The New Tyranny of Labour
It’s certainly been a long week for the Labour government at conference in Manchester. What with all the rehearsal of speeches, transmission of coded compromises, in-fighting and back-stabbing, it’ll be a wonder if they're not all too tired to return for the re-opening of Parliament in a few weeks time. To be fair to them, after all the business dinners, lunches and coffee breaks, many of those jockeying for cabinet positions or leadership will probably have clocked up a good eighty hour working week in Manchester.
As usual Tony & Gordon have been the worst of enemies, the best of comrades, and the greatest of compromisers. Whilst they may be at loggerheads over some key political points of principal, such as the occupation of Iraq and Number 10, on many issues they are still Napoleon and Snowy epitomised. Perhaps their epitaph will read, ‘Conservatism good, New Labour better’. In his quest for leadership Tony Blair, or TB for short, is famous for having declared that there was “No use in having principles without power”. Twelve years on it seems that were indeed few principles that our Tony, who art still in Number 10, was not prepared to sacrifice for the sake of political expediency. True, he hasn’t added much New Labour legislation to fetter the unions, but then equally he has obstinately refused to repeal any of the anti-union laws introduced by the last Conservative government. In fact TB is no closer to being the savour of the working classes then any dedicated Victorian factory owner.
His defining shift away from the founding principles of the Labour movement, namely equality, state provision of good health and education, substantial pensions, a living wage, healthy working conditions, and a limit to the number of working hours is all safely dispensed with under the all-encompassing disclaimer ‘New’. Of course Tony has rallied the faithful for one last hurrah in Manchester with a recap of New Labour’s crowning glories. These include more lady and black MPs, a Labour London Mayor, free museum entry, the reclaiming of tax credits, more police (to deal with more crime), the replacement of mass unemployment with mass unpaid work experience, and of course his crowning achievement, three consecutive New Labour election victories - a feat that Old Labour with its baggage of socialist policies could never have dreamed of.
At this juncture Blair’s Britain, after ten years of power with scarcely a Tory to blame, is worthy of a moment’s reflection. Pensions are in terminal decline, the health service is suffering from rampant privatisation, as indeed are most public services, with highly paid health service managers being employed as lowly paid nurses are laid off, and, as for the two cornerstones of worker’s rights, namely living wages and sustainable hours, well they were never a feature of a competitive labour market now were they? UK manufacturing, or what little the British still own of it, has declined to represent only 14% of the Gross Domestic Product, little more than that contributed by the financial and professional service sectors combined. This statistic merely explains the UK’s £4 billion monthly trade deficit and, as for the remainder of the UK’s economy, it must be pretty much as invisible as Tony’s conscience.
Like all good corrupt bureaucrats, Tony and Gordon are making full use of all the essential political tools; smoke screens, paper shredders, ministerial shuffling, inquiries, manipulated statistics and, of course, the all-important carpet. One of the major issues which TB and GB have conveniently swept under the carpet at No.10 is the EU working time directive. This gem of socialist principle, considered a humane concession by the European legislature, states that the 14 member states of the EU should have a statutory maximum working week of 48 hours. To the shock and bemusement of other member EU States, Tony has cringed, manoeuvred and painstakingly negotiated his way towards an opt-out from this heinous piece of socialist legislation, in full keeping with the founding principles of New Labour. After all, how can the UK offer itself to the rest of the world as a cheap hinterland of skilled labour with such ridiculous policies as the maximum 48 hour working week, workers’ rights, or generous pensions? Why, without massive fiscal incentives, foreign investors would simply stay put where the air is cleaner and the quality of life is so much fairer. Forty-eight hours good, sixty hours better…
Good old Tony, soon he’ll deal with all those other thorny issues left over from the ‘crude individualism of the 80s’ he so deplored. Students will no longer be free to skip boring lectures or take a year out abroad (as they are encumbered by debt); the playing of music or smoking in public places will become an automatic ASBO; and soon even exercising your right to freedom of speech will mean that you ‘won’t work’. Once it was said that there were three classes in British Society, those with no money, those with some money, and those who could afford an accountant. Times have certainly changed with Tony. Now the British classes might be defined as those with no money, those with some money, and those who can afford a good lawyer. As a former barrister himself, Tony knows that Legal Aid is an unhealthy burden to the taxpayer and has allowed it to be run down to the level of a token public fund. After all we wouldn’t want any left-wingers to feel free to leave work before 8 o’clock now would we?
As usual Tony & Gordon have been the worst of enemies, the best of comrades, and the greatest of compromisers. Whilst they may be at loggerheads over some key political points of principal, such as the occupation of Iraq and Number 10, on many issues they are still Napoleon and Snowy epitomised. Perhaps their epitaph will read, ‘Conservatism good, New Labour better’. In his quest for leadership Tony Blair, or TB for short, is famous for having declared that there was “No use in having principles without power”. Twelve years on it seems that were indeed few principles that our Tony, who art still in Number 10, was not prepared to sacrifice for the sake of political expediency. True, he hasn’t added much New Labour legislation to fetter the unions, but then equally he has obstinately refused to repeal any of the anti-union laws introduced by the last Conservative government. In fact TB is no closer to being the savour of the working classes then any dedicated Victorian factory owner.
His defining shift away from the founding principles of the Labour movement, namely equality, state provision of good health and education, substantial pensions, a living wage, healthy working conditions, and a limit to the number of working hours is all safely dispensed with under the all-encompassing disclaimer ‘New’. Of course Tony has rallied the faithful for one last hurrah in Manchester with a recap of New Labour’s crowning glories. These include more lady and black MPs, a Labour London Mayor, free museum entry, the reclaiming of tax credits, more police (to deal with more crime), the replacement of mass unemployment with mass unpaid work experience, and of course his crowning achievement, three consecutive New Labour election victories - a feat that Old Labour with its baggage of socialist policies could never have dreamed of.
At this juncture Blair’s Britain, after ten years of power with scarcely a Tory to blame, is worthy of a moment’s reflection. Pensions are in terminal decline, the health service is suffering from rampant privatisation, as indeed are most public services, with highly paid health service managers being employed as lowly paid nurses are laid off, and, as for the two cornerstones of worker’s rights, namely living wages and sustainable hours, well they were never a feature of a competitive labour market now were they? UK manufacturing, or what little the British still own of it, has declined to represent only 14% of the Gross Domestic Product, little more than that contributed by the financial and professional service sectors combined. This statistic merely explains the UK’s £4 billion monthly trade deficit and, as for the remainder of the UK’s economy, it must be pretty much as invisible as Tony’s conscience.
Like all good corrupt bureaucrats, Tony and Gordon are making full use of all the essential political tools; smoke screens, paper shredders, ministerial shuffling, inquiries, manipulated statistics and, of course, the all-important carpet. One of the major issues which TB and GB have conveniently swept under the carpet at No.10 is the EU working time directive. This gem of socialist principle, considered a humane concession by the European legislature, states that the 14 member states of the EU should have a statutory maximum working week of 48 hours. To the shock and bemusement of other member EU States, Tony has cringed, manoeuvred and painstakingly negotiated his way towards an opt-out from this heinous piece of socialist legislation, in full keeping with the founding principles of New Labour. After all, how can the UK offer itself to the rest of the world as a cheap hinterland of skilled labour with such ridiculous policies as the maximum 48 hour working week, workers’ rights, or generous pensions? Why, without massive fiscal incentives, foreign investors would simply stay put where the air is cleaner and the quality of life is so much fairer. Forty-eight hours good, sixty hours better…
Good old Tony, soon he’ll deal with all those other thorny issues left over from the ‘crude individualism of the 80s’ he so deplored. Students will no longer be free to skip boring lectures or take a year out abroad (as they are encumbered by debt); the playing of music or smoking in public places will become an automatic ASBO; and soon even exercising your right to freedom of speech will mean that you ‘won’t work’. Once it was said that there were three classes in British Society, those with no money, those with some money, and those who could afford an accountant. Times have certainly changed with Tony. Now the British classes might be defined as those with no money, those with some money, and those who can afford a good lawyer. As a former barrister himself, Tony knows that Legal Aid is an unhealthy burden to the taxpayer and has allowed it to be run down to the level of a token public fund. After all we wouldn’t want any left-wingers to feel free to leave work before 8 o’clock now would we?
posted by The Angry Man at 3:50 AM
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