Peter takes a sideways look on the race for Downing Street.
The race is on and, apparently the stampede to get into 10 Downing Street started a few weeks ago. Judging from what we are hearing in the media and on TV, to me it has got off to a dull and predictable start.
We’ve had Rachel Reeves, for Labour last week declaring the Labour Party doesn’t stand for the working classes. Who does it stand for, then? The wealthy millionaires and the bankers?
We’ve had Tony Blair offering millions to Labour to fend off the Unions. Wasn’t he a former Labour leader? The ‘Oh so popular’ leader of Ukip was attacked and heckled by a mob outside a restaurant, and the Tory candidate for Dudley North, Afzal Amin has been forced to resign over allegations to plot and stage-manage a far-right march by the EDL in his constituency; meanwhile, here in Kingston-upon-Hull, the owner of Hull City (Tigers) Mr. Alam, has joined the bribery gang offering millions to Labour if the party breaks its links with the Trade Unions.
To cap it all, after facing massive heckling from pensioners the other day, - the very people who can make or break this election - David Cameron assumes arrogantly that he has already won this forthcoming General Election and is telling us that he won’t stand in 2020. What a murky, dirty, back-stabbing crew we are expected to vote for!
As for the Tories their conceit is unbridled. The SNP are having a whale of a time as they also know the power they can wield in the case of a hung parliament, which seems very likely. It is ironic that the ‘Founding Fathers’ of the Labour Movement were all Scotsmen, and those who ‘snuffed it out’, Blair and Brown were also Scotsmen, so why a problem with an alliance with the SNP? I should have thought this would have been Labour’s best chance of getting into power. So we have to watch all this jostling for power and the mud-slinging before we will get any real, firm answers. Labour’s pledge not to increase VAT versus the Tory pledge to get rid of the debt. And once again the Tories are ‘tinkering’ seductively with State Pensions. Very dangerous, but very tempting!
The electorate really want answers to serious questions. There will be promises and pledges made today and broken in May. The Tories were unpopular in 2010, only getting into power in a coalition with the Lib/Dems.
I predict the latter will ‘go off the radar’ on May 7th. The wholesale offensive against working people, the re-structuring of working practices e.g zero-hour contracts, part-time work and short-term contracts added to the biggest decline in living standards since 1880, according to Labour statistics, means the average family is £1,600 per year worse off now than they were in 2010. If this is true, would you vote Tory?
The impact of the Health & Social Care Act has led to suicides and a vicious culture of prejudice towards the unemployed and the disabled. Meanwhile, Labour has failed to ‘shrug off’ its “New” image created by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and now the big concern is the public image of Ed Miliband, described as more of a “toff” than David Cameron.
In an interview, the outspoken Labour MP for Rochdale, Simon Danczuk, claimed Mr.Miliband was a vote-loser and that Labour had been “hi-jacked” by a north London liberal elite. So, there’s back-stabbing going on within Labour’s ranks.
Well, be that as it may, it is worth remembering that the Labour Party was created out of the Trade Union Movement and not the other way round. The unions – especially Unite and Unison – among many others are still powerful organisations.
It is hard to spot any leaders or parties that now represent the working people, the unemployed or those on low incomes. It is about time these people were represented in parliament. The whole business of giving ‘Donations’ to political parties means that the ultra-rich have influence in government and can ‘manipulate’ those in Whitehall. We’ve seen it many times before but it is getting worse.
However, the ‘bribery’ offered by Tony Blair to the Labour Party tells you everything. He should become a Tory minister and fly his true colours. It is incredible, yet not all that unbelievable that Lord Baker of Dorking could actually envisage a Tory/Labour Coalition. That tells us just how far to the Right Labour has become.
So, is there nobody out there ready to fight for Joe Bloggs? Yes, the badly-mauled but solidly firm left-wing Trade Unions. They are still there and won’t go away. However, the tragedy for Labour was betrayal from within, and apart from its leader’s image, its own image has become blurred. Just who does Labour represent today?
It is amazing how in politics things can inexplicably change overnight. Only two weeks ago the armed forces were being threatened with ‘severe’ cuts. Now, suddenly, the Government has recognised the threat posed by Putin and the sale of arms to Argentina, and we going to re-arm and prepare for The Third World War!
If Cameron truly believes he will still be in 10, Downing Street, let us look at just a few things.
The worst house-building programme since the 1920’s, the decline of workers’ rights and conditions, all manner of skulduggery with pensions, a massive threat (TTIP) to the NHS and a severe lack of funding, a ‘hidden’ programme of privatisation and a real threat to the Public Sector with more austerity after May 7th.
Labour, the Tories and Ukip are all offering ‘sweeteners’ but many of these have not been properly costed. The ones who have suffered the most are the young, the so-called “Lost Generation”. Many of the pensioners are doing quite well, so watch out for an attack on bus-passes and Winter Fuel Allowances from whoever gets into power on May 7th. You’re the next to be targeted.
Gordon Brown put the first knife in back in 1997 with the “Pensions Heist” The Lib/Dems lost credibility when they shamefully betrayed the students, - whose debts are rising all the time – so whilst at conference there’s a lot of ‘hot air’ when it comes to the crunch they will almost vanish from the scene, maybe a handful of Lib/Dem MP’s remaining. It’s been a dull start but the results will be like a firework display. We’ve got the Greens to take us into Fairyland where everything is nice and rosy. I wish!