Every other day, Labour is calling for the General Election to be held. On its timing, the only certainty is that it is going to be later this year as the Prime Minister will not trigger an election campaign over Christmas.
When Labour call for an election, we should imagine that they have a fully worked out and costed plan. They should be able to build up their narrative and inspire the country with their vision. Tony Blair did when he was leader of the opposition ably assisted by John Prescott who became our Deputy Prime Minister.
Between Sir Keir and Angela Rayner, the wannabe future PM and his deputy, you would be hard pressed to find any vision for the future. A pay rise for public sector workers? More money for public services? Structural reform to embrace modern ways of working and new technology?
Having ditched most of his policies, most recently the £28Bn per year on a ‘Green Industrial Strategy’, there is nothing left – almost. It would be unfair to say that Sir Keir’s cupboard is wholly bare because there are two policy agendas that he has kept as his priority.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide is a policy area that Sir Keir Starmer has kept his commitment to delivering. It is an extraordinary possibility that, following the Covid-19 lockdowns, war in Europe and war in the Middle East, one of the few policies that he is clear and consistent about pursuing is how to have the NHS offer euthanasia as one of its treatment options.
Negotiating Britain’s border controls with France is the only other clear policy that Sir Keir has although we do not know what the French President will demand or permit. I appreciate that Rishi Sunak is struggling with immigration but progress is being made with his Rwanda plan. This is one of those areas where we could genuinely say that Starmer and Rayner will take us “back to square one”.
In the absence of a Labour vision for Britain, we have to work out what a left-wing or socialist political party would seek to do. We can look at their mayors and what they have supported in Wales and Scotland.
Just like in Wales with its 20mph speed limits, the Labour mayors have been staunchly anti-car. Until the public backlash, the GM admin area was going to impose a 493sq mile charging zone following London’s ULEZ.
Identity and its politics has been the hot topic in Scotland and the Hate Crime Act is just the last iteration of a moronic policy agenda. The Scottish police have been swamped with over 8,000 complaints which will all have to be ’taken seriously’ and therefore the police will take time off investigating actual crimes.
Labour and the SNP could not work out how to include women’s rights in the legislation but did include religion. Scottish Labour voted for what will in practice be a putative blasphemy law.
This coming General Election will be an odd one.
This article was originally published in the Wigan Observer on 13th April 2024: https://www.wigantoday.net/news/politics/chris-green-mp-the-next-genera…
