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Posts Tagged ‘cuts’

Labour must stop fighting the cuts

19/05/2011, 07:00:45 AM

by Peter Watt

We need to recognise, quickly, that the Labour party is being damaged by the cuts. For the last year the conventional wisdom has been that the cuts would politically damage the Tories and Lib Dems. Massive downturns of popularity would rattle the two parties’ collective nerves. Across the country, activists would be battered by a public baying for their blood.

But it hasn’t happened.

On the contrary, the Tories preformed strongly on May 5. They won seats, with their share of the vote holding up pretty well. Of course, the Lib Dems are different, they were wounded as some of their supporters punished them for breaking pre-election promises. But the uncomfortable truth is that the Labour party is also being badly damaged by the cuts.

How so? Because the Labour party is obsessed with the cuts. It is us, not the Tories, who are being defined by them. We talk about them all the time. We protest against them, predict the horrors that will unfold as their impact is felt and condemn the government for implementing them. We are so completely stuck in the cuts’ headlights, that we are virtually paralysed. And this paralysis is damaging our prospects for the next election.

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Posted in Uncut | 81 Comments »

Sleepwalking to irrelvance, part 1

13/05/2011, 12:00:03 PM

by Lisa Ansell

After a year in which Labour believed it could be all things to all people, last week’s election result brought home the pickle the party is in. Gleeful delight over a Liberal Democrat implosion, and debates about a voting system many didn’t want or care about are fun, but Labour’s results show the British political map is being redrawn. David Cameron faced taunts that with deep seated anger at a Labour government, he couldn’t achieve a convincing lead. Labour’s problems are much much deeper.

With ‘Cleggmania’ long forgotten, the assumption that everyone fed up with the Labour party would duly return home out of anger with Tory-Lib Dem government were misguided. This should have been no surprise. Support in Scotland collapsed, and with it the support that would have facilitated the move to the left that many within the party yearn for. Those precious southern swing voters successfully poached by Blair have left Labour, travelled through the Lib Dems, and, dependent on which side of the fence they were on to begin with, have settled back home as Conservatives, or are cast adrift. Any gains to be made from anger at the government have already been made. Conservative support has consolidated, the Liberal Democrats have rendered themselves unnecessary. Cameron has a clear message, solid support, funds to fight an election.

Labour’s most secure support came from the north of England, where the perception of Labour as opposition to the cuts was the driver for campaigns. Towns like Barnsley and Oldham, where hordes of Islingtonites had failed to suppress dismay at the lack of facilities, while they informed residents that Labour was the only option for them. Towns where the inequality that Labour was comfortable with is demonstrated clearly, where Labour’s cuts are already hitting hard.

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Posted in Uncut | 32 Comments »

The week Uncut

12/03/2011, 09:30:28 AM

In case you missed them, these were the best read pieces on Uncut in the last seven days:

Dan Hodges asks who will be the next Labour leader.

Atul Hatwal crunches the numbers to reveal the government’s total loss of grip

Tom Watson thinks Cameron would be lucky to get out of the pub alive

Kevin Meagher says Dave’s got nowt to say and Nick’s just scared

Peter Watt wants us to leave the cuts protests and join the fuel protests

Matt Cavanagh on Cameron’s shambolic foreign policy mistakes

Victoria Williams asks what this government are doing for women

John Woodcock says the Tories are failing to back British business

…and Uncut aired episode two of ‘Half a minute Harris’

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Let’s leave the anti-cuts rallies and join the fuel protests

10/03/2011, 07:00:04 AM

by Peter Watt

Cuts, cuts cuts. Across the country, local parties are campaigning to defend libraries, schools and jobs at hospitals. Every cut announced nationally and locally is condemned and the heartlessness of the government blamed. In fact, to listen to Labour at the moment you would think that the only thing that people are talking about is cuts to public services. But I’m not sure that that is right. In fact, I think it may be a very dangerous assumption to make.

Sure, if you ask people do they agree with closing or their local library, children’s centre or whatever they will say “no”. But that doesn’t mean that they oppose “the cuts” in general. As Atul Hatwal powerfully pointed out on Uncut last week:

“The net result of six months of battle on the economy has been literally nothing. No change whatsoever in the 23% majority who view the government’s approach to cutting the deficit as necessary”. (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 8 Comments »

Axing libraries is cultural vandalism and a false economy

03/03/2011, 07:00:41 AM

by Sally Bercow

Being partial to an Indian, I’m rather fond of The Cinnamon Club in Westminster, although its astronomical prices (multiply your typical curry house bill by four) mean it’s necessarily a rare treat. Admittedly, I’m biased – I was mid tandoori pigeon when my partner (now husband) popped the question in the Cinnamon Club nine years ago. Nevertheless, as a quick Google search will testify, the restaurant has attracted rave reviews for its gourmet Indian cuisine, its service and, not least, its magnificent venue.

The Cinnamon Club has Westminster city council to thank for its success, even if only in small part and inadvertently at that. In 1998, the Tories shut down and sold off Westminster library in Great Smith Street, one of London’s oldest public libraries. The grade II listed building was then beautifully renovated and The Cinnamon Club arose, phoenix like, in its magnificent, imposing space. In the meantime, Westminster council relocated the library (now known as St James’s) just up the road and it has proved hugely popular with local residents, workers and schools alike.

Last night, however, Westminster council voted to close St James’s Library, as of September this year. I’ve no idea if another destination restaurant will eventually arise from its ashes and, although I like eating out as much as the next person, frankly I don’t care. Like councils up and down the country, Westminster is committing an act of civic vandalism; closing libraries (over 400 are under threat nationwide) will inflict tremendous – and irreversible – damage on local communities.

The sad fact is that, thanks to the Tory-led government – in the shape of Eric Pickles – local authorities are being forced to cut too fast and too deep and, in doing so, many clearly regard libraries as an easy target. “Aha” cries your defensive local councillor “but if not libraries, what would you cut instead”? (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 11 Comments »

This government will mess you up – especially if you’re black

11/01/2011, 01:00:18 PM

by Clive Lewis

History will probably look back on 2011 as the year “austerity Britain” kicked in. The year the Tory-Lib Dem cuts really began to bite. Central and local government have now had enough time to analyse their budgets. And decide where the axe will fall.

It’s not going to be pretty.

Here in Norfolk, the sheer depth and severity of the county council’s proposed cuts has been staggering. Just one example is youth services, which is expecting to be dismantled in its entirety.

Nearby authorities like Norwich, Harlow, Corby, Great Yarmouth, Breckland and Fenland have been hit hardest with the maximum cut of 9%. All across the country it is a similar story.

But of all the communities left reeling from these cuts, I fear it is the black community that is going to get it hardest of all. Here’s why:

According to the most recent figures of the annual population survey (Oct 2008–Sept 2009) 42.2% of black people in Britain work in public administration, education and health. We are talking about nurses, doctors, teachers, tube workers, civil servants and cleaners. That compares to only 29.5% of white people who work in those sectors.

You can see where I’m going with this.

By slashing public spending and public sector jobs, this Tory-Lib Dem government will be disproportionately hurting black people and their families.

The state is not perfect. But compared to much of the private sector, it pays better and has better equality of opportunity. It is a social driver and its growth over the past 13 years has been a good thing for many groups, including our own.

Take educational maintenance allowances (EMAs). We all know the depressing statistics of underachievement amongst some black students. In the past, school leavers from low-income families faced a stark choice: sign on or take a low paid job. EMA gave them an alternative: study.

This Tory-Lib Dem government has just taken that choice away by abolishing EMAs.

Figures for 2008 show that 43% of all 17-18 year-old full-time students received EMAs. But for black students the figure was around 65%.

Do the maths: more black teenagers and their families are losing out than any other group.

The realty is that we are living in a country governed by the most ideologically and economically repressive right-wingers my generation has ever seen. I understand that black people are not politically homogenous, that we won’t all agree on that statement. Just look at the make-up of Parliament and the (admittedly small) distribution of black people sat opposite one another in the chamber. At one level, this is to be welcomed. It is, after all, what operation black vote (OBV) is about, multi-spectrum political representation.

But I have to ask myself how some of those MPs can sit on the government benches and still look their communities in the eye. To piously sit there, and tell us these catastrophic public-spending cuts are a “necessary evil” and that “we’re all in this together” is, quite frankly, an insult.

The more you look at it, the more you realise that the Tory-Lib Dem government should have come with a health warning on it: “This government will seriously mess you up, especially if you’re black”.

Clive Lewis is an army officer who spent 2009 serving in Afghanistan and 2010 shadowing Ed Miliband as part of operation black vote.

Posted in Grassroots | 6 Comments »

Voting for tuition fees to teach protesters a lesson is appalling, and will be remembered

07/12/2010, 02:30:43 PM

by Dora Meredith

John Hemming MP’s comments yesterday, on BBC Radio Four, that he will be “very likely to vote for the increase in tuition fees simply because we cannot reward the bad behaviour from today” are appalling.

To break his pledge made to the electorate to vote against a rise in fees is one thing, but to do so, so willingly, as a result of a knee-jerk reaction to a small group of protesters is quite another.

Students have delivered a petition of over 3,000 names to Mr. Hemming, representatives have met with him to discuss the issue, and individuals have written many personal letters. As such, it is incredibly disappointing to see so many voices, including those of members of his constituency, so readily ignored.

Let’s be clear – if the current government proposals are adopted it will fundamentally alter the way higher education is perceived and valued in this country. The proposed cuts and subsequent fee rises are not only acutely unfair, but surely misjudged. (more…)

Posted in Grassroots | 6 Comments »

The nasty party is back with a vengeance

17/11/2010, 12:00:27 PM

by Gavin Hayes

Last week a new survey discovered that Britain’s favourite decade is allegedly the 1980s. In the spirit of that decade in the last few weeks something else has become as glaringly obvious and vulgar as the luminous socks – the nasty party is back with a vengeance, coupled with a full range of toxic policies that again threaten to rip the very fabric of society.

David Cameron had of course promised us something very different indeed than the medicine he is now gleefully prescribing and throwing down our throats. We were promised his so-called new cuddly Conservative party would be compassionate and then once thrown into bed with the Liberal Democrat leadership we were even promised they would be ‘progressive’.

Yet we now know that sadly the progressive and liberal conservatism he once spoke of has completely rung hollow. Announcement after nasty announcement has confirmed this Government’s true colours. It would seem for them the 1980s really is their favourite decade. (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 7 Comments »

Poor communities will be cut more than rich

15/11/2010, 05:07:53 PM

by Michael Dugher

After the comprehensive spending review, the institute for fiscal studies said that the government’s policies will hit the poorest families harder than the better off. It said that the tax and benefit changes were “regressive”, and would have a greater impact, relative to income, on people at the lower end of the scale. David Cameron says “we’re all in this together”, but as various reports will show in the coming weeks, how badly affected you are depends on where you live.

Key to this unfairness are the cuts in funding to local authorities, who all face reductions of seven per cent a year. But this will not mean that all local authorities will face equal cuts in their budgets. The reductions in central government grant will clearly have a much bigger impact on those councils who serve more deprived areas. In areas like my own in Barnsley, needs are higher but the council tax base is lower. If you are more reliant on central government funding and raise less funding locally, you will not have the capacity to recover funding shortfalls. (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 1 Comment »

Let’s not bet the house on what might be the wrong future

08/11/2010, 03:34:04 PM

by Jonathan Todd

Labour has to be the party of optimism. Which should include being optimistic about the ingenuity of business, especially when combined with extraordinarily lax monetary conditions and a low pound. George Osborne anticipates Labour pessimism on this and we should deny him.

We know that the cuts are too deep and fast. We know that the best government response to economic challenges isn’t brutally to minimise government, but strategically to target the state’s resources to maximum effect. Having emphasised these points, we can be confident that the public know that we know this.

But in stressing these points we should avoid creating a blind spot: that our only economic expectation for coming years appears to be unremitting disaster. This would have us seem to be talking the country down, which is never a good thing, and undermine our claims to optimism. Also, if this expectation turns out to be false, it would leave us – to apply Peter Mandelson’s one club golfer analogy – on the 18th green of this parliament with only the driver of big government in our club bag. (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 6 Comments »