tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post8156002881898922223..comments2024-03-18T19:21:49.666+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Labour and Rebuilding Social SecurityPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-20876453598098495282013-06-20T13:54:02.196+01:002013-06-20T13:54:02.196+01:00But, as I'm sure you can appreciate, there'...But, as I'm sure you can appreciate, there's a circle-into-square problem. The Labour Party does not engage many people disgusted and dispossessed by austerity because its leadership does not intend to break with the last 30 years of capital accumulation and the power base built up around it (of which the senior Labour cadre is a part http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/may/17/labour-ministers-consultancy-private-sector). More than that, the kind of measures that need to be taken are beyond the modern Labour Party, even on its best days.<br /><br />Anything else is just wishful thinking.Adam Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18155314207452345741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-53932700203645873272013-06-16T20:23:47.936+01:002013-06-16T20:23:47.936+01:00"Will Labour ACTUALLY take those groups on, l..."Will Labour ACTUALLY take those groups on, let alone give them a good fight?"<br /><br />It will if many tens of thousands more people disgusted and dispossessed by austerity joined the party.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-71723407044884103832013-06-10T10:07:28.083+01:002013-06-10T10:07:28.083+01:00The alternative, perhaps, if your argument doesn&#...The alternative, perhaps, if your argument doesn't seem to cut is to rephrase and restate it continually until you find a way that does. The trouble is, as usual, we're caught in ever decreasing circles. The Labour party concedes, in this case quite crucial principles, the end universalism and the idea that each receives what they need not what they contribute, in order to defend something of the remaining welfare state. The next time the right comes for the working class the whole process begins again only at a lower level and more is lost. Not forgetting Austerity Lite isn't going to generate much voter enthusiasm. Labour will let it's base continue to decay (another aspect of the ever decreasing circle).<br /><br />Rent capping and house building are an excellent idea. But it strikes at the heart of the model of the last 30 years of capital accumulation and the power base that has built up around it, developers and the banks. Will Labour ACTUALLY take those groups on, let alone give them a good fight?Adam Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18155314207452345741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-26128916918855272952013-06-09T13:00:47.312+01:002013-06-09T13:00:47.312+01:00My one great concern is where you say that out-of-...My one great concern is where you say that out-of-benefits should depend on an active job search and on meetings with an advisor. <br /><br />I would be less concerned about this if those conditions were administered fairly and properly by DWP. There is a substantial evidence that this is currently not the case - claimants are being sanctioned for all manner of trivial reasons. Moreover, sanctions policies seem to vary according to the claimant's geographical region.<br /><br />This is an issue that must be addressed, in my view. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-20062734422095931162013-06-08T22:37:56.429+01:002013-06-08T22:37:56.429+01:00My understanding is that welfare exploded under th...My understanding is that welfare exploded under the Tories as a way to cover for the decline of the big industries. I don't think Labour made it worse although I don't think their materialistic approach worked - I encountered many multi-generational families on benefits in a professional capacity (and my own family for that matter) who had tons of stuff but struggled with massively low self-esteem that led to poor school results, rock bottom aspirations and even malnutrition, principally because they did not know how to manage a budget. <br /><br />Labour should have made more than a belated effort to get these people in to work but I wonder if they simply gave up on the (mosly ) white working class - much more satisfying to invite in hard-working uncomplaining hopefully bloody grateful (Labour voting) folk from really poor countries? I think there's more than a grain of truth in this - much easier to import new workers than get the existing ones off their asses. A kind of institutional failure of their duty of care. I mean, this is what you'd expect the Tories to do, right?<br /><br />I think Labour began to get its act together toward the end - a shame it was just dreadfully, destructively naive (maybe because so few of them were from working class backgrounds they simply didn't have the balls to do an IDS) - and reform is continuing. That's not to say I agree with the social cleansing that's going on etc, but Labour had plenty of time to sort that out before the bastards got back in. The new Labour paper looks OK.Speedynoreply@blogger.com