Thank you to the 124 progressives

The bill which will see disgraceful cuts to welfare has been passed in its first reading in the House of Commons.

Yesterday I wrote about the need for progressives to work together and the simmering resistance against neoliberal, austerity is building. Unfortunately, we have now discovered that the parliamentary Labour Party on the whole are not progressive and are not prepared to stand up for the young, poor or vulnerable. Having said that, the 48 Labour MPs who boldly opposed the party whip are to commended for doing so.

Of particular note was the Labour MP, John McDonnell who explained;

"I would swim through vomit to vote against this bill and listening to some of the nauseating speeches tonight I think we might have to. Poverty in my constituency is not a lifestyle choice, it is imposed upon people.We hear lots about how high the welfare bill is, let's understand why that's the case.The housing benefit bill is so high because for generations we've failed to build council houses, we've failed to control rents, we've done nothing about the 300,000 properties that stand empty in this country."

I wanted to write this quick post for my part to say thank you to the 124 MPs who agree with Mr McDonnell and did oppose this atrocious bill. We now have a clear idea of who the progressives are in parliament and can see from which ranks we could see productive, positive alliances growing.

Who was in the 124 progressive MPs yesterday?

48 Labour MPs

55 SNP

8 Liberal Democrats

6 DUP

3 Plaid Cymru

3 SDLP

1 Green

1 UUP

You can find out how your MP voted at http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

A simmering resistance, a building movement

What a couple of weeks it has been. Even by Tory standards the weather of late has been very Tory. First we had the budget designed to make poor people poorer and rich people richer. Then we had the attempt to repeal the fox hunting ban by the back door; fox hunting is a blood sport which is the reserve of deranged elitists. Finally we have had the announcement of legislation to permanently alter the way trade unions operate and set back workers rights by around 100 years.

In addition to this George Osborne decided to basically ignore the issue of climate change in his budget, gave greater fiscal support oil companies and sort to incentivise ‘fracking’ whilst at the same time hampering the green energy movement by absurdly removing the Climate Change Levy exemption from renewable electricity.

To get a flavour of what our own local Tory is fighting for on some of the points briefly mentioned above;

In our Stroud District -   Neil Carmichael MP has voted;

 against paying higher benefits for people unable to work through illness or disability,

in favour of bedroom tax,

against benefits rising to meet cost of living,

 in favour of a reduction in welfare spending,

against a scheme to create guaranteed jobs for young people who been long term unemployed,

against a tax on bankers bonuses

against a mansion tax

in favour of reducing corporation tax

Neil Carmichael MP has stated that he will vote in favour of fox hunting.

                                 Neil Carmichael MP has a poor voting record when it comes to the environment.

                                               

When I sit down to write these blogs I want to be positive and constructive. But I am, like many of you I am sure, finding it hard to be positive right now. My MP is essentially the very antithesis of what I believe in and my government even more so.

Every morning when I come down to my kitchen and make a cup of tea, I switch on the radio as my preferred method of getting the news as I get my baby ready for the day or get ready for work. Increasingly though I am finding that my finger hovers over the preset button for Radio 4 and is tending to tap the Planet Rock preset as I say to myself ‘do you know what? I just don’t want to know today’. Of course this could just be that I am getting fed up with the today programme!

Progressives must work together

Before the budget was announced I attended a meeting of Stroud Against the Cuts. Stroud Against the Cuts brings together progressive groups from across Stroud and Gloucestershire who, despite whatever other differences, are united in their opposition to austerity.

When the election result was announced in May Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavillion, said the following;

“…we must move forward today. While the campaign for electoral reform gathers momentum, those of us wanting to see a fairer, more compassionate and progressive politics must find new ways of working together, a new way to do politics – and put that in to practice now”

Caroline Lucas MP

This is the thing that gives me hope now; the simmering resistance that is turning in to a movement. It is a movement that questions this neoliberal austerity ideology and outright calls for something different, something more hopeful, something less damning.

It is no longer just a utopian fantasy but something eminent economists such Tim Jackson have put in to sound theory. We can create a world in which we redefine prosperity away from our ability to consume goods and amass economic wealth. We can redefine prosperity in terms of happiness, wellbeing and living within the means of this planet that we call home. We don’t have another one to fall back on after all.

The Labour Party

Following Osborne’s despicable budget it is time for the Labour Party to stand up and truly be the main opposition party. Not just opposition for the sake of it no; but because the very fabric of what makes our society great is at risk. Childhoods, retirements, working lives, already desperate lives are at risk.

I hope that the Labour Party will reach out and grasp the hand of Caroline Lucas, and will also stand up to the offer put forward by the 20 year SNP MP, Mhairi Black (youngest MP in 300 years) in her, already very famous, inspirational maiden speech;

“Now, yes we will have political differences, yes in other parliaments we may be opposing parties, but within this chamber we are not. No matter how much I may wish it, the SNP is not the sole opposition to this Government, but nor is the Labour party. It is together with all the parties on these benches that we must form an opposition, and in order to be affective we must oppose not abstain. So I reach out a genuine hand of friendship which I can only hope will be taken. Let us come together, let us be that opposition, let us be that signpost of a better society. Ultimately people are needing a voice, people are needing help, let’s give them it.”

Read the transcript here

See the speech in full here

It appears now that scores of Labour MPs are set to join Caroline Lucas in opposing the welfare cuts proposed by the Tories. It is shame that Labour MPs have to do this in defiance of the Labour leadership, but it their true opposition and defence of those who need it most is very welcome all the same.

Progressives must work together, form an opposition both locally and nationally and not allow this government to continue to ideologically dismantle all that makes our country great. The situation is already so very desperate and there has only been a Conservative majority government in power for 2 months. Imagine the horror of a Tory party unopposed for 5 years… if you dare.

Any Questions

by Sue Hartley

On Friday, 5^th September, Radio 4's long-running, live political-panel programme, Any Questions? found its temporary home at Westonbirt School. I was one of a few local Green Party members who took up the invitation to attend. The hall was packed to hear the panel of Caroline Lucas (Green), Michael Dugher (Labour), Anna Soubry (Tory) and Roger Helmer (UKIP) answer questions submitted by the audience on the night.

As a regular listener to Any Questions? it was fascinating to get the 'behind the scenes' picture of how the programme is organised and to enjoy the 'warm up'. I was impressed to find that this excellent programme is run by a team of four people - producer and assistant and two technical bods, plus the public-facing Jonathan Dimbleby, of course. And to appreciate how Radio 4 segways seamlessly from the news in London to the outside broadcast location, wherever it happens to be in the UK.

But to the programme itself. The first two questions were about ISIL/ISIS - what would be the impact of air strikes and should British jihadists be allowed to return to the UK. On the first question, the other three panellists all spoke in favour of some level of military intervention, while Caroline argued that a settlement is likely to depend on regional political solutions, rather than military intervention, and we should be working to achieve a consistent (and hopefully ethical) foreign policy. She articulated really well the damage we have already done in the Middle East through military intervention, and the inconsistencies in our foreign policy - for example that we fund, supply arms to, and support Saudi Arabia despite its government  beheading a group of Saudi citizens last week and it being a source of funds to terrorist organisations. She was the first to receive a round of applause for her answer and continued to receive by far the most positive response from the audience throughout the evening. On British jihadists, Caroline spoke of the importance of dealing with UK citizens in the UK, rather than trying to render them stateless, and put human rights and due process at the centre of her argument. She stood her ground when Michael Dugher suggested she was giving terrorists 'the benefit of the doubt' and it was clear to the audience that this was just an attempt at political point-scoring. A light moment occurred when Roger Helmer suggested that the European Court of Human Rights was somehow exacerbating the problem and Anna Soubry retorted that, as far as UKIP is concerned, if anything's a problem, just blame the EU.

Two further questions got on the air. The first was about the bill put forward in the Commons to mitigate the impact of the bedroom tax. Proposed by a Lib Dem, this was carried to second reading on a combined Lib Dem and Labour vote -the first time Lib Dems have voted against Government policy on the tax. Here, Caroline and Michael shared the moral high ground as Greens and Labour have opposed this heinous policy throughout. However, both Lib Dems and Labour were accused of electioneering (LDs with an eye to the General Election, Labour to the independence referendum in Scotland). At one point Caroline described the Conservative policy on the bedroom tax as cruel - this riled Anna Soubry who said she'd come into politics to help people, but Caroline came straight back with the response "Well, you're in the wrong party, then", which was appreciated by the audience. The last question, from a 15-year old schoolboy, asked whether more work should be done in schools to alert young people to the risks of abusive relationships and how they should respond to child abuse. Here Caroline scored again, as she is about to present a Private Member's Bill to make PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) mandatory in schools.

One Green Party member, Nicola Hillary, was called forward at the start of the programme to put her question, "Given the opulence of the surroundings tonight, isn't a £10 minimum wage, as suggested by the Green Party, the least we can do?" As she was number 4 on the list, I was sure she would get on air, and was dismayed when the producer held up five fingers and instructed the man with the microphone to bypass Nicola in favour of questioner 5, the young man asking about sexual abuse. So near and yet so far!

It was good to attend an evening of wide-ranging political debate and, though there was clearly a group of UKIP supporters somewhere in the room, it was obvious that the majority of the audience was firmly in agreement with Caroline Lucas.

Pay rises for MPs

How do you feel about MPs getting a pay increase of 11% when public sector workers are experiencing pay freezes – which given inflation means effectively reducing their pay?

 

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas does not agree with the pay rise, and you can see her talking about it in the video above. It's also encouraging to note that local Tory MP Neil Carmichael doesn't support the rise either - http://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/10866467.MP_payrise_is__disproportionate_and_wholly_inappropriate__says_Neil_Carmichael/?ref=eb
 

To put this debate into context, consider this report from thinktank NEF- "Raising the Benchmark", http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/entry/raising-the-benchmark which says “Workers on low and middle incomes are experiencing the biggest decline in their living standards since reliable records began in the mid-19th century.”

Low wages for the poorest impact on everyone. If the poorest in our society can barely afford the essentials, every business that does not provide bare essentials, has a reduced market to sell in. Leisure, arts, and entertainment are the first things you stop spending money on when you can’t make ends meet. If all you can afford is a tin of beans for lunch, you won’t be able to go to the Farmers Market in Stroud of a Saturday and support local producers. The squeeze on the poorest creates a ripple, which spreads out and undermines a much wider circle of businesses, employees and reduces quality of life for many.

Before this recession, much of my work centred around custom fiction. That’s a high cost luxury product. When the banking crash came, the work disappeared. The company I had worked for folded. I’ve seen the same story repeated so many other places. Closing pubs. Empty shops in the town centre. Major high street chains disappearing. These are not unrelated issues.

Increasing the pay of MPs isn’t going to help with the real economic problems most of us are facing. It just adds to a growing sense of injustice, and widens the gap between politicians and the people they are supposed to represent.  Alongside that, depriving the poorest of benefits is not only cruel, but has a knock on effect of taking money away from the economy. Most businesses deal in non-essentials, outside of energy, housing and basic food, a lot of companies are feeling the pinch. Small, independent traders and self-employed folk are especially vulnerable, having fewer customers to begin with, and less to fall back on. Most of us are in this together, we thrive or fail in ways that are deeply interconnected. Our Government seems to be losing sight of that, with a tiny minority able to pay themselves highly as the rest of us suffer.