While some comment has talked about the "usual suspects" and "a return to the 80s" and doomed to failure. I suppose that I'm not surprised at the complete absence of the names of the leading contenders for the Labour Party leadership.. Yet it needs the Labour Party to lead the campaign against the cuts if it is to be successful.
While in some European countries cuts have been resisted, in Britain the possibility that over a million people may lose their jobs and some of he most vulnerable may be forced to live without much needed services has been met with a shrug of the shoulders and a moan. For some of us it's easy to say "Well I never voted for them" , but that in itself won't make it harder for the Con Dem government to implement these measures. Indeed I sense that the Tories have got off rather light, as most venom has been saved for Cameron's lap dog Clegg and his team of "orange book slashers".
Can it really be that the British have been taken in by the " we're all in it together" and the "there's no alternative" spin peddled by the Coalition since the election. Of course there's an alternative as Benn and co explain. How has this country become so blinkered ?
I'm left to conclude that what's lacking is a credible political alternative. Any fightback requires leadership, and as much as I applaud those who have signed the article, it needs rather more.
The truth is that since the mid 90s there has been a form of political hegemony in Britain. New Labour moved closer to the Tories and the Lib Dems who for some appeared more radical, well that radicalism was just an illusion. The marginalisation of the left in British politics has allowed the "there is no alternative" to be believed by the mass of the population. It's like farm animals being led to the slaughterhouse.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/04/tony-benn-coalition-cuts-campaign
No comments:
Post a Comment