provision of Industrial Injury Benefits

I’m working on the assumption that I don’t need to detail the historical record of either party since the Seventies. Those of you who have bothered to read this thus far have experienced the same events; and will hold your own opinions.

All I would say is Don’t give in to lazy thinking regarding ‘They’re all the Same’; because they are not. Check out your local candidates and do your own research as to how and why they are standing. Democracy worldwide is in crisis. Our children and grandchildren, during their lifetime, are going to have to deal with the extremes of power grabs, poverty, climate change, never ending wars, and who knows what else coming down the line.

We need to make sure that this country has their backs.

AND WE ALL NEED TO VOTE!