“His Warnings were spot on… this time

could be our last chance”

Facing The
Future

The Country needs a One Nation Labour Party

as its facing the biggest threat to democracy
since the outbreak of the Second World War.
This is the Roadmap.

Ewemade Orobator
The Author correctly predicted the Conservative Election Victory of 2015
when all major pollsters said otherwise. He now shows Labour how it can
unite the Country and save democracy as we know it.

1
Table of Contents

Foreword ................................................................ 4
This Booklet May Change Politics for Good. .................................... 4

Introduction ............................................................. 5
I warned our out of touch Labour Leadership . ............................... 5

Chapter 1: Challenges, Corporates and China ................... 11

This truly is a new world ......................................................... 11
We need to change our way of thinking for good. .......................... 14

Chapter 2: The European Question ................................ 19

The Audacity of Hope Must Step Forward .................................... 19
A future outside Europe. ......................................................... 21

Chapter 3: Why Democracy Matters ............................... 23

Not for 800 years has rights and democracy seen this. ................... 23
Labour Must Be The Proud Champions of Democracy ...................... 28

Chapter 4: Tomorrow’s World Today ............................. 32

Progressive Politics is about leading positive change . .................... 32

Chapter 5: Why we must deal with the deficit NOW ........... 37

Chapter 6: The Big Idea Is Still Relevant ......................... 45

Now is the time to tackle the Tax Question for good . ................... 45
Transforming Tax towards the Peoples’ Politics ............................ 46

Chapter 7: Conclusion ................................................ 50

If Labour does not listen and lead we will lose again . .................... 50
The Challenge For Labour –Change Politics, Change Britain.............. 54
The Prize could not be bigger but the loss cannot be more severe. ... 57

2
 Short Dedication

To my wonderful granddaughter Luna. I dedicate this book to you and

the tens of thousands of grandchildren across the country who need the
current generation to face up to its greatest ever threat .

To contact the Author write to infor@empowerservices.net

3
Foreword
This Booklet May Change Politics for Good.
Tempting though it is for us to believe, as Ewemade consistently argues it
would be a huge error for Labour to believe revulsion with ConDem cuts alone
will bring it back to power.

The Coalition have tapped into part of the British psyche with its argument
against Big Government. A possible majority of voters believe that Labour was
too authoritarian In Government, and that this argument can be extended
beyond law and policing through to our public services. This Libertarian “Little
Englander” argument is at the heart of Nick Clegg and David Cameron’s
thinking and is somewhat at odds with traditional Labour values.

Like many others, I joined the Labour Party because of a belief in equality,
fairness and social justice. These concepts do not figure in the ConDem
Governments policies or strategies, but are widely shared by the British people.

Ewemade’s booklet offers ideas where we can move beyond a cuts v spending
argument to create a society where our Labour values can meet the challenges
of a new age of openness and transparency. His ideas truly could change
politics for good, and will help to contribute to a debate we need to take place
throughout our party.

Louis Blair
Branch Secretary – Lewes, Ringer and Ouse Valley Labour Party

4
Introduction
I warned our out of touch Labour Leadership .
In the aftermath of the 2010 General Election results and the
return of coalition politics for the first time since the 1970’s, I sat
down and wrote a detailed “Thesis” on the challenges facing the
new labour leader –Ed Miliband. Between 2010-2012, I wrote and
updated “In Place of Deficit”
Immediately I stated “... history is always right. However,
history and an understanding of the British politick, leads to two
reliable conclusions for the future.” So what were they?
Quoting directly from this book I said:
“Firstly, the idea that the old politics is dead as the evidence
from the first two years has shown is sheer and utter poppy cock.
.... The day the next General Election is called is the day of
reckoning for the coalition and the true nature of the partnership
will once again and that fundamentally exposed.
Secondly, what history shows us is that Britain is best when it
has a coalition of ideas led by a party of conviction. Perhaps the
biggest and certainly most enduring legacy of the last Labour
Government was peace in Northern Ireland. Yet it was a
Conservative Government that took the brave but necessary steps
towards starting the process. Devolution proposed by and
delivered by Labour and now being led by the Scottish
Nationalists.
And the National Health Service, Labour greatest achievement
was championed by Liberal politicians at its birth. “
In Place of Deficit was a rallying call for the Labour
Leadership at all levels to recognise great challenges, take
advantage of the fact that the Liberal Democrats would never be
trusted again and as the only recognised national opposition, we
should prove the “ability of Labour to strike at the very soul of
the peoples hope and ambitions for this country...”

5
 In the aftermath of the 2010 defeat I sent early copies of the
publication to ALL of the Labour leadership candidates and said:
“......the challenges the party face are the greatest in its
history and the ideas it must develop must be of that ilk and yet
must keep true to the values that inspired Hardie, Attlee, Bevan
and Blair.”
So imagine my despair when in January 2016, the Committee
chaired by Dame Margaret Beckett published its Report on Labours
crushing election defeat. It reported that Labour’s lack of
economic credibility, its reputation on benefits and welfare and
Ed Miliband’s leadership as factors in the defeat. It says the seeds
of defeat were sown well before the short election campaign, and
claims that the party “certainly did not lose the campaign on the
ground”
At the Olympic Games in 2012 as a Volunteer helping London
to enjoy the games, I said to the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls
“... you need to develop a strategy for when the economy
recovers”. Free informed advice again and again ignored. So that
was a humble party member speaking to the future would be
Prime Minister and his would be Chancellor asking them to face
the future. And both of them of course ignored me.........
Incidentally, I wrote the booklet because in 2010 with the
Liberal Democrats in bed with the Tories, I knew we were the only
credible national opposition in England and this was unique
situation and unique opportunity. Complacent about UKIP was I?
Go look at your history books and you will find that they were at
3% of the national vote – yes 3%. Instead they went on to fill the
ground that Labour should have filled lock stock and barrel.
I take absolutely no comfort about being proved right. You
can look at my free book and see its ideas there and I repeat
much of them again in this publication. I hate that at least eight
of the things I predicted would happen, did happen. The most
serious was I said Labour is likely to face the Election with the
Tories in the lead, with the deficit falling, having to commit to
less tax and spend and that “the discredited Liberal Democrats
cannot and will not be trusted again. “

6
 So what is the situation in 2016 and the outlook for 2020? This
booklet will address this once again, the challenges, the context
and the chance for Labour. The country cannot afford it to fall on
deaf ears again.
1. Whilst the Country rejected Labour in 2015, it needed our
last Prime Minister (and if we do not heed this booklet, it
will be our last Prime Minister) to save the Union from
Cameron’s near split of the Union. Now the country will
need the help of the new Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn
and all of our labour voters to avoid the calamity of a
Brexit. Once again the polls are wrong about who is in the
lead and/or the extent of that lead but whatever the result
it will result in the most daunting challenges for our Party
and Jeremy Corbyn has shown some leadership around his
fantastic prophecy of a Tory Bonfire of working rights, won
by Labour in Europe. However his leadership must extend
to a Europe with Britain in and what Labour would do if
come 2020, we are out. If we are to be taken seriously as a
credible alternative Government, then let’s set out our ship
that will sail us through whatever the storms may bring to
the sea. And we must set out either course NOW.

2. I truly understand the thirst for our party to establish clear

“red water” from this truly double dealing, deceitful,
incompetent, shallow, inefficient, ineffective, corrupt,
mendacious, fraudulent, shameful, lying government. I can
hear Ian Duncan Smith, who resigned from the Government
saying I could not have said it better myself. Hold on.. ?
However, via In Place of Deficit I also warned that; “Labour
must show that we are hearing the pain of the powerless.
We must show that we are not deficit deniers but that we
have a plan for growth that is credible and sustainable.”
The very reasons for our rejection prophesied and yet we
elect Jeremy Corbyn and his plans from the 1980’s. The
desperate of this country do not need a feel good comfort
blanket from a noble, honest and committed politician.
They need power, they need Government they do not need
protest and naval gazing. I made repeated reference to

7
 Bevan in my previous publication and I quoted how he knew
that the Tories understand what power was about and the
essential bargain that it had to make with it to keep it.
They have always understood that. That is why they threw
out their most electorally successful Prime Minister ever
BEFORE she got defeated and another leader (Duncan
Smith) before he even got the chance to be defeated.
Record party membership, new enthusiasm for a change of
how things are done should not be confused with a path to
power. We are best when we speak to every part of this
country. Tony Blair knew this and won three times. We will
rue the day, when we and the country pay the price for
forgetting this very basic lesson. With all my heart, I am
praying that Jeremy Corbyn proves me wrong. Sadly the
May 2016 Local Elections have proved me right so far. And
let’s not talk about the humiliation that is currently
Scotland.

3. Across the globe, hate is on the raise. From that truly

arrogant and dangerous Trump in the States to those who
kill in the name of one of the great and most peaceful
religions of history. Now is not the time to send out weak
and hopeful messages. Now is the time to show that
Obama’s Audacity of Hope was not just an inspiring read.
The forces of conservatism slowed and derailed his hopeful
agenda but also we must learn from his inability to
translate hope into coherent policy and conviction through
everything we hope to do.

4. As in my last publication, the perennial great challenges

remain –

 How to meet our long term economic and social goals

without causing irreversible damage to the
environment.

8
  How to provide long term energy security without
undermining the sovereignty of a nation – look at the
issues over Ukraine and Crimea.

 How to truly end poverty that continues to destroy the

lives of billions around the globe.

 How to reduce world conflict, repair the damage from

conflict and protect and or enhance Human Rights.

 How to ensure an enduring stake in society for all that

meets their economic and social needs.

 How to rescue lives stricken or ended by curable

diseases and to share ideas and resources globally. We
are now facing an antibiotics crisis that could send us
back to the middle ages in terms of protection against
disease.

 How to ensure spiritual freedom and growth is enjoyed

by all whilst respecting difference. The crisis with ISIS
and other conflicts shaped around religion and power is
all about resolving such tensions.

5. Yet we must also be honest in progressive politics to be

taken seriously. Since 2010, record numbers have been
taken out of paying tax all together, the lowest ever
mortgage rates has kept millions in the pockets of those
who need it badly. And income inequality has fallen
significantly since the recession although it will rise again
according to The Institute of Fiscal Studies. However we
can and must acknowledge progress when it is made.
9
 So once again, I will seek to set out for our party how these
challenges can be met. How we can lead as one nation labour
leaving no one behind. And how we can do so whilst
championing the defence of our British values which are now
under attack. Our British Values around democracy; the rule of
law; tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs;
individual liberty and mutual respect.

I aim to show how all of this can be done in the same way I
attempted to do so last time. My fears were realised last time
when no one in my party leadership listened. I hope that this
time someone in my party leadership does.

10
Chapter 1: Challenges, Corporates and
China
This truly is a new world
For the last time, this author will mention the themes of
“In place of fear” to frame the issues facing 21st Century
Britain and indeed the world. That was covered extensively in
my publication “in place of deficit.”
Aneurin Bevan spoke of the conflicts between “Private
property, poverty and democracy “and how in times of
exceptional difficulty ….like widespread and prolonged
unemployment exposes the Government of the day and the
political constitution to great strain.”
However, I wish to assert that we are now entering the very
final and greatest strain of that battle and in the UK, a challenge
even greater than at times of war or since the signing of the
Magna Carta. The Tories know it and are exploiting their wafer
thin majority to launch the greatest attacks on democracy in
several generations. I wish with all my heart I was exaggerating.
Yet the evidence is sadly overwhelming. The deliberate wiping of
the electoral register of 2 million eligible voters by changing the
system was not an accident. The Trade Union Bill striking at the
very basic right to strike is not an accident and the proposals for
opting in regarding the political levy for the Labour Party –is not
an accident. The reforming of the electoral boundaries to slash
the size of our parliament is not an accident. The attempt to slash
the income of opposition parties by changing the funding rules is
not an accident. The attempt to outlaw charities engaging in
political campaigning with public funds, is not an accident. The
attempt to make major announcements whilst the media is
distracted or via amendments to innocuous looking parliamentary
Reports and Procedures.
Additionally the wish to take all of education out of the hands
of local authorities which was not even in this Governments
Manifesto was nothing short of outrageous and spat in the face of

11
democracy. Forget about the fact it was also pathetic and
completely incoherent, costly, parent rights stripping nonsense.
It’s the sheer audacity of believing they could attack democracy
like this that represents and reflects our challenge. Let not the
welcome and cowardly style of abandoning this plan make us
forget this outrage.
Have you heard about the Transatlantic Trade Investment
Partnership (TTIP)? Chances are you have not paid much attention
to it. Well we all should because it represents the scale of the
challenge facing our democracy. Here is what the Global Justice
Now Campaign say about the TTIP:
“Our local businesses, environment and democracy are under
threat from a trade deal currently being negotiated between the
EU and the USA.The deal is called TTIP and could outlaw local
authorities’ support of local businesses, allow multinational
corporations to sue us if councils deny fracking permits and open
up services to privatisation. Hundreds of councils across Europe
have already said they don’t want TTIP and in the UK over 20
councils have declared themselves TTIP Free Zones.”
Indeed our Leader Jeremy Corbyn sums up the fears brilliantly:
“My concerns about TTIP are not just about the effect on public services but also the
principle of investor protection that goes within TTIP planned rules which would in
effect almost enfranchise global corporations at the expense of national governments.”

It truly is as frightening as it sounds. Whatever the benefits of

the partnership and undoubtedly there will be substantial
benefits, it’s the fact that local accountability and deference to
the sovereignty of parliament won’t be amongst them. We are at
risk of selling our democracy for profit and those of us who
believe in radical progressive politics need to unite this nation in
utter defence of our democracy. Democracy cannot be sacrificed
on the altar of the march towards global corporations who set
their own rules and cannot be challenged in court or in
parliament. What madness is that? At the moment the plan has
stalled a little but it has certainly not been abandoned.

12
 Yet my greatest concern is over the march of China into this
country and the meekness of our Government to stand up to this
giant. We have allowed China to take control of key institutions of
this country via £40 billion worth of trade deals- so far. This
should spread alarm bells. These are not trade deals. Mark my
words they are the start of economic subservience to the Chinese.
China now has direct links in the British economy in many
different sectors – investment, nuclear technology, media,
infrastructure projects like HS2 to name but a few.
Economic subservience? Talk about exaggeration and
hyperbole I hear you say. Then think about what is happening to
our Steel Industry. 40,000, yes 40,000 jobs on the verge of going
because our Government blocks any attempt to impose across the
board steel import tariffs. Ignore the mealy mouth excuses of the
Prime Minister and examine the facts. David Cameron has ruled
out renationalisation of the Steel Industry saying it would cost at
least £1.5bn per year. So of course the steel industry would be
sacrificed rather than risk Chinese wrath by imposing tariffs on
them and thus put at risk current and future investment. And as a
thank you for the UK NOT protecting the Steel Industry? 46%
tariffs on Steel exports from the UK to China. They can dump
their cheap steel on us and the UK says fine. What madness is this
and watch how we will continue to bow to China in the future.
China will represent one of our greatest challenges. EVER!

And then to stand alongside the great challenge of saving

our environment through manmade destruction is the global war
on terror which is more sheer madness alongside manmade
destruction. Whether it be the terror from those who have
hijacked a great religion to spread fear and terror. Or the terror
from the west that slaughters innocent civilians under the excuse
of combating terror and does not seem to value a non European
death with the same dismay and media coverage as European
death. We do indeed need a global war on terror from all sides
and those of us in progressive politics need to come up with more
than articulate protest –we must come up with a true and just
plan for peace and reconciliation.

13
We need to change our way of thinking for good.
I believe we truly are a compassionate country. In
November 2015, the World Giving Index ranked us as the most
generous in Europe. And in the world - the sixth most
generous. More than 7 out of 10 of us having donated to
charitable courses. That is why previously I called for there to
be a new office of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) . We
as One Nation Labour should call on every member of our
community to support charitable causes. The CSR Office should
set the standards for fund raising to stop and outlaw
harassment in the streets for new easier ways for people to
make informed choices. We should establish tenders for which
charities lead on which causes to avoid the costly duplication
of effort that distracts from beneficiaries. We should
encourage and reward collective co-operation that adds value
and stretches the charitable pound. And we should incentivise
and reward Business more to encourage more corporate social
responsibility from every small, medium and large business in
the country.
Another area where we need to change our thinking for
good is in the area of Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion. The
scandals emerging for the millions of leaked Panama Papers
proves now beyond repute – the rich live by one set of rules
whilst the rest of us live by another. This is not an anti-
business crusade, it is a pro business one nation labour
message to say, we will stop law abiding businesses being
ripped off by the power of the democracy wrecking big
business murky tax affairs. Creative accounting should no
longer be praised, it should be exposed. New national rules on
tax transparency; you sell here, you pay tax here –period; you
own assets, you declare them irrespective of where you are
living; a new tax on every single company that employs Tax
Avoidance Specialists. And a Public Register of British
Ownership of Overseas Assets as Cameron first promised and
has dodged so ever since.
These are new measures that make it a level playing field
for us all. Labour should set up another new Agency the Tax
Avoidance & Compliance Agency that investigates every single
14
tax accounting rule on the book and recommends action. New
powers to levy fines;to recommend prosecutions and to
undertake overseas investigations for all British Citizens. And
we should lead the argument for an international action on
this. We should treat it as the same urgency and attention as
the environment and as threats to national peace and security.
Right now protected by the current not fit for purposes rules,
global capital is avoiding paying billions and billions of taxes
whilst the weakness are having their benefits ended. This is
killing democracy and the power of progressive politics to
make lasting change.
Corbyn uses the language of a new politics and wrapped
around that comfort blanket are thousands of new and
welcome members. Record numbers and he does deserve
genuine credit for that. But where are the new politics? Are we
changing the way the party makes decisions? Are we setting up
Town Hall meetings where ordinary party members can come to
debate and form policy ? Not the usual evening meetings
organised by wards or regionally where the vast majority do not
attend. Where are the new credible ideas for the challenges of
our times? We cannot be credible with rehashed policies of the
80’s.
One Nation Labour should be the party of wealth creation.
That is why previously I called for a new Right to Enterprise Act
and a £200 allowance for everyone who wanted to start a new
business. I called for Business to play a leading part in
challenge commissions and later on I will devote a chapter
spelling out the key role for all sections of our Society. Our
desire to crack down on bad business practices was presented
as standalone messages and that was simply inexcusable.
Governments do not create wealth. And this idea of
Governments create wealth is misleading. Infrastructure
projects built on printed money is not investment it is a deficit
time bomb and its not credible to suggest otherwise. In my
publication “In Place of Deficit” I stated:
“ In the 60’s and 70’s we had cars to drive us out of trouble, in the 80’s we had
oil to drill us out of trouble, the 90’s and 00’s we had financial services to deal and
borrow our way out of trouble –what have we got left ? “
15
 This question MUST be answered by Corbyn because I tell
you now Cameron agrees with me and is winning the economic
argument. He simply is not spending and cutting instead. So of
course the deficit won’t get worst. Thousands upon thousands
will suffer, the nation’s infrastructure will get worse, our
nation’s assets will be sold but it is ALL consistent with the
laws of Mr & Mrs ordinary man on the street economics. You
spend what you earn or you save until you earn enough to
spend. Or you borrow and promise and hope you can pay it
back. So when you borrow like a gambler saying it’s a sure
thing, what happens when economies crash ? Exactly, you are
left with debt, broken contracts, lack of confidence in
Government and our progressive politics. People resort to fear.
And where in places like Greece they still against all odds hold
on to hope, what happens? They end up signing up to even
harsher cuts and sacrifices when the laws of economics come
home to roost.
So we really need to change our way of thinking for good. It is
why in my last publication I put forward a series of living within
our means measures whilst creating the conditions for our nation
not Governments to create our wealth. I said:
“Challenge Commissions to move the country forward in facing the 7 biggest
challenges of our age – the Environment, Energy, Poverty, World Conflict, economic and
social security for all, tackling disease and spiritual cohesion will transform
engagement and reduce the feeling of helplessness when all of us are called to make a
contribution to these great debates. These commissions will report to and work with an
independent Office for Corporate Responsibility and office that will be looking to
demonstrate that business is willing to play a new role in dealing with these challenges
as well.

Office for Innovation & Ideas will demonstrate the importance of creative and
progressive thinking is important and all of us can again submit ideas and we can track
what happens to them and the difference they may make.

New Rights to Deliver test which public services must pass or lose control of
local services to those who are delivering will gain public support quickly. And a new
Office for Major Contracts to ensure waste and inefficiency is tackled better.

16
 A New Right to Enterprise gives people a real stake in their future and is more
engaging than a welfare and benefit reform that is supposedly about making work pay
but is really making people earn their benefits. This passive engagement with the state
is not the best we can do.

New Office for Policy Impact will ensure value for money and accountability over
how people’s money is spent. And to make sure policy really is fair to all especially the
vulnerable.

New Office for Community Cohesion to encourage tolerance and respect in place
of fear and terror.

The public being engaged in determine what services are to be delivered by the
state via Public and Tax Referendums means at last peoples priorities will be ensured.

And biggest of all a total transformation of the relationship between the tax we
pay and what it is allowed to do and how we can use it to meet our individual needs is
assured by a reform of the Tax system into a Tax and Return System.

Progressive politics that takes on the Tories on their

territories > A truly radical reform of the Tax System not pathetic
attacks on the weakest that you are then forced to withdraw. And
a new drive to put the spirit of enterprise into every home.
And what about the answer to the Panama effect? I did not
have the benefits of leaks when in 2011, I said this:
“The Labour values ... are used to triple investment in research and allowing
developing countries to access that research so that we can tackle the world’s
most serious diseases. Funded by a new deal with off shore accounts to
encourage the extra income to pay for the new research in exchange for the
right to privacy in a limited way over tax affairs. Let’s incentivise the rich and
corporations to do more.”

We can try and shout in protest and when we vow to act

watch how those billions of pounds will disappear again to new
hiding places that we would never think of looking or indeed be
able to look. Or we could lead as One Nation Labour and call for a
new deal based on co-operation and respect. I knew how
important this issue was and I called for a new approach then and
Corbyn should not be afraid to lead these calls now.

17
 I conclude this chapter with the warning I gave the last Labour
Leadership and it is even truer now:
“.... the Labour Leadership will have to remember with affection but not future
aspiration the days when the state spent big and taxed accordingly to achieve its
considerable social advances. It must show the ways of investing to progress based on a
popular level of taxation, a smaller but more focused direct role for Government and
an energised and supported private and third sectors that leads and learns our way out
of trouble in this new decade and beyond. “

18
Chapter 2: The European Question
The Audacity of Hope Must Step Forward
In his 2006 Book, “Audacity of Hope” a young aspiring and
indeed inspirational Senator, Barrack Obama talking about the
consequences of America failing to rise to its challenges said
this:
“ ....doing nothing probably means....a nation even more stratified
economically and socially than it currently is: one in which an increasingly
prosperous knowledge class living in exclusive enclaves, will be able to purchase
whatever they want in the market place- private schools, private health care,
private security and private jets –while a growing number of their fellow citizens
are consigned to low paying service jobs, vulnerable to dislocation, pressed to work
longer hours, dependent on an underfunded, over burdened and underperforming
public sector for their health care, their retirement and their children’s
educations.”

Could he not have been talking about the direction of

travel under this Government and its previous Tory-led
coalition? However he is certainly touching the nerve of
millions of citizens across Europe who feel like second class
citizens, in third rate jobs or amongst the one in four with no
job at all.
David Cameron may be playing Referendum Roulette
again this time over our Union with Europe, but he is right to
say it is the choice of our generation. I certainly believe in the
European concept of common aspirations, stronger security,
freedom of travel and ever stronger trade. Yet it is a Europe in
crisis –steeped in debt, rising unemployment, less secure,
unable and unsure on how to deal with record numbers of
Refugees from Syria and elsewhere and no cohesion in
direction and thought.

19
 Brexit campaigners only have to offer the politics of fear
and hate in their campaign but progressive politics must offer
the audacity of hope.
This means a Europe that deals compassionately with
Refugees but tackles unplanned economic migration. It means
a Europe that encourages the unemployed into jobs across
Europe and offers incentives across Europe to feel vacancies by
offering low cost flights paid direct from Benefits. New
incentives to employers funded by corporation tax concessions.
Tougher penalties for those who abuse the system including
surrendering passports whilst on 6 month contracts to ensure
a return home at the end of contracts.
It means a Europe that encourages cross border co-
operation so that European businesses can access new world
wide markets by sharing costs of research, training, innovation
etc... A Europe that has a common taxation approach that
stops hidden wealth, punishes tax evasion and cracks down on
tax avoidance schemes.
It means a Europe that is able to work collectively to
challenge the might of Russia and to end pathetic gesturing
like over Ukraine and imposing travel bans when sovereign
countries are invaded. Yet it must be a Europe that can read
developing crisis better so that unnecessary conflict is avoided
in the first place again as should have been the case in the
Ukraine. This means closer co-operation and support amongst
nations whether inside the European Union or not.
It means a Europe that is able to sell its vision in the media
and social media to ordinary people to combat the propaganda
and hype that cowards and scaremongers fill when they have
an empty house. Why there is not a European TV Channel,
Newspaper and Social Media brand funded by the EU, I do not
know. Corbyn can lead the calls for the creation of one.
It means a Europe that leads in conflict resolution by
having a clearer relationship with NATO. A Europe that seeks a
new deal with Russia that ends the new emerging cold war and
agreeing common approaches to conflict resolution, economic

20
 development and joint working in space, medicine and tackling
environmental issues so that Europe can talk with one voice.

A future outside Europe.

Strong leadership is about being ready for the unexpected.
What if we wake up on June 24th and the only thing I am
celebrating is my wonderful sisters birthday ? What if Britain
has voted to exit Europe?
It is a FACT that the markets will go into panic territory
and we have seen how bad that could go. So what must we do
if we decide to Brexit ?
Firstly, we would need to work closely with our outgoing
partners to ensure the exit is as least damaging as it can be.
We should be agreeing a joint damage limitation strategy that
is enshrined in the KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON school of
thought. Kipling said If you can keep your head when all about
you are losing theirs and blaming it on you..... And he was
right. The financial crash of 2008 when a Labour Prime
minister did save the financial world must be used as good
practice. Even in opposition, Corbyn can show he is leading the
call for calm and decisive collective action.
Secondly, we must and can seek to do the best trade deals
and pledge to work towards as close a relationship as we can
do from the outside. That’s around trade, security, strategic
partnerships from defence to dealing with terrorism.
Thirdly, we must look to open up and strengthen other
deals. Not the TTIP but new deals with India, America a better
and stronger relationship with African countries, explore
better deals with other commonwealth nations and non EEC
Countries on a range of issues from commerce to migration.
Finally, we should still make it as easy as possible for
European countries to do excellent business with us so they
continue to invest in Britain.

21
 The money saved from EU contributions must be ring
fenced for investment not debt reduction. Investment that
enables us to trade at a profit so that the investment is not a
one off but helps us grow. So no not on hospitals but on
creating new industries of the future Strong Artificial
Intelligence, Nanotechnology, Technology Based Energy are
just three new industries that can help Britain lead and create
hundreds of thousands of new jobs for the future.
Labour can lead and thus be seen as a serious player when
the Government and commentators are losing their heads.
Being outside Europe is not best for Britain but we must be
ready to face that possibility. A possibility that could indeed
lead to the breakup of our union. Scotland will demand with
some justification another referendum if they vote in and the
rest of us vote out. I would say to Scotland – keep you oil, fund
your own army and keep your own Scottish pound and then
come and demand independence – you are not independent if
you hang on to the coat tails of a departing parent.
And Jeremy Corbyn can lead in spelling out a modern
vision of Europe that the nation can believe in. Not sticking to
the status quo out of fear. I have set out my modern European
vision and it is the absolute duty of Corbyn to do the same.
The Government is doing so to every household. Whilst it is a
safety first, steady as she goes, better the devil you do sort of
vision, progressive politics can and must show how Europe
touches every single life. How working together across borders
makes good sense. How we can celebrate cultural difference
and how programmes like Erasmus can create inter-Europe
training, learning, sport, volunteering and work opportunities.
Finally Europe must be honest about its failings –the
bureaucracy that is deep, the inefficiencies of production, the
lack of cohesion in crisis. Engaging the public in honest debate
on how to resolve these issues would help. A way that the
European public can see , a way that makes sense to our
individual lives . My call for a European and Social Media will
help with this agenda. As the song from my favourite team
goes – walk on through the wind; walk on through the rain –
THAT is the audacity of hope now.
22
Chapter 3: Why Democracy Matters
Not for 800 years has rights and democracy seen this.
On the 19 June 1215 at Runnymede King John signed the
Magna Carta. (This means Great Charter.) It was the first formal
document stating that a King had to follow the laws of the land
and it guaranteed the rights of individuals against the wishes of
the King.Now in 2016 democracy and our rights face its greatest
threat in the UK. In December 2015, the Independent Newspaper
reported as follows:
“The Government has been accused of launching a “direct attack on local democracy”
by preparing to slip through Parliament an unprecedented curb on councils divesting
from trade and investments they regard as unethical.
Councillors, MPs and a wide range of NGOs fear that the move, which they complain
will be forced through the Commons without proper scrutiny, could stop local
authorities refusing to trade with, or include in their pension fund portfolios,
companies involved in the arms trade, fossil fuels, tobacco products and Israeli
settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Ministers are consulting on changes to pensions regulations and are preparing new
procurement guidelines to stop town halls operating “municipal foreign and defence
policies” through “politically motivated boycott and divestment campaigns... against
UK defence companies and against Israel”.

Look carefully at the above, and note the key sentence. It’s
not the blatant attack on local democracy that is the issue. When
Labour rightly banned Fox Hunting it was not left to local
democracy to arrange local exemptions. No its without scrutiny
and sneaking major changes through parliamentary procedures,
without notice or policies proposed that are not in manifestos.
Changes to the Health Service from commissioning to Junior
Doctor Contracts, proposals to privatise education which is what
this cowardly Government was attempting with its Academy plans.
Abolishing Education Maintenance Grants –again not in the
Manifesto and their shameful attempt to steal money from
disabled people – all the acts of a dictatorship not of a
democracy. And it gets allot worse.

23
 In our Democracy, the government (The Executive) runs the
country. It has responsibility for developing and implementing
policy and for drafting laws. The Prime Minister “appointed by the
Queen” serves as the first minister and heads the Cabinet.
It is accountable to Parliament - the highest legislative
authority in the UK. It has responsibility for checking the work of
government and examining, debating and approving new laws. It
is also known as the 'Legislature'. The largest party behind the
Government forms “Her Majesty’s Opposition. Their role is to lead
the scrutiny of the Government and hold them to account
Parliament checks the work of the government on behalf of
UK citizens through investigative select committees and by asking
government ministers questions. The House of Commons also has
to approve proposals for government taxes and spending.
If Parliament or most probably the Leader of the Opposition
calls a vote of no confidence, the government needs to retain the
confidence of a majority in the House of Commons. If the House
votes to indicate that it has no confidence in the government,
either by defeating the government on a confidence motion or by
defeating a policy that the government has indicated is a 'matter
of confidence', then a General Election would be called if a
confidence motion in the new government was not passed within
14 days of the original no confidence motion.
The Parliament Act of 1911 made the supremacy of
Parliament over the House of Lords – “the other place” that also
scrutinises the work and plan of Government. Thus it can amend
but cannot wreck or thwart the will of parliament.
For a century that is how it worked before the Tory Led
Coalition introduced fixed terms and made it harder for no
confidence votes to be taken. But if you ever wanted to know
what this Government felt about democracy it was exposed over
their squalid plans over funding the work of opposition parties.

24
 Would be next Prime minster and current Chancellor George
Osborne announced in the Autumn Statement of 2015, that he
wanted to reduce opposition funding by about 19% in line with
reduced cash for Whitehall departments. He knew exactly what
he was doing and it was a cowardly and audacious attempt to fix
politics for good. So why were these plans dumped? Was it
because he realised how undermining to democracy and scrutiny
this was ? Hell no. The government circulated new plans which
could mean more money for Labour not because of democracy but
to protect its own interest. The Backbenchers of the Tory Party
said what about when we are the opposition? And with the support
of Labour needed to save Europe this time and not just the World
and the UK this time, he had to drop the squalid plans. Plans that
would have made labour a less effective opposition.
And who has proposed plans to change how the Unions who
founded the Labour Party to oppose the misuse of people and
property? Of course- it’s these squalid Tories. The plans to change
how union members consent to give the Labour Party funding are
designed to get the Labour Party less funding. Yet are hedge funds
who donate to the Tory Party subject to such changes? Hell no.
They practically bought the Tories back into power in 2010 with
their shameful donations. And do you really think they did this for
free? No wonder we have the indignity of a British Prime Minister,
a British Prime Minister hiring taxis to scuttle around Europe to
issue “don’t deal with tax avoidance” notices to European Heads
of state. As I said , the Tories understand power better than us.
How can we tackle the deficit by hitting the poorest whilst
the rich simply take out their money from our society? This is not
just about tax avoidance or evasion , its killing the whole point of
democratic politics. I am minded of the great line from the 1995
top film “Usual Suspects;
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist,"

So says con man Kint (Kevin Spacey), drawing a comparison to

the most enigmatic criminal of all time. That is what does who
subvert our democracy by their criminal actions are doing. They
buy influence and then blame people on benefits or better still
the immigrants for all our woes.
25
 The Electoral Reform Society , a completely neutral
organisation that oversees our election processes comment with
great authority as follows and their words must be heeded by all
parties:
“The issue of how our parties are funded is at the core of Parliamentary democracy.
And today, peers in the House of Lords are debating a major change to the current
system in the Trade Union Bill that’s currently going through Parliament.

The change is a significant one - but it's one-sided. By insisting in the Bill that union
members should ‘opt-in’ to unions’ political funds, the Government will effectively be
cutting Labour’s funding by £6m a year.

Party funding reform is a crucial issue. We can reveal today that 77% of the public
believe big donors have too much influence on political parties.

In fact, the Trade Union Bill could be the start of a process which sorts out our hopeless
party funding system for good. The public are sick to death of the perceived influence
of big donors on parties – and that includes the influence of unions on Labour as well as
wealthy private individuals on the Conservatives. A cap on individual donations is one
of the measures needed for a cleaner party funding system. Under an opt-in system the
money provided to Labour by unions effectively comes from many individuals rather
than one ‘baron’, which should make Labour more open to a donations cap.

But we badly need a cross-party deal on party finance reform. Otherwise it simply isn’t
sustainable. This stuff can’t be done in isolation against one party, or else we could see
decades of unsustainable retaliations as parties get into power and attack their
opponents’ source of funding.

Our polling released today also shows that 72% of the public agree or strongly agree
that the system of party funding is ‘corrupt and should be changed’ – up from 61% when
the same question was asked in 2014.

57% also believe that a ‘state-funded political system would be fairer than the one we
currently have’ – up from 41% in 2014.

Fundamentally, campaigners such as ourselves are concerned that the Trade Union Bill
is currently one-sided in its approach to reforming Labour’s funding, undermining the
‘Churchill convention’ (named after the man himself) that matters directly affecting
political parties be dealt with in a multi-party manner.”

26
 The ERS concerns must guide our party in our approach of
dealing with the issue of party funding.
And what are Liberty, formed out of the (the National Council
for Civil Liberties) saying about this Tory led attack on the very
fundamentals of our democracy?:
“Our Human Rights Act protects every one of us: young and old; wealthy and poor; you
and your neighbour.

Our HRA has already achieved so much. It’s held the State to account for spying on us;
safeguarded our soldiers; and supported peaceful protest. It’s helped rape victims;
defended domestic violence sufferers; and guarded against slavery. It’s protected
those in care; shielded press freedom; and provided answers for grieving families.

Its protections are the most fundamental – those we should all enjoy, because we’re
human.

Think about it. Which of them would you go without? The right to life? The right not
to be tortured? The right to a fair trial?

Would you really be happy if these basic freedoms weren’t properly protected?

Because that’s the threat we now face.

The Government wants to scrap our Human Rights Act, and replace it with their
“British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities”.

This would weaken the rights of everyone, meaning less protection against powerful
interests. It would also limit human rights to only those cases the Government
considers “most serious”.

Can we really trust political elites to decide when our freedoms should apply?

These are the same politicians who, in 2012, came for open justice. In 2013, they
destroyed legal aid. Last year, they attacked Judicial Review.

This year, we cannot let them take our Human Rights Act too.”

It could not be more damning and realistic could it? Labour

must lead the fight back on all of these areas. Restoring legal aid
to more people and funding it by limiting legal aid to people with
assets worth more than £150,000. And it must working with
Governments across the world to strengthen international Human
Rights and not weaken them at home
27
 However some might say and that would include me, that the
Governments realised it would be the epitome of the Dictator
State had it preceded with its much flaunted plan for changes to
the BBC wrapped around Charter Renewal. Yes the Government
proposes to abolish the BBC Trust but it was forced to recognise
that the BBC is an independent organisation funded by the tax
payer. So it ditched plans for this Government seeking to
influence what it broadcast, when it broadcasts and where it
broadcasts. But we must remember that is is this Government that
has forced the BBC to share its licensing Fee with Pensioner
Benefits. Do not forget what was planned for if we do , we will
allow a truly dark place to emerge and state sponsored
propaganda to emerge on our screens instead of impartial news
coverage by the BBC.
All of this has contributed to the most cynical attack on our
democratic freedoms in a generation and for all my concerns that
the new labour leadership will repeat the failings of the old,we
should not forget that democracy itself is under its greatest ever
threat since the signing of the Magna Carta.

Labour Must Be The Proud Champions of Democracy

Aware of the erosion of trust in local and national
democracy, in my last publication I called for new rights, new
transparency and new engagement so that we could work
together to arrest the decline. Working together –the public
and labour.
I called for a new “Right to Deliver” Test where local
authorities would remain accountable for local services but
would lose the right to deliver them directly if they failed to
reach a good standard of service. People lose faith in
democracy if all they see is poor results and waste after
waste.
Long before the EU Referendum was called for, I called for
“Public Referendum” on all Government expenditure contracts
over £25 bn (excluding defence and health). I said we should
involve the public in a level of debate on what it wants to see
delivered in its name. You could call it the “ Peoples
28
 Priorities”. Democracy is enhanced when it is seen as relevant
to peoples day to day lives.
I called for a new office for Audit of Major Contracts. Any
contract over £50m that is at risk of over running or not being
delivered on time must submit a report to this office. This was
to prevent the waste of public money that puts pressures on
local resources simply down to waste and not a question of
lack of resources
I said “These are just some examples that attacks waste and can generate
genuinely better value for money, hundreds of millions of pounds in savings, new
transparency and public engagement. “

This concerted, deliberate and cynical attack on our

freedoms always comes when Governments believe the people
are too ignorant, scared, distracted or indifferent to notice. So
Labour must become the People’s Champion and put its duty
to be so right at the heart of its 2020 Campaign for
Government. Right up there with its Economic and Security
plans. Failure to do so would be a failure of leadership.

American Anup Shah is the founder of “Global Issues”, a

website that is founded on his broad interest in global issues
and is now used as a reference worldwide in various
institutions and publications. In a very broad and high-level
overview of the history of corporations in 2002, he largely
summarised from the works of people like J.W. Smith, author
of World’s Wasted Wealth II (Institute for Economic
Democracy, 1994) and Economic Democracy; Political Struggle
of the 21st Century (M.E. Sharpe, 2000); Giovanni Arrighi, The
Long Twentieth Century (Verso Press, 1994 reprinted 2000);
Richard Robbins, Global Problems and the Culture of
Capitalism (Allyn and Bacon, 1999). However what he said
remains as frightening and concerning today as when he wrote
it. He said this about The Rise of Corporations:

29
“Today we know that corporations, for good or bad, are major influences on our
lives. For example, of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are
corporations while only 49 are countries, based on a comparison of corporate
sales and country GDPs (See the facts page for more examples). In this era of
globalization, marginalized people are becoming especially angry at the motives
of multinational corporations, and corporate-led globalization is being met with
increasing protest and resistance. How did corporations ever get such power in
the first place?

Corporations, as we tend to think of them, have been around for a few centuries,
the earliest of which were chartered around the sixteenth century in places like
England, Holland etc. Technically speaking, a corporation is what Robbins
describes as a “social invention of the state” (Robbins: p.98). That is, a state
grants a corporate charter, permitting private financial resources being used for
public purposes. As Arrighi points out, this initial creation of private finance and
merchants, etc was to aid in the expansion of a state to which it belonged, and
as Arrighi and Smith detail, served to expand colonial and imperial interests to
start with, as well as help in war efforts between empires.

The advantage of having a corporation over being an individual investing in trade

voyages etc, was that an individual’s debts could be inherited by descendants
(and hence, one could be jailed for debts of other family members, for example).
A corporate charter however, was limited in its risks, to just the amount that
was invested. A right not accorded to individuals. (Robbins: p.98)

Corporations had therefore the potential, from the onset, to become very
powerful. Even Abraham Lincoln recognized this:

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to
tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and
an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the
country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the
people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is
destroyed.(U.S President Abraham Lincoln , Nov.21 1864 , letter to Col.William
F Elkins)

Adam Smith, in his famous book the Wealth of Nations, the “bible” of capitalism,
was also critical of some aspects of corporate activity. He saw corporations as
working to evade the laws of the market, trying to interfere with prices and
controlling trade etc.”

30
 Now consider the leak from the Panama Papers some 14
years later. Has a single word of what Anup Shah been undone
by the revelations from the Panama Papers ? Will we be too
ignorant, scared, distracted or indifferent to believe that is
what maybe happening in America, but Britain is different.?
Or will the Tories and their Tory Power Protectors ie their
right wing leaning Media friends continue to blame the poor5,
the Benefit scroungers, the immigrants and under their breath,
the Blacks, for all that is wrong in Britain?
But you know the saddest thing of all is that we did not
need Anup Shah to warn us so prophetically about the Rise of
Corporations and their abuse and suffocation of Democracy.
We were told in the song by Billy Bennett “She was poor but
she was honest” written in 1930. The chorus goes:

“It's the same the whole world over,

It's the poor what gets the blame,
It's the rich what gets the pleasure,
Isn't it a blooming shame? “

31
Chapter 4: Tomorrow’s World Today
Progressive Politics is about leading positive change .
One of the things that really concerns me about today’s
Labour Leadership and indeed the last, was their speed to
distance themselves from Blair but not to learn from the most
progressive leadership we have had since Atlee. One can point
to the horror that was and is Iraq that meant we could not
consign the Tory ideals to the scrap yard for at least 25 years.
However when Tony Blair came to power he was ready from
day one. There was no completely rubbish talk of needing time
to shape the party. I wrote my last publication because I knew
our leadership would not hit the ground running, would not
have a clear vision and whilst Corbyn values are very clear, he
has absolutely no idea of how to get there in my view. Sound
and emphatic utterances of needing a kinder and fairer politics
just wont do. Rehashing policies from the 1980’s and putting
them in new fancy leaflets just will not do.
Do you remember Tony Blair’s clause 4 moment ? Or
before that Kinnocks “ Hiring Taxis to issue redundancy
notices” speech ? Or let’s go back to the 1960’s and Wilsons
“white heat of technology” speech.
What did these three contrasting but significant
politicians have in common ? They did not wait till Government
before setting out their clear vision and values that would
shape their plans for Government. What was Ed Miliband’s ?
Exactly. Will Jeremy Corbyn make the same mistake? Does he
really believe saying we want a kinder fairer politics is enough?
Does he really think setting out a few policies will do it also? I
fear deeply that the answers are YES, YES and YES.
There is absolutely no excuse for an aspiring Prime
Minister not to ALREADY have his or her Vision and Values i
place right now. A detailed roadmap that will shape the path
ahead. Dam it man –this has nothing to do with the Labour
Party policy making mechanisms or grassroots politics,

32
listening to members etc.... All well and good. But Managers
do things right. Leaders and leaders alone, do the right thing.
Corbyn has talked of straight forward politically bold
policies to ensure we win. To do that he needs to sort out our
approach from now.
To get to a destination you must begin with the end in
mind. If you need 18 months or so before deciding what that
is, then depart and lets have done with this Leader. Labour is
facing a crisis of leadership, not because Corbyn cant win
elections but because he has not set out the vision and values
that inspire a nation to trust in him for the future.
Let me supply more proof to my fundamental point that
Leaders do not wait to lead. They set out clear vision and
values that guide them every step of the way.
A the Labour Party Conference in 1963, Wilson in his
defining “White heat of Technology” speech said this:

“in all our plans for the future, we are re-defining and we are re-
stating our Socialism in terms of the scientific revolution. But that revolution
cannot become a reality unless we are prepared to make far-reaching
changes in economic and social attitudes which permeate our whole
system of society. The Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat
'of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated
methods on either side of industry”

Whilst there has been countless arguments that say Wilson

betrayed that promise and slashed investment in research,
science and technology, others will point out the creation of a
new Ministry for Technology, doubling in aviation expenditure
including Concorde and the birth of Minitech and atomic
energy research.
Turning to the 1980’s, Neil Kinnock wrote “Making Our
Way”. He stated that Manufacturing had to be at the heart of
Britain’s long term economic stability. That the country –

33
workers, companies, Government had t come together under a
common purpose to help modernise industry and society.
At the same time of seeking to form an alternative
Government, he faced internal strife and conflict with the
Militant Tendency –a group determined to take control of
party . Their mission was to control the policies, the MP’s and
develop an extreme socialist alternative to a Government that
was intent on having a civil war with its own people. Some
would argue that it would be unfair to put the issue of
Momentum –a grass root organisation that led to Corbyn’s
victory – in the same bracket. I do not fell so churlish. I believe
it is as divisive a group that has simply learned a new
language to disguise its true intention – develop a party that
once again puts principle before power.
~It was a clear sense of purpose, an complete thirst for
power, that gave Kinnock the strength to take on Militant
Tendency and it won the respect of the British People and put
Labour closer to power than for a generation.
Fast forward to the mid 1990’s and take a look at the work
of Tony Blair’s’ key political confidante, Peter Mandleson. He
co-authored a book “ The Blair Revolution”. This book spoke of
New Labour vs Old Labour, a third way, constitutional reform,
investment in education, delivering long term prosperity, a
new contract with the professions, investment in education
and health.
This clear vision was appealing, engaging, delivered three
election victories for Labour and bought the longest period of
economic stability for years.
Now we have Jeremy Corbyn. Where is his book, his
detailed vision. Sure you will find many books emerging about
the man, his politics, the hopes for him, the fear of him. None
of this is leadership and none of this will bring Britain together
unless he substitutes his election slogans, recycled 1980’s
policies for a credible vision for the future.
In my last publication I set out some of these ideas that
can form the basis of a one nation progressive party.
34
  Investing in ideas by creating a new Ideas & Innovation
Department. Asking the nation to help the Country
listen, learn and lead and asking us all to play a part in
that is part of progressive politics.

 Developing Michael Young’s’ idea of moving away from

a Nation state to a world society is so topical in the
narrow focus of a European Referendum. Yet behind it is
the radical notion that nations work together not to
erect protectionist policies but shared ideas to bring
economic stability in place of financial meltdown and
division.

 Paul Kennedys idea around technology transfer across

nations to deal with diminishing resources is part of
progressive politics and will inspire communities to
come together and not hide behind the new stupid walls
espoused by big mouthed idiotic candidates for office.
When did having loads of money give you the right to
talk utter nonsense in seeking high office?

The new Mayor of London , Sadiq Khan , shared the same

school as me. And it is not because he endorsed the work of
my Charitable Foundation as invaluable, that I am proud to say
I share his values.
Speaking within 48 hours of being elected, he told Andrew
Marr of the BBC;

"I want a big tent. We want to speak to everyone, there's no point us just speaking to
Labour voters, That means me speaking to chief executives, to people who voted
Conservative last time, UKIP, or stayed at home."

Labour's mission was to "change people's lives for the better... they did that by winning
elections.

35
 And what are his priorities. He has set them out clearly
and that is why he won a thumping mandate from his London
Electorate:

"How are we going to tackle the housing crisis? What are the challenges in relation to
fares going through the roof?

"How do we support businesses to grow and expand so more Londoners can get a living
wage? How do we bring back neighbourhood policing, and the issue of security?"

And I am grateful to John Healey of the Guardian who points out

the extent of the Housing Crisis. Forgot about the grotesqueness
of rising house prices that is pricing hundreds of thousands out of
home ownership. He points out that since 2010, 100,000 council
homes have been lost,£5bn of housing support has disappeared
and 45% of funds for homelessness services have been cut. We
cannot afford to be in opposition for another generation. The
weakness, the most vulnerable, the hard working families, the
aspiring individuals – they all need One Nation Labour now.

I have set out my vision and values in my last publication and

throughout this one and I end this chapter with the same warning I
gave to Ed Miliband –and I mean literally gave to Ed Miliband in my
last publication that I sent to him FIRST:

“Labour leaders need to recognize the scale of the challenges we face and
ones that will stretch beyond the term of this Government and the next whoever
forms it. If they call for a coalition of ideas led by a party of conviction, there will
be a resonance felt up and down the country. “

36
 Chapter 5: Why we must deal with the
deficit NOW
Labour lost because we were not convincing enough

In their 2015 General Election Manifesto, the Labour Party said:

“Our manifesto begins with the Budget Responsibility Lock we offer

the British people. It is the basis for all our plans in this manifesto,
because it is by securing our national finances that we are able to secure
the family finances of the working people of Britain.

The Budget Responsibility Lock guarantees that:

 Every policy in this manifesto is paid for. Not one commitment requires additional
borrowing. We are the first party to make that pledge, and with this manifesto it is
delivered. We will legislate to require all major parties to have their manifesto
commitments independently audited by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
 A Labour government will cut the deficit every year. The first line of Labour’s first
Budget will be: “This Budget cuts the deficit every year.” This manifesto sets out that
we will only lay a Budget before the House of Commons that cuts the deficit every
year, which the OBR will independently verify.
 We will get national debt falling and a surplus on the current budget as soon as possible
in the next parliament. This manifesto sets out that we will not compromise on this
commitment.”

They pledged to live within their means and said they

would:
“ ....reverse the Government’s top-rate tax cut so that the highest one per
cent of earners, with an income of over £150,000, contribute a little more to help
get the deficit down. We will stop paying Winter Fuel Payments to the richest five
per cent of pensioners, and cap child benefit rises for two years. Outside of the
protected areas of health, education and international development there will be
cuts in spending. Ministerial pay will be cut and then frozen until we have balanced
the books. All proceeds from the sale of our stakes in Lloyds and RBS will be used
to repay the national debt.”

37
 In contrast the Tories said they would deal with the deficit
by continuing to make difficult decisions to deal with what the
Labour Outgoing Treasury Minister, Liam “ the author of the
most stupid note in political history “ Byrne – “ There is no
money left. “ They said they would:
“keep our economy secure by running a surplus so that we start paying down
our debts increase the tax-free Personal Allowance to £12,500 and the 40p Income
Tax threshold to £50,000 commit to no increases in VAT, National Insurance
contributions or Income Tax crack down on tax evasion and aggressive tax
avoidance and ensure those who can afford to pay the most do rebalance our
economy, build a Northern Powerhouse and back elected metro mayors”

To fund this they would implement a very specific plan:

“Our deficit reduction plan has two phases. The first will see us continue to
reduce government spending by one per cent each year in real terms for the first
two full financial years of the next Parliament, the same rate as over the last five
years. That means saving £1 a year in every £100 that government spends. We
don’t think there’s a business that couldn’t do that – and we don’t think
government, when it is spending your money, should be any different. That will
require a further £30 billion in fiscal consolidation over the next two years, on top
of the £120 billion that we have already identified and delivered over this
Parliament. We will find £13 billion from departmental savings, the same rate of
reduction as in this Parliament. We will find £12 billion from welfare savings, on
top of the £21 billion of savings delivered in this Parliament. And we will raise at
least £5 billion from continuing to tackle tax evasion, and aggressive tax avoidance
and tax planning, building on the £7 billion of annual savings we have delivered in
this Parliament.”

As the General Election result showed, the country

believed the Tories plan was either less risky and/or more
credible. In a sentence Labour said we could deal with the
deficit by borrowing to invest whilst making difficult cuts in
unprotected areas. The Tories said we should cut £1 in every
£100 of Government spending , prioritise major investment but
not borrow more to do so.
The fact that the Tory led Coalition FAILED in their initial
promise to clear the deficit by 2015 was lost by the “comfort
“of the deficit being cut by 50%.

38
 The FACT that Government borrowing was rising year on
year towards the end of the last parliament was lost by a
promise to run a Budget surplus by 2020 and to find additional
cuts in spending by 2020.
And we have seen how the Tories have savaged local
government spending, attacked the spending of most
Government Departments and even tried to steal money from
the most vulnerable in our society before they were forced to
buckle under Labour led opposition.
And what did the Liberal Democrats say they would do ?
This publication will not waste any time espousing the policies
of the irrelevant and the moribund.
I have made repeated reference to where what I said was
either correct and/or remains completely relevant.
However, I should be honest as Labour half admitted at the
last election where, I was wrong. Our cutting the deficit too fast
too far was a very nice mantra but also simply misleading. What
was a course of action for the future we implied was happening
today. What we said was £30bn of cuts was not as effective as the
Tory message of this being savings of £1 in every £100 spent by
Government. It is more a natural instinct to cut back when you
overspend than to say I am going to get a loan so I can build a
business and grow my way out of debt. And certainly the markets
love the former and are weary of the latter.
And last time I again recognised when the Government got
things right and we must commit to maintaining and building upon
such progress. Examples include the new National Living Wage –a
Labour commitment used by this Government to make us seem
irrelevant. We must back this and enhance it where possible.
Another example is that the poorest can earn the highest amount
in economic history BEFORE any income tax is due.

Exclusively focussing on tax cuts for rich when attacking the

Government o Tax, is good opposition politics but its not
leadership in waiting for Government. We must set out a credible

39
economic plan that protects the poorest and is fair to those who
can afford to do more. A genuine “we are all in it together” plan.
I also said I will leave others to argue how the deficit can be
dealt with but that leaves a blank cheque or uncosted proposals
that would thus lack economic relevance or credibility.
We have to deal with the fact that the policy of quantitative
easing ie a~ Government backed policy to allow the Bank of
England to print new money is monetary hocus-pocus – it is an
illusion that must be paid for in the end. American has done the
same but for decades and now has a $18 TRILLION national debt.
Let me say that again £18 Trillion!!.
When a country is in debt like we see in Greece, it ONLY
survives when the markets share the Government confidence that
it can pay its debts. When that confidence goes, we have a major
economic crisis and brutal and I mean brutal cuts follow –again
see Greece.
America after Great Depression and World War, gave the
Federal Reserve (their Bank of England) the licence to print
money. It used to say the economy should be based against the
Gold Standard – in short no matter the debt our Gold value will be
more. Then it said stuff it print money to get us out of trouble.
The simple fact is we either live within our means or we
borrow against tomorrow. We are either in a debit culture ie
spending from within what we have or a credit culture ie spending
big on key projects and policies and say we will pay for it
tomorrow.
We talk about the National Deficit but the fact is the National
Debt is frightening. As of Q1 2015 UK government debt amounted
to £1.56 trillion, or 81.58% of total GDP, at which time the annual
cost of servicing (paying the interest) the public debt amounted to
around £43bn (which is roughly 3% of GDP or 8% of UK
government tax income. 8p in every £1 raised from us is to service
this debt.

40
 And what about Consumer Debt – ie the money you and me
borrow to “pay” our way? Well here are the facts;
In March 2016, The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said UK
households were on course to spend more than they earned for
the rest of the decade. Households are expected to spend £58bn
more than they earn this year, rising to £68bn by the end of the
decade.

"The persistence of a household deficit of this size would be unprecedented in the

latest available historical data."
What unprecedented really means is that we do not know when
the chickens will come home to roost. It means that if the
markets lost confidence and applied a massive new credit squeeze
or called in more of its debt, or interest rates rose more than just
a fraction, we could face economic collapse to of a scale that
indeed would be unprecedented. For example by 2020, 600,000
homeowners in the UK must be able to pay of their interest only
mortgages IN FULL or risk losing their homes. 1 Million
homeowners in the UK are currently on this ticking timebomb.
1 million homeowners !!.
Compare the ACTUAL consumer debt levels to the FORECAST
levels of debt. It was said in NOVEMBER 2015, that it would be
£41bn this year and £49.2bn by 2020. In November 2015, the OBR
said data suggested spending had:

“Significantly outpaced the growth of labour income at the end of last year.”

The OBR also stated that Consumers are expected to raid their
savings to fuel consumption growth. Borrowing over the next five
years would also be supported by the Bank of England’s
“extremely accommodative monetary policy”. To put this into
perspective the OBR referred to a UK Health Check looking at
1963 to 1987 . How many years did UK households spend more
than they earned ?
41
Here is their answer. The data:

“showed the household surplus moving into negative territory in only one year
between 1963 and 1987”.

This trend in debt is completely unsustainable. We are

heading for serious trouble if we believe we can borrow more out
of a crisis and if we do not deal with raising Consumer Debt in a
credible way. What is our new Gold Standard ie having assets such
as an industry of goods and/or services that is worth more than
our debt ? Where is our new oil find ?
So here is my 5 point National Deficit Elimination plan.

1. Announce 10 Year Public Sector Cuts Freeze

Whilst, as I predicted a few years ago, Labour would be forced
to accept the case for much lower public spending, it could offer
certainty in place of cash expansion. It could pledge that when it
returns to Government there will be no more cuts in cash to local
Government funding before 2030. It does not mean it must
guarantee a protection against inflation settlement, but it must
say that in cash terms, the amount committed to public spending
in 2020 will be the minimum guaranteed for the next 10 years.
This would mean every local council being able to plan its services
for the long term.
2. Public Referendum on what we spend as public

In my last publication, long before the European Referendum

was announced, I called for a debate with the public on services
that cost more than public spending that cost more than £25
billion to run. Defence and Health would be exempt. This means
the public for the first time ever deciding its priorities. Based on
2016 spending plans, it would mean the public having a say on
approaching 50% of its money is spent on. Total public spending is
around £760bn –with exempt areas of Health and Defence costing
around 24% of total public expenditure. So the public would
42
decide if Government should continue to decide how education is
run( approx £89bn) Pensions ( £153bn) and whether or not we
should continue to provide welfare in the way that we do
( £110bn) , how pensions are managed.

3. Public Priorities to receive a real 5% increase year on

year for next 10 years
If , the public endorse these areas as the peoples
priorities, then a Labour Government will commit to a 5% year
on year increase on the top 2 peoples priorities. If it is
pensions – that means we commit to provide more security in
retirement, it may mean we can lower the retirement age for
example. If it is Education, then we do more to drive up the
standards in all schools, modernise more schools, reward good
teaching etc... If it is welfare, then we commit to a new long
term, Social Care Act that provides better support to families
having to look after dependent relatives, more nursery
support so parents can return to work quicker and we increase
public support to train those facing long term unemployment
with 21st century work skills.

4. New deal with off shore funds to claim missing billions

Earlier I referred to the US National Debt being $18trn.

Well according to a 2016 OXFAM Report, the 50 biggest US
companies have more money stashed offshore than the entire
GDP of Spain, Mexico or Australia, collectively keeping about
$1.3trn (£0.91trn) in territories where the money does not
count towards US tax. The entire GDP of the UK is £2.99trn.
How much then is being hidden off shore by UK companies
outside the reach of the Government and also therefore
democratic accountability? It sickens me that the poor, the
easy targets ,are used as political cannon fodder when the
bigger picture and enemy is tax avoidance and evasion.

43
 However I repeat my call from my last publication of a
new deal with British Companies in return for Corporation Tax
concessions. The aim would be to bring at least £20bn home
over the term of a Parliament that can help fund the peoples
priorities. It means cracking down on our complex tax
avoidance rules too as I have stated earlier.

5. Phased 1-2% Tax increases across the Board Tax

increases earmarked to pay for national debt

If we do this we have the basis to implement a new deal for

Tax that I set out in my last publication and one I set out again
virtually unchanged because it is an idea that is unprecedented.
However it is an idea that deals with the historic question of tax
with a new plan to tackle the Tax Question for good. Literally. To
fund this new idea would mean collecting some £8-15bn tax extra
from the tax payer on a phased basis but as I set out, it will be on
the basis of providing an incredible new deal for the public.

Outside of the above, there may be significant public sector

funding cut backs . We could pledge to keep Public Sector Funding
to 2% less every year overall until the deficit is eliminated. We
could pledge to ring fence 10p in every pound to reduce the
national debt. We could make it tougher to get credit whilst
cutting down on loan sharks. The point is we must come up with a
credible deficit reduction plan that keeps mortgages, inertest
rates and inflation low. After all, we cant let the Tories be the
ones who say we achieved this whilst Labour ran out of money.
Can we? Surely not?

44
Chapter 6: The Big Idea Is Still Relevant
Now is the time to tackle the Tax Question for good .
Labour needs to remind the British people of their individual
brilliance, to unleash its creative forces and how they can play
their role in leading and learning. I have mentioned a number of
initiatives and the way it can impact on every area of policy. The
Challenge Commissions can oversee the biggest ever common
pursuit of resolution of these giants ever seen. We can introduce
an office for Innovation and Ideas with senior Cabinet rank –the
equivalent of Home Office or Defence or Foreign Secretary. The
requirement for public sector providers such as local council
demonstrating they are fit to deliver will result in massive
reductions in wasted expenditure and new popular levels of
service provision. A new Office to monitor major contracts and if
necessary intervene and change the contractors. Plus the
introduction of a “Right to Enterprise” could lead to 2 million new
jobs and new stakes in society the likes of which have never been
seen before and could truly ensure Britain builds and/or serves its
way out of trouble.
And incentivising the generous British public to donate 2% of
its annual salary to Charity would raise £8bn a year. Britain
leading on poverty reduction and fresh hope for tackling the 7
challenges as part of a new deal and the following Big Idea.
This really big idea that Labour Leaders could launch would
revolutionise the relationship between the people and its
Government in the most fundamental way since the signing of the
Magna Carta. It could leave the Tories or anyone else scrambling
to respond and it would capture the understanding and
imagination of every individual and family in the country. And it
could even mean Tax rises are welcome. Yes welcome!!
Around 7 million or so families in the UK receive some form of
Tax Credit. This has helped protect families from poverty as well
as making a return to work a feasible option. By doing the latter,
tax revenues have been generated that have helped Government
to have the resources to make their difficult choices. The
45
majority of the rest pay taxes and entrust Government to make
the best decisions on behalf of society. When things go wrong, tax
rises follow and when things go well, some element of tax
reduction is possible. Normally paid for one should add by a
hidden tax increase elsewhere.

Transforming Tax towards the Peoples’ Politics

This Government wants to end universal benefits and so offer
less for more taxes. So what if a Labour Government introduced a
new, still progressive, Tax and Return System for all tax payers
and businesses in the UK?. The simple premise is this – pay your
taxes and based on your level of contributions, every 5 year
period you can reclaim an element to pay for your families school
needs, some crucial home improvements which means families do
not have to leave due to inadequate space, to invest in a new
business idea that could make Britain a leader in that field, to
invest in community projects that changes lives and tackles the
problem of idleness and despair.
In the business world, reclaimed tax credits could mean the
difference between avoiding job losses, making further research
and development possible, expanding the business to create new
jobs. I believe politicians get it wrong when they fear tax rises.
Britain is paying more tax than ever before. The British people
want value and fairness in taxes and my big idea delivers that.
This revolutionary idea would be paid for in the following two
ways:
 Tax Referendums covering all the major areas of
Government Expenditure and the people decide what
should be provided by the state or not. Of course defence
and health would be exempt because security cannot be
compromised and good health is a basic human right –but
everything else including overseas aid would be subject to
engaging the public in the decisions about what
Government should or should not provide. Where after
detailed debate and consultation of each phrase of Tax
46
 Referendum –so Transport, Housing and Education for
example may be held as Phase one lasting 4 months of
debate and consultation, the public will decide and any
decisions to end state provision would be enacted with
safety caveats in place to prevent chaos and to protect the
most vulnerable. Caveats such as alternative providers
demonstrating plans robustly examined by an Audit and
Quality Commission that shows viable alternatives are in
place that avoids cost to the tax payer or the most
vulnerable not being able to access services due to cost,
location or suitability.
 Phased Tax increases in domestic and business taxes of say
1-2% a year for a limited period with the proceeds going
towards the tax and return ring fenced fund. Access to this
fund for qualifying residents would be a right not a
privilege. It would also need new discussions with Tax
Havens and Major Corporations to front load Corporation
Tax in exchange for longer term tax exemptions,
Government support and assistance for overseas expansion
etc…
Further this change is not in isolation and is consistent
with the proposal to seek the public endorsement for services
in excess of £25bn. There are practicality issues behind this
but so were there with getting equipped troops to Iraq or with
the proposed National ID Scheme. The point is the public will
welcome this new unprecedented insight into taxation and
what should be spent and not spent. There would be caps on
advertising or spend for either campaigns. Both sides will have
rights to communicate directly with the public. The BBC will
be required to show live debates and consultations on the
issues. All effort would be engaged in getting the consultation
and engagement right.
The level of rebates would be for political debate but
Refunds of £500 to individuals or £1,000 for families would be
possible –every five years and of course related to the amount
of tax they have paid. For those on benefits, Tax Credits would
47
remain and of course as this is regular and weekly, you would
not be eligible for Tax Returns whilst on benefits and they will
be a minimum threshold of contributions before this rebate
would be due. To put this into context, if every worker was
given a £500 tax rebate, it would cost £12 billion pounds. But
of course not every worker would be entitled to a £500 rebate
and certainly not all at once.
A new Public Accounts System would display in simple
terms how departments have spent their money, how many
contracts were delivered on time, how much has been wasted.
Alongside an independent Policy Impact Office to assess the
reality on the ground beyond politics will not only make it
more transparent as to how people’s money is being spent ,
the difference their investment has made but the impact on
scarce resources and most importantly the most vulnerable in
our society. This is the stuff that will give the British public
hope again. People may not know that it is currently a legal
requirement for policy to be rigorously assessed against a
policy impact framework. Enshrining this duty in an
independent office with wider remit to consider the impact of
other policies beyond equality, such as environmental policy,
Overseas Aid, Health equalities etc…. would be a major
development and a popular one for the reasoning and caring
British public.

I believe this is the big idea in British politics. People are

not clamouring for voting reform –it is just those who don’t do
well who are aided by their supporters. Those who do well
want to maintain the status quo. That being said we should
welcome the debate and referendum on voting reform. If the
British Public can be trusted with debating voting reform they
can and will overwhelming endorse a Labour Party who
champions their cause in this arena. They hate the
powerlessness of tax rises and little say, the waste of billions
the scandals of MPs Expenses and the millions that cost. They
want a better say and they want it more than can ever be
imagined.

48
 My hope is that my Labour Party will help me to gauge
public interest in this big idea. Let’s change politics for good.
The Tories just don’t get it. People do not want politics
just to be the plaything of the current leaders’ ideas. They
don’t want it to be about debates and point scoring. And
neither do they want to see promises made then broken, lies
told on Disability Cuts and then spun away.
What the British people want to know is that they can
make a difference if they want to. They want to see that their
voice does count. They want to believe that when they cry out
their leaders listen and learn. The want their hopes and
reasonable desires for themselves and their families
progressed by Government and not burdened by ignorant
policy, indifference or antagonism to their individual hard
working efforts. And equally they want to help those most in
need when they can but that help not to be abused,
squandered or wasted. I hope this is the “kinder politics”
Jeremy Corbyn talks of.
The people’s politics is about politicians listening and
responding to all their fears but also their aspirations. It is not
about taking away the benefits from the many and not dealing
with the abuses of the few. And this I mean the thousands who
hide their income to avoid taxes at a cost of billions. Funny
how these scandals don’t make the press like “benefit cheats”
do.

49
Chapter 7: Conclusion
If Labour does not listen and lead we will lose again .
The Labour Party need only listen to the words of the new
London Mayor when he says he has achieved more in 7 days as a
Mayor in power than in 6 years in opposition. It is no good Corbyn
admitting we are not doing enough to win the election in 2020, he
must show the ability to listen and lead.
The evidence suggests working people believe Labour is
leaving them behind. The evidence suggests we are becoming an
irrelevance in Scotland - our biggest home for generations.
The evidence suggests we are seen as anti business, anti
wealth creation and wanting to squeeze the rich until they
squeak.
At a time when we are led by power focussed, self interested,
divisive making and a narrow elite, we must be one nation Labour
like never before.
Labour has an absolute duty – ITS FIRST SECOND THIRD AND
FOURTH DUTY to be in power and if anyone who reads this thinks
differently, then take a running jump and go and join the
irrelevant and fringe parties such as Liberal Democrats or UKIP.
And if you care about the environment as passionately as I do but
believe it is better to be pure and to just protest, then the Green
Party is for you.
I could recite my own reasons for the importance of power but
instead let me hand over to Tony Blair, our most successful ever
Prime Minister writing in the New Statesman in December 2015.
But before I do, those of you who winced when I describe Tony
Blair in those terms, are the very people I fear most. You see evil
triumphs when the good do nothing. Yet what is even worse is
when those who think they are doing good ie voting Corbyn to get
our party back, will STILL be blaming Blair if we lose in 2020. Why
can we not learn to be as ruthless as the Tories in pursuit of
power ? We revere Aneurin Bevan but ignore one of his greatest
lessons – the uncompromising importance of being in power.
50
Anyway over to Tony Blair, Iraq aside, our most successful ever
Labour Prime Minister –cringe all you like if you are. It’s FACT.
And if you understand that, then perhaps we have a chance:
“ All wings of the Labour party which support the notion of Labour as a
party aspiring to govern — rather than as a fringe protest movement — agree
on the tragedy of the Labour party’s current position. But even within that
governing tendency, there is disagreement about the last Labour government;
what it stood for and what it should be proud of......

....So the Until 1997, the Labour party had been in existence roughly a
hundred years. But during that time, it had rarely been in government. In fact,
at that point, it had never won two full terms of power, let alone three; not
even with the Attlee government. This was because we could win power by
dint of the unpopularity over time of a Conservative government; by appealing
to the need for change; and by burnishing our values as better and in a sense
more moral than those of the Tories.

Above all, in a society in which fewer and fewer people thought of

themselves as traditional working class, we needed to build a new coalition
between the aspirant up-and-coming and the poorest and most disadvantaged.
For the task of winning power, the emphasis on the values of community,
society, family, compassion and social justice was highly effective.

But for the task of governing, we had to do more than proclaim our
values: we had to have the courage and creativity to apply them anew to a
changing world and make what counted what worked rather than defending
interests or tradition.

But in public services, welfare, crime and pensions, we were at first

timid. With experience in governing and with an attitude which was open to
change irrespective of ideology, we then began to make change which was
much more radical. Hence the drive for health and education reform,
culminating in the opening up of the health service providers to competition,
including provision in the private sector, and the academy schools. The public
private partnerships for the renewal of the nation’s infrastructure; the
antisocial behaviour legislation; and even identity cards to control illegal
immigration. In short, we pushed the frontier of what the Labour party was
supposed to be about. We were proud of our iconoclasm.

51
 We spearheaded inner-city regeneration; mounted an audacious bid to
host the Olympics; and targeted socially excluded families who were causing
community problems. The school reforms were transformative. By 2007 — hard
to believe now — we had satisfaction rates in the NHS higher than at any time
since it was created. Crime fell, not by a little, but by over 30 per cent.

Of course we made mistakes. But we were a radical reforming

government. And we tried to put the moral purpose of the Labour party into
practice — the only sort of morality worth very much.

We didn’t spot the financial crisis, along with the rest of the world. It
was more an absence of understanding than an absence of a will to regulate
which was the issue. But the essential position we occupied in British politics
retained appeal, which is why we won a third term in 2005. We were never in
any real danger of losing that election.

After the 11 September attacks, I became convinced that Islamist

extremism was the security issue of our time. People can agree or disagree
with the decisions which I took, and the emphasis I put on the partnership with
the USA, but I took them not in defiance of progressive politics but in
furtherance of them.

My essential argument — and indeed my argument with the party today

— is that this approach has not become redundant with time. It is even more
important. The pace of change is not slowing; it is accelerating. The next
generation of technological advance — big data, possibly artificial intelligence
— will be akin to yet another industrial revolution. Except that this time it
will affect the service sector too.

We have to understand it and prepare for it. Infrastructure, housing,

social exclusion — all these challenges require more modernising and less
ideological thinking. So do issues to do with economic policy, particularly the
impact of quantitative easing and its relationship with fiscal policy. Issues such
as how to regulate banks in a way that protects us as far as possible from
crisis, but also recognises the cardinal importance to a thriving economy of a
thriving financial sector. All of these issues should be a huge topic of debate in
progressive circles. But today they barely feature.

Right now we’re in danger of not asking the right questions — never
mind of failing to get the right answers. All of this is about applying values

52
with an open mind; not boasting of our values as a way of avoiding the hard
thinking which the changing world insists upon.

Many, especially in today’s Labour party, felt we lost our way in

government. I feel we found it. But I accept that in the process we failed to
convince enough people that the true progressives are always the modernisers
— not because they discard principle, but because they have the courage to
adhere to it when confronted with reality.”

So why do you stand on the Blair Scale ? With pride even with
the mistakes and soul searching decisions ? Or against and pleased
that he and his like are no longer leading the party and that he
should face a trial for crimes against humanity ? Whatever your
position, and of course it may be in between, the above detailed
extract is about one thing , and for the love of all that you value,
understand this –this is a retrospective analysis of our Party IN
POWER.
Consider Ed Milliband , Neil Kinnock, Michael Foot having he
same retrospective analysis –John Smith sadly exempt. And what
would you find? On one side a Leader talking about 11 years in
power and on the other gifted, intelligent and passionate Labour
Leaders talking about almost TWENTY YEARS of naval gazing
where we achieved nothing for the people of this great country.
20 wasted years – not £1 on pay, not one hospital bed protected,
not a single job created, not a single school improved.
Do we really want it to be another 20 wasted years with
another Labour Defeat meaning we have to wait until 2025 before
our first General Election victory since 2005 ? Add that to these
wasted 20 years with another 15 years in opposition since 2005
and that is 35 years WASTED ? ? Half a generation? THAT is the
reality facing us if Corbyn leads us to a General Election defeat.
However this time, it is not just power that is at stake but the
very loss of democracy itself and that is why I am trying again to
get our great progressive party to listen and lead.

53
The Challenge For Labour –Change Politics, Change
Britain
We need to be at around 12-13% in the lead nationally to have
a chance of returning to power because of our wipe out in
Scotland. Even in these disgracefully discredited Opinion Polls, we
are nowhere near that. So we have a mountain to climb but I
believe the issues and ideas that I have set out in this publication
can be the basis to change politics and to change Britain for good.

 That is why I have called on Labour to recognise the

serious challenges we face. China has made excellent
economic progress but it is a global economic threat
consuming and controlling billions of resources way
beyond its borders and continues to protect its own
interests. Think of the British Steel industry and I rest
my case. We need to lead for Britain in facing this
threat.

 That is why I have called on Labour to lead on the

threat posed by UK Companies who act behind
democracy and subvert it with their hidden billions.
We must tax avoidance and tax evasion with the same
vigour this Government attacked the poor and the
weak with cowardly benefit cuts. They made difficult
choices over Welfare and were courageous to do so.
We must show the same courage to deal with this
issue that threatens democracy itself. We must not
let the Panama revelations disappear from the public
mind –EVER.

 That is why I continue to call on Labour to change its

way of thinking. I have put forward ideas of working
with large business to tackle the 7 biggest challenges
of our age – the Environment, Energy, Poverty, World
54
 Conflict, Economic and Social security for all,
Tackling Disease and Spiritual Cohesion. To get
ordinary people to play their part in finding solutions.
For the public to be involved in deciding priorities
and for the biggest ever tax settlement in history and
most radical ever reform of our Tax System. New
rights for every family to start its own enterprise. Ad
new Right to Deliver Test to eliminate public waste.
Examples of a new way of doing politics.

 That is why I have called on Labour to set out a

progressive case for Europe. Compassion for Refugees
but a crackdown on illegal immigration. More cross
border cooperation including a European approach to
tax avoidance. A Europe that works together –as
Gordon Brown said - a Europe of United States – to
challenge Russia and other pan-European issues. And
a Europe that debates with its people and fosters
better understanding of its work and importance via
better use of Social and Digital Media.

 But I have also called on Labour to lead if the County

votes for Brexit. This means damage mitigation
leadership, forging new alliances. Calling for new
Trade deals and ring fencing expenditure from saved
EU contributions to protect key British priorities and
services.

 That is why I have called on Labour to protect

democracy which faces its greatest threat in 800
years. Under threat from a Government taking rights
away from local government in deciding how it
spends its money. From a Government who has
helped drive 2 million people away from the Register
but has the bare face cheek to ask them to come
back to save Britain from Brexit. From a Government
that is seeking to change and cripple funding for
opposition parties. From a Government that wants to
end our European Human Rights. From a Government
that sought to steal education away from Local
55
 Government and that wanted to semi privatise the
BBC and only backed down because of its narrow
majority. What about a massive Tory Victory in
2020?

 That is why I have called on Labour to lead our case

and to satisfy the countries cry for Progressive
Politics by building tomorrow’s world today. This
means setting out our vision and values in a way that
inspires every man, woman and child to rally behind
and believe in. Investing in the pursuit of ideas and
innovation by creating a new Government Cabinet
based post that promotes this. Examining new ways
to challenge and effectively confront global threats
from economic instability to tackling diminishing
resources.

 That is why I have called on Labour to change its

current stance on Deficit Reduction, realise that it
cannot print money to invest its way out of debt,
recognise the very significant expansion in Consumer
debt and to accept my new 5 Point plan to tackle
the Deficit.

 And finally it is why I have put at the heart of this

new approach a new Tax and Reward system that
pays back money to hard workers so that it can do
more for those who cannot work or do not work
anymore. And to fund it by people backed Tax
Increases.

56
The Prize could not be bigger but the loss cannot be
more severe.
We should not fear a Trump Presidency. We should fear that
he has come to the verge of power based on insults, fear
mongering, division, sexism and just plain ignorant talk. How can
this be possible? Are people so devoid of hope and belief, that this
is what it takes? Can the same thing happen in Britain? We saw the
Tories try the same tactics of fear and division in the Mayor
Election. They did so with the General Election too over the
Scottish Nationalists. That is what fear does. It is easy prey for
cowards and cheats. When you use it, you PROVE you have nothing
credible to say and Labour must show by stating our progressive
case boldly that we have nothing but positive things to say about
our country.
So I conclude with the same warning I gave in my last
publication. Miliband did not listen then. I will send it to Corbyn
and if it gets past his Momentum Bodyguard, maybe just maybe he
will listen this time:

“Labour must reconnect with the British people who have always shared
their values –always. It is just that too many times, Labour forgets how to best
apply them in Government. I left the Labour Party over Iraq because that was
not progressive but aggressive politics. It was simply the wrong thing to do and
the evidence has proven that. I have now come back home as a sign of support
to a new leader keen to turn the page.

Labour steered the country from war to peace and introduced the health
service. Labour championed new protections and rights against discrimination.
Labour introduced new freedom of information. Labour transformed overseas
aid and development. It was Labour who bought peace to Northern Ireland
after nearly 100 years of Governments failure to do so. And it was Labour that
led the world through financial crisis.

Labour IS the progressive force in politics. This booklet is my attempt to

prove that whilst Labour may have lost office, Labour and its supporters have
not lost our ambition to transform Britain for good and to lead Britain beyond
the deficit. “

57
 The stakes could not be higher than the very loss of
democracy itself and the emergence of a one party state. Be
absolutely clear that is the Tory Agenda – to wipe out opposition
and to bury Labour. We must show Labour is not ready to be
buried but is indeed ready, willing and able on behalf of our great
British people, to face the future.

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