“It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain”.

 

This memorable piece of Parliamentary rhetoric was spoken by Sir Geoffrey Howe in November 1990, and brilliantly reconstructed by John Sessions for the just repeated BBC drama “Margaret”, where we are party to the behind the scenes shenanigans which led to Thatcher’s exit from Downing Street.

 

Hearing that speech again in the wake of this week’s lobotomised effort by the Government to wrest back the political agenda from the Tories, made me reflect on what a total shambles this last few months have been for the Labour Party.

 

“In Office, but not in Power”, is another phrase from the past that has come back to haunt the current occupant of Number Ten.

 

Gordon Brown had the courage and backbone to take control at the G20 in London.

 

Barack Obama and other Leaders acted swiftly to intervene back home, and where necessary take control of the Banking Sector, dish out the medicine to industry (especially in the US, France and Germany) and punish transgressors with meaningful sanctions.

 

Obama is to pay the head of Bank America $1 this year. And he is not allowed to resign. He must mend what he has broken under the direct supervision of the US Treasury.

 

Why then has GB been so supine when it comes to matters in the UK? Where is the decisive action?

 

Instead he wants to legislate regarding the debt, and take similar action regarding the Banks.

 

Legislate? Bonkers. What happened to doing, taking action now? What is the FSA for if it’s not to actually do summat? Tell them to get it sorted and then report back. Number Ten doesn’t need to micro manage this. Let them what know, do. Facilitate.

 

Parliamentary Bills mean jack in this situation.  

 

It’s a bit like the Fire Service turning up at a fire at the Tate Gallery, retiring to barracks to discuss what to do, the Fire Chief asking for a feasibility study, calling more meetings etc ad nauseum.

 

Everybody looking busy, worthy, caring and involved but meanwhile back in the real world….

 

And so the Howe analogy.

 

I spent a productive and focused three hours at a meeting of the brightest and best that the Labour Party has to offer in this region.

 

Experience from a wide variety of people from different walks of life.

 

We developed a clear and well-defined strategy for delivering a professional and rigorous campaign for our brilliant young candidate, Danny Marten.

 

We will work hard, do our allocated jobs and deliver our targets.

 

After the smoke and mirrors Budget, disappointing (but not just for us) Euro Election results and the Leadership wrangle I honestly believed that GB had finally “got it”, and that he would channel his undoubted talents towards delivering an unprecedented Fourth Term Labour Government.

 

But once again he is hampered by indecision and most crucially he is stymieing Ministers from setting their own departmental agenda.

 

The Queen’s Speech was pathetic. Legislating for things that would happen anyway, a brush stroke, uncosted and nebulous promise regarding care for the elderly, and where he could have legislated (MP’s expenses, genuine reform of the Commons, example recall ballots) GB has bottled out to avoid controversy.

 

Peter Mandleson was rightly restored to the Cabinet (although I expect him to run for the Commons again to secure a mandate) but has been emasculated by the PM and stopped from taking the decisive action needed to restore the economy the growth.

 

The Business Secretary’s only Brown backed initiative, the scrappage scheme, has been an unexpected success, but still the PM refuses to let his most effective Minister have his head.

 

Thus we are starting our campaign with very little to go on, and I’m not looking forward to our starting point which is to contact Party members regarding campaign involvement when I’m not exactly brimming with enthusiasm myself. Hence the Howe evocation.

 

Bashing the Tories is all fine and dandy, and a good laugh, but its distraction from our own present shortcomings.

 

Once again it’s enjoyable to bang on about the success of the last twelve years, but I need to be enthused about NOW, and stop myself from getting hot and bothered about Smith, Hoon, Blears, Beckett, Morley and their arrogant, thieving little ways.

 

Our Party Broadcast last night evoked our history but did not feature Tony Blair. Is Brown really THAT paranoid and insecure that he cannot allow any mention of Labour’s greatest PM?

 

But we cannot lose this Election. Too much rides on it and that’s why I’ll be there fighting to the bitter end.

 

 

1.          Muse: Black Holes and Revelations

(2006).

2.          Amy Winehouse: Back To Black (2006).

3.          White Stripes: Elephant (2003).

4.          Bob Dylan: Modern Times (2006)

5.          Killers: Hot Fuss (2004)

6.          Johnny Cash: The Man Comes Around (2002)

7.          Sterophonics: Sex, Language, Violence, Other (2005)

8.          Dirty Pretty Things: Waterloo to Anywhere (2005).

9.          Kaiser Chiefs: Employment (2005)

10.   Lily Allen: It's Not Me, It's You(2009)

11.   Editors: Back Room (2005)

12.   Blur: Think Tank (2003)

13.    Libertines: Libertines (2002)

14.   Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand. (2005)

15.   U2: All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)

16.   Robbie Williams: Sing When You’re Winning (2000)

17.   Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say (2005)

18.   Richard Thompson: Sweet Warrior (2007)

19.   The Go! Team: Thunder, Lightening, Strike (2006)

20.   Arcade Fire: Funeral (2004)

21.   Babyshambles: Down In Albion (2005)

22.   Green Day: American Idiot (2004)

23.   Morrissey: You Are The Quarry (2004)

24.   Manic Street Preachers: Lifeblood (2004)

25.   The Strokes: First Impressions of Earth (2006)

26.   Bruce Springsteen: Seeger Sessions (2006)

27.   Yusuf Islam: Another Cup (2006)

28.   Snow Patrol: Final Straw (2003)

29.   Hard Fi: Stars of CCTV (2005)

   30. Radiohead: Kid A (2000)

The Tories and the Right have no answers for today’s problems. Fact. The Banking crisis is rooted in their free and un regulated market values.

 

 

Some on the Left have argued for the Nationalisation of the Banking System for years but have been vilified as “extremists” or “idealists not living in the real world”.

 

The “real world” of Capitalism now comes knocking on the door, cap in hand asking for handouts from the taxpayer as, twenty years down the line the Thatcherite chickens come home to roost.

 

My vision of Socialism which has sustained me through 25 years in the Labour Party is about what’s achievable in a modern context, about compromise, about a move away from the “politics of denunciation”, about building relationships across traditional socio- economic boundaries, and about making the economy work for the benefit of the majority in this country, and across the globe.

 

And this is why what I propose has to be done in the context of the Labour Party. It is the only show in Town, and whilst it has many flaws, what it has achieved for the people of the UK over the last twelve years will last for generations… provided we recognise that we must look forward, renew ourselves and not be stuck in the past.

 

The Queen’s Speech, the last one before the General Election, give the Labour Government a golden opportunity to grasp the nettle and set out a radical agenda for the remainder of this Parliament, carrying momentum into the next one.

 

This is what Alastair Darling said in October 2008 when he announced the Bank Bailout. The figure mentioned in now £3 trillion according to the Today Programme this morning.

 

 "In reaching agreement on capital investment the government will need to take into account dividend policies and executive compensation practices and will require a full commitment to support lending to small businesses and homebuyers.”

 

This is the Government directly controlling policy and practice for High Street Banks, and is basically saying “enough is enough” to unregulated speculation, lending based on extreme risk with the hope of massive short term profit and allowing the people via the Government a direct say on what gives in the banking sector.

Wholesale Nationalisation is neither practical, nor neccesserily desirable. But the Left has an historic opportunity to make the case for greater public say in the direct day to day running of the economy.

Each financial institiution responsible for lending in this country should have a chunk of it’s shares owned by the Government on behalf of the people.

These mickey mouse, but ultimatley cruel and inhumane lenders such as Ocean Finance which leech on the false and unrealistic advert driven hopes of working people should be thoroughly investigated by the FSA and if there is the slightest sniff of sharp practice such as over lending to deliberatley trigger default and huge fees which then are turned in to “consolidation loans” by the same company under a different name, be shut down with no compensation. In fact these parasites should be prosecuted.

The Treasury Committee MUST ensure that the CEOs of each of the Banks and insurance firms should appear in front of them, complete with open and transparent accounts on a regular basis to ensure that these companies don’t take our money and then carry on regardless once the spotlight has moved on.

Now the argument appears not to be whether the Goverenment should take the Banks into Public Ownership, but how much of a stake we should take, meaning there is a basic acceptance amongst the Government, institutions and the nation as a whole that State intervention is both neccessery and desirable.

The Left should make the argument that this kind of stake should extend to the ultilities, transport and other areas where it is vital that the Public interest is represented.

This should go hand in hand with a renewal in our democracy, to show a sceptical Public that this is a fresh start, that because the Government will be representing them at the heart of the economy then they must have the opportunity to be fully involved.

Therefore where the Government becomes a sharholder these companies must have elected employees on the Board of control, and full Trade Union recognition and involvement in decision making must be implemented because in tandem with the Directors these are the people who really know what is going on.

Where it appears inevitable that a company such as Northern Rock is going to go to the wall the Government should make the former owners, not the workers bear responsibility.

Therefore such companies, backed by the Government should be placed under the control of Workers Councils, fully elected who will undertake restructuring and move the firm forward.

Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas so the fear of some kind of wacko take over is simply a scare tactic from the media. The workers and Middle Managers get to see the policy decisions implemented on a day to day leve, and often have a greater understanding of what makes things tick.  

On a more general level the Left should argue for greater local control, both at work and in the Community by arguing for elected Heads of Council Services, especially for Policing, Refuse and Recycling and Social Services.

Part of this should see an end to the stupid, costly and anti democractic tendering of basic (and any other) Council services, from waste collection to IT provision which must be accountable, transparent and cost effective to the tax payer.

Taking the fight to the Tories and setting the agenda, not just reacting to it must be at the fore front of policy making in the lead up to the most important election in a generation.

Nick Griffin, the BNP Leader is on record as saying that; “Winston Churchill would embrace the BNP…. Especially as he was an ardent anti European and would have blanched at the prospect of us surrendering our Sovereignty to the European Union”.

 

It defies belief that this idiot managed to get a degree in Law from Oxford. You have to be intelligent to do that? Surely?

 

Rich and I were discussing this the other night and I wondered if Griffin, David Irving and other such headbangers are thick, deluded or just plain liars.

 

Mr. Robinson equates it to psychics and the such like. They know they are misleading people but just do it anyway to serve their own selfish ends.

 

So it must be with the BNP, and indeed UKIP who invoked Churchill’s image for the 2009 European Parliamentary Elections, as the quote below demonstrates that far from being anti Europe, Churchill saw the inevitable benefits of us coming together as a counter weight to the USSR and USA Super Power blocs, today it would be China and the Far Eastern economic powers.

 

The quote is from Hansard and is reproduced in Dennis McShane’s very readable (if flawed) 2008 biography of Ted Heath.

 

“We are prepared to consider, and if convinced, accept the abrogation of national sovereignty. It is not inviolable, and it may safely diminished for the sake of all men in all countries finding their way home together”.

 

Plain as day. The Old Boy was nothing if not pragmatic when it was required.

 

The BNP’s invocation of our greatest British Hero proves that they will stop at nothing to propagate lies for their sick and twisted ends.

 

They know it, and thanks to Griffin’s shambolic appearance on Question Time, so do more and more of us.