Part 1- The Choice is in your hands
This may be the only bit you need to read!
I believe on
Thursday the country has the clearest political choice we’ve faced for two
generations. And it’s literally in the hands of our youngest generation of voters to make the difference. In the 2015 election and the EU referendum if young
people had actually turned up and voted we would have had a different
government and we would be remaining in the EU- what most young people had
actually wanted. Instead too many young people stayed shy of the polling booth
and they let their futures be determined by the votes of older generations.
This has left many saddled with even greater student debts and even worse
prospects of earning a good salary or getting a home of their own. No one can
fairly say in this election that the choices on the menu are just the same dish
served with different sauce and garnish.
We can
choose a Labour party offering us a credible (and costed) hope and plan to:
- invest in a better future for our young people and for everyone
- invest to grow our economy
- save our dying public services- rescue our schools, and hospitals and put more policemen back on our streets
- provide truly affordable housing
- protect the poor
- trade freely and prosperously with our European neighbours despite leaving the EU.
Alternatively,
we can choose (or let others choose for us) another five years of Conservative
government that will give us:
- more painful austerity
- failing cash-starved schools and hospitals
- less police on our streets
- more declining pay packets for the many and more riches for the few
- more homeless on our streets and queues at our foodbanks
- a no “free trade” hard Brexit dragging our economy into recession.
If you're already convinced there's no need to read on! Just make sure you vote
Labour (or where another party are the main Tory challenger vote for them). And remember they close at 10pm!
If you’re not sure where to vote then
just search the website of your local council who should have a section
literally telling you where you can vote by street name. Go to the polling
station identified. Don’t worry if you can’t find your polling card or you
haven’t got your ID. They will just mark off your name and address on their
list of registered voters. Pick up the voting slip, go into one of the booths
and mark an X against the name of your Labour (or other chosen) candidate. You
just get one vote for one candidate! Fold the voting slip up and stick it in the
big black box. Btw it’s possible to be registered to vote in more than one place
but you can only actually vote in one place, so choose wisely! (And don’t do
what I did in my first general election 30 years ago- deciding to vote in Gravesham rather
than Nottingham I missed my train south by a few seconds and got home too late
to vote at all!)
If you're still not convinced then invite I you
to please read Part 2 below before you decide how or whether to cast your vote.
Part 2 A political journey- seeing through the fog of political myths
As a Christian and a political
watcher, I have tried to carefully and prayerfully examine the evidence and the
issues that should determine the way I should vote. My starting point has been
to look to God and the guidance in the bible and the life of his Son Jesus as
to what are his values and priorities- to try and make this country and this
world better reflect the values of his Kingdom that he will bring when he
returns to earth. “And what does the Lord
require of you, o mortal? To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your
God.” (Micah 6 v 8). This also means opening our eyes as widely as we can
to see the world and the people in it as it is – warts and all. This requires
effort to try to see our way through the fog of myths and lies that so often
prevent us from seeing how things really are. Open our eyes to where those myths come from- very often the media organizations owned by super-rich individuals who do not necessarily have the best interests of most of us at heart.
And here I will make a confession. One of the things I am most ashamed of. When
I talk about being blinded by fogs of political myths this isn’t just arrogance
on my part. I’ve been there myself. I speak with my own experience of having
been misled by political myths. That’s why in this election I have set out to
unmask the truth behind what I believe are some of the political myths that can
often mislead us in the way we vote. So here it comes... In 2010, I voted Conservative.
There I’ve said it and will probably now find certain left-leaning facebook friends de-friending me!
I had previously only voted Liberal Democrat
up to 1995 and then “New” Labour. My reasons for this sudden change in 2010 are quite complex.
It was partly because I had felt let down by the New Labour government over a
period of 13 years, particularly over Iraq and more recently over Jack Straw’s
regressive approach to justice. In rebellion, I had intended to vote Liberal
Democrat but had concerns over their local candidate. I therefore looked at the
Conservatives’ offering and thought aren’t they just offering a more competent
version of New Labour? You see I had (at least partly) bought into two Tory
messages. First, that the Conservatives were the most competent party to manage
the economy following the Financial crisis that Labour (I thought) was partly
responsible for. Second, that David Cameron’s Conservatives were really
compassionate “One Nation” Tories as he claimed. Both of these were pure Tory
myth, as I was soon to recognize.
On the first one see my previous blog;
Labour have
in fact always had a better record of managing our economy and the crash had
zero to do with their spending and borrowing, which before the crash was
significantly lower than the borrowing they had inherited from the Tories (36%
v 40 of GDP) Their only failure there was not regulating our bankers more tightly,
but the Tories were then complaining that they were regulating them too much!
As for being
compassionate “one nation” Conservatives, as soon as they were in power (and
despite a coalition with the Liberal Democrats) they set about an austerity
agenda of cuts to our public services and welfare that was largely unmentioned
in their manifesto. Their policies massively increased poverty and inequality
whilst extending large tax cuts to their super rich backers. They also seriously reduced access to justice (even more than Jack Straw had hinted). At
the same time their austerity approach stifled our economic recovery sand the national debt increased rather than reduced in breach of tehir own economic targets. Within weeks after the
election the scales were removed from my eyes. I saw that the beast I had in
fact voted for was an altogether different creature to the one I thought I was
voting for. I felt very guilty and foolish that I had been taken in by the Tory
myth machine. (Even more so when I witnessed their restrictions on access to
civil justice bringing redundancies to my team at work).
I grew
disillusioned with politics and was much distracted with the civil justice
changes that ravaged my own area of work, (despite fruitless lobbying of my
Conservative MP). This prompted a period of introspection and I suffered an episode of moderate
depression.
After this
had settled I started taking a closer look at the political scene again in the
months leading up to the 2015 election. I was attracted back to Labour by Ed
Miliband who seemed to be trying to pursue a more compassionate and collective
approach away from New Labour. I therefore joined the Labour party in February
2015. (The first political party I had been a member of since the SDP in the
early 1980s and for whom my dad stood in 1983). I was actively involved in campaigning
for Labour in the 2015 General Election. And it all seemed to be going pretty
well until those damned exit polls!
After Labour’s disheartening defeat in 2015 their leadership campaign followed in which I had initially supported the mainstream favourite “soft” left candidate, Andy Burnham.
Facebook exchanges with supporters of the rebel outsider Jeremy Corbyn challenged my assumptions about him and his agenda. My wife and daughter had already been won over by Jeremy .
And then I read the book “The
Establishment- And How They Get Away With It” by the Guardian journalist
Owen Jones. It talked of things I suspected might be true but had never quite
fully grasped. It was firmly based on hard evidence of the reality of how
Britain was run today- mainly for the benefit of the establishment and the
super-rich few, rather than the many and especially not the poorest. I realised
from this that since 1979 Mrs Thatcher had set this country on a selfish and
self-destructive path to dismantle most of our state and follow the false gods
of the free market. It was a direction that new Labour did quite well to
moderate but still broadly embraced and continued. Its results were unjust and
unfair, to the poor and the ordinary majority, and ultimately only really benefited
a rich few. It was therefore contrary to the values I believed in as a
Christian. It was also a direction that was ultimately inefficient and wasteful
of our precious resources. There was a better way; to wrest control and
ownership of our public services from the hands of the rich few for the benefit
of the many, provide genuinely affordable public housing and re-balance our
economy and society so that it was run for the benefit of all rather than a
rich elite. I recognised this was not some extreme communist vision of how
society could be. It was broadly the social democratic mixed economy model on
which our society had been run from 1945 to 1979 through both Labour and
Conservative governments. It is also broadly an approach still successfully followed
by our North European neighbours including Germany and the Scandinavian
countries. I realised that this was a moderate and sensible approach. It was
the current direction where we were headed (in tandem with the USA) that was
extreme and foolish. 
I recognized that this was the message Jeremy Corbyn was preaching in the leadership election. It seemed unlikely that an almost lone rebel of the party, a thirty year back bencher who’d never held high office could somehow be the faithful remnant who still held onto these political truths. A bit like his near lookalike Obe Wan Kenobi. The last Jedi left to pass on his truths to a new generation. I was won over and voted for Jeremy.
In the nine months that followed sadly I gradually fell out of love with Jeremy. I was still convinced that his political diagnosis and medicine were right as nearly 40 years of evidence bore out and I could still see he was a good man. However, it became increasingly evident that more than 30 years as a rebel backbencher had not best prepared to him to work with and lead a team of MPs and shadow cabinet. Equally his long habit of always being able to do/not do and speak/not speak whatever he wanted to regardless of the reaction was getting him into a lot of unnecessary controversy. He needed to up his game.
And then
came the EU referendum. Jeremy Corbyn had campaigned for Remain but very much
ploughed his own furrow without sharing the approach and platform of the
Labour Remain campaign. If the result had gone for Remain then his lone wolf
approach would have been overlooked. However, when the vote went unexpectedly
wrong not surprisingly many in the remain campaign felt like me that in a small
way Jeremy had contributed to that disastrous result. When he then announced on
live TV the next morning that the Prime Minister should immediately trigger
article 50 to get on and leave the EU this was the last straw. And it was
this that prompted his MPs’ rebellion – in the shocked and fevered atmosphere
of the failed referendum when our Prime Minister had just fallen on his sword.
Many of us then felt Jeremy should do the same. His MPs’ rebellion and the
second leadership election therefore had nothing to do with policy disagreement
but because of the way it was felt Jeremy had failed to lead his team in a
co-operative and effective manner. Hence apart from Trident his leadership
challenger Owen Smith (who I supported) promoted almost exactly the same
policies.
The leadership challenge failed and Jeremy increased his overwhelming mandate with Labour members. Jeremy did his best to rebuild a Shadow Cabinet and continued as Leader. Since then and during this election campaign Jeremy has proved he has been able to learn and seriously upped his game by collaborating better with his colleagues and being more careful in his actions and choice of words. He did so whilst still continuing to pursue passionately his political vision for a better Britain that increasingly millions have been embracing in this election. On many counts he has proved me wrong (twice!) and I am enthusiastically campaigning for him in this election as the leader of a cause I firmly believe in for the good of this country.
As a country, I am convinced we have been heading in the wrong direction since 1979 and we now need to turn this ship of state around. For too long we have been steering a course of selfish individualism that has benefited the fortunate few but harmed the many. We have thrown overboard so many of the valuable things of the state that made sure everyone got a decent chance- truly public services run for the public good rather than private profit, truly affordable public housing, proper and free access to justice, free education and a proper welfare safety net so that everyone can afford proper food and other basic necessities. These precious things of the state I believe are essential to ensuring that we work towards the values of the Kingdom of God that Jesus wants us all to strive for and which are summed up in his essential command to “love your neighbour as yourself.”
My Recommendation to You- Vote Labour unless…
I have reached the conclusion that it is only the election of a Labour
government led by Jeremy Corbyn that can start to turn things around to build a
better future for our country more in line with Kingdom of God values. I recognize that there
are more than two parties in this election and that there are many good things
also in the policies e.g. of the Greens and Liberal Democrats. However, the
reality is under our outmoded first past the post system only two parties can
end up in government of the UK after this election- Labour or Conservative. I
would therefore suggest that to exercise your vote responsibly you need to vote
in the light of that choice- would it be better to have a Labour or
Conservative government? For the reasons given here I am convinced that it is a
Labour not Conservative government that this country desperately needs right
now. In most constituencies therefore I
would encourage everyone to vote Labour. However, I also recognize that in
certain constituencies the real challenger to the Conservatives will not be
Labour but Lib Dem, in parts of Scotland the SNP and in Brighton and the Isle
of Wight the Greens (In Northern Ireland I would advocate the SDLP). Whilst
there would be no coalition deal between Labour and these parties in the event
of a hung parliament they would share much of Labour’s progressive agenda. They
could be guaranteed to vote down a Conservative minority government but broadly
support a Labour one. Voting Labour rather than Lib Dem in say Guildford is
only going to dilute the progressive anti-Tory vote and confirm a Tory MP. If
you wish to see a Labour government but are unsure tactically who you would be
best to vote for then have a look at:
For those with the
stamina for it ! I now set out in more detail why I believe voting in a Labour
government would best realize politically biblical Christian values for the
benefit of us all. Alternatively, you might just want to skip to the conclusion!
Part 3 How do the two main parties measure up to Christian values and priorities?
For background if you've the time please see my earlier blog pieces on why I believe the following to be (or not be) the key biblical Christian values on which we should exercise our vote ;
1. Looking after the poor and marginalised
This is the number one social issue on God's heart. It is highlighted 128 times across the bible. Since 2010 poverty in this country has increased massively, mainly due to government policies like the bedroom tax, benefit cuts and sanctions. Official figures show that since 2010 the number of children living in poverty has risen from 2.6 million to 4 million, annual foodbank use from 41,000 to 1.2 million and homelessness has more than doubled. The Tories make no commitment to reverse the misery of poverty their policies have caused. Indeed, they are committed to further increase poverty through policies like extending universal credit, ending universal free lunches for primary school children and the continued cap on benefit increases and the removal of the pensioners’ triple lock. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimate Tory policies will increase child poverty by 50% by 2020. By contrast Labour would end the bedroom tax, remove the cruel and arbitrary benefit sanctions regime and the benefit rates cap and start to reverse the other damaging welfare changes. They would also increase the minimum wage to £10 per hour by 2020 and extend 30 hours of free childcare to all 2 to 4 year olds to make more of a reality of work being a way out of povert . And Labour in government have an excellent record of substantially reducing poverty, especially child poverty and pensioner poverty, e.g. through targeted welfare spending, Sure Start centres and introduction of a national minimum wage.
The only
answer that the Tories have to the clear case that their policies have
increased poverty is that the way out of poverty is through work and that only
their prudent economic management can provide those jobs. (Indeed this was the
only answer my own local Tory MP could give me to this question!) The only
problem with this answer is that work is no longer a way out of poverty for
100,000s of people – 60% of households in poverty are now working households.
For further details see my previous blog piece;
Meanwhile, contrary to their myths, the Conservatives’ record of economic management is actually pretty dreadful and has led to the UK now having the lowest rate of economic growth in Europe. Labour's economic record in government is in fact far better and it’s current economic plans are widely supported by the world's leading economists. (See below re better management of our resources). On all the available evidence of the two main parties the Conservatives have been and would continue to be an enemy of the poor whilst Labour have always been their friend. If you share God's priority to help the poor then once you know the truth about the two parties and the effects of their policies I would suggest you could only vote Labour.
2. Caring for the sick
It was Labour who created our cherished National Health Service which for nearly 70 years has provided free healthcare to everyone according to their needs rather than their ability to pay. Contrast that with the situation in the USA where there is no universal free healthcare. For example, over there families of victims of violent tragedies such as we have just witnessed in Manchester London would have to set about fund raising campaigns to pay for their medical bills. Surely none of us want to end up with an American style health system. But who can be sure that's not where we'll be in ten years if we can continue as we are?
From 1997 to
2010 Labour rescued our NHS from chronic underinvestment and long waiting lists
after 18 years of Tory neglect. They substantially improved the quality of
services and reduced the waiting lists. After 7 years of underinvestment by the
recent Tory led governments our NHS is now on the verge of a crisis with
lengthening waiting lists, effective rationing of care (e.g. often virtually no
mental health services provision), declining service standards, closing
hospitals and NHS trusts heavily in the red. Although in gross terms
spending on our NHS has gone up the demands of an ageing population mean we
need to increase our spending as a % of GDP just as our European neighbours
have. Instead Tory government spending has significantly fallen as a % of GDP
and would continue to do so. Most experts believe if we carry on this way our
NHS as we know it will be unsustainable and we are likely to see free NHS care
limited to an increasingly narrow range of services and other services will be
the privilege of those who can afford to pay for it. For a helpful overview I
suggest watching The NHS: A Visual Essay- Juniordoctorblog.com#voteNHS#GE2017.
But it is
not just about how much money you put into the service that matters, as the
Tories are so fond of telling us. It’s also about how that money is spent and
how the services are managed. But it is the Conservative’s approach here which
is wasteful and inefficient. Their market led reforms and reorganisation have
made the service less not more efficient. Allowing private commercial interests
to run many parts of our NHS has meant billions of government money being
leached from the system to pay out private profits and CEOs’ inflated salaries.
Millions more are lost on wasteful tendering processes (including lawyers’
fees). We have also ended up with a disjointed overcomplicated system of
competing interests and authorities with a lack of clear control. Sadly, New
Labour to a large extent aped the Conservative market approach (strongly opposed
by Jeremy Corbyn). However, under Jeremy Corbyn Labour is now committed to
returning our NHS to a proper publicly owned run and accountable service which
should ensure a much better use of health resources.
The problems of NHS funding are inherently linked with social care where government funding through councils has been slashed by Tory cuts. This has led to wasteful “bed blocking” by elderly patients who medically are well enough to no longer need a hospital bed but can’t go home because there is no care package in place to look after them there. The Tories offer no solutions to our health and care crisis because in real terms they are not prepared to invest the money needed to provide these services and with their “dementia tax” debacle we saw what disarray they are in over this issue.
The problems of NHS funding are inherently linked with social care where government funding through councils has been slashed by Tory cuts. This has led to wasteful “bed blocking” by elderly patients who medically are well enough to no longer need a hospital bed but can’t go home because there is no care package in place to look after them there. The Tories offer no solutions to our health and care crisis because in real terms they are not prepared to invest the money needed to provide these services and with their “dementia tax” debacle we saw what disarray they are in over this issue.
Labour would put £37 billion extra into our
NHS and significantly increase social care spending. These commitments have
been fully costed in their manifesto to be paid for by tax increases on those
who can afford it. They also acknowledge that there will be a need for
individuals who can afford it to make some reasonable contribution to care
costs. However, Labour would undertake a proper consultation before deciding
the terms of any such contribution. This is unlike the Tories who suddenly
announced a hasty policy of uncapped contributions and then within hours sought
to introduce a cap but without giving any clue as to the level of that cap.
Again, consistent with their record in government, it is Labour who have the
policies to best provide care for our sick and infirm.
3. Ensuring justice for all
3. Ensuring justice for all
As a lawyer
acting for victims of industrial disease and personal injury I know first-hand
how the Tory-led governments have squeezed access to justice. In my own area
this has led to many meritorious but more difficult cases being turned away.
Those clients who still get representation have generally found themselves
losing 25% or more of their compensation to pay for legal costs that can no
longer be recovered from the guilty party. But this has not just affected
my own area of law but virtually every part of our legal system. We have seen
massive cuts and restrictions to legal aid in family law disputes and crime,
housing and welfare law and judicial review. This has left many finding
themselves the victims of injustice without the means to pay for any lawyer to
stand up for their case. We have also seen many victims of unfair dismissal and
mistreatment at work deprived a remedy because of the extension of the
qualifying period for employment period to two years and the imposition of
employment tribunal fees. Not surprisingly this has led to a huge drop in
employment tribunal applications because so many are now either barred or
cannot afford to pursue their case against their employer. Meanwhile the
government has massively hiked court issue fees in civil claims – in some cases
increasing them tenfold. Such restrictions to access to justice I would say are
in almost direction contradiction of scripture; “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of
all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor
and needy” (Proverbs 31 v 8-9).
In their current manifesto the
Conservatives make no promises to reverse any of these injustices and in fact
propose to extend even further restrictions to access to justice including
further limitations as to when successful claimants can recover legal costs.
Labour’s manifesto is not as detailed on justice issues as I would have hoped
(partly no doubt because of the hastily called election). However, they are
committed to reversing or at least reviewing a number of these including the
removal of employment tribunal fees, the creation of employment protection from
day one of a job, a reduction in court fees and a full-scale review of the
legal aid and access to justice issues in both civil and criminal cases.
(Notwithstanding Labour’s last Lord Chancellor, thankfully long gone), it is
Labour governments who have nearly always been the ones to extend access to
justice, including through the original establishment of legal aid and
employment tribunals. It can only be they who can restore access to justice
once again.
4.
Ensuring everyone has a fair share and opportunity, including a decent home and
education
A key part
of ensuring everyone has a fair share must be to provide access to decent and
affordable housing to as many people as possible. Since 1979 Conservative and
New Labour government have both followed policies which have led to the slow
destruction of our stock of affordable public housing following the start of
Mrs Thatcher’s infamous right to buy policy. The Tories’ removal of rent
controls and other protections for tenants have only worsened the situation.
This has ultimately led to the desperate and unfair situation we currently have
with the property rich few and the property poor many. Millions of people,
especially younger generations, are left without hope of ever owning their own
home while often stuck in poorly maintained accommodation whilst paying
exorbitant rents. Many young people can’t even see themselves having the means
to move out of their parents’ home. And disturbingly, an increasing number find
themselves without a home at all. I highlight this issue as part of my previous
blog piece;
The
Conservatives wedded as they still are to following the gods of the free market
simply have nothing to offer to address this crisis. Their new right to buy
housing association properties overall only worsens the situation, as housing
experts warned them. Even when in this election they suggested policies that
might assist such as building more affordable housing they have backtracked on
those proposals and greatly diluted them so that the so called affordable
housing is at double the rents of social housing. It is Jeremy
Corbyn’s “new old “ Labour alone who provide the solution that’s needed- a big
programme of building genuinely affordable council/public housing alongside new
rights and controls to protect tenants.
The
Conservatives have also narrowed the door of opportunity of a decent education
for all to give everyone a decent shot at success in life. They have already
cut real school spending per pupil leading to many schools taking desperate
measures to cope with their overstretched resources. This has included cutting
half an hour from the school day, dropping “minority” subjects, cutting lunch
breaks short, stopping all school trips, increasing class sizes to well above
30 and endless appeals to parents to stump up cash to pay for basic things like
books and computers that the state
should already be providing. Think how much worse it will get if the Tories are
re-elected when according to the IFS their spending plans will mean schools
will face a further 7% real terms cut in funding.
And again,
it’s not just about how much (or little) money the Tories are putting into the
system. It’s also about how that money is used- very badly in many cases. The
Tory blind faith in the gods of the free market have seen millions wasted in
often substandard free schools set up not where they are needed but – often
poorer areas, but just where someone fancies starting a new free school- often
in affluent areas where apparent academic success is rather easier to come by. The
lack of local control prevents sensible planning and spending of educational
resources where they are needed. And for their next trick the Tories now
propose an expansion of grammar schools, supposedly to improve social mobility.
This is despite all the research evidence which shows grammar schools reduce
rather than improve social mobility, favouring children from more middleclass
families who can get them coached through the tests. More wasteful
inefficiency.
Meanwhile the Tories axing of maintenance grants for poorer
students and the ever-burgeoning size of tuition fees have ramped up huge debts
on the backs of our young people going to University. This has already resulted
in a significant fall in the number of students from poorer backgrounds
applying to University. Labour by contrast will start to put local authorities
back in charge of local schools to restore sensible local planning and
directing of school resources to where they are needed. They will also pump £6
billion per annum extra into schools’ budgets (paid for by costed tax increases
on those who can afford it). And on an issue close to my own heart they are the
first major political party to commit to a phased plan to remove the deadly
asbestos from our school buildings.
Labour would also restore the maintenance grants for poorer students and
abolish tuition fees. This would not be the first time that Labour have rescued
our schools from decline. I remember my wife starting her first teaching job
aged 22 under a Tory government in 1991 and facing class of 38. New Labour
reinvested in our schools to reduce class sizes and provide a better education
for all.
If you want
to see our schools and universities provide a decent free education for all our
children, allowing everyone the best
chance in life regardless of background, all evidence suggests you need to vote
Labour.
5. Looking after the planet
Protecting
God’s world for the good of future generations here and around the world should
be very high on any Christian political agenda. Labour are not the Green party
but they are a green party and unlike the Green party they have a prospect of
being in government to put green policies into action. In government their
record on looking after the environment was certainly not perfect but they made
real progress, eg with the Climate Change Act and the successful incentives to
build up renewable energy and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. (Once a
quarter when I get my cheque for the little solar panel farm on our roof I
still fondIy remember Ed Miliband’s time as Climate Change Secretary!).
Under
the Conservatives, despite their “support” of the Paris Climate Change
Agreement, the country has largely gone backwards on protecting the
environment. They withdrew virtually all support for solar power and have held
back our progress from fossil fuels to renewables (luckily for me my solar
panel income was guaranteed for 25 years!) They have even begun exploiting a
new and risky fossil fuel- fracking- even in our national parks. They slashed
spending on flood defences, which inevitably increased the damage from quite
foreseeable flooding (a false economy if ever there was one). They have also
breached European clean air limits in our cities which have led to 10,000s each
year dying from lung conditions. Their failure to act on this therefore has
literally been responsible for thousands of deaths. This has just lead to
sanctions against them by our Supreme Court. Labour’s manifesto commits
it to a new Clean Air Act to clean up our dirty cities’ air. They would take
affirmative action also to clean up our seas and rivers, creating “blue belt”
spaces. Through funding from their new National Investment Bank they would
reinvigorate our green technology industries to work towards replacing our
reliance on damaging fossils fuels with renewables.
6. Keeping peace and order
The approach
that recent Conservative and New Labour governments have taken to international
relations has failed. Since the Iraq war our military interventions in various
places over the past 14 years, however well-intentioned, has only led to
destabilisation and chaos and poverty in the countries we have left behind.
These have become largely “ungoverned spaces” which have been a breeding ground
for terrorism and mass migration. Our recent interventions have frankly done
more harm than good. Theresa May’s Conservatives only pledge more of the same
failed approach. Jeremy Corbyn is a committed peacemaker here and throughout
the world, being awarded the Ghandi prize for peace in 2013. His labour
government would take a different approach as a peacekeeper encouraging
dialogue, compromise and peace, just as Tony Blair’s first labour government
were so successful in doing in Northern Ireland (after adopting the very
approach for which Jeremy Corbyn has been so unfairly criticised).
Their
approach would certainly not mean an abandonment of our armed services, as some rightwing bloggers have suggested - Labour (like the Conservatives) is committed to investing 2%
of our GDP in our armed forces. It would as part of that commitment carry out a
strategic defence review and yes renewal of Trident would be part of that
review, although it currently remains Labour party policy. (Trident is in truth
about as useful and relevant to our defence and security as man buying a tank
to guard his home when his roof is leaking, his windows broken, front door
coming off its hinges, his burglar alarm broken and his computer virus software
expired- The myth of our own independent nuclear deterrent. See my earlier blog
piece;
Much more
important than Trident, Labour is committed to starting a reversal of the large
Tory cuts made to our police numbers (nearly 20,000). The Police Federation
warned the then Home secretary one Theresa May in 2015 that the government’s
slashing of police numbers would cause community policing to collapse (which it
has). This, they said, would not just remove their positive influence but would
also cause “local intelligence”- key to the fight against terrorism- to “dry
up.” This is exactly what has happened. We shall never know whether if there had
still been the numbers to provide proper community policing in Manchester or
London the recent terrorist acts would have been prevented. They might or might
not have done. But as many leading former police officers have said to reduce
police numbers in the current climate was a foolish risk to have taken with the
nation’s security. No amount of new laws and restrictions on our freedoms which
Theresa May has recently suggested can make up for the critical lack of numbers
of police officers on our streets including armed officers. As Jeremy Corbyn has
rightly said “you cannot do security on the cheap.”
7. Allowing freedom of speech and belief
New Labour’s
record in government on protecting freedom of speech and belief was a bit
mixed. There was certainly plenty on the credit side; the Human Rights Act, the
abolition of blasphemy laws and further employment protection legislation,
including protection of whistle blowers. All of this protected and enhanced
freedom of belief and speech. However, there were also some knee-jerk reactions
to a new age of terrorism post 9/11. This included the Terrorism Act 2006 much
criticised by the UN for proving too broad and vague a description of
encouraging terrorism that it went far beyond prevention of real terrorism. Alongside
this was a draconion new power to detain suspects for 28 days without
charge. Many including senior police
officers and current Tory cabinet Ministers criticised these measures as
excessive restrictions on our freedoms which risked being counter-productive .
It would appear Theresa May may be about to commit similar mistakes and indeed
going rather further. See her recent suggestions about Chinese-style internet
controls and restrictions in the name of preventing the encouragement of
terrorism and if necessary changing human rights legislation to force through
sweeping new powers. But we don’t even need to look ahead at what a new Tory
government might do. One of the greatest restrictions on freedom of speech in
this country is something we are seeing and hearing (or rather not seeing not
seeing and hearing) right now. It’s the Conservatives’ Lobbying Act 2015. Had
you wondered why charities working with those in social need (ie most of them)
have been so quite on any social issues during this election? (i.e issues
affecting the very people that they are working to help)? That’s because the
Lobbying Act gags them from saying virtually anything that might be deemed
“political” during an election campaign and indeed supposedly during the whole
twelve months before an election. (Tricky that one when until six weeks ago no
one even knew there would be an election) I would say this legislation is in
almost direct contradiction of that key scriptural principle quoted earlier; “Speak up for those who cannot speak up for
themselves, for the rights of all the destitute.” (Proverbs 31 v 8).
By contrast
Labour would repeal the “chilling” Lobbying Act and by opening up access to
justice e.g. through removing employment tribunal fees. they would help
facilitate people defending their freedoms.
8. Managing our resources and relationships to best achieve these ends
Of course, all Labour’s good intentions would amount to nothing if
incompetent management of resources meant there was no money to fund all those
good intentions. After all, don’t Labour have quite a poor track record on
managing our economy and didn’t their previous reckless spending and borrowing
cause our economy to crash? In a word no. It is one of the biggest and most
successful political lies of all time. Labour’s spending and borrowing had zero
to do with the economic crash which was 100% caused by reckless actions of the
banking industry and Labour governments’ economic record is overall quite a lot
better than Conservative governments. Overall, they have borrowed less,
delivered higher levels of employment and higher levels of economic growth than
the Conservatives. The last Labour government’s borrowing was only 36% of GDP
before the banking crisis and bail out- less than the 40% they had inherited from
John Major’s Tories. (It only shot up to 60% because they took the emergency
action needed to stop a complete banking collapse). Before the crash they had
also brought about a record period of economic growth for the country. The
cack-handed approach of our recent Tory-led governments by contrast through
self-defeating austerity has stifled our growth whilst increasing our national
debt to 89% (although in truth the debt level is not a significant problem). Their idolatrous obsession with leaving everything
to the gods of the free market and putting everything up for sale- “selling off the family silver” as a former
Tory Prime MInister Harold MacmIllan warned them, has led to an inefficient
waste of resources enriching the fortunate few and leaving the many
short-changed. For further details and evidence see my earlier blog pieces;
Their similarly economically illiterate approach to Brexit is having an
equally damaging effect on the economy. Nearly all serious economists have warned
that prioritising complete control of European immigration over free trade
access risks causing a loss of thousands of jobs and billions in revenue. As a
result, since the Brexit vote many multinational companies have put on hold any
UK investment and our economic growth has sunk to even lower than Greece’s.
By contrast, Labour would pursue a Brexit that prioritises free trade and
jobs over immigration. Contrary to Tory myth-making Labour would not increase
borrowing to pay for day-to-day spending- this is why they have carefully
costed how they would fund these commitments taxes on those rich individuals
and companies that can best afford it. Note the contrast with the Tories who
have given us no costings at all for their own commitments and have now
admitted they can’t even fund the primary school breakfast they would offer in
place of free school lunches!
What Labour would do is take
advantage of the current very low interest rates to give our economy and its
infrastructure the investment boost it will so badly need to post-Brexit. Unlike
the Conservatives these economic plans are very widely supported by leading
economists - see the letter written by 129 of the world’s leading economist
backing Labour’s economic plans
The truth is that it is Labour who have both the record and the plan to
best manage our resources. It is the Conservatives whose management of the
economy falls badly shortly, continually even failing their own targets, as
witnessed by their ever-postponed plans for eliminating the annual deficit.
9. The best leaders to take us there
Neither Theresa May nor Jeremy Corbyn is an evil demagogue and neither are the prefect leader this country needs. As a Christian, I believe there is only one leader who can fulfil that criteria- Jesus Christ (when he eventually returns). But he’s not on the ballot paper! However, despite my previous criticisms of Jeremy, I am quite convinced that the available evidence shows Jeremy fulfils far better than Theresa the biblical qualities that we should look for in our nation’s leader. Theresa might look more like our traditional image of a leader and might give smoother soundbites. However, I would suggest that at the stuff that really matters she falls quite far short. Meanwhile although Jeremy does not score 10/10 against those same leadership qualities I believe he gets rather closer than Theresa does. I looked at this in some detail in my recent blog;
I found on
the evidence that across all these key criteria Jeremy has more of the
qualities we should look for in our nation's leader:
-
A heart for the poor and needy
-
A peacemaker
-
Of good character
-
Able to teach and reach people
-
Humble
-
Wise and listening to good advice
-
Strong and stable- yes even on that one!
I am
therefore also convinced that Jeremy has much more of the skills actually
needed to negotiate the best Brexit deal for this country.
However,
being a good leader is also about the quality and wisdom of those you appoint
around you is also very important. Let’s leave aside poor Diane Abbott. Even
her old friend Jeremy evidently now recognises she isn’t up to the job! (And
would mostly likely be replaced by others “coming in from the cold” eg Yvette
Coper or Lisa Nandy). When it comes to the Brexit negotiating team for example I would suggest that Labour’s is far more
credible. Who would you trust more to negotiate with the EU- one of the
country’s leading lawyers Labour's former Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Keir
Starmer QC or Bojo the clown waving his joke union jack and winding up the other EU leaders ?
Conclusion
I don’t know
who will win this election, which is proving to be the strangest and least
predictable general election in the 43 years that I can recall . I concede is
still very possible that Theresa May will win with a substantial majority and
it is still pretty probable that she will get
some sort of majority. However, the mixed polling suggest that is no longer
inevitable. And I earnestly hope and pray that we will instead end up with a Labour
government. Not because I want my “red
team” to beat the “blue team”. Not because I wish any ill of Theresa May or
other Conservatives (I do not). But because after careful and prayerful
examination of the issues and the evidence I am convinced that the
Conservatives are taking this country in the wrong direction, which has already
caused much misery and suffering and loss of opportunity for so many. And
because I can see another five years of the same can only lead to things
becoming much worse for everyone. I am
convinced that the society they are building is one that is increasingly alien to
the biblical Kingdom of God values that I and most of the country believe in.
If you share those values with me then I would urge you to vote for a Labour
government in this election, even if you have to hold your nose to do it!
If (as I
concede is rather more likely) Labour fall short this time the political cause
Jeremy has led is not going anywhere, even if Jeremy himself should
resign. This cause isn’t going away
because it’s a cause whose time has come. During this election even if Labour
fall short they will have already won over many people who can see that we need
to turn this ship of state around. When things only get over the next 5 years (as inevitably they will for most I believe) many more will follow them. Labour I am sure will
stand firm in its position, waiting for them– taking a stand for them, the many
against the privileged few, for a redistribution of wealth, power and
opportunity to build a fairer, more equal and efficient society and economy. We
will be preparing for 2022 when I am very confident Labour will finish the job
of winning the nation’s hearts and minds to this cause and should secure a large majority
and then lay down its roots. And in time I am hopeful that this cause will no
longer be considered left wing at all but sensible and moderate. And as the
centre ground moves, even the Conservative party in time will move with it, just as it
did in step with Clement Attlee’s Labour government over 70 years ago.
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