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Break with this Tory rhetoric! Labour Briefing editorial

22nd January 2014

Break with this Tory rhetoric!

Recent weeks have seen a poisoning of the political discourse about immigration. Much of the ludicrous fear mongering about an imminent invasion of Romanians and Bulgarians was whipped up by Tory tabloid newspapers. Their agenda is transparent: maximum publicity and support for UKIP ahead of the European Parliamentary elections this spring, primarily as a means of pushing Cameron to the right. Then, no doubt, they will suddenly discover that the UKIP website mocked the death of Nelson Mandela and that its leader Nigel Farage allegedly sang Hitler Youth songs at school. The same tabloids will then quietly fall in behind the Tories before the 2015 general election.

Nor does the Government believe half the rubbish it talks about the dangers of migration. It has suppressed its own report which shows that the benefits of EU immigration into Britain significantly outweigh the drawbacks. But the Conservatives know from their darkest days in Opposition that immigration is the one issue on which they always lead Labour in the polls. So as their unpopular service cuts and cost of living crisis bite deeper, the issue of foreigners becomes a convenient distraction for a beleaguered Government.

More fool the Labour leadership then for drifting along with this agenda. Its failure to oppose the Government’s new immigration bill is an act of political cowardice, which allows to pass unchallenged the most odious practices - like the rewarding of Home Office staff with shopping vouchers for rejecting asylum seekers’ claims.
This pandering to a public ignorance that Cameron’s team itself helped create might yet backfire. As two million displaced people flee the civil conflict in Syria, our Government, representing the eighth richest country in the world, refuses to take in a single refugee. And Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, timidly playing catch-up, says: maybe 400?

Much of the Tories’ dislike of the EU is due to the latter’s modest commitment to some workplace rights such as minimum holiday pay and maternity entitlements, which Tory business backers want binned. And many of the Government’s new rules on immigrants are about charging for universal services, which opens the way for charging for other people later. Under the anti-migrant rhetoric, an attack on many of our post-war welfare gains is being mounted.

The Labour leadership must break from this narrative, not just on immigration, but on demonising benefit claimants, as Shadow Work and Pensions spokesperson Rachel Reeves has done, or on scapegoating teachers, as we’ve had from Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt. Unless it fundamentally changes the conversation from the Tory line of divide and rule, all the positive noises about controlling the energy companies and breaking up the banks will look implausible and lack credibility.

Millions of hard-pressed people desperately need a change of policy. If Labour cannot convince them that it is on their side, they will not feel inspired to vote for them, however attractive a few of its policies may look on paper.

This is the editorial from the current (February 2014) issue of ‘Labour Briefing’, the magazine of the LRC. Subscribe!
 
 

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Background

By Ian Hodson It’s great news that a mainstream political party has recognised the importance of taking positive action to raise pay. Since 2008, politicians from all parties along with many in the media, have pushed the narrative that society will somehow improve by imposing austerity and blaming minority groups for the state of the country’s finances. Sadly, many have fallen for this deception and the ‘look over there’ politics that has rose to prominence since the Conservatives returned to power in 2010. [continue...]

Folkestone United – coming together to support migrants Bridget Chapman, Folkestone United, reports [continue...]

No Witch-Hunts In The GMB, Reinstate Keith Henderson (The Online Petition) Keith Henderson Essex LRC member and former Regional Organiser of the GMB Union was dismissed from the GMB last December, Keith has always believed that the real reason for his dismissal was because of his socialist beliefs and the manifestation of his beliefs. [continue...]

Please see our Labour Briefing Website here: LabourBriefing.org [continue...]

The LRC is supporting a broad alliance of campaign groups and trade unions against the proposals in the Welfare Reform Bill (currently before Parliament) and putting forward our alternative based on social justice and welfare for all. [continue...]

Across the country working people are losing their jobs and their homes. Meanwhile the bankers who plunged us into this crisis have been bailed out with billions of pounds of our money. It’s time to fight back. Their Crisis Not Ours! is the LRC’s campaign to bring together workers, pensioners, the unemployed, students, those facing repossession and all those suffering because of an economic crisis that has been imposed on us. The campaign is supporting the demands of the People’s Charter. [continue...]

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The campaign calling on the Government to abandon its plans for privatisation of Royal Mail. The Government has introduced the Postal Services Bill to part-privatise the Royal Mail. With our affiliate union CWU we are fighting to Keep the Post Public! [continue...]

The campaign to demand the Government funds improvements to all existing council housing, and to start building first class council homes to address housing need. For more information see Defend Council Housing website. [continue...]

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