A Britain that works for all

The very front page title of Labour’s election manifesto sums up both the future and the immediate past of this country: ‘Britain can be better’. Too right it can!

After five years of failed Tory-led coalition we are in dire need a better society and economy, one which assists the many and not merely the few at the top.

Its programme of austerity and its race to the bottom on wages has failed.  Tax receipts are down.  Growth has stalled.  On jobs they’ve created the ultimate flexible labour market with insecurity wrecking chances of personal prosperity and leading to national failure.  They even failed in their own terms on the size of the deficit.

They blamed the global economic crisis on the last Labour government.  With allies in the right wing media it was a message that dominated the political debate, but the reality was different.  Investing in public services after years of neglect by previous Tory governments did not cause an economic crisis the roots of which were laid by irresponsible bankers and a casino economy.

Now the Conservatives have left the country borrowing £75bn.  With this economic legacy Labour will adopt a credible economic approach, reversing David Cameron’s tax cut for millionaires to help pay down the deficit.

No nonsense

Labour’s manifesto is a no-nonsense document which will be heartily welcomed by millions up and down the land, and particularly by trade unionists who’ve done so much to fight the worst excesses of the Cameron government.

As Ed Miliband says in the foreword to the document, “we are a great country, but we can be even better.” The Labour leader also talks at the outset of “high skill, high wage jobs” and an “economy built on strong and secure foundations.”

The belief that when workers succeed we all succeed is in direct contrast not only from today’s Tories who have led to a race to the bottom with low wages and an insecure jobs’ market. It is also a repudiation of the past. It’s a repudiation of the same policies of the Tories of old – like former chancellor, Norman Lamont who infamously said that unemployment was a price worth paying.  It’s no surprise to learn that Cameron worked as Lamont’s assistant back in the day.

That we succeed when workers do is a point backed by Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.  Len responded by saying, “Ed Miliband has put jobs and social justice at the heart of this manifesto.

“We can see today that Labour wants to help people into work and build a fairer society.

“Look at the pledges to end the tax status of non-doms and scrap exploitative zero hours contacts. At last Labour is saying enough of one rule for the rich and powerful and another for the workers.”

Work and working people are themes which dominate the eighty-plus pages of the manifesto. There are pictures throughout of dockers, apprentices, teachers and nurses – and very few politicians.

Perhaps the key phrases are to be found in the section on the economy. The manifesto even echoes slogans from Unite campaigns, such as ‘Building an economy that works for working people’.

First task

Miliband says the “first task” of an incoming Labour government will be to “change the economy so that it works for all.” And at the heart of this pledge is a clear understanding of the issues that have been facing so many of us in recent times.

‘Over five million people are in low-paid jobs, earning less than the Living Wage. There are 1.8m zero-hours contracts, 1.3m are working part-time because they cannot get a full-time job. Half of those in poverty live in working households, 900,000 people, many of them in work, used food banks last year.’

None of this will be news to Unite members, but clearly Labour is focused on these issues in the final weeks of the election campaign.

Taking a long-term approach to our future there is also a ‘new industrial strategy’ aimed at reinforcing Britain’s status as a world leader in the fields of engineering and science.

“The Tory austerity experiment, the race to the bottom has failed. This manifesto gives people real hope in our future.”

one rule for the rich and powerful and another for the workers.”

There’s also to be an emphasis on workers and bosses listening to one another when it comes to ‘improving both business performance and job quality’. ‘Outdated practices, like blacklisting’, we are told, ‘have no place in a modern economy’.

Then, when it comes to apprenticeships, these are to lead to ‘gold-standard qualifications’, again something that Unite has long campaigned for, advocating a German style vocational training system.

Put all of this together with other key pledges such as increasing the minimum wage to ÂŁ8, reducing tuition fees to ÂŁ6000 a year, freezing energy bills and ‘rescuing the NHS’ by creating 8,000 more GP’s and 20,000 more nurses and a rock solid political programme emerges.

And on the dreaded TTIP Labour has given a commitment that the NHS would be exempt from the treaty – which is welcome news to both NHS workers and users.

Overall much of what we see in this 2015 Labour manifesto reflects the views and aspirations of so many Unite members, and holds out the tantalising possibility that in three weeks’ time we can consign this dreadful government to history.

As Len McCluskey says, “The Tory austerity experiment, the race to the bottom has failed. This manifesto gives people real hope in our future.”

*To see Labour’s manifesto: http://labour.org.uk/manifesto2015

Additional material by Unite political department