It would be all too easy this morning to feel overwhelmingly despondent, but I have already done with that.
There could be some quiet satisfaction that Cameron and Osborne are going, but without a general election I can have none.
What we have got is a country in a mess. And that requires responsibility, including the obligation to deliver a very clear narrative for an alternative Britain that can provide the future that the people of this country very obviously think is being denied to them.
What is that vision? I could spend hours, weeks, months and years working on that, but I think it's needed now. So this is it.
I want a country that puts people, and not money, first.
That means a country that invests in each person providing them with the skills they need for the job they're doing, the job they want and the one that they may have no choice but take for the time being.
This means a country where we deliver education free from cradle to grave.
It means no more student debt.
It means writing off the debt there is.
It means access to learning.
It means real training.
It means that anyone coming to the UK has to commit to this programme. And learn English and have or learn a skill we need, and do it where that work is required in exchange for the opportunity given. That means a country where migration us welcomed for what migrants offer and not just what they have as yet, but which has to be of real value.
And I want a country where we can house people well at prices they can afford. Markets are not delivering that so government, local authorities, mutuals and others must do so.
In this country I want sustainability to offer my children a future: the vision of every building a power station has to be delivered.
And I want a country where people have a say. Through unions. In their workplace. In a democracy where every vote counts.
To achieve this I want finance to be a servant, not a master, in an economy where risk can be contained by appropriate regulation.
If this is to work there must be tax justice.
And a respect for each person that requires the reversal of so much that has hit our poorest and our disabled people so hard.
But most of all I want a vision of a country where we do not see people as commodities in a market plavpce where flexibility can be demanded so that each and every one of us can be exploited. Instead I want people and their hopes and aspirations to be at the epicentre of every policy.
We have not had an economics like this for decades.
It is what we need now.
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Keep fighting Richard, hope is everything. The Labour neolibs with media friends look set now to twist the knife, as they attack Corbyn leaving extreme Tories to run riot unhindered by the EU. Decades of flawed ‘opposition’ in the UK and in the EU have effectively gifted ultra-rights that even Thatcher determinedly opposed the 2015 General Election and massively adjusted the conditions to suit them.
Too true Brian. Buzzfeed is already reporting that Margaret Hodge has submitted a motion of no confidence in Corbyn.
Ben Bradshaw and (surprise surprise) Peter Mandelson are calling for a figure from the ‘centre-left’ as if that kind of voice would have made the slightest difference to the result here.
Frankly I can’t see what else Corbyn could have done given the chastening experience of aftermath of the Scottish Indyref.
Your vision is indeed absolutely correct Richard – and I continue to be optimistic that it can be achieved and if anything is now more likely now business as usual is not an option.
Labour-right not expecting to beat Corbyn, so why? I think they are going for a split, Tim Farron already blasted Corbyn on the EU in prep for a join-up. Aim to oust Corbyn can’t be done, so Plan B means split the party and weaken his chances if early election. They like neoliberalism more than democratic socialism, much more, simple truth. And they don’t want to stick around post-Chilcott with Corbyn likely to slag them off.
Though – I think it will actually free Corbyn to build with the Greens etc and without PLP nuisances in the way the progressive fight-back could start.
Richard, I think despite setbacks it might all pan out and in few months you could be positively involved in big strides forward with that Courageous vision.
I admire your optimism
I have hope but let’s see
Peter Mandelson asking for a “Centre Left” leader is laughable – Corbyn IS a centre-left figure! What he wants I suspect is a centre-right Labour leader, and is hoping we continue to believe that the Tories under Cameron are centrist!
Richard, if I am not still blocked then I would like to say that I completely agree with you on all your above points and look forward to the opportunity to continue to find ways to achieving all of this and more!
What has happened, has happened. It is now the responsibility of all those on the left of politics to re-group and continue to fight against a Tory party who will still be fighting for exactly the opposite of all of these things.
The wolf in sheep’s clothing may have gone, but the rest of the wolf pack is still circling!
Keith, I think we really need to get away from the tribalism and the right/left stuff. I’m a capitalist through and through, I voted Remain but I’m not distraught by the outcome. The real battle is still neo-liberalism it is a corruption of the socially moderated capitalism that worked. We would have been fighting it in Westminster and Brussels, now it’s just Westminster. But the Brexit vote may well lead to Brussels having to change to keep the rest of the EU together.
People led is my new catchphrase(thank you Mr Murphy) and getting people onside will come via empathy and education not adversarial shouting matches.
But capitalism (in all forms) fosters and encourages tribalism Alastair – it is called competition and pits capital against labour, nation against nation, company against company, CEO against CEO, etc etc etc.
I agree that the worst effects of capitalism can be moderated through effective regulation, but every time any country introduces better regulation on capitalists, they seek to undermine it, avoid it or have it evoked. And so we go round the merry go round once again, and again, and again.
There is a solution, but not many of the current winners of capitalist competition like it. Because if capitalism is so good for all of us, then let’s see the ownership of all capital (and its surpluses) shared equally amongst all of us.
Are you willing to give up your private gains for the sake of humanity? Or do you support the continuation of this economic tribalism you claim to dislike?
(Richard this is my last post today I promise!)
Keith, short answer is yes, my belief is in a mixed economy going from state control/ownership of the essentials down to a free for all. Basically what we have but tweaked and underpinned by a liveable UBI. Personally I would love to see the creativity and innovation the freedom of a UBI could bring.
I don’t agree with your assessment that tribalism = competition though I accept that the lines can get blurred. We create the framework within which competition exists, that it has been corrupted by regulatory capture doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed.
It can be fixed Alastair but I don’t know how we reverse 40+ years of neoliberal globalisation which has created corporate oligopolies bigger than most nation states. It is that creeping undemocratic corporatism that is most damaging to our societies in my view, but it is the inevitable end game of state sponsored private financial capitalism which the early socialists saw as being so insidious and is now reality.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-rise-of-the-corporatocracy/5532097
Vision
And sound argument
That is all that ever changes things
Oh, and the arts
Keith, you bring up nothing but valid points and there is a part of me that shares your pessimism, and more. But I have to admit that allowing my own pessimism to win out can only be a negative.
your hopes are indeed what a society should aspire to. Good people, hold the elected to account, more so now. Our new trading partners, eventually, must put people and animal welfare high up the agenda. That especially goes for the fox hunting fraternity in this country.
Those who care must stay vociferous. It just cannot be said that all the leavers are racist, as a lot are, my dear sister is a leaver and is a defender of the underdog, whatever hue, but our children are disappointed. Your voice needed still Mr Murphy.
I just wish that all of us who share & support your vision had a political party that we could get behind who would deliver it! Feeling better having read this though. Thank you.
That is a slight problem
Katherine – there is a Green Party that could and should accommodate your ideals and aspirations. Admittedly it needs to ratchet up its rhetoric in a more dynamic and digestible form, and shake off its lingering hippie image once & for all. The Green Manifesto is deliverable given more effective party management. While Caroline Lucas has done a valiant and stalwart job almost single-handedly, it seems she doesn’t resonate extensively with a wider public. Maybe someone more like Dr Jill Stein from the US Green Party? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7hEfgxSJ44.
This was posted on Facebook, by Paul Jackson:
Today of all days THIS must be remembered.
Fascism: I sometimes fear…
“I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.
Fascism arrives as your friend.
It will restore your honour,
make you feel proud,
protect your house,
give you a job,
clean up the neighbourhood,
remind you of how great you once were,
clear out the venal and the corrupt,
remove anything you feel is unlike you…
It doesn’t walk in saying,
“Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.”
Micheal Rosen
‘protect your house,’
Well…that’s one thing into WON’T DO because the finance capitalism fascism we’ve got now relies on the housing asset bubble for the ‘rentier’ class -they won’t let that change, that is for sure.
Then we will fight fascism as an enemy of the UK. Extreme sections of society will try it on, be they products of a public school or otherwise. I have faith in the inate good sense of UK citizens to ‘play fair’. Quiet people must speak a little louder.
Innate, dimwit.
Can we fight this sort of Fascsim? I use the term maybe because I am very upset, but Margaret Hodge is leading a coup against Corbyn, blaming him for Camerons’ Referendum failure.
I feel quite sick. I thought for a few months that I had really got my Party back, with its anti austerity, it PQE, and its caring nature. Now I am really worried. The thought of the Tory Blairites succeeding is leaving me with complete despair.
http://www.channel4.com/news/margaret-hodge-calls-for-no-confidence-vote-in-jeremy-corbyn
Good lord. Every system of government comes into power using some variation of the above statements. Every elected leader is elected using some version of the above statements.
“Fascism is bad,” say the fascists, solemnly nodding as they discuss how best to make the people shut up so they can ignore their wishes; bemoan the fact that the people are too stupid to allow teenagers to make all governing decisions (as if sixteen-year-olds are somehow much wiser and better than everyone else); attempt to devise ways to stop the people from speaking; plot how to keep the people from choosing their own representatives because the people cannot be trusted to choose “correctly;” and insist that the people should not be permitted to keep what they earn and own but should instead be forced to share it with those the fascists favor. Fascists always think they know better than those dumb goons who make up the rest of the populace.
Does any of this sound familiar to you?
It should.
If you do not understand nuance then you clearly do not understand what Andrew was saying
There is loose talk about fascism and it certainly is a danger, but other evils are possible. An essential characteristic of fascism is the assumption that the state has the right to direct all aspects of individual life and endeavour in its own interests and the supposed interests of the citizenry as a whole, thus leading to the loss of liberty and to an aggressive state (consider that old text by Randolph Bourne, ‘War is the Health of the State’) – aggressive both against other nations both within and without.
Historically fascism has been associated with right-wing politics but it can equally grow out of socialism – and of course ‘national socialism’. Right-wing libertarianism, whilst it remains that, is inimical to fascism , though they may draw on common feelings and desires and head towards similar dooms.
Our own right-wing conservatives, might be seen as more ‘libertarian’ than ‘fascist’ – though it is possible to have elements of both, contradictory thought they may be. It is certainly possible to see (if one can ignore the likely knee-jerk political outcry) ‘fascist’ tendencies, of some degree but holding an important place in their essential make-up, in the Blair Labour governments – in an idea that society can and should be ‘managed’ towards desired outcomes in its members’ assumed best interests. We are very much living with that legacy now and we should not forget it in dealing with the present upheavals in the Labour party. ‘Blairism’ is not just about economic management or internal party history.
All government assumes it knows best interests: it has to
Fascism assumes that knowledge is complete
Democracy admits doubt
This sounds like a great country to me. Certainly one worth fighting for.
If you’re looking for an explanation of ‘Why?’, Douglas Adams nailed it thirty years ago in ‘The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy’: we are Europe’s ‘Ark B’.
Like much of Douglas Adam’s writing, it’s hilariously funny when you see them play it out, and very un-funny indeed when you realise that it strikes too close to home: so let me summarise the story.
Golgafrinchum is a magificent planet of philosphy, art, science and poetry, whose guiding geniuses discover that society consists of three distinct populations: the Thinkers – philosphers, scientists, artists, poets, Leaders; the Do-ers – farmers, engineers, skilled tradesmen and workers; and a useless ‘middle third’ of marketing excutives, management consultants, heirdressers, salesmen and telephone sanitisers.
The middle third are a drag on society and the Thinkers have a brilliant idea: start a series of scare stories – plagues, angry gods, giant mutant star goats – and there’s a co-ordinated media campaign insisting everybody has to leave…
Fast-forward to Book Two in the series.
…Our protagonists – the Hitch Hikers of the story – find themselves aboard Ark ‘B’, a giant space ship carrying a frozen hibernating cargo of millions of advertising executives, hairdressers, telephone sanitisers and salesmen; the ship is captained and crewed by blithering idiots and programmed to crash on arrival.
Oddly enough, nothing was ever heard of Ark ‘A’ and Ark ‘C’, carrying the Thinkers and the Do-ers: there are rumours that they were all wiped out by a virulent disease lurking on a dirty telephone.
I’ll ruin the story if I tell you where they are going to land.
It’s hilarious: read the book, Ark ‘B’ is one of many, many funny things in there; and it’s suddenly very unfunny when you recognise the crew and passengers of Brexit Britain.
Greetings, fellow telephone sanitisers, marketing executives, and bankers.
Thank you, Richard. Always positive, always constructive.
We need to work on it.
We now have a new area of operation and the points you have listed above, Richard, would certainly form the basis of a fairer society for the future.
“Finance should be a servant not a master” – how vital it will be to bear this in mind. A big challenge lies ahead and we must act together in a strong and orderly manner, in order to maintain the confidence of our trading partners, as we have done in the past.
Let’s not give up yet. Redemption may come in the least expected form; BoJo.
Although he clearly has reservations about the EU as it currently operates, who doesn’t, I don’t believe he was ever a committed brexitologist. I think he simply threw his hat in with them so as to improve his chances of being the next Tory leader. Well now’s his chance.
He could use the interregnum to meet with various EU leaders, assess how far they are willing to go to keep the UK in the EU, agree a few heads of terms, come back for his coronation and then agree a whole new deal not just about the UK’s relationship with the EU but also about what the EU is fundamentally for. He’d then put that to a re-referendum, win by a landslide and be a hero at home and abroad.
A BoJo premiership is not something I’d wish on my worst enemy but putting up with one until 2020 may be a price worth paying to protect peace, unity, prosperity and democracy in these islands and the continent as a whole.
Don’t scoff. Nixon went to China. Leicester won the league. It could happen.
That’s the definition of optimism, I think
The most encouraging thing I’ve read all day! Certainly Boris is devious enough to pull it off.
Just surfacing having stupidly sat up last night for far too long. There’s so much excellent comment being published both here and elsewhere that there really isn’t much to add other than to endorse wholeheartedly your analysis and recommendations. As always in life … time to learn the lesson and move on.
From all I’ve heard and read it really does seem that for the millions of disaffected Labour voters in the post-industrial towns & cities, who delivered Farage’s dream for him, this has been more of a bi-election than a rational appraisal of our EU membership. And, yes, uncontrolled immigration is a ‘genuine’ fear that’s not going to go away, even though the Brexit protagonists have no realistic solution. There are now over 65 million displaced people on the planet: http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2016/6/5763b65a4/global-forced-displacement-hits-record-high.html
Yes, there’s a mountain to climb in order to restore social stability and economic progress. So, maybe time stand back from the mêlée and be philosophical. As a courtesy to our soon-to-be abandoned friends across the Channel, there is a French idiom which could apply here in a positive way: ‘Parfois il faut reculer pour mieux sauter’ (sometimes you must step back in order to jump better).
The strategic struggle must now focus relentlessly on debunking the Neo-liberal ideology, especially as the voters have unwittingly just traded one version for another. Hopefully, as the promised land fails to materialise, they will awaken to realise they have been ‘groomed’ and ‘conned’. But it won’t happen any time soon.
Tactically it is vital to find and elect new progressive leaders asap. Whoever emerges will have to be uncompromisingly and confidently tough with the MSM. It’s time to take off the kid gloves and get stuck into delivering a manifesto of the the socio-economic programmes you have identified. Hopefully this referendum will act as an electric shock to activate brand new initiatives.
” … for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” (Galations 6-7).
Here endeth the lesson! Wishing you all a preaceful weekend.
Thank you – in the haze of despair, it’s a relief to find sanity and hope. The vote of no confidence, though, doesn’t leave me… confident. In default of the PLP acting like adults, and in the supposition that they have either sold out to the corporate lobbyists or are just so inherently neoliberal that they can’t see past their own egos, I am searching for a way to implement this.
Do the forces of progression have a suitable alternative candidate if the PLP does oust Corbyn?
If not, is there a political way to create momentum behind someone who can do this?
Need to keep an eye on the farm subsidies that rich landowners are going to take a hit on. Will the new leader address the shortfall.
Nothing yet on farmsubsidy.org. Money for them or for the NHS.
And… because we need a good dose of irony once in a while:
https://twitter.com/LewieP/status/746349711691386880
Paul Mason has a plan, too:
https://twitter.com/LabourEoin/status/746317551244820480
Very close to my views
‘Have to say I agree with all that – and more.
It’s a long way off though and WHO will deliver such a programme? Already the knives are out for Corbyn. Unbelievable.
This is a bad day.
So much so that the new Radiohead album sounds positively cheerful!!!
But as I said, if things don’t improve for the precariat, what or who is there left to blame once we are out of the European Union ?
That is my source of hope to be honest – but it will take time to materialise – not doubt about that in my view.
‘what or who is there left to blame once we are out of the European Union ?’
Excellent point PSR and one that has psychological depth.
What happens when the scapegoats and the decoy arguments run out? The people need to think and star thinking hard because the shysters in Westminster have been trying to stop us doing that for years. We then need to grow up and think about what sort of society we want and do this thinking for ourselves rather than listening to mouth-farting megalomaniacs.
Can we rise out of the 40 year sleeping sickness?
There’s a world of blame for Europe being stacked up as we speak. Every part of the negotiation will be broadcast as ‘evil Europe bullying proud and unyielding Britain’ – anything that goes wrong will be Europe’s fault, not that of the austerity budgets and sales of public services that will run rampant. The cuts to councils will be Europe’s fault, the havoc in the markets will be Europe’s fault.
They have a scapegoat for eternity….
/sigh
The absurdity of the protest vote now becomes all too apparent:
“Leave voter regrets voting Leave when he realises it means we’re now Leaving”
http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/leave-voter-regrets-voting-leave-when-he-realises-it-means-were-now-leaving–Z1btq_FnVW?utm_source=indy&utm_medium=top5&utm_campaign=i100
I’m sure he is not he only one.
Marco-LEAVE is the protest vote for most but it is one fed on misconceptions.
As I said before I do NOT regret my ‘active’ abstention.
I agree 100% with this. Keep up the good work Richard I am heartened knowing there are articulate people out there putting a sensible case.
So: With Richard and Paul Mason together, we have the beginnings of a progressive agenda – far saner, more grounded than anything coming out of the political parties.
How do we gather, unite, organise and take this forward into action?
Paul and I will be talking
That’s a huge relief. I just listened to Radio 4’s Helen Lewis/Peter Oborne talking a lot of sense and am thinking this:
UKIP just successfully positioned itself as the party of ‘the working poor’ – who are, it seems in the main little-England xenophobic, misogynist homophobes. Not all, obviously, but then Old Labour fit those labels quite well and when they say Labour has moved away – they may be right. UKIP is our equivalent of Trump and they have a massive following among the tabloid readers.
Where does that leave Labour? As a party of middle class progressives and young, educated multiculturalists – the same constituency as is votes for Sanders? I think it may. We are a red-green coalition with a lot in common with the Green party
There is a ‘Clinton’ constituency of ageing white neoliberals with vaguely liberal social ideals – – the right of the labour party and the left of the Tory party.
and there is the hard right of the Tory party which represents the white, male elite.
so actually, we may be looking at some serious political reconfigurations and the sooner we accept this, the better.
And Jeremy Corbyn, much as I hate to say this, is not the man to lead whatever becomes of the progressive/green coalition.
I have no idea who is, though…
We need urgently to find someone who isis a) progressive and b) has the charisma and leadership skills to match Boris in a General Election in November.
Love reading this Richard Murphy, undoubtedly brilliant. I have a teenage daughter and my son who is two, with people like you dedicated to fairness for all it gives me hope for them. We have disagreed recently on the EU but that’s due to just how intense things have been.
I have teenage sons
I have promised to do all I can for their futures
Which means I will be for your children’s too
Thank you from me and my family.
We’re all in this together
Ukip just successfully positioned itself as the party of ‘the working poor’ — who are, it seems in the main little-England xenophobic, misogynist homophobes. I’m sorry this is very harsh. I live in south Yorkshire and undoubtedly there are people that fit your description, but these people who I work along side, and they are vastly in the minority just didn’t vote they don’t care, their those from the 30% that didn’t vote. Whatever you feel, there were compelling legitimate reasons for the out vote. I’m just grateful that Richard who was for remain, will I know fight for fairness and justice for people like me.
A thought:
IF (when) Boris calls a General Election – and IF he hasn’t triggered Article 50 by then (as per today’s FT)
then the party which says it WON’T trigger it – is essentially creating a second referendum
say Labour runs on ‘not going to trigger Article 50’
and the Tories run on triggering it (which actually, if they have any sense at all, they wouldn’t do)
then we’re in effect, running the referendum again – with people having time to reconsider.
I’m guessing you’ve read the NEF blog?
http://www.neweconomics.org/blog/entry/brexit-the-immediate-risks?post_id=1638021763138522_1730549867219044#_=_
The FT was interesting though:
http://blogs.ft.com/david-allen-green/2016/06/14/can-the-united-kingdom-government-legally-disregard-a-vote-for-brexit/?siteedition=uk
Manda
No one will want to use article 50
That will be yet another thing the UK will not want