In 1945, after the second of two world wars, Britain was effectively bankrupt, financially exhausted, as its people were physically exhausted. But those people were given hope that the future would be different, by a transformative programme of Government put forward by the Labour Party. “Let Us Face The Future” was the manifesto’s title. The commitment it made bears repetition, even after 74 years have passed.
“Victory in War must be followed by a Prosperous Peace … The gallant men and women in the Fighting Services, in the Merchant Navy, Home Guard and Civil Defence, in the factories and in the bombed areas - they deserve and must be assured a happier future than faced so many of them after the last war. Labour regards their welfare as a sacred trust” A sacred trust. It was a mammoth task for a war-weary nation.
But much of that task was completed in one term of Government. Sadly, since 1979, attacks on what in the 1950s became “The Postwar Consensus” have eroded some of that trust. The result is increased poverty, homelessness, poor housing, poor local public transport, exploitation of workers, poor state pensions, the NHS under annual winter strain, and all the while, more money for the 1% at the top of the pile.
Today, Labour brought something to the General Election campaign that recalled the message of 1945, and that something was hope. Hope that students of whatever age would not be saddled with tens of thousands of Pounds of debt for years after graduating. Hope that the punitive benefit sanctions régime would no longer target the sick and disabled. Hope that a living wage really would be enough to live on.
Hope that those out-of-towners without cars would not be effectively trapped in their homes at weekends and in the evening because of public transport cuts. Hope that the NHS would be able to cope without leaving emergency admissions on trolleys in corridors. Hope that someone would, at last, take the Climate Emergency seriously. Hope that the scourge of Universal Credit would at last be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Hope that the victims of press abuse would finally see the long-overdue completion of the Leveson Inquiry, so shamelessly ducked by the Tories in exchange for favourable coverage. Hope that bad housing, and bad landlords, would finally become a thing of the past. Hope that the Police and Fire services will be able to cope, giving security and peace of mind to everyone. Hope of an end to homelessness.
Hope that education will be resourced properly, that teachers will be supported in their work, that pupils will not have to ask parents or guardians to help pay for what should be classroom essentials. Hope of real action to challenge racism in all its forms. Hope for 1950s women that pension injustice will be acknowledged - and tackled. Hope that the divisions caused by the 2016 EU referendum can finally be healed.
After the new economic exhaustion - nine years of unremitting and needless austerity - someone has dared to hope. Those at the top of the pile will fight like fury to stop Labour coming to power. That alone tells you whose interest is served by the decade of decay that has ravaged so many towns and cities across the country.
Labour has promised us hope. Let Us Face The Future Once More.
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8 comments:
Labour emailed me the manifesto at 11:50. I've been reading it, alongside the accompanying grey book detailing the costings, for over 40 minutes and am only half way through - it's so detailed and analytical, and FULL of hope! It really is a thing of beauty.
The best part is the funding document that thoroughly details how the transformative programme will be paid for. McDonnell is a clever b*stard!
I don't understand how there are so many people commenting as experts about it, when there's literally no way they've read it yet.
Let's see what the T*ry manifesto compares, and how they explain how they'll pay for the promises that they won't enact.
A slight dfference between '45 and 2019...
In '45 there was a ever-growing demobbed, fully-trained and battle-hardened population that'd have been VERY pissed off had the politicians reneged on their promises (As churchill would've done).
These days there's too many people that shrug their shoulders and say 'meh' then go back to watching the fucking x-factor or other dumbed-down shite their being fed.
Sure, they get angry at the polar bear losing an ice floe to walk on, but there's fuck-all compassion for the poor sod found fit for work and ordered to pay bedroom tax.
597 homeless people died last year (Hence the 597 in my userhandle). That's the equivalent of 6 Hillsborough disasters. Very few people know, nevermind care about that damning statistic (And that's ALL it is to them - a statistic).
And in the debates the other da, Corbyn was heckled on both occasons he mentioned the poor.
This country fucking disgusts me at times.
There is a glimmer of hope after forty years of thievery, wars, lies, hypocrisy, corruption and far right monopolised cowardly media propaganda.
During that time the culpable parties were the tories, New Labour and the LibDems. All of them betrayed our people and instituted a rotten-to-the-core system designed to undermine decency and fairness in favour of a tiny section of the population. They had a clear unobstructed run. The result is a divided nation on the verge of fragmentation with a quarter of its citizens living in rank poverty and despair. There can be only one long term terrible outcome if the looming election results in an intensification of this insensate neofascist brutality.
There have been recent signs the tide may be turning. If this manifests as a flood you can be sure the culpables will go to any, and I mean ANY, lengths to cling to their robbed goods. You need only look at the fraudulent US elections of 2000 and 2004 that put yet another cowboy Texan in the White House, particularly through frauds in Florida and Ohio.
This is why Labour activists would be advised to follow ballot boxes closely from polling stations to the count. Never let them out of sight. The same kind of vigilance will be required for online voting. There can't be many naive souls left who believe there couldn't be an attempt to steal the election by the very thieves who have looted the economy and destroyed millions of lives.
There can be no more excuses. If the Johnson-Benn-Swinson axis is returned we KNOW what will follow. Four decades of evidence shows why.
But Brexit tho...
No Labour government in my long memory would have been so non-condemnatory of an idea that was moved by, supported by and which enabled racists and then smokescreened that indifference using the NHS. I never understood why Labour didn't turn on Brexit en masse after Jo Cox's murder. I just don't get it.
Whether Labour wins or not......it's worth relishing these moments for the priceless hapless look on the face of media tory propaganda clerks like Kuenssberg.
It's beginning to dawn on them that all their corrupt lies over the years might not work after all. Which means there's no limit to the mendacious hysterical garbage they will pump out.
If Labour DO win this is one citizen who will take huge pleasure in telling said clerks: "Fuck you and the horse you rode in and out on."
Meanwhile, just imagine the mounting panic and venom in Vauxhall Cross, Thames House, Langley, Foggy Bottom and Oil HQ. Oh to be a fly on the wall. Rust and fascism never sleep......
"...the second of two world wars..." ended 15th. August 1946.
#justsayin
@20:10Anon
Did Kuenssberg run over your puppy? You manage to bring up your disgust of her in so many barely related posts that it almost seems you'd be happy with Labour losing just as long as LK (and Blair) ended up in jail.
The Toffee
Goodness, you must be fun at parties...
Or the one everyone avoids because they rant about television and being 'fucking disgusted' at... something or other. That's what I meant.
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