Monday 14 November 2011

Vince Cable sympathises with the 99%

A week ago I stated that I sympathise with the Occupy London protesters in the sense that they seek to protect the poorest 99% against the excesses and greed of the top 1%. Following endorsements from senior politicians from the Green Party and the Labour Party; I argued it was time for the Liberal Democrats to state their support for the 99%. Yesterday on the Politics Show, the Business Secretary Vince Cable announced that he sympathised with the cause of the Occupy London protesters. Occupy London which is primarily based outside St Paul's Cathedral is campaigning against gross inequalities of wealth, corporate corruption and basic unfairness in our society. The endorsement of such a senior Liberal Democrat and government figure will act as a political boost for the primary aim of the Occupy London movement which is to protect the poorest 99%. Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats have long been campaigning for a fairer more equitable capitalism, where the rich pay their fair share. It has been stated by the media (often mistakenly) that the camp at St Pauls is an anti-capitalist protest. Although much of Occupy London is emboldened by campaigners who are Marxists, Trotskyites, socialists and anarchists not all at the camp are anti-capitalist. Indeed, mine and I daresay Vince Cable’s support for the protesters outside St Paul's comes out of a belief that our current neoliberal capitalism is increasingly unfair and that we need to create a capitalism that is fairer, more progressive and that works for everyone not just the ultra-rich top 1% in our society.

To read an article from the Guardian concerning Vince Cable’s statement on the Politics Show please follow this link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/13/vince-cable-sympathise-occupy-london

Monday 7 November 2011

I stand with the 99% and so should the Lib Dems

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit the Occupy London camp outside St Pauls Cathedral. As a student studying politics at University as well as someone who was slightly sympathetic to the Occupy movement; I felt that it was a part of British political history that I just had to witness. Occupy London was the British arm of a movement that in the last few weeks has spread from Wall Street to Central Europe and from Oakland to London. The camp seemed to consist of two main groups your usual SWP Trotskyite socialist types and your typical anarchist types. The camp was a very far left institution complete with anti-capitalist banter and far left posters that reminded me somewhat of Soviet-era propaganda. This camp had been established for little more than a week when I visited it on Sunday, October 23, 2011. While I was visiting the camp they held a "general assembly." This acted as a forum for discussion and to report the progress the movement was having. While I was in attendance it had been decided that a midnight curfew should come into effect. At the time I did think it was not very anarchist for the Occupy LSX campaigners to be imposing a curfew on themselves; but I suppose they would argue it was the fact that they were choosing to impose it on themselves not an external force doing it for them. Overall the Occupy movement aims seem to be to represent the poorest 99% against the greed and recklessness of the top 1%. They are campaigning against corporate greed, gross inequality and corporate capital dominating our democracies. I for one felt it was refreshing to see that for once someone was standing up to the vested financial elites in the City of London whom got our economy into such a dire mess only a few years ago. It was about time that people stood up against this clear injustice. Despite some media coverage, not all the people in the Occupy London camp were anti-capitalist there were even some posters stating that the protest should not be viewed as one that was anti-capitalist. It is clear that they were campaigning against the unfairness of the present neoliberal economic order. Now although I do not sympathise with the ends that the extreme socialists and anarchists wish to achieve, I do sympathise with the fact that these people were making a stand against injustice and doing it so peacefully and carefully. Contrary to some reports it didn't seem to me like the protesters were seriously preventing the Cathedral from being used. They even seem to have taken great care to ensure that they received a good public hearing in the press.

On Saturday, November 5, the Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas addressed the Occupy London rally at St Pauls. Thus it is clear that the Green Party has given its support to the aims of a fairer country that Occupy London seem to promote. This was followed on the Sunday, by relative endorsement by the Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband who declared himself to be a supporter of the 99% against the 1%. One has to wonder whether his record in government truly makes him out to be a worthy patron of the 99%. Especially when you consider the fact that both Ed Miliband and Ed balls were working in Gordon Brown's Treasury when bankers were earning obscene bonuses, company directors were earning extreme salaries and when the economic system was becoming increasingly more unstable due to a lack of financial regulation. Furthermore this is not to mention Labour's 13 year love affair with Rupert Murdoch something that even continued when Miliband himself became leader of the Labour Party. It is clear that during Miliband's time in the Treasury as well as during his time as a government minister the top 1% got wealthier and almost brought the global economy to the brink of destruction. I for one hope that Ed Miliband is not using the slogans of the 99% and the 1% to further his and his party's objectives through cynical opportunism and self publication; Miliband should not try to dominate concepts that go far beyond that of the Labour Party.

It is now time I believe for the Liberal Democrats to endorse the notion of being on the side of the 99%. Do not forget that the term 99% will encompass the poor, the working class and the overwhelming majority of middle-class people. It is hardly your usual class warring far left factions. I would seriously hope that Nick Clegg as well as other senior Liberal Democrats like Simon Hughes and Tim Farron can speak confidently about standing up for the 99%. It is the duty of a radical progressive party like the Liberal Democrats to do exactly this. I may not endorse socialism or anarchism but I do think we need a fairer society, economy and politics that moves beyond the current domination of neoliberalism. I would prefer (like some at the Occupy London camp) to have a fairer more progressive capitalism that works for everyone rather than no capitalism at all. It is this notion of a fairer more progressive capitalism, politics and society that Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats should be promoting. Although this is nothing new to the Lib Dems it must be placed in the context that the top 1% need to pay their fair share and that the lower 99% need to be protected and supported from the excess and instability of neoliberal capitalism. Finally I hope that the Occupy London movement moves to encompass many progressive and left-leaning groups beyond the far left; especially political parties like the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Greens.

Sunday 6 November 2011

We are a Centre-Left Party, now let’s get out there and prove it!

I for one am very proud to consider myself on the centre-left of British politics. I believe that three years ago I joined the party of the centre-left. And I also believe that as a party of government, this party promotes a centre-left agenda and enacts many of its centre-left policies. Surely, goes the conventional wisdom this party must be the Labour Party. However it is not the Labour Party; I became interested in politics due to my opposition to what was then an authoritarian Labour government. No this governing party of the centre-left is the Liberal Democrats.

How can you say that? Many people will ask. Surely the Liberal Democrats are a Tory leaning party of the centre at best. Surely they can't be described as centre-left; after all they are in coalition with a centre-right Conservative party. They will say. No I'm adamant that many of the policies and principles of the Liberal Democrat supporters, members, MPs and government ministers are those of a genuine party of the centre-left.

I would argue that examples of such centre-left policies promoted by the Liberal Democrats include the following. Restoring the civil liberties lost under the last government. Helping the poorest pupils through the pupil premium and restoring the pensions link to earnings. Being the first party of government to genuinely focus on tackling climate change. Limiting the role of private companies in the controversial NHS reforms and ruling out the profit motive in our schools. Presenting a measured reasonable response after the summer riots. Ending up front fees for part-time students. Having a referendum on changing the voting system, pledging to democratise the House of Lords and planning to clean up party funding. Finally, we have maintained the top 50% rate of income tax, while ensuring that the poorest 880,000 people have been taken out of paying any income tax altogether. These are all policies that anyone with a slight centre-left sympathy would agree with. Now of course these outlooks will be counted by accusations of enacting harsh spending cuts. And indeed it cannot be ignored that the Coalition is implementing a harsh deficit reduction strategy; however Labour are hardly an anti-cuts party, since seven out of every eight pounds cut last year were agreed to by Alistair Darling in his last Labour Party budget. If Labour had won the election they would be cutting much of the same things as the Coalition is. For evidence of this just look at local Labour councils, many of whom shut sure start centres prior to the last local elections; whereas every council run by a Liberal Democrat kept the sure start centres open. If you like we are in the honest, responsible centre-left party outlining our programme of austerity simply because we have to do because we are now a party of coalition government. The same would be true if Labour was still in power and not behind the comfort blanket of opposition.

The truth is that the Liberal Democrats are the most left-leaning party of government since James Callaghan's Labour party in the 1970s. We as a party have a great centre-left message to promote. Centre-left voters in Britain should not be turning away from us and voting for an irresponsible centre-left party like Labour or for a divisive separatist party like the SNP; they should be voting Liberal Democrat. Ed Miliband’s Labour Party continues to be committed to erosions of this our civil liberties like a CCTV surveillance society and the DNA database. They are certainly taking an increasingly illiberal stance towards immigration. They remain unwilling to introduce a proportional voting system or elect the House of Lords. They remain unwilling to scrap Trident. And this is before we mention some harsh things Labour did in government like eroding civil liberties, illegally invading Iraq, privatising parts of our NHS and abolishing the 10% rate of income tax. None of these things would be supported by anybody of the centre-left.

We as Liberal Democrats shouldn't be complacent with our centre-left voters running off to other parties. We shall be doing our utmost to sell our centre-left message and get them back to voting for us. Poll ratings between 8% and 12% are utterly dismal. We should not have UKIP nipping at our heels. We should not let Labour claim the centre-left with anti-progressive policies or with collective amnesia of their 13 years in government. This centre-left message needs to resonate from the leadership of the Liberal Democrats right down to the grassroots. It needs to go from Great George Street to your street. And this message is simple; "we are a centre-left party, we are enacting centre-left policies, we are restraining the right-wing elements within the Tories and we are not going anywhere until the lack of freedom, fairness and justice in our society is tackled." Now let's get out there and reclaim the centre-left ground where we so rightly belong.