A STORM IS COMING
by Solomon Hughes, from Morning Star
My children sometimes look up at me and say: “Daddy, what does a Tory government look like?” Gazing down at their gentle faces, their eyes full of wonder, it is hard to tell the truth and pour the poison into their innocent ears.
It is hard to gaze down on them because my eldest boy is taller than me and his brother is not far behind.
I find standing on the kitchen table helps, but my wife has been discouraging these tabletop lectures.
There is another reason it is hard to explain.
“A Tory government will rule for the rich and try to force us to pay for the crisis. Working people get pay cuts to pay for bankers’ bonuses,” I say.
They reply: “No Dad, tell us what a Conservative government looks like - we know all about Labour.”
A decade of wasted opportunities and wasted lives under Labour makes it easy to think a Tory government will not make much difference - especially when, as Roger Bagley reported in Tuesday’s Morning Star, Gordon Brown launches a bidding war with the Tories, a Dutch auction where the winner cuts the public sector most.
But I think there are two significant differences between a Tory and a Labour government.
The first is all about the electors, not the elected.
The higher David Cameron’s vote, the more confident his gang will feel about slashing and burning wages and conditions.
They will wield the machete more confidently if they think much of the electorate believes somebody should feel its blade.
If millions of fingers mark their crosses next to the Nasty Party, then that party will feel ready to be very nasty.
Labour politicians might be ready to carry out similar cuts, but they know the vote for them means the electorate does not agree with those plans.
How trade unionists and campaigners resist these cuts makes a huge difference, but the election sets the scene.
The second reason is that Labour still has a biological relationship with the trade unions. The link has not worn away yet.
Labour has been embarrassingly keen to show off its new corporate chums, like a middle-aged bore with a trophy wife.
The unions have been treated like an embarrassing uncle with “funny” habits or a grandparent with a touch of flatulence - they get invited around for the Xmas meal, but they are stuck on the edge of the table and hustled out the house somewhere between the Queen’s speech and the big blockbuster movie.
But they were invited.
And this has left some marks on the government, such as the minimum wage and increased social spending.
The Tories do not have these links and this changes how they rule.
A strong Tory government elected by millions of voters is going to be more aggressive than a weak Labour government that was forced, to some extent, to articulate the feelings of working people.
We need to think now what a Tory government will look like.
It is a bit like that scene in the Terminator movie, where the Mexican kid warns Sarah Connor: “Viene tormenta!”
There is a storm coming and we need to know which direction the robot destroyers from the future will attack us if we want to beat the Cameronators - or at least survive in our underground bunkers.
Number one is, of course, cuts.
Labour has increased spending on education, health and welfare.
The numbers of nurses, doctors and teachers went up.
Labour under Tony Blair undid a little of Thatcher’s damage by taking on more staff.
Blair and Brown spent a lot of time sticking new Labour flies into this extra social ointment - academy schools, foundation hospitals, privatisation and so on.
And you can bet that a Conservative government will hang on to many of these ugly additions, maybe with a little rebranding.
But they will reduce the level of ointment. A Tory government means a jar of flies.
Of course Labour increased expenditure during a boom and it is now considering cuts in a depression.
Right now former Labour advisers are getting new jobs as advisers to the Tories so they can advise that a lot of other people will lose their jobs. But the Tories will cut deeper and faster.
Right-wing think tank Reform recently called for a million public-sector workers to lose their jobs.
The “Reform” wonks honestly say that teachers, nurses and other front-line staff must go.
The Morning Star outlined a few of the links between the Tories and Reform on Wednesday, but I want to focus on one.
Sir Christopher Gent sits on the Reform advisory board. Gent is also a long-standing, £100k Tory donor. He bunged another spare 11 grand to Cameron this September.
Cameron likes Gent so much that he put him on his new “economic recovery committee” to advise the potential future PM on how to run the economy.
The Reform website describes Gent’s business career - but misses one job.
From 2003 until its collapse, Gent was a director of Lehman Brothers. One of the bankers behind the current crisis wants to slash nurses’ jobs to pay for his mess and he has Cameron’s ear.
Regulation is the Tories’ second target, especially the regulations Labour was forced to pass by its union backers.
I don’t think the Tories can easily repeal the minimum wage. But they can refuse to raise it.
Worse, I think they will “suspend” it as some kind of “emergency” recession measure. They could argue that youth unemployment means the under-25s should be exempted.
The CBI wants to get out of recession by tearing up workplace conditions, arguing: “A more flexible workforce should evolve with some firms that might mean a smaller core workforce and a larger, so-called flexi-force.”
The Tories will be keen to tear up already weak laws on union recognition and temp workers to make this happen.
As Unite organiser Ian Woodland asked, will the flexi-force get flexi-mortgages? Flexi-bills perhaps, only to be paid when the flexi-boss pays the flexi-money?
Maybe the flexi-force will have flexi-employment rights.
So a Tory government will want to bend us and twist us to become their flexible friends.
We are going to need to grow a lot of backbone in 2010.
A Tory government would definitely be more aggressive in its cuts even than Labour are planning to be. So everyone on the left should vote Labour unless there is a serious left candidate, such as for Respect, who can genuinely win a seat.
If the Tories get in, they will quickly become very unpopular indeed.
So we can expect all sorts of racist crap as they scramble to divert blame in the usual ways.
Comment by little black sister — 11 December, 2009 @ 2:07 pm
“My children sometimes look up at me and say: “Daddy, what does a Tory government look like?” Gazing down at their gentle faces, their eyes full of wonder, it is hard to tell the truth and pour the poison into their innocent ears.”
“There is a storm coming and we need to know which direction the robot destroyers from the future will attack us if we want to beat the Cameronators - or at least survive in our underground bunkers.”
This reads like the writer was on acid!
Comment by Jonny Mac — 11 December, 2009 @ 2:14 pm
# 1 little black sister.. spot on.
Andy is right and the title reminds me of the the final comment of Sarah Connor in The Terminator ‘A Storm is Comming’.
I am shitting myself.
Comment by mark anthony france independent candidate for Bromsgrove Constituency — 11 December, 2009 @ 2:19 pm
#3- are u still campaigning for local govt workers to be sacked?
Comment by jj — 11 December, 2009 @ 2:44 pm
#4 jj yep… especially if they are lazy incompetent fools who put vulnerable human lives at risk. Are you still a ‘witchunter’.. merry xmas and a happy new year.
Comment by mark anthony france independent candidate for Bromsgrove Constituency — 11 December, 2009 @ 2:58 pm
“Daddy, what does a Tory government look like?”
Look around you
I am sick of those flexi lefties who cannot see the Neo Liberal Labour Tories for the Conservative Party
The Labour Party and its god awful members have led us to this economic catastrophe after a short excursion wading through blood in Iraq.
Now we are supposed to
back this bunch of warmongering, neo liberal, privatisers?
You think we should vote for rightwing privatisers like
Milburn,Hewitt,Blears,Mandelson,Blunkett,Johnson,Fields,Abbot and Skinner?
You have a flexi mind and you aint using the flexi
Comment by Red Bandits Going Rogue — 11 December, 2009 @ 3:04 pm
@6 well said and i know this is a bit boring but let get on and build a left party ,hell you never know it migth push new labour back to the left
Comment by steelcityred — 11 December, 2009 @ 3:34 pm
Vote Labour! = Vote for those, who amputate only your arms and your left leg!
Vote Labour! = Vote for those, who amputate all your arms and legs!
Vote LibDem! = Vote for those, who will probably amputate not all your arms and legs!
Comment by Entdinglichung — 11 December, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
Vote Labour! = Vote for those, who amputate only your arms and your left leg!
Vote Tory! = Vote for those, who amputate all your arms and legs!
Vote LibDem! = Vote for those, who will probably amputate not all your arms and legs!
Comment by Entdinglichung — 11 December, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
Eugene Debs:
‘Better to vote for something you want and don’t get, than vote for something you don’t want and get.’
Comment by Anonymous — 11 December, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
As it happens, the proposition that the Tories will be more aggressive cutters than Labour can never and never will be tested. If the Tories get in, we know for certain that Labour would once again position itself 2 degrees to the left of the Tories in order to prove that they are really on our side but this too would be no proof that they would have been less willing or less agressive cutters than the Tories. It’s a nice, warm illusion to hang on to, though, and, hell, we all need nice, warm things to hang on to.
Comment by Michael Rosen — 11 December, 2009 @ 4:53 pm
Cast your mind back to 1979. We face a venal, incompetent, corrupt Labour government which has attacked trade unions, cut workers’ real wages for three years running, increased unemployment to 1 million, passed racist laws, fuelled the growth of the National Front, sent more troops to Northern Ireland….How could Thatcher be any worse?
Comment by chjh — 11 December, 2009 @ 4:59 pm
It doesn’t matter who wins the next election. We’re still gonna have to fight to defend our class and build our own party. Bring them on. Bring them all on…
Comment by Pete — 11 December, 2009 @ 5:13 pm
What a poor article. ‘Please sir can we have some crumbs off the table’-this amounts to most of the pro-Labour arguments on this blog.
In the real world people are embracing themselves for cuts and savage attacks on the public sector regardless of who wins the next election.
In Scotland, and we need to remember this point, there is a chance to break up this elected dictatorship forever and follow a different path.
Comment by Owen — 11 December, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
The Class pay the Trade Unions who finance the Labour Party, who in turn shite on the Class who pay the Trade unions, who finance the Labour Party, who in turn shite on the Class who pay the Trade Unions, who in turn shite on the Class who………………………………….
Comment by The boy who sees everything — 11 December, 2009 @ 6:08 pm
“How could Thatcher be any worse?”
I don’t know but she managed it. I remember the fridge being full in the 70’s and then the tories got in and it was hand to mouth.
I look out of the window now and don’t see the economic catastrophe that some see. The social unrest in the 80’s was far far worse.
I fear a Tory government could bring us back to those dark dark days.
Let the motto be onwards and upwards..Tell the Tories to fuck off.
Comment by SteveH — 11 December, 2009 @ 6:13 pm
I’m called Solomon not Soloman, but otherwise I am glad you think it is worth posting. I am not on Acid, but I do try and add a bit of colour and humour to my column (understand this is one of my regular Friday features columns from the Morning Star Andy has cross posted).
Otherwise, I am not sure how a column that says “A decade of wasted opportunities and wasted lives under Labour makes it easy to think a Tory government will not make much difference” can be seen as a “pro Labour argument”. The two points I am making are this:- The ruling class rule, in part, throught the political system, so of course the elections make a difference to how they rule. A Conservative election victory will embolden their class and confuse and demoralise ours, and so will speed up and intensify the attack. Secondly, while Blair and Brown have tried to rule as, shall we say, pro banker warmongers, there are differences between the personnel, the habits, the instincts of Conservative party and the Labour Party . I think this might change some of the contours of the attacks - specifically I think some move against the minium wage is quite likely, and on workplace regulations generally. I don’t mention it here, but worth pondering is the Conservatives professed aim to limit union funding of the Laboru party to £50k/year (which I suppose some other people on the left might may even view with mixed feelings)
Comment by Solomon Hughes — 11 December, 2009 @ 7:18 pm
# 12 is bang on
we may have many enemies
let us truly understand what their basis is
each is uniquely wrong and each must be weighed up as a whole
we have only interest, as one theorist says, and that is the working class and the oppressed people of this world as a whole-any, and i mean ANY -attempt to argue they (enemies) all the same, when they are not, is collusion with the worst of them
cutting off your nose to spite your face is one way of summing it up
and it is a crime when other people’s lives , literally lives, are at risk
get it?
Comment by sylvia ebberly — 11 December, 2009 @ 8:06 pm
12.’ast your mind back to 1979. We face a venal, incompetent, corrupt Labour government which has attacked trade unions, cut workers’ real wages for three years running, increased unemployment to 1 million, passed racist laws, fuelled the growth of the National Front, sent more troops to Northern Ireland….How could Thatcher be any worse?’
Chjh if you cast your mind back to 1979 you might remember that trade unions and constituencies parties which had a membership of activists rooted in communities could were able to have real voice in determining the future of the party. Within 2 year Tony Benn came within an ace of winning the deputy leadership of the party. Of course the Tories will be worse than new labour. In 2009 New Labour hasn’t a cat in hell’s chance of winnning the next election (though the Tories MAY still lose) and even less chance of being a force for change in the intersts of working class pepole.
In 2009, as in 1979, the task of socialists is to build a party which not only wins elections, but fights for working class interests. The difference is that THEN, that could and needed to be done bt calling for a labour vote, NOW it most certainly cannot. Solomon’s ambiguous piece suggests that it might, and is being used here to fuel to Andy’s entirely unambiguous assertion that it can and that, except for in handful of constituencies (where conversely he exaggerates the chances of electoral victory for left of labour candidates — especially if they are standing in isolation from a united natioanl campaign), socialists should abandon any attempt to build an independent voice for socialism until (at least until after the election.
I’m not sure of the degree of your ambiguity, but I think your comparison is plain wrong.
Comment by paulm — 11 December, 2009 @ 9:06 pm
A storm is coming.I thought it has been and they are now building a bigger better version of what it destroyed.One can surmise what the next new government will do,one thing is certain, those standing in the puddle that the trickle down financial theory drips will be in a far more financial distress.
The call for fiscal responsability and the usual bullshit that the politicains will be spouting tighten our belts, we all have to make sacrifices, all lead to the same thing restructuring.And as recently witnessed by the banking fiasco that will be to the benefit of the monied class.
The left at this time are by their factionalised structure in no posision to combat this proposed storm.The Respect and Solidarity parties make take votes at the next election however little to be effective.So popular or not the left has to have a coming together if it is to progress its ideals and comitment for a better future for those that they staunchly represent.
Comment by jim mc donald — 11 December, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
#19. Thatcher was worse than any Tory government since the 1930’s. She, emboldened by her victory led an all out assault on the vestages of the organised working class. The most class conscious and militant section, the miners. By use of brute force, the media and with help from the “enemy within” the miners organisations and the class collaborators in the labour heirachy smashed the NUM. The tories attacked the concept of public services and the community, invoked many of the social problems that affect society today. If Cameron and his yahoos get in power with a large majority the attack on living standards, pensions and public services will dwarf that of Labour’s. That is not to say we must accept Labour’s programme of cuts, the unions have to stand up to them. At least perhaps it will nudge many Labour MP’s into opposing the chancellor’s austerity measures. By setting yourself adrift by promoting a new left party or refusing to vote is allowing the Tories carte blanche. The left has to unite around the People’s Charter pressurise their Labour candidates to support it and advance a programme of public ownership, public services for the people not profit, abandoning Trident and so forth. Working people are looking for answers and only the left can supply them. Otherwise they will turn to the BNP.
Comment by Alfie — 11 December, 2009 @ 10:19 pm
Cast your minds back to 1929-31 Labour. When the crisis hit then, the options, not mutually exclusive, were
a) come off gold standard. Today’s equivalent - letting the currency fall. This is happening now - but so much manufacturing has been destroyed - more than under Thatcher - that it’s having little effect on our balance of payments. So that weapon is blunted.
b) cut Govt spending. This broke Labour in half and led (via a run on the pound) to the National Government, which did make cuts. No party at the time considered printing money, which is how the current deficits are being funded. Whoever gets in will have to make cuts - the only question is whether we’ll need a sterling collapse/gilts strike to force them (Labour win) or whether they’ll be done straight off (Tory win).
b) introduce tariffs. Not many people know this, but the UK actually weathered the depression relatively well compared to the US. Tariffs plus ‘Imperial Preference’ did a pretty good job, considering. But it’s unlikely we’ll do tariffs - we’re in the EU so we can’t - and anyway, no Empire, and no ’sterling currency area’.
we did all 3 in the 30s - and while it was bad, it could have been worse.
But now ? Cuts are the only option. We have no other choices bar the Weimar/Zimbabwe route.
Be great if it were otherwise and we could trade our way out of recession.
But we don’t make things any more to trade with !
Comment by Laban — 11 December, 2009 @ 10:47 pm
What a dreadfully mawkish style that fails to effectively communicate some valid points. And why only one sentence per paragraph? What does this say about how the Morning Star views its readers?
Comment by Madam Miaow — 12 December, 2009 @ 2:20 am
It’s like facing those old men in the balcony in the Muppet show here. I’d best get my coat then…
Comment by Solomon Hughes — 12 December, 2009 @ 10:59 am
i’ll get my coat to!
Comment by mark anthony france independent candidate for Bromsgrove Constituency — 12 December, 2009 @ 11:42 am
Sorry, Solomon. Nothing personal. You do actually make some very good points.
Comment by Madam Miaow — 12 December, 2009 @ 1:29 pm
Well, mawkishness & paragraph breaks aside, this is an excellent article.
Comment by Noah — 12 December, 2009 @ 2:33 pm
My comment at #12 was aimed at those people arguing that the Tories won’t be any worse than the current government (and not at Michael Rosen’s comment - I hadn’t seen that when I wrote mine). I wasn’t trying to be ambiguous, merely making the point that the outcome of the election matters.
It’s true that the biggest danger facing the working class in 2010 is the next government, whover they are, but who they are, and how big their majority is, will help to determine how and where the attacks come. The more important question is how we get ourselves into a better position to resist.
Comment by chjh — 12 December, 2009 @ 3:12 pm
What working class? Round our way its just drunks with 50 inch plasma tellies and five kids by three different women/men who burgle each other on a rota and call the cops on each other for ‘looking at me funny’.
We need to keep nurses and teachers but yep I’d say there are a million plus wasters in councils advising us on how many carrots we should eat, writing press releases and worrying about transgender issues who we could sack in order to reduce tax on the productive few who make things and employ people.
You lot are barmy, but it is funny watching you panic.
Comment by webby — 13 December, 2009 @ 10:14 am
“My children sometimes look up at me and say: “Daddy, what does a Tory government look like?” Gazing down at their gentle faces, their eyes full of wonder, it is hard to tell the truth and pour the poison into their innocent ears.”
And say, “Well son, the Tory government was just like the Labour government, but without tuition fees and compulsory ID cards. Oh, and no Parliamentary careers for compliant union leaders or clapped out tankies willing to cut a deal.”
The sheer, tragic pathos is beyond description.
Comment by Big Ron — 13 December, 2009 @ 11:43 pm
“And say, “Well son, the Tory government was just like the Labour government, but without tuition fees and compulsory ID cards. Oh, and no Parliamentary careers for compliant union leaders or clapped out tankies willing to cut a deal.””
T’is funny how history likes not to repeat itself, as such, more distort itself through echoes….
Comment by Passing Leftie — 14 December, 2009 @ 9:46 am
aside from the usual trolllike remarks that infest this site there is the serious question of how the left should respond to a likely Tory Govt.
They clearly intend to go on an offensive against the public sector and working class
The key for me is that although they may intend to smash us, they also have to respond to the real circumstances that exist,
This gives us hope in affecting what the outcome is
I do not have the answers but I think I have the right questions and that is a start
Tom
Comment by Tom — 18 December, 2009 @ 7:02 am