United we stand! This is no time for a split in the Labour movement.
It is time to be united in our attack on the most extreme right wing government in living memory. Tory spin continues to control the media who are set about attacking the Labour movement. The fact is that the electorate’s political view is more to the left than most MPs. Speak up for the NHS, for workers’ rights and pensions. Attack the press, nationalise the Banks. Build policies for nationalisation of Transport, Utilities and Energy. Support tax justice. Build affordable homes and put people back to work. That is how a people’s government, a Labour government will be elected. To leave political power with the Conservative Party and the Banks which feed them would be irresponsible for any left political party or trade unionist. The electorate has more trust in trade unions than Bankers. People are not fools.
Worker solidarity (Photo credit: Toban B.)
So, speak loudly, and let’s make those policies heard. Donors to the Tory party are directly profiteering from Coalition policies. This is a parliament under siege. Last year the Daily Mirror wrote on beneficiaries from the carve up of the NHS for profiteers. Yet, we were told pre election that “the NHS was safe in their hands”. It seems they couldn’t get their private hands on the NHS owned by the people quickly enough.
The policies are justified in the press by false statistics – a method even criticised by the Telegraph. Gove pursue’s privatisation of education when there is evidence that the best education systems in the world ban private schools. Yet they pursue policies to benefit their friends.
Private donations to the conservative party (Guardian) include hedge fund bosses such as – Michael Farmer, Lord Stanley Fink and Andrew Law – together contributed £636,300. Fink is the party treasurer
Last year Stanley Fink’s “education company”, Ark Schools, underspent 7.5% of the education budget for the 8 schools he controls and they are investing the money in the Cayman Islands instead (money that was meant to be spent on children’s education) and he’s not alone, as Open Democracy reports.
This Guardian report reveals how two donors to Tory party funds set up a company which has made millions from the Work Programme, which has failed to put people back to work.
Sovereign Capital, formed in 2001 by John Nash and Ryan Robson and three others, has for eight years owned the Employment and Skills Group (ESG), a training company with £73m worth of government contracts. Last Monday, ESG was sold to an investment bank for an undisclosed sum.
ESG has been awarded two lucrative contracts from Iain Duncan Smith‘s Department for Work and Pensions. It won a £69m contract in May 2011 for the work programme, the government’s scheme for unemployed people, in Warwickshire and Staffordshire, which runs until 2016.
The company was also chosen to run a £4m mandatory work programme contract across the West Midlands – paid to find work-for-benefit placements for at least 5,000 unemployed people over four years. The firm will receive an £800 bonus for every unemployed claimant it places in mandatory work.
Nash and his wife, Caroline, have donated £182,500 to the Tories since 2006 and are said to have financed David Davis‘s 2005 leadership bid. Nash was appointed to the Department for Education board in 2010 by the secretary of state, Michael Gove.
Government spin can’t hide the fact the the Work Programme is still not working
Alex Little has analysed the statistics on the Work Programme here, demonstrating the total failure of these policies, which were set up by the Coalition for the benefit of Tory donors
… the best that can be said is that for JSA claimants at least, the Work Programme is marginally better than nothing, but for ESA new customers, it’s still worse than nothing. Just under half of providers (18 out of 40) are meeting their targets for JSA clients (only just). None met their targets for ESA clients.
You’ll hear a lot of spin about how the Working Programme is ‘transforming lives’, but against the DWP’s own benchmark, it is still failing to meet even the minimum levels expected. So DWP are lauding the success of the Work Programme, but all providers are in breach of their contracts. Time to rethink the whole thing?
From alittleecon
This is a time to stand together against Austerity.
We will not let the Tory Press rip us apart.
References and further reading:
- Britain under Siege, Think Left
- Daily Mirror: Tories rake in donations from fat cats hoping to cash in on NHS privatisation
- Firm established by two Tory Donors made millions from work schemes
- Alex Little: (alittleecon) Government spin can’t hide the fact the the Work Programme is still not working
- Guardian: City’s Influence over Conservatives laid bare by research into Donations
- Gove’s Selective Truth, Think Left
- Open Democracy: Mammon in the classroom: the men who’ve got their teeth into England’s £35 billion schools pie
- Robbing the People: the Ultimate Theft -Think Left
- New Statesman: Duncan Smith rebuked by ONS for misuse of benefit statistics
- Tory Ideology is all about Handouts to the Wealthy paid for by the Poor
Think Left 
It could be a good thing if many stalwarts leave the Labour party and form a new, esentially anti-neoliberal one. I imagine you’d get a lot of disaffected Tories coming over to join it. A country which has been stripped of all its major assets isn’t going to be making money for anybody except the tiny group of profiteers whose political puppets are currently dominating politics. I’m sure lots of small-c conservatives understand this pefectly well and are just as disturbed by it as I am myself. In the short term then a Labour split could be a problem but in the longer term it could be highly beneficial for the country. Let’s face it, there’s no opposition at the moment and Labour shouldn’t be pretending to be what it’s not to try and present themselves as such. If the party’s had its day, so be it.
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But there is no indication that Labour have any intention of following the policies you outline in the first paragraph. Rather Ed Milliband seems to be promising more of the same Tory ideology painted a lighter shade of blue.
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The Labour Party in this country has no interest at all in its history, the population of disabled, unemployed, poor or poorly paid people. The Labour Party stands toe-2-toe with the elites and the right-wing mercenaries in banking and finance.
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Reblogged this on kickingthecat.
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Fiona makes a good point here http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2013/07/06/does-labour-really-want-to-become-just-another-flavour-of-neoliberalism/ about who pays for Labour. If the unions stop backing Labour, as they should, it’s going to be a bit obvious whose interests Labour serves when the City jumps in to fill the gap.
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Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & POLITICAL JOURNAL.
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Reblogged this on this 'n that.
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Pingback: United we stand! This is no time for a split in the Labour movement. | this 'n that
“United we stand! This is no time for a split in the Labour movement.”
Same old call that hasn’t worked for years. Abusing the ‘support the team’ line to destruction.
UKIP ‘split’ from the Tory party and the Tory Party are having to listen – or lose any chance of government.
It’s time that something was created that is a genuine alternative to the current Labour Party and sits where Labour should be. Just creating that gravity of support will attract the existing Labour Party back to where it ought to be – or it will snap across to where the conservatives/Liberals are and merge with that.
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Agreed, giving us the choice between the overtly neoliberal and anti-neoliberal factions I’ve been predicting.
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Left Unity are now active.
The umbrella group ‘The People’s Assembly’ are also raising their profile, but does not appear to be wanting to be a party as such.
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As already posted. UKIP are giving the ConDems even more of an excuse to be fascistic.
The American TeaParty took over the Republican agenda.
Time for those who are against the corporatocracy, to have another political party, to give the Labour ideals that Bevan and Attlee would recognise, room to grow.
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The Labour Party has lost it’s way – we hear comments such as Ed is playing the long game – well I don’t recognise the game he is playing – I suppose the writing was on the wall when he didn’t support the Student demos over the Fees issue.
The Labour party should be championing and bringing in policies which support those who are in need of help and the working people of this county.
We seem to have forgotten what the Labour Party is all about – the clue is in the name!!!
If Labour get back into government – the tory policies which stigmatise and screw money out of the poor should be reversed. Utilities and public transport should be nationalised. Anyone earning more than £100,000 should be taxed to the hilt.
We should abandon choice in relation to education and health – kids should go to their local schools and all schools should receive the funding they need to do the job (educating the children within the catchment area) Lets face it the only people who have choice are those who can afford to send their kids to any school they wish.
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It should be remembered that money is a utility just like gas and electric. At the moment it’s created by the private banks and they get all the profits from doing that. If money creation were nationalised we the community would ourselves be enriched by that profit and so it may well not be necessary to tax high-earners to the hilt. So few people understand this and the government, so solidly controlled by banking interests, isn’t keen to educate the public.
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
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