Tories Set Out Their Manifesto – Even More Fleecing of the Poor

Should we be surprised that the Tories strategy for next year’s general election is to further crack down and demonise those of our citizens on welfare benefits? No of course not, it has been the central plank of their policies over the life of this Parliament. Indeed, it is probably their most popular (perhaps only popular) policy, whereby the financial crash of 2008 and all of our economic woes thereafter, have been laid firmly at the door of those least able to shoulder it, and the least to blame for the catastrophic collapse of the whole neo liberal edifice.

A flag ship policy of further screwing down the benefit cap (from £26,000 pa to £23,000 pa) and a freeze on all ‘working age’ benefits until 2017 was unveiled at this week’s Tory party conference. These benefits have been subjected to well below inflation increases of 1% for the past five years and this doesn’t include cuts to Council Tax Support in many areas (local authorities now administer this with a 10% cut in their block grant). Also, the CPI measure of inflation now favoured by the government does not include housing costs, with rents rising rapidly, particularly in London and the bedroom tax to pay too. As many as 7 million of these claimants are actually in work, on poverty wages, whilst tax is cut for the wealthiest people.

In a further humiliation for benefit claimants, Ian Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, announced plans to introduce ‘pre-paid cards’ for benefits payments rather than cash, which would prevent the money being used to fund alcohol, tobacco, gambling and illegal drug addictions. Given that many of the long term unemployed have problems with addictions, I would expect this to lead to a rise in crime, apart from being a thoroughly authoritarian action.

Duncan Smith is the most incompetent member of the cabinet, having already wasted hundreds of millions of pounds on his Universal Credit shambles and routinely puts out at best inaccurate information on benefit claims, at worst downright lies. That he remains in post at all is down to the popularity of welfare claimant bashing and his support from right wing Eurosceptic Tory MPs, those who haven’t joined UKIP, anyway. George Osborne has got one thing right, Duncan Smith just isn’t really that clever.

But even by the Tories own measure, that of reducing the budget deficit, the government’s policies are failing. The deficit actually rose last month and is forecast to continue to rise until the end of the year at best, leaving it not far short of what they inherited, after all of the pain inflicted by the austerity economics of this administration.

If ever we needed a reminder of just how nasty the Tories are, we have seen it this week. Next May, I hope the decent people of Britain will see through all the smoke screens and deceptions, and kick these malicious bastards out of government.

Help re-elect Caroline Lucas as MP for Brighton Pavilion

It’s essential that Caroline Lucas is re-elected to Westminster in 2015; it’s essential for the people of Brighton Pavilion; but it’s also essential for all of us who want to make sure that Green policies, the only kind of policies that are designed for the Common Good, impact on the Westminster agenda. Read on to see why and how you can help.

You probably don’t need reminding, either, that with the ‘first past the post’ electoral system to achieve this, we have a mountain to climb.

But we do have things to cheer about: and there’s nothing more important on the list of things we have to cheer about than the fact that in Caroline Lucas, MP, we actually do have one Green MP; and more to the point: we have a fantastic MP! An MP who is working hard for her constituents in Brighton Pavilion, but who is also working hard to bring Green policy to the discussion of the House of Commons.

Just a few reasons why we can’t do without Caroline in the House of Commons:

See some of the priorities she’s working on look at her website:
http://www.carolinelucas.com/about/policies.html

See how hard she is working, have a look at the number of Early Day Motions she has proposed, seconded and signed: http://www.edms.org.uk/mps/24910/caroline-lucas

Early Day Motions are an important way to put issues on the agenda.
Have a look at the Private Members Bill[1] she has put forward (first reading was on 7 July 2014); it has had its second reading; it may even get passed during this Parliament.

Why is it at stake?

In 2010, Caroline won Brighton Pavilion with a majority of just 1252 votes from Labour. That’s a very narrow margin. If you look at the percentage of the vote for different parties[2] you’ll see clearly how narrow it is:

And because it’s so close, and because for Labour a Green MP is a real thorn in the side (because that allows us to show the voting public that the Green Party is the only real voice of the Left, the only real voice for the Common Good), Labour have made Brighton Pavilion one of its top targets to win.

But it is only one of their top targets to win. For us, it is the top target to win again.

So all of us - irrespective of the work we will have to and want to do in our own constituencies - will need to support the re-election of Caroline Lucas as MP for Brighton Pavilion.

How can you contribute?

The easiest way to help is to contribute to the campaign financially; and whatever else you might want to do, please consider this, and consider it urgently. The sooner the campaign can raise funds, the sooner they can be allocated and spent. And don’t forget, that nearer the time of the General Election spending is severely limited. So early spending really counts.

You can donate on line here:

https://my.greenparty.org.uk/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=20

But money isn’t everything. We need Green Party volunteers - members and supporters to hit the streets of Brighton Pavilion: to leaflet and to canvass. If you want to be part of that, wouldn’t it be great if we could get a group of north London Greens to head down to Brighton for a day (on a Saturday, maybe) and do our bit. We’ll want to do it more than once, but it would be great to do it as a group.

So here’s my call to you: contact me and let me know if you want to be part of the campaign; and once I have at least 5 responses, I’ll see what I can negotiate with Caroline’s campaign agent about possible dates and arrangements.

You can contact me on this e-mail: mweitsch@icloud.com (note that this is different from my usual e-mail; it will help me to identify campaign e-mails quickly!).

Any questions: let me know.

And let’s get on with this quickly!

Written by Martina Weitsch of Haringey Green Party

[1] Screenshot image from Hansard for 7 July 2014

[2] Screenshot image from http://www.carolinelucas.com/why.html

Why markets can’t fix the climate crisis

Video from Australia: Socialist Alliance member Gemma Weedall speaking of the need for ecosocialism at the Marxism 2014 conference.

Labour’s Minimum Wage Proposals are Typically Timid

The announcement by Ed Miliband, the Labour party leader, of his party’s manifesto commitment for the 2015 general election to raise the minimum wage to £8 per hour by 2020 lacks ambition and is all too familiar of Labour these days.

The right wing press has been quick to condemn the proposal as a ‘tax on jobs’, but these are the same people who said much the same thing about having a minimum wage at all, and in the end the sky didn’t fall in.

Indeed the proposal is so modest that over on Labour List where the idea was trumpeted to great a fanfare, you only need to read the comments section to see just how underwhelmed Labour’s activists are with this pitiful offer.

Compare it instead to the Green party proposal to immediately raise the minimum wage to £7.65 per hour (and in London £8.80), and then to £10 per hour by 2020. I wouldn’t even claim that this all that radical, even Boris Johnson agrees with the immediate £8.80 per hour for London.

What this does is to remind anyone with even a vaguely progressive outlook that Labour is scared of its own shadow (rather like their refusal to renationalise the railways, another popular policy amongst the voters), and despite hopes in some quarters that Labour was moving to the left with Ed Miliband as leader.

If you want left wing policies, and most opinion polls show there is a lot of support for them, then your best bet is to vote Green. Even if we don’t win many seats, a large Green vote will pull Labour to the left.

One of the main lessons of the Scottish referendum is that there is an appetite for breaking with the neo liberal orthodoxy that has blighted us for more than thirty years now.  

Photos from today's People's Climate March - London

I would say maybe 20,000 people were on the People's Climate today. A very diverse bunch the marchers were too. There were many home made placards in evidence, and in some ways reminded me of the big anti-war march of 2003.

There have been marches all over the world today in advance of the climate talks in New York on Tuesday next week.

Time is running out, we need real action now.

After the Scottish Independence Referendum – Where do we go from here?

Well, the Scots rejected independence on Thursday 55% to 45%, which is a larger margin than I imagined. With barely time to pause for breath and take in the result, the race for party political advantage has already begun, under cover of devising a new settlement for Scotland.

Some Scots seem to be expecting a stitch up by Westminster, with nothing substantive being offered, indeed calls from the Prime Minister and the Conservative party are for any new powers for Scotland to matched by ones for England (and Wales and Northern Ireland too, although they get less of a mention, a kind of afterthought).

This was of course predictable, as the Tories have long complained about Scottish MPs voting on English matters, whilst English MPs have no say in Scotland on devolved matters. This is the so called ‘West Lothian question’. The Tories can see that they could make life impossible for a future UK Labour government, having legislation blocked in England by English Tory MPs. Personally, I think this is the least important part of our governance, and a purely cynical move by the Tories.  

I think Scotland will get its extra powers although how significant they will be is open to debate. But it is not clear what the rest of the UK will get out of this situation, with only vague and often conflicting ideas coming from the Westminster parties.

Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, has called for a People’s Convention to be formed to look into the issues surrounding how we are governed, and Ed Miliband has now supported this call. The Lib Dems are calling for a more ‘federal’ system of government and the Tory response above is driven by having at least one eye on UKIP, who will surely make the most of the moment by cranking up English nationalism.

Mark Ferguson writing on Labour List suggests regional assemblies, but crucially to replace MPs at Westminster and to have real powers, rather than the extra politicians with little power model, floated by the last Labour government.  He may be onto something.

I have called on these pages for more financial powers for England’s cities, and that plan has been gathering momentum from even before Scotland took centre stage recently.

What I think is clear, is we must not allow the momentum created by the Scottish vote to be lost or dissipated by it being kicked into the long grass. We should examine, root and branch, how we want to be governed, including matters like an elected House of Lords, voting systems for all levels of government, the lobbying and the influence of big business on government.

For above all, this has to be about democracy. The yes camp in Scotland broke out of its usual nationalist parameters and enthused the largely politically disengaged people of the poorer areas. One of my favourite lines from Tony Benn is that ‘Hitler said democracy inevitably leads to Marxism’.

I’ll leave you with that thought.  

An open letter from Caroline Lucas MP to the three party leaders

Dear Party Leaders,

Whatever the outcome of today’s referendum about the future governance of Scotland, there seems to be a strong consensus that nothing will ever quite be the same again. People in Scotland have been granted their right to be heard and have used the opportunity to imagine all kinds of positive futures.

Alongside the official Yes and No campaigns, we have seen the growth of genuine grassroots movements, giving everyone a voice. Across the nation, people previously disengaged from formal politics have been passionately debating what matters to them – all because they have a decision to make in which their individual vote really will influence the outcome.

For many of these people, voting had previously become merely an exercise in democracy rather than true democracy – casting a vote made little tangible difference to the outcome of elections, let alone their day to day lives.  The referendum has newly enfranchised them because every vote counts.  It’s also invited a whole new generation of young people to shape their own futures.

We have a unique opportunity, at this point in our history, to learn from what has happened during the referendum campaign. To recognise that behind the ever declining turn out in General Elections, especially amongst young people, the disillusionment and distrust, there is another story. One in which people are not disengaged from politics, simply from a political system that is not good at listening, that conspires to keep people relatively powerless and is designed to protect the interests of a small, self-interested and wealthy elite.

You did a brave and bold thing, ceding some of your power via a referendum.

You have also made promises, in the event of a No vote, to devolve more powers to Scotland – a welcome move that that has wider implications. The next steps must not be decided without full and proper consultation with everyone affected.

So I hope you will be braver still and demonstrate a genuine commitment to democracy by supporting calls for a People’s Constitutional Convention. A Convention to explore, discuss, debate and inspire. To tackle the democratic crisis that has left far too many people feeling unrepresented, neglected and alienated by Westminster.

A continuation of the conversation that has begun in Scotland – and England and Wales and Northern Ireland – about a fairer voting system, an elected House of Lords, job sharing for MPs, lowering the voting age, giving local communities and local authorities more power, including via local referenda and citizens initiatives, more regional government and total recall for elected politicians.

It’s an idea that’s already being championed the Electoral Reform Society, Open Democracy, Compass, Involve, Democratic Audit and the chairman of House of Commons’ Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, amongst others.

Above all, it would demonstrate a genuine commitment to real democracy and embody the principle that power flows upwards from the people, not down from a centralised state. Scotland has shown that this is the way to build engagement in the decisions that affect all of our lives – by respecting, trusting and listening. This is also the way to give people hope again.

I hope you will join me in supporting a People’s Constitutional Convention as the way forward.

Yours sincerely,
Caroline Lucas MP
Brighton Pavilion

First published at Left Foot Forward

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