It does seem to be happening, people are starting to make their feelings clear to this coalition - they are taking their ideological objectives too far and they do not have a mandate to make such crude, drastic and frankly heartless changes to our society. The campaign to stop the sell off of the forests attracted over a half a million on line signatures, the new 'Save the NHS' petition is gathering momentum and trust for the government is at rock bottom.
What is the aim? Before long we will end up with a free market NHS where profit will be the priority over the health and well-being of all, a lost generation of youths with no jobs, prospects or ideas and those that do graduate leaving higher education with £30k worth of debt. On the plus side, erm..well - unemployment is rising, the economy is shrinking and we don't appear to have a foreign policy...
Its easy for a lefty to blame the rich and focus on those without a social conscience but it really does seem that the only people that are going to come through the next few years unscathed under this astonishing coalition are the very people that make up the cabinet- incredibly rich people who will never need to consider the cost of their mortgages, let alone the price of bread.
For those of us in the Labour Party our focus has to be to ensure we are working actively in the community, listening to peoples concerns and working with them and for them wherever possible. Policy is coming through so quickly and with so little debate it is hard to follow exactly what is happening and when- on a local level we need to be there for the fallout. Working together to ensure that communities stay strong and supportive and that our voices are heard. This is no time for navel gazing but a time for action.
I like your thinking but.... I haven't yet seen any evidence that (collectively) the Labour party is likely to be the answer. Currently agreeing with too many of the principles outlined by govt. Too many labour-led councils pressing ahead with cuts. No obvious inclination to support the 'uncut' movement. Where active, too focused on 'middle class' issues and not prepared to defend the truly vulnerable. Would love to believe there is a genuine political alternative.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, and I do agree that Labour isn't there yet in terms of offering the alternative and mounting a clear defence of public services and especially some of the work that they did in government. I saw an interesting report last week on liverpool council which did back them up in terms of having no choice but to make frontline cuts at this stage. On the flip side; a borough like wandsworth is sitting on enormous reserves yet is using the cuts as an excuse to save £200kby shutting a community library in a terribly serviced area.
ReplyDeleteLabour has an opportunity to do something different here and be a genuine voice for people without the restraints of government
"No time for Navel gazing" I agree maybe people should start thinking about protesting using absolute peacful defience of the state It may be interesting to discuss why people should follow the law when we live in an unrepresentative democracy. (many peoples votes don’t count and they have been disenfranchised all their lives) The legitimacy of absolute peaceful defiance and a summer of discontent gains weight in these circumstances. Full PR(Open List system) would seem to be the only way of ensuring that all votes contribute to the electors voice in parliament being heard. We seem to be approaching an Antigone moment where defiance of the state seems reasonable when it does not have the full mandate of all the people.
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