The last blog played 'what if?' What if the Labour Party wanted seriously to change things for the better. Could it do it? In the last blog there were some suggestions about new politics. (Keep up!)
Could Labour also do new economics? Yes, and without declaring for socialism; without committing to the overthrow of capitalism; even without embracing the full programme of economic reforms of something like the Peoples Charter (adopted by the best part of the trade union movement.)
Let's start with incomes; wages or salaries to you and me. (Top bosses now call this 'compensation'!) Income inequality is the number one economic worry of most people in Britain - if polling is to be believed. This view is held world-wide; most acutely in China. Last year ordinary directors in Britain's top 100 companies gave themselves a 49% increase in wages. Their average pay is now £2.7 million a year. Their companies stayed still or declined. Their workers living standards dropped. Surprise surprise.
We have a minimum wage. Let's have a maximum wage. Nobody gets more than £100,000. Does that mean all our 'top bods' would flee abroad and get other jobs? A handful might. Top civil servants, overpaid Headteachers, hospital trust managers and local authority chief executives might find the prospect a bit daunting. Most directors have families here. Tarquin and Kate are ensconced in their schools and the fattest cats do not 'live' in Britain anyway. Wages do not cover income from shares or other investments. Ok. We'll need to get to that later. Meanwhile a maximum wage would catch on in most of the richer countries like wildfire. You never know. It might make some difference voting for Labour.
Create a massive investment bank. Private money has dismally failed to rebuild our infrastructure - or create jobs. George Brown's private/public partnerships have done worse! The (Labour) government gave £78 billion to banks - and we do not have one of them, not one, that is helping rebuild Britain! The estimated £50 billion in tax fraud could capitalise our new Peoples Green Bank of Britain. Such a project would drive forward the tax hunt and build a new energy and leadership in the economy. God knows (despite holding onto 'reserves' of £75 billion) the top British companies are investing in nothing! They are still all looking for the vast, short term profits they racked up when they invested in the City. Greedy bastards.
Introduce compulsory national service for all young people for two years between 18 and 25. Not to destroy them in foreign wars, but to offer a range of activities that would serve the wider society. What activities? Community policing; to running the phone-lines on NHS Direct; to creating local parks; to mentoring in schools; to hospital help; to visiting prisons and homes; to meals on wheels; to work in developing countries. You make your own list. £10 an hour in Britain. To have a society you have got to build it.
Remove the anti-union laws. They exist nowhere else in Europe. With increasing employment we would need to get incomes at the bottom rising again. Union membership would grow. Conditions and incomes would get better. Both have been dropping like stones in the last decade. That's bad for us, for society and bad for our economy.
There you are then Ed. Four proposals that don't exactly sweep capitalism away. And there is much more that you could do. Lead the movement for a global minimum wage for example. But even these small steps would make voting for Labour different and worthwhile. Will you do it? Not a chance. You are more frightened of even starting to challenge the system than of losing an election. And that makes life much harder than it need be for the rest of us.
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