Dear Sir Keir,
I was thrilled and relieved to observe the Labour Party victory in the recent general election in July. I offer my congratulations to you personally and to your colleagues for your role in that success. The recent 14 years of Tory government have been utterly disastrous for the people of the United Kingdom.
I personally voted for the Liberal Democrat candidate in my own constituency, because I preferred that party’s policies on Europe and the environment, but I am fully supportive of your government and its many good intentions and plans.
Your new government has already done some good things, and I am pleased about those, but I am very concerned about its lack of ambition and intent in a number of important areas. Our national life has deteriorated in so many ways in recent years. Your government now has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reform so much that is wrong in the UK. I believe you should be seizing this opportunity in a much bolder and more ambitious way than you currently are.
The Economy
Rachel Reeves and yourself are beginning to sound like George Osborne in 2010, a small-state Conservative Thatcherite and believer in the household budget model of national economic management. Osborne was the architect of Tory austerity, which has been estimated by Glasgow University to have been responsible for 330,000 premature deaths. Reeves has said, ‘If we can’t afford it we can’t have it’, and you have warned that things will get worse before they get better, which is roughly what Osborne said.
There are much better economic models to follow, such as Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, based on advice from John Maynard Keynes, which used social welfare programs and infrastructure investment to lift the USA out of the Depression; Clement Atlee’s establishment of the NHS and Welfare legislation – achieved despite having a post-war national debt mountain; and Joe Biden’s legislation and policies in his first two years in office, which have funnelled support to lower and middle income citizens, encouraged investment and the green transition, and improved economic prospects well beyond expectations. The US economy is now described by economists as in excellent shape, with annual GDP growth of 3.1% in the most recent quarter.
We don’t want five more years of Tory austerity. National infrastructure has deteriorated badly in recent years through capital budgets being robbed to contribute to current spending shortfalls across the public sphere. Also, please see Will Hutton on sources of public funds and the need to shake up investment in the UK’s Tech sector, and Richard Murphy on wealth taxes
Social and Tax Justice
Only four of the major countries (USA, China, India, Israel) have higher income inequality than the UK. According to the Equality Trust, the richest 50 families in the UK hold more wealth than half of the population (33 million people). Regional inequality in the UK is immense and deeply unfair, with average incomes in London and the South-East approximately double the rest of the country, and the North-East at the other extreme.
A socialist government should be very unhappy with that situation, as I believe you probably are, but your government appears to have few plans to change that in a meaningful way. There are many options within the tax, welfare, and subsidy system to do so.
Poverty
According to the House of Commons library, a quarter of children in the UK are now in absolute poverty after housing costs. 11% of the population have food insecurity and home heating insecurity. Over 3% of the population have used a foodbank recently.
I’m sure this concerns you, and you criticised the Conservative Government about it, but your only practical response seems to be that we should wait for economic growth, which may or may not arrive, so that we can afford to do something about it. That, to my mind, is not good enough.
The Environment
The driving principle here should be that the polluters pay, and this should be central to all departmental policies. This is morally right and economically literate, and will encourage the green transition. But I haven’t heard you say that, or seen you act on that. Any extra money thereby raised can be used for the many schemes needed for averting and protecting against the climate emergency and improving the natural environment including air and water quality. There is plenty of scope.
Our climate emergency, our depleted nature, our suffering populations in years to come, require you to be extremely attentive to and ambitious about this.
Governance
The previous government used every opportunity to give themselves electoral advantages and to consolidate and exploit their grip on government and its agencies. They were able to do this because of the huge democratic deficit in the UK’s parliamentary and electoral procedures and institutions, which are archaic, biased against good governance, lacking transparency and are wholly inequitable.
This deficit includes the so-called fourth estate and social media, where partisan moneyed interests distort the truth, use the news cycle and their circulation to make propaganda, tell lies, exaggerate problems and cause great harm. The need and scope for fundamental reforms is huge, and your generous majority makes now the ideal time to implement them. I note however that you have not proceeded with the Leveson 2 Inquiry, and your proposed Parliamentary reforms are very modest and far short of what is required.
Immigration
The political right are desperate to keep this front and centre of the news cycle. It is vital that your government makes real progress in getting effective policies in place, such as reducing the economy’s need for large numbers of legal migrants by vigorously supporting training and re-training, and stopping the people smugglers. It should also be opening legal routes for asylum seekers, treating asylum seekers efficiently but with fairness and compassion, and arranging return agreements for failed asylum seekers. I see insufficient ambition and plans from your government at present.
Europe
Brexit, together with their willingness to subvert democracy, enabled the Tories to stay in office well beyond any time that their competence and democratic credentials warranted. That they were able to do this was partly due to a dismal failure by the Labour and Liberal Democrat opposition. Brexit has cost the UK economy 4% of its GDP, harmed our businesses and society, and reduced our influence in the world. It really is absolutely vital and necessary to correct this abominable and stupid injury to the UK nation. I am surprised and deeply disappointed that you have such modest ambition in this direction.
Your government’s efforts under the banner of ‘Making Brexit Work’ are desirable in the very short term but are likely to have only quite limited success in relation to the harm suffered.
The biggest policy you could adopt to improve the UK’s growth prospects would be to rejoin the single market. Short of this in the medium term, there are halfway houses which some nations have negotiated with the EU which would show considerable benefit, and I believe you should progress quickly towards this if you can.
The EU have said that they will only consider an application to rejoin if there is evidence of wide support across the country for it. I believe your government should be working towards this, and you should be very clear in communicating your enthusiasm for this, and the enormous benefits, to the UK population.
Gaza/Lebanon
The Palestinian death toll is estimated to be well over 40,000 people, with most of the two million inhabitants injured, homeless, bereaved or displaced.
The Israeli Defence Forces the Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister have been accused of war crimes and are at risk of appearing before the International Criminal Court. Continuing to supply UK arms to Israel in these circumstances seems morally and legally wrong, yet your government is dragging its feet on this matter. I believe that the international efforts should include diplomatically and economically leaning on both Israel and Iran, who both fall very far short of internationally-agreed standards of behaviour, into agreeing a ceasefire and peace deal. The UK should be supporting and leading on that.
In conclusion, may I urge you to be much bolder and less cautious, and to have much higher ambitions than you currently have. With such a large majority, you are well-placed to institute much-needed major reforms to so many areas of UK life and governance. Your supporters need hope and expectation, fairness and evidence-based policies, and real progress towards righting the wrongs of the recent past and eradicating the shameful inequalities. Stoicism and more austerity, locked in by budget control issues, are a dead end.
Thank you.
Paul
We want to hear your views. Please send any comments to editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
