I have received an email from The Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn inviting me to help write the Manifesto for the Next Election.
Well, happy to oblige.
Key points from the last Manifesto were:
Taxation
Public Ownership of Utilities
Education
Welfare
Increases to Police and Firefighters
A commitment to International Co-operation over Security
The Manifesto was radical and raised questions about justice, fairness highlighted in the title,
For the Many, Not for the Few
The title is crucial. Increasingly over the last two Parliaments the Tories have ruled extensively for the few. The rhetoric about austerity is that we are all in it together.
But the evidence deeply contradicts this assertion.
Any independent observer would, as many have, will draw attention to the constant attack on the poorest in society, the exponential rise in the number of food banks, the constant attack upon and reductions in benefits paid to the poorest in society and those who are disabled, the massive increase in the number of children in poverty, the increasing numbers of people who, as evidenced on National TV, are earning their poverty, and the massive rise in the ratio between earnings in companies, between the shop floor and the Boardroom.
It is clear that the best mechanism for equalising pay differentials is via Income Tax, but as has been pointed out by The Institute for Fiscal Studies, whilst an increase in the threshold could raise significant funds, possibly as much as £7 Billion, and increase in the top tax rate could simply result in 'mass avoidance' resulting in a lowering of funds for the exchequer.
My preferred option has two distinct halves, a bit like Glen Hoddle's game of two halves.
The first is to impose a limit on the pay ratios paid by companies.
The Equality Trust demonstrates that in FTSE 100 Companies the ratio is over 200:1
Local authorities demonstrate more constraint at 15:1 and Charities even more at 10:1
In my Manifesto I would like to see a legally enforceable requirement to reduce these ratios. The figure clearly will be a matter of debate but a ratio of 25:1 across the board would begin to bring some element of fairness and justice into the workplace and demonstrate a tangible commitment to improving the life chances of the many whilst imposing a fiscal discipline on the few.
The second significant factor in my Manifesto would be a commitment to a basic income for all.
There is a debate about the basic income but writers and commentators from America to Europe as well as in the UK have argued convincingly that the basic income has very few downsides whilst actually increasing the life chances of the poorest in society. On must ask, what is not to like? The financial circumstances of the poorest will be enhanced and apart from the reduction in pay disparity ratios the financial circumstances of the few will not be materially affected other that in a marginal increase in taxes paid.
In my Manifesto Public Ownership would be key.
As a child born outwith the Health Service in 1945 I grew up in inner Manchester conscious that I had a share in public utilities. The water from the tap, the railway I took from school to home, the Buses I rode, the gas that warmed the house and cooked the food was British Gas and the electricity was a separate company, parcels were delivered by British Road Services and the Post Office and the Telephone were, like the BBC part of my birthright as a Citizen.
The came Mrs T and privatisation tore a path through our understanding of what a utility was it is marvellous how private companies, to use a phrase that I have used before, always seek to privatise profits and socialise costs, so the private companies are in fact heavily subsided from Virgin Trains to Water Companies to BT to British Gas, by the tax payer but the profits, which are not routinely re-invested, are paid to executives and shareholders of the companies in question.
The Labour Party in the Kingdom of Bevan fought tooth and nail to imagine, to implement and to introduce a National Health Service free at the point of need. The Tories fought hard against it.
In my Manifesto the NHS should have the privileged position of not even being debated it must be defended from the incompetence of Tory re-organisation, their version of the permanent revolution and the desire of Virgin to acquire and own everything all at once.
I would seek to return to a commitment, first seen in the immediate post war years, to the re-establishment of social housing. Good quality homes reflecting the old Parker Morris standards, built and maintained by local Authorities for the immediate and permanent benefit of their rate and council tax payers.
Any Manifesto must have a detailed and well thought out economic, social and political philosophy once my main Manifesto points have been agreed and adopted society would look more just, more fair and would serve the interests of the many over the few. Welfare would be addressed through the the basic income, as I know myself having lived with a partner increasingly disabled initially by Multiple Sclerosis and then by Breast Cancer the support that we received from benefits paid to cover the increased costs of living with the conditions, the support from Motability the pressing needs faced by those with disabilities often require the practical response of an investment that is both financial and heavily reliant on a network of adult social care and the third sector to enable life to be lived as fully as possible and enjoyed.
The security that we should feel living in our own home with friends and neighbours is crucial to well being. To be able to enjoy public spaces safely and without fear of attack, to be able to travel both within the UK and further abroad, to cross borders freely and to know that we can travel and arrive safely are all essential public goods and must be protected.
For this reason my Manifesto would disarm, cancel the Trident replacement, eschew all wars whether for regime change or otherwise and continue to work with partners within the UN and the European Union. Brexit is a self harming fantasy foisted on a gullible population by those who had much to gain and little to lose.
Well Jeremy I hope this helps and look forward to reading what you and your colleagues have made of it when the next Manifesto is published and I hope that the new document will be read by the many and not the few.
Well, happy to oblige.
Key points from the last Manifesto were:
Taxation
Public Ownership of Utilities
Education
Welfare
Increases to Police and Firefighters
A commitment to International Co-operation over Security
The Manifesto was radical and raised questions about justice, fairness highlighted in the title,
For the Many, Not for the Few
The title is crucial. Increasingly over the last two Parliaments the Tories have ruled extensively for the few. The rhetoric about austerity is that we are all in it together.
But the evidence deeply contradicts this assertion.
Any independent observer would, as many have, will draw attention to the constant attack on the poorest in society, the exponential rise in the number of food banks, the constant attack upon and reductions in benefits paid to the poorest in society and those who are disabled, the massive increase in the number of children in poverty, the increasing numbers of people who, as evidenced on National TV, are earning their poverty, and the massive rise in the ratio between earnings in companies, between the shop floor and the Boardroom.
It is clear that the best mechanism for equalising pay differentials is via Income Tax, but as has been pointed out by The Institute for Fiscal Studies, whilst an increase in the threshold could raise significant funds, possibly as much as £7 Billion, and increase in the top tax rate could simply result in 'mass avoidance' resulting in a lowering of funds for the exchequer.
My preferred option has two distinct halves, a bit like Glen Hoddle's game of two halves.
The first is to impose a limit on the pay ratios paid by companies.
The Equality Trust demonstrates that in FTSE 100 Companies the ratio is over 200:1
Local authorities demonstrate more constraint at 15:1 and Charities even more at 10:1
In my Manifesto I would like to see a legally enforceable requirement to reduce these ratios. The figure clearly will be a matter of debate but a ratio of 25:1 across the board would begin to bring some element of fairness and justice into the workplace and demonstrate a tangible commitment to improving the life chances of the many whilst imposing a fiscal discipline on the few.
The second significant factor in my Manifesto would be a commitment to a basic income for all.
There is a debate about the basic income but writers and commentators from America to Europe as well as in the UK have argued convincingly that the basic income has very few downsides whilst actually increasing the life chances of the poorest in society. On must ask, what is not to like? The financial circumstances of the poorest will be enhanced and apart from the reduction in pay disparity ratios the financial circumstances of the few will not be materially affected other that in a marginal increase in taxes paid.
In my Manifesto Public Ownership would be key.
As a child born outwith the Health Service in 1945 I grew up in inner Manchester conscious that I had a share in public utilities. The water from the tap, the railway I took from school to home, the Buses I rode, the gas that warmed the house and cooked the food was British Gas and the electricity was a separate company, parcels were delivered by British Road Services and the Post Office and the Telephone were, like the BBC part of my birthright as a Citizen.
The came Mrs T and privatisation tore a path through our understanding of what a utility was it is marvellous how private companies, to use a phrase that I have used before, always seek to privatise profits and socialise costs, so the private companies are in fact heavily subsided from Virgin Trains to Water Companies to BT to British Gas, by the tax payer but the profits, which are not routinely re-invested, are paid to executives and shareholders of the companies in question.
The Labour Party in the Kingdom of Bevan fought tooth and nail to imagine, to implement and to introduce a National Health Service free at the point of need. The Tories fought hard against it.
In my Manifesto the NHS should have the privileged position of not even being debated it must be defended from the incompetence of Tory re-organisation, their version of the permanent revolution and the desire of Virgin to acquire and own everything all at once.
I would seek to return to a commitment, first seen in the immediate post war years, to the re-establishment of social housing. Good quality homes reflecting the old Parker Morris standards, built and maintained by local Authorities for the immediate and permanent benefit of their rate and council tax payers.
Any Manifesto must have a detailed and well thought out economic, social and political philosophy once my main Manifesto points have been agreed and adopted society would look more just, more fair and would serve the interests of the many over the few. Welfare would be addressed through the the basic income, as I know myself having lived with a partner increasingly disabled initially by Multiple Sclerosis and then by Breast Cancer the support that we received from benefits paid to cover the increased costs of living with the conditions, the support from Motability the pressing needs faced by those with disabilities often require the practical response of an investment that is both financial and heavily reliant on a network of adult social care and the third sector to enable life to be lived as fully as possible and enjoyed.
The security that we should feel living in our own home with friends and neighbours is crucial to well being. To be able to enjoy public spaces safely and without fear of attack, to be able to travel both within the UK and further abroad, to cross borders freely and to know that we can travel and arrive safely are all essential public goods and must be protected.
For this reason my Manifesto would disarm, cancel the Trident replacement, eschew all wars whether for regime change or otherwise and continue to work with partners within the UN and the European Union. Brexit is a self harming fantasy foisted on a gullible population by those who had much to gain and little to lose.
Well Jeremy I hope this helps and look forward to reading what you and your colleagues have made of it when the next Manifesto is published and I hope that the new document will be read by the many and not the few.
Hear hear
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