My heart is with Jeremy Corbyn, but my head is not

Oh dear! What should the Labour party do? Who should it choose as its next leader? My heart would be with Jeremy Corbyn but for all the wrong reasons. What he says resonates with my anger at the injustice of the Tory government austerity programme. It makes the poorest pay the most for the financial crisis. But Labour needs to keep a clear head and not retreat into its comfort zone where it says 'all the right things' but could never do anything. The danger is that Labour would become unelectable as it was in the 1980s - rejected by voters election after election. Labour should not turn itself into simply a party of protest. It needs to present a coherent programme for government. It needs to face up to difficult decisions, and it needs a leader who will be able to unite the party. Jeremy Corbyn could not do that. I fear his election would be divisive and more so since so many of his supporters are using his campaign to attack 'the virus' of New Labour.

Whatever they think of Mr Blair he won three elections for Labour, and his government produced the biggest increase in spending on the NHS as per cent of GDP and reduced pensioner poverty. Whilst there is much I did not like about his period of office, there were substantial achievements, and not least the minimum wage. It is foolish not to recognise this.

Labour cannot achieve things by sitting on the opposition benches. This supreme fact the party learned during the Thatcher period. It took 18 dark years before that lesson was learned. It is vital the Labour party gets this one right else it risks alienating voters. There will be no easy path to winning elections. Whoever wins the leadership will have a difficult mountain to climb. It will take time. Labour must address the concerns of the voters and not retreat into its own 'socialist' bubble.

Labour needs not just a simple message but also a coherent voice. Sadly I do not as yet see that in any of the leadership candidates. For all that I warm to Jeremy Corbyn, and I do, he would be a comfort blanket. He says what we feel but that doesn't amount to a coherent and winning platform. When asked who had independently verified his economic plan he simply answered 'experts' but would not say who. It certainly wasn't the IFS or any other recognisable body of 'expert' analysis. He would be torn to shreds if he became leader with the simple approach he has adopted. You cannot fool the media and voters with promises that have not been costed or without a clear means of paying for them. Simply being against austerity does not mean we have no responsibility for dealing with the nations finances.

Of course we should not expect the Leadership candidates to have all the answers, But we should expect them to have some ideas about how to achieve their aims.

Labour needs a leader who will be capable of pulling the party together at this difficult time. Sadly, it is unlikely Jeremy Corbyn could do that. I fear Labour is marching into the wilderness when the country needs it most. Labour needs a leader who can reach out to voters and work with business. The economy matters.

Suddenly 'aspiration' has become a dirty word on the left. It is dismissed as it if it synonymous with greed or perverse. It is not. It means the aspirations of ordinary working families. Labour should be the party of aspiration and hope. It shouldn't go back to fighting old battles of the 1970s and 80s. But it needs a leader who will challenge the injustice in our society and who will speak up for the poorest and disadvantaged. My heart is with you Jeremy Corbyn, but my head is not.

Ian Duncan-Smith says he wants to make those on benefits 'better people'!

By any account, the government's austerity strategy is utilitarian. It justifies its approach by the presumed potential ends. It's objective is to cut the deficit, but it has also adopted another objective which is specifically targeted. It seeks to drive people off benefits and 'back to work'. The two together are toxic to the poorest in society. Those least able to cope are the most affected by the cuts in benefits and the loss of services. It is the coupling of these two strategic aims that make their policies ethically questionable. For, by combining the two, slashing the value of benefits to make budget savings while also changing the benefits system, the highest burden falls on a specific group, those dependent on benefits. For the greater good of the majority, a minority group, those on benefits, are being sacrificed; sacrificed on the altar of austerity. And they are being sacrificed in part so that others may be spared. Utilitarian ethics considers the ba...

Ethical considerations of a National DNA database.

Plans for a national DNA database will be revealed by the Prime Minister this week. This is the same proposal the Tories and Liberal Democrats opposed when presented by the Blair government because they argued it posed a threat to civil liberties. This time it is expected to offer an 'opt-out' clause for those who do not wish their data to be stored; exactly how this would operate isn't yet clear. But does it matter and does it really pose a threat to civil liberties? When it comes to biology and ethics we tend to have a distorted view of DNA and genetics. This is for two reasons. The first is that it is thought that our genome somehow represents the individual as a code that then gets translated. This is biologically speaking wrong. DNA is a template and part of the machinery for making proteins. It isn't a code in anything like the sense of being a 'blueprint' or 'book of life'. Although these metaphors are used often they are just that, metapho...

In praise of social housing and the welfare state

I will declare an interest. I grew up in a one-parent family on a council estate. I occasionally attended my local comprehensive school. I say occasionally because for the most part I played truant. I spent much of my time skipping school but walking and reading on the local common. It had a windmill which I loved. It later had Wombles but that is another story. I contemplated life under the sun. Like many others, I left school at 15 with no qualifications. My penultimate school report said they 'could see no reason why public money should be wasted on the attempted education of this boy'. So I declare this interest of a privileged upbringing. Social housing kept a roof over our heads at a rent mum could (barely) afford; and oh how I recall the days when she couldn't. She worked all hours to keep that roof over our heads. In those early days of Rock-and-Roll, Bill Haley and the Comets, Adam Faith, Billy Fury, Cliff Richard (yes I was/am a fan), the estate had three c...

The Thin End

Search This Blog