https://leftfootforward.org/2019/11/heres-what-the-ifs-thinks-of-the-tory-and-labour-manifestos/ Left Foot Forward is the home for UK progressives. We provide evidence-based analysis on British politics, news and policy. Mon, 02 Dec 2019 16:57:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.5 https://leftfootforward.org/2019/11/heres-what-the-ifs-thinks-of-the-tory-and-labour-manifestos/#comment-998076 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 16:57:43 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=140083#comment-998076 The great privatisation project of Margaret Thatcher and then Tony Blair, have failed public services which were introduced by Labour to ensure that no-one should be so poor that they could not afford to feed, house or educate their family even if they were unable to work due to disability, illness or old age.
Public services should be owned for all the public, not to make a few rich people even richer by exploiting those who work for them.
In Victorian times, those who were destitute were housed in Workhouses and provided with a basic diet. Some philanthropic bosses such as Cadbury in Birmingham and Rowntree in Liverpool provided decent housing close to the factories to house their workers. Well treated workers work better ie: productivity improves. The Cooperative model where workers own a stake in the business and can take part in decisions, increases productivity even further.
Parliament is supposed to represent constituents, but the FPTP we have does not lend itself to collaboration or cooperation to find the best options for the most people, but encourages antagonism between the viewpoints of the two main parties.
Returning public services to public ownership should encourage more participation by the public in the way these services are run and I should like to see the salaries/wages of those earning the most be not more than 10-20% max: bigger than those of those earning the least. That should help to reduce costs to the public purse too, but it would need to be enshrined in law with significant sanctions for bosses who exceed the limit.

]]> https://leftfootforward.org/2019/11/heres-what-the-ifs-thinks-of-the-tory-and-labour-manifestos/#comment-998041 Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:23:35 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=140083#comment-998041 The last sentence A berry is not about Corbyn or the state deciding. It is about giving people enough opportunity to make those choices. The levels of poverty resulting from the policies of the last ten years, have risen and those with poor housing, education or health will not have the same opportunities.Social mobility is slightly below that of the US, while Scandinavia, Germany, Netherlands and even France do much better. The US and UK are the most neo-liberal economies from that group.
The Socialism of Russia meant that almost all industry was state owned and run. Labour is not implementing that. It is going to take the utilities and railways into public ownership which is much the same as we find in the other European countries I mentioned.

]]> https://leftfootforward.org/2019/11/heres-what-the-ifs-thinks-of-the-tory-and-labour-manifestos/#comment-997491 Fri, 29 Nov 2019 18:50:43 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=140083#comment-997491 That last sentence. Needs unpacking as who knows how others choose to lead a fulfilling life. I doubt that Corbyn should make that decision for anybody or how to reconstruct society ? The left has set its face against equality in the democratic process of representative government; it seeks to continue the route to largest minority rule and disenfranchising the majority of voters
Maybe if all votes were counted and all votes counted citizens might have more trust .
But agree that welfare spending must rise to support equality of opportunity in housing health education employment etc
Unhappily the socialist experiment here in Russia east Europe etc does not give much hope
How about some more critical engagement from us all? The left is peddling old approaches to new problems

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