When people believe in change

The general election campaign is now in full swing and it may be the case that it is the spirit of hope that is blossoming just in time for the British people.
As we have seen with the election result in Greece, anything is possible when people believe change is in the offing.
There is no doubt Labour needs to bottle some of that Syriza spirit and there is also no doubt this country deserves a credible anti-austerity option put on offer to the people here.
The dramatic political changes of the past few years caused by the banking crisis and the politicising of the budget deficit have opened up debate between the right and left in Britain and in Europe. And yet this widening debate has failed to capture the Westminster elite, perhaps until now.
We know the economic trends of neoliberalism are leading to greater inequality. The austerity-push has only acted to increase the speed and severity of this inequality – even attempting to cripple whole nations to the demands of repaying debt whilst real people are put through misery.
Thomas Piketty has shown us that inequality will inextricably continue to grow if we carry on down this self-destructive path and that only a new style of interventionist policies by government can prevent this.
This, of course, is not news to us who have argued for such an approach for a long time. But it demonstrates that the challenges we face can also offer opportunities, and our task of persuading Labour to be courageous and seize the moment is a cause worth fighting for.
Ed emboldened
Ed Miliband was emboldened when he hit back at Monaco-based Boots boss Stefano Pessina, saying: “People won’t take kindly to someone who avoids paying their taxes telling them how to vote.”
One thing that unites people across our nations is their sense of fairness and the vast majority are infuriated by the tax avoidance of multinational companies.
People struggling on zero-hours contracts just to earn enough to get by don’t need lectures from billionaire tycoons – they need to know our Labour leader is on their side and not in the pockets of the bosses. Proof that Ed Miliband is at his best when he is boldest and acts with the courage of his convictions.
Labour and Ed Miliband will also do better without the sniping of former Blairite grandees attacking every progressive impulse in our party such as the mansion tax, and saving our National Health Service. Former Cabinet ministers used Labour’s 100 days to the general election to take aim at the party’s bold commitment to reverse the damaging privatisation of the Health and Social Act while implementing a 10-year plan to genuinely merge health and care services for the benefit of patients not profits.
Peter Mandelson, Alan Milburn and John Hutton would do better sticking to counting their 30 pieces of silver from their new bosses – the people they’ve always represented – and stop stabbing Labour in the back.
Milburn’s new employer, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, would stand to lose access to lucrative new opportunities by any reversal to the opening up of the NHS to private healthcare contained in the Health and Social Act provisions.
The electorate is today poised between fear and hope. Fear is the basis of the UKIP menace – blame someone else for all the problems, usually immigrants or foreigners, and seek refuge in an imagined past.
As we move closer to the election, it is hope that people are seeking from their leaders. Hope that life for them and their children will better in the future. Hope that the government people elect will put their needs ahead of the established interests of the monied elite.
It was Tony Benn who said “The crisis we inherit when we come to power must be the occasion for fundamental change – and not the excuse for postponing it.” Labour should embrace that spirit of radicalism and be the change people seek.
• This article first appeared in Tribune, February 8