This is our task for 2015, whatever else you’ve got on

Posted on

Tomorrow is the day when work starts again for most people in the UK. Before it does let's just think about what we need to achieve in 2015.

We need to defend democracy from those who want to create two classes of MP, reduce the number of elected representatives we have, and gerrymander one party rule so that any legitimate means of political opposition are removed from people in the countries of the UK.

We need to prevent the slashing of public services on which most people rely.

We need to stop the wholesale privatisation of the NHS.

And to prevent private companies getting the right to sue the governemt for profits they will never make.

We need to restore union rights so that ordinary people have a chance of pursuing fair wage claims and so reverse a trend to increasing inequality.

And we need to beat tax abuse so that income and wealth can be redistributed in this country so that all with ability, whatever it is, however great or small it might be, whoever they are and wherever they come from, have the chance to use it for the benefit of us all because that is the foundation of the strong, mixed economy on which we depend.

Which is why we need to stand up to those who say that only markets meet need when day in and day out state education, the NHS, social services, state pensions, the emergency services, the social security system, our courts, armed forces and so many others who work for the state meet untold need, proving in the process that it is people's efforts that creates value in our economy and not the remote and unknown owners of the organisations they work for.

Which is why good jobs with fair pay in which continuing education plays a fundamental part for all who want them are vital for our future.

As, for the sake if those who doubt it, are financial services, which are really useful when they serve the economy, and do not control it.

But most of all we should say that any country - including each that right now makes up the UK - stands or falls on its ability to work together and that those who make it their job to divide those within a country - and those within it from those without it - whether socially, culturally or economically, are not fit to govern in the interests of all the people within that state, which is the task we expect of those put into political office, whoever elects them.

So I hope you succeed in all you want to do this year.

But I hope at least as much that we succeed with these aims we share together because, candidly, a lot of what you might want depends pretty heavily, I suspect, on our doing so.


Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:

You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.

And if you would like to support this blog you can, here: