Calling "Red Ed"

Sitting here as I am, taking in  the protests occurring in London, and to a lesser degree, across other parts of the U.K. today, I can't help but wonder what the future has in store for Britain. The police have taken unprecedented meaures to try and dissuade demonstrators from turning out on the streets today but they don't seem to have made the slightest bit of difference. These measures included writing to certain individuals who took part in the previous student protests earlier in the year, even those cleared of any wrong doing whatsoever, warning them not to participate today or else! Another, more shocking measure undertaken by police involved issuing plastic bullets to their riot units and announcing publicly their threat to deploy them on protesters, for the first time on the soil of mainland Britain. Despite these scare tactics, thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of citizens are pouring out on the streets today to voice their anger at the horrific rises in tuition fees and the wider package of austerity measures being forced down our throats. The question this throws up is, will Britain carry on ignoring the voice of its citizens using ever more draconion means to stifle and control protest, ensuring the implementation of a hugely unpopular, hotly disputed economic theory, or will somebody on the political spectrum listen to the people and offer us a choice?


Listening to the facts and hearing the numbers, it is no wonder there is a rapidly spreading anger brewing within the nation that's growing in intensity. Britain now sits with an unemployment figure swiftly approaching three million, that is 8.1% of the working population. Amongst the young, the situation is vastly worse, over 21% of 16-25 year olds are without work and that statistic is bound to get much worse over the next three to four years as a direct result of the government's tuition fee policy. Quite clearly, what is going to happen is that the students already in the system will graduate and emerge into an already saturated job market thereby finding it nigh on impossible to find work, whilst during this period fewer and fewer people will attempt to enter the university system because of the fees, and will emerge into an already saturated job market and ....  You see where I'm going with this. In the same week, it has emerged that the Royal Bank of Scotland, a bank bailed out by taxpayers in the midst of the banking crisis, is paying over £500 million in bonuses this year, how can that be, where is the justice in that?


The series of "austerity measures" which the Con/Dem coalition is set to begin implementing in the very near future is going to make the situation inconceivably worse. The forecast is that at least a million more jobs will be taken out of the market altogether, and, the cancellation of schemes such as the Education Maintenance Allowance (E.M.A.),- which is paid to pupils from poorer backgrounds to enable and encourage them to stay in school and complete their A Levels- will mean ever more young people will be fighting over an ever decreasing number of jobs.


These cuts, we're told, are absolutely necessary to solve Britain's "sovereign debt crisis"-a term that we've become so familiar with over the past year, most of us are muttering it in our sleep- but it is not working! The economy is stagnating badly as consumer confidence has dried up, and I can't see how we're going to remedy that situation by putting a million and a half more people in the dole queue over the next three years. Meanwhile, because of the nature of the global financial system, Britain is as threatened by the Greek or Italian "sovereign debt crisis" as it is by its own, so what's the difference? This approach to economic problems has been used before in Britain, during the first four years of the Thatcher government, the Tories massively cut public spending in an attempt to revitalise the economy resulting in soaring unemployment, a then shocking two million people. The reason given then was to curb inflation, however, it was a total failure, inflation was not curbed in the slightest and the economy lay in ruins.  What it succeeded in doing was killing what was left of British industry, destroying entire communities, disenfranchising the old working classes permanently, and, creating widespread acrimony and social unrest across Britain.The policy might have cost Thatcher dearly,  it helped her achieve the lowest public approval ratings ever recorded by a British Prime Minister, but the conflict in the Falklands conveniently dug her of that hole, leaving the policy to be shelved after the i983 general election.

This is economic terrorism, make no mistake about it, it's a war, not on drugs, not on terror, but on you; it's not taking place in Afghanistan, it's not in Iraq or Libya or any of those far flung places, it's happening right here, at home! It will affect your home, your job, your pension, your childcare, care for the elderly, your hospitals, your education, your kids' education, your benefits, your transport system and just about everything else we rely upon in life.It is being perpetrated by people at the very top of of the corporate and banking sectors, including financial institutions such as the I.M.F., through politicians that are in hock up to their necks  in creating a dependent, subservient nation, and it's being sold to us through their allies in global media. It is the optimum method for consolidating the wealthy elite's grip on power and it will be felt by all, all, that is, except for those in the top 1%.


The worst thing though, in Britain, is that we don't have any option. Yes we have elections, but now, more than at any other time since the second world war, we live in an "elective dictatorship". Not in the sense that one party has all the power and the others don't get a say, no, worse than that, all the major parties seem to follow the same principles and come up with the same policies, it is a dictatorship of concensus. What use is a vote without a choice? It is to be expected that the Tories would have this policy of agressive spending cuts, it's part of their make up, lower taxes, cut back on public spending, help the rich, preserve the status quo. The Lib Dems, well, they nailed their colours to the mast with their volte face on the tuition fees issue, and those colours are most definitely blue. Clegg sold their souls for the merest hint of power, and that's what it is,  a hint.  After the next general election, the Liberal Democrats are likely to cease to be of any real political significance, to become a minor party or to be absorbed by the Conservatives, I don't  expect them to be a force in British politics again for a very long time.


Where are Labour in all this, and more importantly, Ed Miliband? Dubbed "Red Ed" by some sections of the right wing press upon his selection as Labour leader, so far Ed's proven to be about as red as a New York city cab. That's right, yellow! The New Labour era is over, people now realise that New Labour was an empty vessel, a hollow promise, things did not get better, as their victory song promised, in fact things got the same and then worse for most us. Yes, we bought more stuff, but we didn't really own it, we bought most of it on easily available credit, it was an illusion, and when the bubble burst, we were left with the bills.  The vast majority of people are aware that the financial boom was built on fraudulent activity by bankers, operating under a don't ask don't tell policy employed by the Labour government. People are also aware that consequently the bust was an unavoidable scenerio, exactly the same as the boom and bust epic that played out during the late 1980s. Whoever the singer, the song remains the same.  What we now need is an alternative, a third way, a different way of thinking, a fresh approach, politically and economically.


 Finding himself in this situation, isn't it time that Miliband seized back some traditional Labour ground? Ok, he's come out against tuition fees, and he made vague references to disagreeing with the speed and severity of the cuts, but that is not enough. He offered no actual plan for how Labour would deal with the economy and he's refusing to support the three million or so public sector workers preparing to take strike action on November 30th. Why? He's afraid of the right wing press, he doesn't want to be seen to support the Trade Unions. This is the perfect time for Miliband to strongly oppose the cuts, argue for high rates of tax on bank bonuses, propose reform of tax laws to ensure that the super rich are forced to pay every penny they owe, to fight for job creation, to close the gap between rich and poor, to pull British troops out of foreign wars, to scrap plans to spend billions on re-vamping our nuclear arsenal and to create a better, fairer future for Britain in the manner that Labour once promised to do. In this age of monopolitik Britain needs a choice, a real choice, and if Milband has the guts, he can provide it. It depends how he wants to be remembered, as a statesman, a politician who took a broken country and set it back on the right road,  a man who had the courage of his convictions and his peoples best interests at heart, a leader of men; or a footnote, a man who couldn't find a policy, a man who blew Labour's best ever chance to deliver a better future, a man who allowed a weak coalition to defeat him at the polls because he didn't have the courage to really attack  it.


Students are not the only group protesting today, as you know, the Occupy London protest is still taking place at St. Paul's Cathedral, add to those the above mentioned upcoming public sector strike and the further industrial and protest actions planned for the new year, and you get a very large portion of the electorate who are unhappy and want to see urgent policy change. I urge all these groups to join forces, co-ordinate actions and show the politicians just how numerous and vocal the 99%  really is. Miliband claims to understand the public's anger, but does he really? If so why not harness it? The people are angry now, they're out there on the streets protesting regularly for the first time in a generation, what they need now is a political voice, someone to believe in, someone who will bring the bankers and the financiers to account, who will deliver some kind of justice, financial or otherwise. For without justice, dies hope and without hope, so goes the future. Speak now "Red Ed", or forever hold your peace.

B.W.T.G.C.