“For a People’s Britain, not a bankers Britain”
First let me say how much I appreciate the work of the Morning Star. It is the paper which has a 100 percent record of supporting the struggles of our union.
It is also excellent to see how it tackles important international questions from a left perspective.
So, long may the Morning Star prosper.
At the TUC Congress this year, delegates carried a motion calling for the nationalisation of the financial sector.
Congress also carried the General Council statement which said that the government should direct the banks it already owns, to increase lending for productive investment.
In my view, these policies go to the heart of the debate about the economic policy of me.
To get out of recession, and to promote sustained growth, we have to have a government led investment programme.
Private companies are on an investment strike. Over 750 billion pounds is held by such companies in banks. They are waiting for wages and benefits to collapse further, so that their rate of profit is lifted to the level they regard as acceptable. This really is the action of predators and parasites.
The government can lift the economy by promoting infrastructure programs and by restoring public services. Only by putting Britain back to work will income to the government increase again. It really is ironic that the public sector’s deficit is increasing as a result of the Coalition’s policy.
For the CWU’s part, we would like to see serious government investment in the promotion of super-fast broadband. We believe that there should be a universal service obligation upon the government, and the Telecom companies, to provide this. We also believe that a major round of public investment is necessary in Royal Mail to secure the next-generation of services that the postal industry can provide.
This really is an alternative to the senseless moves to privatise Royal Mail.
The Labour leadership has to grasp how important it is to offer an alternative to the Coalition government.
We cannot simply rely upon voters becoming disillusioned.
We need to restore hope to the electorate by showing how Labour will make a difference to their daily lives.
Ed Balls made a breakthrough with his Bloomberg speech in 2010, which correctly predicted the disastrous outcome of austerity during a recession.
We now need him to present “Bloomberg 2” where he gives a broad outline of how Labour will return the economy to sustained growth.
Central to this has to be an incoming Labour government’s determination to build the economy.
It is not wasteful or irresponsible to invest public money in the economy.
It is simply the only way that the economy will be lifted out of stagnation.
It is obvious now that the Coalition government is in serious difficulties.
Its economic policy has failed by its own measures.
Its agreement has been broken on the issues of House of Lords reform and constituency revisions.
So there is every chance they will not make it to 2015.
Even the bookies agree that the next government is likely to be a Labour government. Good, we must work for an early end to this Coalition, and for a majority Labour government.
It is then depressing to see some in our ranks making overtures to the Lib-Dems.
Now that they are drowning we do not throw them a lifebelt. They are as responsible as the Tories for the abysmal policies of the Coalition.
We should aim to govern without them.
If we fail to achieve a majority at the next election then we will need to consider our relationship. But that would be necessary because of our failure.
Let’s not prepare for failure now.
We can lift the vision the majority of the electorate. Our vision has to be of a majority Labour government leading a sustained recovery expansion of the economy.
Not only can this win us the election – it can also raise the body of labour and trade union activists to secure that victory.
Thanks for listening.
