Vot e Labour in the General Election

In this general election, the British people face a choice, a choice between the same old reactionary Tory Party, a dedicated partisan of the interests of the powerful, the rich and the greedy, and a renewed social democratic Labour Party that has a plan to secure economic recovery and make Britain a more socially just and humane society.

A worldwide financial crisis, triggered by the US housing market, has engulfed the world in the past few years, causing a global recession. Labour did not, contrary to what the other parties might say, ‘cause’ the recession – unlike previous recessions under the Tories in the 80s and 90s, it was the result of the interdependence of the world economy, not domestic economic policies.

Labour’s response was bold and prevented the financial crisis from triggering a second Great Depression. The plan to stabilise the world financial system and re-capitalise the banks was Gordon Brown’s plan, which lead Nobel economics laureate Paul Krugman to say that the Labour government acted with a “combination of clarity and decisiveness hasn’t been matched by any other Western government”. The Tories opposed this bold interventionist approach and would have let the financial system sink, the consequences of which would have been catastrophic.

During the recession that nonetheless followed, Labour took crucial action to ameliorate the effect of the recession. Help for families facing repossessions, billions invested to ensure that young people are ensured jobs or training, help for businesses in terms of deferring tax, the car scrappage scheme, increasing benefit and tax credit payments, the VAT cut; all are Labour policies that gave a boost to the economy and helped the UK return to growth. This has meant that house repossessions and unemployment stayed far lower than in previous recessions despite the recession being a deeper one this time, and all of it was opposed by the Tories, who don’t care about the social consequences of recessions.

We will continue to boost the economy and protect people from unemployment by creating 200,000 new jobs through the Future Jobs Fund, of which at least 120,000 will be targeted at 18-24 year olds. We will guarantee a job or training place for all 18 to 24 year olds out of work for six months. We will also invest in Green Jobs, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the industries of the future that will help us combat climate change.

We will ensure that the costs of the recession and paying off the debt fall on those with the broadest shoulders, through measures such as the 50% marginal income tax rate on high earners, the bankers’ bonus tax, closing down tax avoidance schemes, and cutting tax benefits for the rich in terms of pensions. This is in contrast to the Tories, who want to give tax breaks to their rich friends via changes to inheritance tax and tax relief for fat cats’ pensions.

We will stay relentlessly on the side of ordinary working people, children, pensioners, and the vulnerable, by increasing the minimum wage at least in line with earnings, increasing child benefits, protecting the network of Sure Start centres giving children the best start in life, introducing a new tax credit for toddlers, introducing a new National Care Service to look after the elderly in their homes, and re-linking the state pension to earnings. We will introduce a Living Wage for all government employees and contracted-out workers. Outrageous interest from doorstep loan sharks will be capped. We’ll make the Post Office a ‘People’s Bank’ to ensure that all have access to affordable financial services.
We’ll also ensure that the economy becomes more responsive to the long-term needs of society and its people by a raft of legislation designed to bring about mutualisation in the public and private sector, so that both enterprise and public services are democratically accountable to society, taking social objectives and long-term stability into account above short-termism and private greed. We will, for example, mutualise Northern Rock and the British Waterways, and legal and tax barriers will be removed to make it easier to create new John Lewis-style mutuals with employee buyouts of public companies. We’ll also make it easier for local communities and supporters to take democratic control of football clubs and pubs.

We also care passionately about Climate Change. This Labour government has introduced the most radical legislation on Climate Change in the whole world, committing government to 80% cuts in carbon emissions by 2050. It is also implementing a national plan to make these cuts a reality, by huge investment in renewable energy directly and via a Green Investment Bank, by improving the energy efficiency of homes and businesses, by installing smart-meters in every home, and many other practical policies.

Our social record on things like gay rights speaks for itself; we have enacted a legal and social revolution in favour of tolerance by repealing the hated section 28, introducing civil partnerships and equalising the gay age of consent. Labour MPs have the best voting record on gay rights. Given that the man who will be Home Secretary if we lose the election is a man who thinks it’s OK for B and B owners to turn people away for being gay, this is not a small deal; it’s a huge deal and it’s a Labour achievement, and it’s a legacy that only Labour will defend in government.

In terms of Cambridge locally, voting Lib Dem will not make a Tory government one iota less likely. The Lib Dems won’t come clean on what they will do in the event of a hung parliament; they have not ruled out a coalition government with the Tories. The fact is that the Lib Dems will go with whichever party has most MPs in a hung parliament. The balance of forces between Labour and the Tories will determine the complexion of the next government. The Lib Dems will go whichever way is suggested by the balance of these forces. The question: what would you do in a hung parliament? is one that the Lib Dem candidate for Cambridge CANNOT answer, because he knows that its answer could involve him becoming lobby fodder for a reactionary Tory-Lib Dem government. The brutal fact is this: vote Lib Dem, get David Cameron. The only way to keep the Tories out and enact a bold programme of social democratic reform is to vote Labour.

Ultimately, we can list all of our policies until we are blue in the face, but in the end it comes down to basic values. If you believe in a fairer deal for the working man and woman; if you believe in compassion, social justice, a society in which the rich pay their fair share to fund world-class public services and help for the less fortunate; if you believe in a society where social objectives such as full employment, dignity in retirement, greater equality and democratic accountability to the needs of local communities are put before private profit; if you believe that there’s something bigger than greed and that the underdog needs sticking up for, do the right thing. Vote Labour.