November 2021

By Eddie Livingstone

Every day brings new harm inflicted by the Tories on the people of Britain, not that you would get any inkling of this from their Conference in October. Johnson was telling jokes, Gove dancing, and Therese Coffey was singing “The Time of My Life” hours before cutting benefits and propelling 5.8million people into poverty.

TORY MISERY 

This government has increased national insurance. It has removed the ‘triple lock’ on pensions, which inevitably means a cut in income for millions of pensioners. And it has instituted real wage cuts across the public sector.

UK wholesale gas prices soared 37% in just 24 hours from 5th-6th October, which will be passed onto the consumer. For workers the reality is that prices are rising much faster than wages and their living standards are falling. Millions are sinking into poverty. And yes, the government has just cut benefits by £1000 per annum for nearly 6 million people who were already struggling to make ends meet.

The underlying social cost of more than a decade of Tory rule is devastating.

23% of people in Britain, 15.4 million, are living in poverty (Shelter), including more than 4 million children (Institute for Fiscal Studies). In the past 12 months over 2.5 million people, including half a million children, used Trussell Trust food banks (Statista). Sleeping rough has increased by 73% in the last 5 years and nearly 1/3rd of a million British people are homeless (Shelter). A recent UN report was damning of Britain’s treatment of disabled people. More UK children die, as a percentage, in the first month of life, than in Cuba or Belarus. Corporate profiteering resulted in 71 Grenfell Tower deaths. The figures are out there: youth unemployment, serious crime, stabbings, rape, domestic violence, child abuse; mental health, NHS waiting lists, suicide rates, classroom sizes, the exodus of staff from teaching and healthcare, discrimination against women, racism, pensioners freezing to death, the prison crisis, corruption and more. Much more. Yet Britain remains the 5th richest country in the world and that wealth is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.

ESTABLISHMENT SPLITS 

Although acting in its interests, not everyone in ruling circles is happy about how the Tories are performing. Many commentators were damning about Johnson’s performance at the Tory conference. “Bombastic, vacuous and economically illiterate” was the assessment of his speech, not by Jeremy Corbyn, or even Keir Starmer, but by the free market think tank, the Adam Smith Institute. There are sharp divisions within the ruling class about how to manage the deepening crisis of British capitalism. The Institute is not on its own. Ryan Shorthouse, director of Bright Blue, said: “The public will soon tire of Boris’s banter if the Government does not get a grip of mounting crises: price rises, tax rises, fuel shortages, labour shortages.” Chairman of Wetherspoons Tim Martin accused the government of “lurching from one unpredictable initiative to another” with the least “commercial savvy” or “guiding philosophy” of any administration for 40 years. Paul Drechler, Chairman of business group London First, referred to the government as “politicians who failed to listen, never had a plan, and still don’t have a plan” and who threaten “turning a crisis into a cost-of-living catastrophe”. Managing restaurateur Sam Harrison condemned the “disingenuous optimism of our Prime Minister who is so far removed from what is happening in the real business world”. Head of the CBI Tony Danker said firms were “infuriated” by Johnson’s conference speech.

There are also tangible divisions within the government, with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng calling for businesses to recruit more British-based workers, while Chancellor Rishi Sunak, in the name of ‘pragmatism’ hinted at recruiting cheap labour from abroad. These differences are hardly petty. They reflect deep divisions within the British capitalist class about how to protect capital’s interests post-Brexit. And there are divisions over international policy post-Brexit as well.

TORY MYTHS

The public relations themes of the conference were in stark contrast to the actual policies being pursued. In essence the themes were:

* Leveling up

* High-wage, high-skill workforce

* Build back better

Leveling Up: Part of the long term strategy of the Tories to hold on to previously safe Labour seats will involve high profile cheap gimmicks to sustain the illusion of a one nation government. Michael Gove has been appointed Secretary of State for Levelling Up. Of course this is not his real job. Gove’s insidious role is to identify and legislate for a range of minimal bargain-basement changes and/or state funded subsidies for monopoly capital that can be presented, with great hullabaloo, to the northern and midlands working class as a transformative leveling up of regional differentials.

High Wage, High Skill Workforce: At conference, Johnson referred repeatedly to developing a “high wage, high-skilled” workforce. But even with the establishment media at his disposal, he will have difficulties making this believable. Where the government has direct control over wages, in the public sector, it has either frozen wage levels, or increased them minimally, below the rate of inflation. If after the past two years the government feels it can get away with an insulting 3% pay rise for NHS workers (after initially offering 1%!) and underscore this strategy with a 0% offer to teachers, then it is hard to take his posturing seriously. In theory the freeze is set to end but it is unlikely that the government will make pay offers which address the decline in real wages.

It is clear from the private sector that business leaders have no intention of lifting wage levels unless forced to by shortages of labour, indeed they are plain-speaking in their denunciation of Johnson on this issue. It is difficult not to conclude that ‘high wages, high-skilled workforce’ is little more than distracting rhetoric, part of Johnson’s attempt to paper over the divisions within British capitalism over Brexit.

Build Back Better: This is hardly an original slogan. Over the past 18 months it has been used by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Justin Trudeau, Jacinda Arden, Andy Burnham and Keir Starmer, amongst many others. Clearly it means different things to different people with different ideologies. In Johnson’s case, as with everything he says, it is more to do with creating an impression, or an illusion, rather than reflecting serious intent. Johnson would like us to believe the fantasy that his government, responsible for the highest pandemic death toll in Europe and the worst 2020 GDP performance of all the G20 countries, wants to make a post-pandemic Britain better for ordinary people. In fact he wants to make it better for our tormentors, the class he favours as he hands out multi-million pound test-track-trace-PPE contracts to unqualified parasites. For Johnson and co. ‘Build Back Better’ is referring to capitalism.

LABOUR CONFERENCE 

Keir Starmer and the Labour front bench remain weak in their response to the Tories, so it was encouraging that he did not get it all his own way at Labour Party conference which was also in October. The right and the media were desperate to proclaim victory for Starmer but the plan for him to crush the left and present his vision for the future of Labour did not go at all smoothly.

The right certainly had crucial victories regarding the rule changes which will make it harder for MPs to be unseated by CLPs and for a left candidate to get on the ballot for leader. New disciplinary processes will undermine members’ rights and democratic accountability in the Party. But these were not passed overwhelmingly, nor was the confirmation of David Evans as General Secretary. Starmer had hoped to achieve more, moving to an electoral college for leadership elections rather than one member one vote. In the event he was unable to table all the rule changes he wanted as they would not have passed the NEC. Unions were disgruntled at the failure to consult with them.

The media and a hall packed with loyalists did their best to love Starmer’s conference speech, but it was a big ask. The one and a half hours included a lengthy section identifying his life story and journey with his political narrative and the future of Labour. This was banal and dull. The rest of it comprised attacks on left policies he’d said he would defend in his election campaign, nods towards Blair’s legacy, knee-jerk stuff on patriotism and law and order and few specific policy commitments. There were certainly no strong, radical alternatives put forward to capture the electorate’s imagination and address the dire future facing the British people. He also failed to create a simple take away message for the public as to what Labour is about.

Further undermining the triumphalist narrative that Starmer’s team were trying to create, the left achieved strong results in policy votes. The motion on Palestine was a big victory. It calls out Israel’s persecution of the Palestinians, describes its policies as apartheid and supports sanctions. This was a clear statement that Party members stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, have not been cowed by the attempts to shut down debate on the issue and that the left remains strong within the Party. Starmer was defeated in conference on one of the key battlegrounds that he chose to attack the left.

There were other good motions passed including overwhelming condemnation of the AUKUS pact, for a Socialist Green New Deal, nationalising energy, housing and supporting workers’ rights, sitting at odds with Starmer’s pro-big business agenda. Andy McDonald resigned from the Shadow Cabinet over an instruction by Starmer not to support a £15 minimum wage. Conference passed a motion promoted by Trade Unions for a £15 minimum wage.

In a welcome move a motion on electoral reform, which would have committed the Party to supporting PR, was voted down largely by the Trade Unions.

It was also welcome that attempts by pro-Remain hardliners to commit Labour to re-joining the EU going into the next General Election were defeated; however, Labour still has the disastrous policy that sunk Jeremy Corbyn of another referendum on the EU, with the Party position to be decided at a special conference. In his speech, Starmer pushed the boat out a little bit and said of the Tories: “You need a plan to Make Brexit Work.”, and went on to say “I do see a way forward after Brexit…” A reverse of his cheer-leading at a previous conference when an unscripted pro-Remain aside earned him a standing ovation. This time his statement was met with silence.

FIGHT NEEDED 

Although the right-wing leadership tightened its grip on the Party machine at conference, it again showed itself to be devoid of ideas to challenge the Tories and transform peoples’ lives. The conference gave Labour members and the left hope and confidence that they remain a strong force within the Party. Some Trade Unions showed their unhappiness with the direction being taken by the leadership. Their role will be important in the coming period both for the Labour Party and the working class. They are committed to delivering results for their members which hopefully will mean an increase in industrial battles and pressing their case actively within Labour for demands such as a £15 minimum wage, good jobs, an end to fire and rehire. The battles within Labour don’t happen in a vacuum. Campaigns outside parliament will be critical to influencing its direction and challenging the Tories.

Boris Johnson – failing to convince pic by PM office