Labour - one step forward, two steps back

WRITING IN THE New Statesman (NS) under the heading 'While Labour supports working people, the Tories prioritise the privileged few', Chris Leslie, shadow financial secretary to the Treasury castigates the 'Tory toffs' for,' giving 13,000 millionaires an average tax cut of £100,000' while 'Bonuses soared by 82% in April as bankers deferred their payments to take advantage of the tax cut'. He continues in this tabloid style until he comes to his 'Great Leader' who promised in Brighton last week to squeeze the power companies until the pips squeak.

                        I am not a Tory voter, but had been a Labour one from the day I turned 18 up to the last election. I am 63 years-old, and, unlike many Labour MPs and party members, I can remember living through the 1970s, and supporting the likes of Arthur Scargill, Tony Benn, 'Red' Robbo (God forgive me); and reading Ralph Miliband's[1] pieces in the New Left Review.

                        My mother owned a small grocery business (and when the nation's lights went out as they often did during that decade) she remained loyal to the Labour Party despite the ill-afforded loss of frozen food products that needed electricity to remain edible.

                        I have written the above two paragraphs because I do not want to be thought one of Mr Leslie's 'Tory toffs' and therefore be dismissed as such after what I am about write.

            THE SHADOW  secretary to the Treasury, in his piece for the NS only reinforces the Tory charge that Ed Miliband is returning the Labour Party to the socialism of the 1970s. Any treasury spokesman, from whatever party, should be simpatico with the free market in a capitalist society, and accept the profit motive for what it is - a truly progressive force for scientific, technological and economic advancement.

                        Socialism never did and never could match capitalism in such an arena; simply because under such a system there are no incentives to individuals to encourage them to invent and help to advance society's economic and social progress. The word 'progressive' has been hijacked by the Left; but socialism is no such thing. It stifles enterprise, ambition, and sees the profit motive as a disease - with socialism being its only 'cure'.

                        It was the likes of Bill Gates who delivered Soviet Communism up to capitalism and democracy. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was left looking like a puzzled and innumerate child when the age of the computer arrived in people's homes, followed by the internet and social media. Socialism could never compete; and it did not. Even today the citizens of Cuba are driving around in 1950s vehicles while their leaders work out a face-saving blueprint for bringing their country into the modern world.

TALK OF privilege, as Chris Leslie does in his NS piece, inspires in me only contempt; for it does not make reference to any other organisation than the Tory Party. The New/Old Labour Party still thinks that privilege belongs to either the monarchy or the Tory Party; and conveniently neglects the appurtenance that their own party enjoys as a member of the political class overseeing the less privileged which covers the UK outside of London.

                        Labour is a party of  privilege; while it debases wealth creation, many of its MPs send their offspring to private schools, or privileged state schools, and still have the impertinence to condemn private education.  

                        Privilege no longer applies to one party, but to the whole of the political class. In making his case against the Tories, Chris Leslie attacks the coalition tax cuts to '13,000 millionaires'. What New/Old Labour has retreated back into is the politics of envy that Blair sought to steer them away from - yet another sign of a return back to the 1970s.

                        People who create wealth, and in doing so employ people who have to support their families, deserve the money they earn from the product they produce. Why on earth should they have to pay more than the ordinary taxpayer? They create jobs which all the politicians agree are needed. But when they do so, the Labour Party comes along, and, brandishing the envy card, demands that such millionaires pay what they describe as a 'fair' share in taxes.

                        Such taxation against millionaires is not fair…especially as their companies have to pay a business tax on top of their individual contribution. Millionaires will never be popular with the ordinary people (unless they win the national lottery - where no taxes are paid).

                        City bonuses are Leslie's next gripe. These bonuses, at the moment bring in £1 billion to the Treasury in taxation. The City of London as a whole brings in £20 billion in taxes to the Treasury. Yet we still hear gripe after gripe from the Left and in particular the New/Old Labour Party.

CHRIS LESILIE alludes to his Great Leader's promise to ; '…reset our energy market so it works for Britain’s families and businesses, with a new tough regulator to stop overcharging. While we put that in place, the next Labour government will freeze gas and electricity prices until the start of 2017. This will save a typical household £120 and an average business £1,800'. 

                        This announcement secured the Labour Party a spike in the polls after their conference. But what exactly would such a policy herald? The 20 month freeze on gas and electricity prices promised would be gotten around. The power companies would no doubt increase their prices before this freeze came into being.

                        The saving on the average fuel bill would amount to £120 in savings; but as much as this could be saved by merely getting rid of the green energy tax on average fuel bills which would reduce bills by 10 per cent. But no party, including Cameron's are prepared to countenance such a move - although many thousands of pensioners, facing a winter which many may not survive, may do so if the wretched green tax was done away with.

                        The green energy tax was Labour's child, as was, in their term in office, the 160% increase in gas bills, and the 89% in electricity bills. Yet they still have the gall to attack their 'class enemies' in order to garnish their supporters vote.

                        Chris Leslie, like the rest shadow cabinet, should never be allowed within a mile Downing Street. They spent 13 years ruining this country and leaving the coffers empty, and the country living with an exorbitant amount of debt; which will take years to clear if the Tories stay in power; and decades if Labour comes back into power.

                       

             

                       

 

                         

                       

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[1] Ed and David's daddy.