Ten New Policies - 2 comments

One of the indulgences of election-watching is to attempt to interpret what the electorate - aggregating across millions of individual decisions - 'really meant' . In defeat, this usually turns out to be a desire for greater movement on the writer's own pet policies; in victory, proof that the electorate's flirtations with the other side meant those half-baked ideas of yours were merely ahead of their time... Ideas do come cheap, and no-one spares a thought for the intelligent people within Government who developed what appeared to be a sound idea into legislation that the mainstream media, and those who lost most from it, insisted was a thoughtless or callous attack, and which now takes the blame for electoral defeat. That's a general point, not a defence of the 10p tax change (has there been one?)

Anyway, leaving all that aside, and for what it's worth, here are ten policy ideas of my own. They reflect my current ideological viewpoint, which might not be compatible with anyone else's vision of the Labour Party, but I imagine them to be both popular and just. Take from them what you will. Note that if I haven't covered a particular area, that could either mean that I think things are just right at present (e.g. foreign policy, and international development), or that I don't have any ideas at present.

In no particular order:

1. Workers' Control. Freedom for all workers, not just trade unionists, in a push for co-operative/mutual ownership that extends across the private and public 'sectors'. This offers the chance of economic autonomy for all, as an alternative to capitalism. It rejects Statism, in favour of co-operation and competition. Everything else is mere tinkering.
2. A Referendum to decide between three revenue-neutral personal tax systems: (a) the status quo, (b) a more 'progressive' one, (c) one that reduces income tax in favour of an extensive inheritance tax.
3. Assessment of the feasibility of replacing certain benefits, and the national minimum wage, with a guaranteed national minimum income.
4. A tougher line on monopolistic behaviour: especially in the broadcast/printed media, but including the actions of public sector trade unions.
5. Investigation of the role of planning controls and private land ownership in artificially inflating/sustaining house prices, slowing redevelopment, and limiting (note) aggregate economic freedom.
6. A 'loosening' of the criminal justice system: giving Police the powers they say they need to enforce the law thoroughly, in return for appropriate scrutiny; and investigate the state of, and capacity of the prison system.
7. Removal of any restrictions upon local councils adopting London-style 'congestion' charges.
8. Removal of immigration 'targets' and other arbitrary restrictions, in return for greater aid for host areas.
9. Do whatever is necessary to address the dysfunctional relationship between central government and teachers: whether it be reconciliation, or an amicable separation.
10. Disestablishment of the Church of England: so that it may adapt to more honestly reflect the views of Christians, rather than public opinion, and to expunge its residual political power.

There you go. I've been very brief, but can expand upon individual points on request.

I hardly feel I've formed the basis of a future, winning Labour Manifesto, let alone fostered 'unity', or provided Gordon Brown with a strategy he can hit the ground running with, but the Sunday papers have been full of them, so he's not missing out.

Nervous? - 1 comment

I'm not really looking forward to these results. I won't make predictions, but I suspect Labour will achieve a fairly derisory vote. That's unfortunate for a lot of existing councillors, and for many candidates who might have felt they had a chance.

That said, I can't see the point of poring over the results - the damage has been done at a national level, and all activists' energies need to be devoted over the next couple of years to deciding what the Labour Party is going to be, giving the electorate some good reasons to vote Labour, and to extricate the Government from the ludicrous situation it has got itself into over (if you really do ask me) terror suspect detention limits, and ID cards, to name but two distractions.

I might take a more robust approach than some in the party, but if there is to be a 'relaunch', I certainly wouldn't focus on portraying Cameron as a 'shallow salesman', a Diana-ified front-man for the same old Tory defenders of privilege and wealth. People know this already, but that only gives Labour an opportunity to be taken, and a risk for the Tories, not a fatal flaw. There's no value to the Labour Government (not just the party) weakening the case through overuse. They need radical but well-thought out, robust policies that can withstand the scrutiny of intelligent people, and that give activists like us a fighting chance of defending them, especially given that the amount of flak coming from a mainstream media that has tired of us and which feels pro-Tory stories are what the public want.

Today and tomorrow could be bad, but ride them out with magnanimity. The current incarnation of the Labour Party* has two years to live, at the very most. It cannot survive in Opposition in its present form. Let's make the next one a better one, one worth electing.

(* I'm referring to the 'Official Line', or 'Party In Government', or 'Current World-view/Policies/Ministers combo', rather than the party structure/organisation. You know what I mean. )

Housekeeping / former Councillors - 2 comments

One of the least pleasant tasks here at B4L is taking deceased blogs from the list. Generally each loss is made up shortly, but the recent Council Elections will have caused a few blogging councillors to become blogging ex-councillors.

I can't track all of these cases down myself, which is where you come in. If you blog but lost your seat, please let me know so I can update the records. Likewise, drop me a line if you've spotted a blogging councillor, AM, or MSP announcing their defeat.

It's also possible some blogging candidates succeeded in their quest, so, again, please help me track them down.

Results 2007 - 5 comments

It would be a bit odd if I didn't have anything to say about the Council elections, so here we go. Even if Labour avoided "meltdown" (how's that for ambition?), losing close to 500 councillors in England, and power in both Scotland and Wales, is a pretty lousy result.

Let's face it, Labour doesn't have any divine right to form a government, and governments are put in place to do a job, grudgingly (so the turnout figures say), by the public. Neither the Labour Party nor the Labour government should expect thanks, or even appreciation from the public, however many good things have been done, and are yet to be done. Nonetheless they must carry on governing roughly in accordance with the will of, and in the interests of the public. Just as individuals remember their own achievements, conveniently forgetting or dismissing their far more numerous failures, the majority of the public, who see themselves in opposition to (perhaps, subject to) governments in general, will tend to forget or dismiss governments' achievements, harking back to well-publicised failures or embarrassments.

What doesn't help is that seemingly doomed administrations are not marked by failure of policy, but by a hostile, bored media, hungry for intrigue and scandal. It's this poisonous cloud that is so dangerous for governments, for parties, and so unappealing to the electorate. Can it be dispersed - perhaps with the help of this blogosphere of ours?

*

Back to the results, we had a particularly bad result here in Brighton & Hove, with Labour losing 10 of its 23 seats to the Greens, and to the Conservatives, who are now by far the largest party.

In the Brunswick and Adelaide ward (my side of the road) - once (intriguingly) the SNP's power base in England - Labour collapsed from second to fourth, their vote halving with the reduced turnout.

2003: LD 2325 (48.3%), Lab 1164 (24.2%), Green 680 (14.1%), Con 535 (11.1%), Others 110
2007: LD 1671 (41.1%), Green 913 (22.5%), Con 725 (17.8%), Lab 547 (13.5%), Others 208

The result was only marginally less bad in Central Hove (the other side of my road):

2003: Con 2154 (38.7%), LD 1731 (31.1%), Lab 1057 (19.0%), Green 618 (11.1%)
2007: Con 1865 (45.9%), LD 1359 (33.4%), Green 753 (18.5%), Lab 621 (15.3%), Others 109

Our only substantial share of the vote was the 41.2% achieved in East Brighton. Overall the score was: Con 36.6%, Lab 26.3%, Green 21.7%, LD 10.2%, Others 5.3%.

*

Chris Dillow has more on the disappointing turnout, while Skuds covers compulsory voting. I wouldn't mind seeing a pilot project at a future election, though I agree that punishing people who decide not to vote is not a solution to the lack of interest in local politics. Furthermore, the democratic process is supposed to put the population in control, and introducing compulsion reverses this.

That is, of course, also an argument in favour of first past the post, against voting systems that use party lists and where the formation of governments is a matter of negotiation among politicians, where policies and principles can be put aside in order to make a large enough coalition. It's perhaps with this in mind that the Scottish Liberal Democrats, winners of a mere 16 out of 129 seats, seem to believe they're free to pick and choose coalition partners to give themselves a say in the running of Scotland:

"The Scottish Liberal Democrats will work constructively to promote our positive policies in the new Parliament."

The last eight years of the Scottish Parliament have seen Scotland run by a Labour-led coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Earlier, Tavish Scott, who ran the Lib Dems' election campaign, said his party would not share power with Labour.

Sadly, the SNP won that election - in terms of both votes and seats - so it falls to them to govern Scotland. The Liberal Democrats, who came fourth, should go off into a little corner and keep their noses out.

Update (09/05): See also this on PR, from Shuggy.

Vote Labour Today - 4 comments

Good luck to all Labour candidates today!