Progressive Politics is dying, and unless Charlie Kennedy and Diane Abbott can pull a very surprised rabbit from a hat, not a single party shows any inclination in making this country a fair and decent place to live.
Our Guest writer is a disaffected Lib Dem voter, who writes under the pseudonym Akheloios
I am a Liberal Democrat, and have given them my vote since my first General Election in 1997. I hold no special love for New or Old Labour, though like many others I was filled with hope at the 1997 election when Tony Blair promised to usher in a new era of progressive, fair and ethical politics after nearly 20 years of soul-crushingly selfish Conservatism.
New Labour’s fall from grace – the war in Iraq, their deeply authoritarian and intolerant policies of recent years – crushed any hope that they’d be taking the lead in progressive change. I’d been very upset with the Labour changes to the benefits system in 2005 – constant retesting of those who had been tested again and again, driving people back to the dole having done everything the Government asked of them.
The Phil Woolas and ilk war on immigration was a disaster for solidarity. The right wing press war on the working class via their wedge strategy was working. Splitting working class ‘British’ and working class immigrants was knee jerk racist – and Labour fell for it hook line and sinker.
New Labour’s reliance on the city to produce taxation was a continuation of the Thatcherite service economy model which crushed manufacturing. Labour didn’t do nearly enough to create good jobs; in some regions families were trapped in poverty because they were on the third generation of unemployment due to the crippling of mining and manufacturing in the 80s.
The Liberal Democrats looked like the real progressive choice for the left. I voted Liberal Democrat for the change they promised. The rise of the tax allowance to £10,000 was a positive start, especially since they’d planned to pay for it with something that at least appeared progressive – the Mansion Tax.
This budget has made a lie of everything they appeared to stand for in the election. VAT of 20% will hit the poorest hardest. I’m more than a little bit of a fan of the Scandinavian system, where higher taxes for better services appears simple and effective. Where Sweden may have a VAT rate of 25%, at least they acknowledge it’s a regressive tax and make an allowance for it with a reduced rate of 12% on food.
I’m disabled and receive Disability Living Allowance, I have severe arthritis and suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I had to jump through hoops, filling out form after form, and now I’m threatened with a medical test. It came as a complete surprise to me. While we’re going to have to wait to see the criteria, the change can only be there to reduce the numbers on DLA, and so I’m in danger of losing a large part of the benefits that allow me to cope with my disability.
Changing Child Allowance was always going to be tricky, removing it for middle and upper incomes might have meant it being completely abandoned for everyone in time – but a freeze? It attacks the lowest incomes and hardly touches the middle and upper income families at all.
A banking levy introduced and more than paid for by a reduction in Corporation Tax? We paid to save the banks from their own mistakes so that the entire system wouldn’t collapse, and now we’re giving them what turns out to be a tax break?
All the tax increases in this budget will affect the poorest first. It isn’t fair and it certainly isn’t progressive. CGT won’t have any real impact and there hasn’t been any increase on the top rate of income tax whatsoever. Those that can afford to pay a little more aren’t – those that can’t afford to pay are going to have to shoulder the entire burden.
This is a regressive budget – deficit reduction to appease the Tory voters and press, paid for in jobs and taxes, an attack on the on the poor and vulnerable. My father was on the picket lines in the 80’s as a Union rep, my family felt the pain of no income and the real fear of being a household without a primary wage earner. Now another era of mass redundancies has come again.
When the Liberal Democrats joined the coalition I didn’t know whether to feel disgusted because they’d joined the Tories, a party whose policies we’d fought against for so long, or whether I should feel happy because they’d mitigate the damage that the Tory party would do. Now I know that my initial feelings of disgust were correct, any mitigation has been small and completely swamped by the flood of policies attacking the poorest and most vulnerable. The gains we made in the coalition, the scrapping of the more extreme authoritarian Labour policies, were sold in exchange for this disastrous budget.
Progressive Politics is dying, and unless Charlie Kennedy and Diane Abbott can pull a very surprised rabbit from a hat, not a single party shows any inclination in making this country a fair and decent place to live.
29 Responses to “Lib Dems have abandoned progressive politics and let me down”
redarsedbaboon
Yes, yes, yes, all very good, but this just means you were wrong then as much as the party leadership is wrong now. We tried to tell you this principled progressive party was nothing of the sort, but all you wanted to do was shout ‘OMG Iraq!’
Henry
Well, we were right to get angry about Iraq. Goodness knows how many activists & members it cost the Labour Party – apart from being plain wrong.
Will Straw
Fascinating account of how a Lib Dem supporter has been let down by the Coalition http://bit.ly/cfksYe
Julien Allen
RT @wdjstraw: Fascinating account of how a Lib Dem supporter has been let down by the Coalition http://bit.ly/cfksYe
Paul Sandars
RT @wdjstraw: Fascinating account of how a Lib Dem supporter has been let down by the Coalition http://bit.ly/cfksYe