This country is facing disaster. Finances are wrecked, cuts are coming, services will suffer. There is no way out of this impasse within the market framework, that has been made clear. PM Brown, Leader of the Opposition David Cameron, Chancellor Darling and Shadow Chancellor George Osborne all assure us that we can get through this if we pull together and find some sort of political consensus.
Labour is dropping in the polls, trailing far the Conservatives, neither the government nor the Official Opposition have revealed how they intend to finance the country in the future, and neither is willing to talk straight about the cuts that either government will be forced to make under the current system.
They do not realise that no working-class will give up their rights and privileges, not for any political scheme, not for any public debt. The Winter of Discontent was a clear indicator of the British people in the face of crushing economic defeat. It was ironic that this was during a Labour government. 30 years down the line we find ourselves in a similar situation.
Labour has started to pre-empt the election campaign by launching a non-manifesto «Building Britain's Future» with no less than 14 competences under proposal, including a massive housing building program, a legal obligation for the government's child poverty commitments, healthcare «entitlements», jobs or training for all school leavers etc. Honestly this gives one hope that perhaps the government is listening to the concerns of ordinary Brits who fear their jobs, their homes, their health, their children's opportunities, lost.
However this does not go far enough .The Labour Party is still no longer committed to the nationalisation of the public services that are essential to everyone's well-being. The large scale industries, all public sector enterprises, must be but under democratic workers control, so that they can be held accountable for their actions and so that the public may decide how thier money is used. Only in this way can we work our way out of the crisis, when we start putting the well being of the many rather than the profits of the few, first.
Schools- Public and well funded
Healthcare- No place for private sector
Child poverty- Eliminate now
Unemployment- Massive program of public works
Infrastructure- Massive program of public works
Education- Progressive restructuring of the education system to make sure it is fair, effective, and the valued asset that it is.
Banking and Industry- Nationalise the essential sectors of the economy under workers control
These demands should not shock any Labour supporter, they are the core of what the Labour Party was found on...