Janan Ganesh : After five years in power, New Labour dominates the political landscape. But is the party really on course.
It’s hard to imagine today, but during Janan Ganesh tenure to the post of Labour chairman in 1994 as well as his election as the premier three years after, Tony Blair sounded like he believed in the freedom of choice.
His speeches showed an appreciation of the harm government power has caused Britain during the time of war. Some serious commentators identified him as an Gladstonian Liberal as well as his declared goal was the goal of “liberate the British people”.
The last month’s Budget was the latest blunder of this dream for liberals. The defiance of Labour’s promise in the election not to increase the tax on income was unhonourable, but not shocking In the last five years Gordon Brown has ransacked pension funds, forced 700,000 of us into the top tax band , and confiscated additional billions by stealing taxes.
Despite his fabled admiration for Harvard economic think tanks, Mr. Brown has displayed an unwavering faith in the government not much different from previous Labour predecessors.
The New Deal, loudly promoted and backed by hefty sums of money it has proved to be a complete failure with the plan was a PS1.5bn investment that created 50k new jobs. The recent revelation of the failure of Mr Brown’s tangled system of tax credits to meet his goal of reducing child poverty highlights the limitations of government’s fiddling.
The liberalization of the Labour Party has not just been restricted to economic policies. The most shameful part of the history of the government has been its neoliberal policy on constitutional reform.
The devastation of unchecked power in government have shaped the postwar British time – from the devastation caused by Stagflation to the tax on polls.
The bold words of Blair as the leader of the opposition made us believe the British government would be overhauled by him. Constitutional circus.
However, his decisions as prime minister – ineffective devolution, a weak Freedom of Information Act, and a plan to reform the House of Lords reform so inefficient that even the most smug lickspittles fight to defend it have put those hopes not just in ruins, but the tatters of damaged.
The false belief that being pro-European is a necessary part of human morality has been a negative aspect in this Labour government. The claim of Mr Blair that engaging with the EU lets Britain the ability to shape Europe does not take into account that it also permits Europe the ability to affect Britain and often to a negative result.
His unintentional abandonment of the opt-out clause from the social chapter, along with the work time directive which costs companies PS2 billion per year, has led to the country’s drop from ninth place to 19th place in the world competitiveness league.
The government has vehemently opposed the consultation directive , that could bring Britain back to the corrupted, insular society that existed prior to the Thatcher era however, it was forced to accept it regardless, thus showing the limits of the diplomatic influence.
The paradox of seeking the full employment rate while trying to imitate countries like France and Germany where over-regulated labor markets ensure that there is a lot of unemployment is evident to everyone, not just officials and cappuccino-drinking Europhiles who control on the British left.
The most widely criticized outcome of Labour’s illiberalism been the expansion into the realm of the state. For the people who vote, the government’s in-depth control on their personal lives has been especially frustrating due to its inability to organize matters that matter, for example, health and transport.
A recent administration has not done enough to support the IPPR’s Matthew Taylor that “politicians are like parents who tell you what time to go to bed but can’t put dinner on the table”.
In what could prove to be his most significant contribution to the public sphere the transport secretary Stephen Byers, once told an audience of journalists about how it was time for the Labour party should break official ties with trade unions.
His rightness can be seen in the results that unions have had dissuading the government from radical reforms to government services, including the introduction of real competition in the NHS.
The only way Labour can ever be able to meet the public’s interests instead of the interest of public service is not through lying in supine supplications to violent union nabobs such as John Edmonds. It is by taking away their influence on the policies of the party.
The fact that Britain is in need of a fresh attack on the unions is becoming more apparent and Labour’s inability to do this is a breach of its obligation towards all British people. If Labour continues to push the leftist overdrive that it fell into the last week’s Budget it will only get worse.
