Keep The Faith

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There should be a manual on 'How Not To Run An Economy', which should be required reading for all right-leaning (in particular, Thatcherite-apologist) neoliberal (in particular, UK Tory governments), to be issued to each, and every MP, on reaching office. After Brexit and pandemic and Trusso-bleedin'-omics - never mind the previous Eton mess-ness that this lot has dumped on us over twelve years of faffing around with internal party feuding; we find ourselves in a bit of a hole regarding recruitment, with more job vacancies than candidates for said posts.

And yet, as reported in today's i, pension firms '...may be forced to talk us out of retiring.' At the same time, the article states that 20% of 16-64 year-olds are 'economically inactive - whatever that is supposed to mean: a person can only truly be defined as 'economically inactive' when they are dead and buried/burned/composted - everyone drawing breath is, in some fashion, economically active: if one is consuming - which, by sheer dint of survival, one must - one is de facto 'economically active': it doesn't matter the source of income, earned or from benefits: economies are defined by the movement of money, whatever its source or destination.

The bottom line here is pay and conditions, the main reason why so many people are forced by circumstance to remain on state benefits: they simply can't afford otherwise. The Labour Party is quite right in its assertion that we need to train and educate more people from within our borders, now that we've burned our bridges with what, after all, was our biggest market and closest ally, the EU, but that needs to be matched with jobs that pay a genuine, living wage: subsistence-level stipends don't cut it, especially in a volatile market situation such as the one that the Truss/Quarteng axis created [in 44 days!].  

That there is now, for the first time in over forty years, a highly proactive union movement emboldened to take a stand for its members in securing better pay and conditions, is a genuine reflection of the growing anger and unease felt by most at the utter lack of concern, direction and governance that the Tories have to offer in government. The Labour Party is likely to be a shoo-in at the next general election, but it has to think long and hard about its priorities and allegiances in order to avoid ceding ground to these buggers ever again. It needs to reform the system itself, starting with the Lords.

Until privileged access to political power is made essentially impossible - and illegal - through legislation; until money can no longer buy favours; and until representation of the people in government is truly representative, without fear or favour; there can be no resting on laurels: this could be the best chance we've had since 1948 to set things right. Please don't blow it. Labour don't need that manual: they just need to follow the precepts that guided their antecedents in the labour movement and act on them.

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