quotes from today's guardian. I'd be interested to hear which bits our loyal new labour activists disagree with:
"Tony Blair’s assertion of a society in which poverty and social exclusion are on the decline is simply preposterous.
Here are the facts: Britain has the worst social indicators of any nation in western Europe. We have the highest rate of child and pensioner poverty; the lowest-paid workers working the longest hours; the most underfunded healthcare and education provision; the highest-paid corporate and management executives; and the highest prison population. Life expectancy for males in the poorest parts of the country are comparable to developing countries, and we hold the onerous title of the most violent society in the western world, according to UN figures.
New Labour, rather than a party of the millions, is a party of the millionaires. Our society has never been more polarised, and fanned by reactionary statements and speeches from Blair and his cohorts, a culture of Islamophobia and vigilantism permeates the police and security services at the same time as our judicial system has come under sustained attack.
The most delusional aspect of Tony Blair's self justification is that "we have a proud economic record".
In fact, New Labour has given up on a conventional economic system that distributes purchasing power through wages. It is running an economy where earnings are supplemented by a supply of low-interest credit channelled through the housing market and coming out loaded with debt. The result is that people reach the limit on their credit cards, after having made over too much of their salaries to pay the mortgage, while the young cannot afford houses at all, the land underneath having risen above the value of the bricks and mortar.
Blair (and the so-called opposition) pander to middle-aged owner occupiers by letting house prices spiral out of control in a way that not only wrecks Keynesian demand management but corrupts the democratic process. If, as Blair thinks, New Labour has worked a minor economic miracle, why is everybody so pissed off?
