The Labour Party wax lyrical about the benefits of Socialism, the need to bring back equality, the need for a more balanced society. All ‘pie-in-the-sky I’m afraid. Socialism in all its forms always hurts the very people whom it purports to protect.
Stalin built the Soviet Socialist Republic in the name of Socialism but in order to do so he killed millions of his own countrymen and women in the process. The utopian ideal of everyone being equal is excellent but impossible to achieve. To use the old adage, “there will always be someone who is more equal than others”. Therein lies the rub, human greed and envy. To achieve equality you must work as hard as the next person in order to get parity. Unfortunately human beings are not all born equal, some are lucky enough to be born into great wealth and privilege, others are born with an inmate sense of belief in their ability to reach the top in what ever profession they aspire to. Still others are blessed with skills but no ambition.
Forcing equality upon a nation only succeeds in making everyone as poor and dependent upon the State as his fellow countryman or woman. The result is apathy and it is this apathy that the State feeds on. It is easy when you control the money, the food, housing et al to control the minds of the people that you are ruling. Stalin, Mao and Castro all used this and in so doing instilled fear and suspicion of ones neighbours. Pretty soon, son was informing on father, brother on brother, niece on uncle, all to gain that extra bit of kudos from their Masters with the hope of rising in the ‘pecking order’.
Labour supporters will tell you that what I have described is Communism which is a far cry from the Socialism that they preach on the doorstep. However let us look at the definitions of the two theories: Communism; A theory or system of social organisation in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and need. Socialism; a political and economic theory of social organisation which advocates that the means of production, distribution and exchange should be owned by or regulated by the community as a whole. However, in Marxist theory socialism is a transitional state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realisation of communism.
So, a very this line indeed and one that Labour under Jeremy Corbyn have shaved ever thinner. Given that Corbyn wins his bid for leadership of the Labour Party, expect him to pull right away from the social democratic stance of 'New Labour' and veer ever more towards the far Left.
To say that the Labour Party employs the ‘politics of envy’ would be a lie. Most of the leading lights in the Party are millionaires so I would suggest that, rather than envy, they practice the ‘politics of hypocrisy’. It is quite noble to sit on the moral high ground looking out at the underprivileged and the homeless, viewing the detritus in the wake of Capitalist enterprise. It must feel even more noble to eulogies about the plight of these people on the radio or TV. However, what follows is much less noble, drinks in the Green Room before being whisked off home or to the next media event in a chaffer-driven limousine. The irony completely lost because they are on a mission of mercy.
It is beyond sad that these people actually believe that they are giving a service to the communities of which they serve. As Churchill famously said, “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
Corbyn has released his manifesto for a fairer society:
1) Full employment and an economy that works for all:
We will create a million good quality jobs across our regions and nations and guarantee a decent job for all. By investing £500 billion in infrastructure, manufacturing and new industries backed up by a publicly-owned National Investment Bank and regional banks we will build a high skilled, high tech, low carbon economy that ends austerity and leaves no one and nowhere left behind. We will invest in the high speed broadband, energy, transport and homes that our country needs and allow good businesses to thrive, and support a new generation of co-operative enterprises.
2) A secure homes guarantee:
We will build a million new homes in five years, with at least half a million council homes, through our public investment strategy. We will end insecurity for private renters by introducing rent controls, secure tenancies and a charter of private tenants’ rights, and increase access to affordable home ownership.
3) Security at work:
We will give people stronger employment rights from day one in a job, end exploitative zero hours contracts and create new sectoral collective bargaining rights, including mandatory collective bargaining for companies with 250 or more employees. We will create new employment and trade union rights to bring security to the workplace and win better pay and conditions for everyone. We will strengthen working people’s representation at work and the ability of trade unions to organise so that working people have a real voice at work. And we will put the defence of social and employment rights,as well as action against undercutting of pay and conditions through the exploitation of migrant labour, at the centre of the Brexit negotiations agenda for a new relationship with Europe.
4) Secure our NHS and social care:
We will end health service privatisation and bring services into a secure, publicly-provided NHS. We will integrate the NHS and social care for older and disabled people, funding dignity across the board and ensure parity for mental health services.
5) A national education service, open to all:
We will build a new National Education Service, open to all throughout their lives. We will create universal public childcare to give all children a good start in life, allowing greater sharing of caring responsibilities and removing barriers to women participating in the labour market. We will bring about the progressive restoration of free education for all; and guarantee quality apprenticeships and adult skills training.
6) Action to secure our environment:
We will act to protect the future of our planet, with social justice at the heart of our environment policies, and take our fair share of action to meet the Paris climate agreement - starting by getting on track with our Climate Change Act goals. We will accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy, and drive the expansion of the green industries and jobs of the future, using our National Investment Bank to invest in public and community-owned renewable energy. We will deliver clean energy and curb energy bill rises for households - energy for the 60 million, not the big 6 energy companies. We will defend and extend the environmental protections gained from the EU.
7) Put the public back into our economy and services:
We will rebuild public services and expand democratic participation, put the public back into our economy, give people a real say in their local communities, and increase local and regional democracy. We will rebuild our economy with public investment to deliver wealth for all, across our regions and nations in a genuinely mixed economy. We will act to ‘insource’ our public and local council services,increase access to leisure, arts and sports across the country and expand our publicly-controlled bus network. We will bring our railways into public ownership and build democratic social control over our energy.
8) Cut income and wealth inequality:
We will build a progressive tax system so that wealth and the highest earners are fairly taxed, act against executive pay excess and shrink the gap between the highest and lowest paid - FTSE 100 CEOs are now paid 183 times the wage of the average UK worker, and Britain’s wages are the most unequal in Europe. We will act to create a more equal society, boost the incomes of the poorest and close the gender pay gap.
9) Action to secure an equal society:
We will ensure that the human rights of all citizens are respected and all are protected from discrimination and prejudice. We will take action to tackle violence against women and girls, racism and discrimination on the basis of faith, and secure real equality for LGBT and disabled people. We will defend the Human Rights Act and we will guarantee full rights for EU citizens living and working in Britain – and not allow them to be used as pawns in Brexit negotiations.
10) Peace and justice at the heart of foreign policy:
We will put conflict resolution and human rights at the heart of foreign policy, commit to working through the United Nations, end support for aggressive wars of intervention and back effective action to alleviate the refugee crisis. British foreign policy has long failed to be either truly independent or internationally cooperative, making the country less safe and reducing our diplomatic and moral authority. We will build human rights and social justice into trade policy, honour our international treaty obligations on nuclear disarmament and encourage others to do the same.
It makes for very good reading, the sort of manifesto that would appeal to all but those with a brain. It is when you actually study the content that you realise that this is a manifesto borne on the assumption that those who earn high salaries will pay dearly for those not so fortunate and for the infrastructure and services that Corbyn wants to obtain.
He will invest £500 billion in infrastructure, manufacturing and new industries, add this to the money he will need for his full employment scheme, his house building programme, his national education service, etc, etc and then add that to parts 6 - 10 of his manifesto and you soon realise that taxing the better off, (pre-supposing that they would stay in this country to see all their hard earned wages stolen by a greedy hard Left set of loons), will not go nearly far enough to pay for all of this. Once again Labour have employed the carrot and stick approach to politics. It looks good on paper, sounds even better when delivered from the lectern but in reality, like all Labour schemes, it is unworkable and will leave the country bankrupt. Echoes of the last Labour government under Gordon Brown.
Margaret Thatcher got it right when she said of Socialism; “it works fine until you run out of other people’s money!”
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