Political Leadership and moral decline
THE success of the Conservative Party in last
week's elections showed up the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the British
left in general. Since the death of the
former leader of the British Labour Party Michael Foot, I have been arguing that
the Labour Party has for many years been a party that has outlived its
mission. Last week's election result
merely confirmed what has been evident for a long time.
But the failure is not just that of the Labour
Party but that of the British left in general, including the trade union
movement in this country. Since the
strikes of the miners in the 1980s, the British trade union movement has been
industrially a busted flush that has politically looked to the Labour Party to
usher in social change. The unions had
no plan or serious strategy of their own other than capturing influence and
power through the British Labour Party in government. That involved them in the rather vulgar
prospect of buying political influence through the sponsoring of Members of
Parliament. In the eyes of some of their
members this has been a case of throwing good money after bad.
Last November, at the building worker's Rank and
File Conference, I watched closely as one such Scottish Labour MP, Ian
Davidson, performed as a honoured guest of the building workers. Mr. Davidson was then introduced as the M.P.
for Glasgow West, and it was he who performed so well when he recently he
chaired the Scottish Affairs Select Committee enquiry into blacklisting in the
British building trade: see the books 'Blacklisted:
The Secret War Between Big Business & Union Activists' by Dave
Smith and Phil Chamberlain (price £9.99), and Tameside Trade Union Council's 'Boys
on the Blacklist' by me and Derek Pattison (price £3). In his speech to the building workers Mr.
Davidson was careful not to offend the trade unions, some of whose paid
officials disgracefully may well have been involved historically both in the
enforcement, and supply of intelligence about blacklisting in the construction
industry. Last week after the elections,
Ian Davidson was calling on Jim Murphy, the leader of the Scottish Labour
Party, to stand down, as he and almost all of the other Scottish Labour M.Ps
had lost their seats to the Scottish Nationalists. Unlike Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband, Jim Murphy
who performed worse than either is, at the time of writing this, determined to
to stay in office.
Surely it is more than a failure of leadership
that has brought about the decline in the fortunes of the Labour Party, and in
some respects the labour movement. It is
a systemic failure that is rooted in an underlying lack of imagination and
political vision that is common, not just in the trade unions, but on the left
in general. The British left, including
the anarchists, seem to fear of self criticism.
On the eve of the election Russell Brand called on his
anti-establishment constituency to vote Labour but to no avail.
Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times last
Saturday wrote:
'Elections are decided by fundamentals that take shape
years in advance. The five-week flurry
of campaigning at the end might actually be the least significant phase of a
parliament..... But the best campaigners
understand that campaigns do not change very much: they merely uncover what already lurks
inchoately in the mind and breast of the electorate. On that score Labour lost the election long
ago.'
I can remember at the Manchester Labour Party
Conference in 2010, when Ed Miliband was anointed as leader of the Labour
Party. At that time it was seen by
some, particularly in unions like Unite, as a victory for the left. It now looks like another dose of what George
Elliot in 'Felix Holt: Radical' called 'vain expectations' from
which the British left periodically suffer.
As Labour faces another leadership election Janan Ganesh warns:
'Whoever they choose (as leader), there has to be the
all-out argument that was dodged in 2010, when the party entered a stupor of
mutual reassurance and wishful thinking.'
It is doubtful if either the the Labour Party
members or their trade union paymasters understand what is required here. Unfortunately, Mr. Ganesh doesn't help his
case when he writes:
'The consolation is that it (the Labour Party) can
choose a new leader from a promising
field. Andy Burnham, from the left, will
offer Milibandism without Miliband. The
more market friendly flank of the party might assemble behind Liz Kendall or
Chucka Umunna, the man the Tories fear most.'
Not much sign of profound vision or any great
social transformation for humanity here.
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