The reality of Tory Britain gets ever grimmer. It was revealed that thousands of young teenagers, some as young as 14, are being housed in bed and breakfast accommodation, flats, tents and caravans without any adult care. On the same day, Tory-run Torbay council pushed a mentally-ill woman onto the streets because they felt she was “resilient enough to manage” sleeping rough. Since 2010, homelessness among the young and the mentally and physically ill has increased by three quarters.
While the least fortunate in society are being cut loose to fend for themselves on the streets, the Tory government totters along towards the Brexit wire, oblivious of the hardship and damage their policies are causing to the majority of the population. Completely eclipsed by the Brexit circus, yesterday’s spring statement on the economy went almost unnoticed. For what is normally an important speech by the Chancellor, barely twenty Tory MPs, out of 314, bothered to listen in the chamber of the House of Commons.
Phillip Hammond, like the rest of the Tory Cabinet, is living on another planet, as far as most people are concerned. Economic forecasts for 2019 are for a growth of only 1.2 per cent in the British economy, the slowest in the ten years since the 2008 recession. But this, according to Hammond, “is a solid foundation on which to build Britain’s future”. The real problem – and it is completely unknown territory to this government of millionaires – is that for most people, there are no longer any “solid foundations” to their lives. Whether it is in jobs, pay, welfare benefits, homes, education, pensions, health or in any other aspect of life, what is now “normalised” for most people is insecurity and uncertainty.
The promise in Phillip Hammond’s speech, that everything in the garden would be rosy “after Brexit” cuts no ice. Everything the Tories have done for nine years is infused with the stink of austerity and hardships for the majority, while there are tax cuts and easy pickings – usually from the public purse – for the minority. Nothing is going to change as long as we have a Tory government, inside or outside of the EU.
Historic defeats in Parliament
Where exactly the Tory government is going now is virtually impossible to predict. We live in the most volatile and unpredictable political period in living memory. Having suffered two historic defeats in parliament – the biggest and the fourth biggest defeats in the history of the House of Commons – in ‘normal’ times there would be a change of Prime Minister and more than likely a general election.
The problem is that the two warring factions of the Tory Party cannot agree on a successor to Theresa May and do not want to change leader so close to Brexit. But neither do they want a general election that would raise the possibility of a radical Labour government carrying the hopes and aspirations of millions of people exhausted by austerity. So May staggers on with a resilience borne out of weakness, not strength. It is a sign of the times that the longevity of a premiership should be based on impotence rather than its opposite.
Probability scale
It looks likely now that the government will be forced by a restive House of Commons to seek an extension of Article 50, leading to a delay in the date of Brexit. How long the delay would be and whether or not the rest of the EU would agree to it are in the lap of the gods. On a probability scale – and that is the only way of trying to gauge the future in modern politics – there is a rich variety of possible outcomes over the next few months. We could have Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal, by ‘accident’ as it were, because Theresa May staggers right to the wire. Or there could be a ‘managed’ no-deal Brexit; or a long delay and a second referendum. Or a general election. Anyone claiming to be able to see the future with any certainty is a liar or a fool.
The only certainty for the vast majority is uncertainty in terms of their daily lives and their living standards. Labour Party members are clear, therefore, what the best outcome would be – a general election. If an election was called, either before or after a Brexit, it would change the whole political landscape overnight.
In 2017, as a result of the mobilisation of tens and hundreds of thousands of Labour members and supporters, Jeremy Corbyn managed to cut a 20-point poll deficit by nine-tenths by Election Day. Millions of young people particularly were inspired by the energy of the campaign to register and come out to vote. The language of that radical campaign – with policies “For the Many and not the Few” – was the key factor in mobilising so many, and such was its impetus that had the election been held two weeks later, Labour may well have won.
That has to be still the rallying call today. In or out of the EU, the economic system is rotten to the core. Capitalism has had its day and offers nothing to the big majority of the population except endless austerity. Labour must offer an alternative.
In the area of homeless and housing alone, socialist policies could turbo-charge a Labour campaign. A policy to nationalise land and the big house-building companies, with the establishment of a National House-building Corporation to build a million good, affordable homes a year – could find a wide echo in the population, particularly among young people. It would provide jobs and the prospect of a decent home for millions. Labour needs to make sure it is not lost in the Brexit circus that is the House of Commons. It needs to be the voice of the homeless and those most in need and it must use that voice out in the communities and on the streets as loudly as possible.
Demand a general election now!
· Nationalise the big house-building companies and land!
· For a national house-building corporation!
· Build a million homes a year!
· Rent controls linked to the national minimum wage!
M March 14, 2019
