[Education For Tomorrow: No 95, 2008]

Under attack

 When asked what she considered was her greatest achievement, Margaret Thatcher famously replied, ‘New Labour.’

For the last 11 years this Government has zealously pursued Thatcherite, neo-liberal policies that have favoured the rich at the expense of the rest of us, zealously continued the privatisation of public services, indulged in wars of intervention under the guise of ‘the war on terror’ or ‘fostering democracy’ that have brought ruin to the countries invaded, cost us dear and used that policy to attack civil liberties and democratic rights at home.

Inequality
John McDonnell MP, speaking on behalf of the Labour Representation Committee, recently commented, ‘Reports confirm that Britain is now more unequal than at any time since the 1940s. Inequality is disfiguring our society and the gap has only widened under New Labour. Inequality affects people's life chances, from their educational attainment and career to their health and life expectancy.’

Information gathered by Labour Research indicates that for those in work the pay gap is widening, with the average boss-to-worker pay ratio across the biggest 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange rising to 98:1 when share options and other incentives are taken into account. Union busting and de-recognition are on the increase, as is a long hours culture, while those on incapacity benefit and other claimants face ever tougher tests. Evidence is now emerging that the introduction of tuition fees is excluding students from poorer backgrounds from applying for university — just as we predicted.

For the period 1972-76 an average unskilled British male lived 5.5 years less than a professional one but by 2002 the unskilled were living 9.5 years less.

Privatisation
Private and voluntary organisations now supply at least £44 billion worth of public services ranging from prison places to medical treatment, government buildings, information technology projects and social care and education. They account for almost one-fifth of all public service delivery, according to the study commissioned by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

While the House of Commons public accounts committee has viewed most private finance initiatives as being poor value for money, John Hutton the secretary of state for business, enterprise and regulatory reform, made clear that the independent sector remains ‘an indelible part of public service reform.’ He highlighted the prime minister’s words from a CBI conference, when Brown said that ‘where it provided value’ the private sector’s role would grow at an increasing pace. ‘

Democratic rights
Hardly a week goes by without some new proposal to undermine civil liberties. When prison officers took effective strike action late last year, justice minister Jack Straw’s response was to threaten to re-introduce a strike ban. Who’s next? The Lib-Dems have already suggested a strike ban on all public sector workers and we can be sure that the Tories would go along with the proposal While it is claimed that the main parties are fighting for the ‘centre ground’ of politics in reality they are shifting further and further to the right.

Three years ago the working people of France and the Netherlands decisively rejected the proposed European Union (EU) Constitution in referenda that should have killed the issue stone dead. As we pointed out at the time, it would have produced a militarised, centralised EU, run by an unaccountable corporate elite, would have institutionalised unfair trade with the undeveloped world, increased the prospect of war and removed democratic control.

Now it’s back, re-branded as the Treaty of Lisbon. The author of the original Constitution, Valery Giscard d’Estaing says, ‘I have taken on the work of comparing the draft of the new Treaty of Lisbon with the Constitution on the “nine essential points”. To my surprise and to tell the truth, to my great satisfaction, these nine points reappear word for word in the new project. Not a comma has changed! The only thing is that you have to really look for them because they are dispersed in the texts the new treaty refers to ...’

The government, rightly fearful of a hostile electorate, is planning to get Parliamentary approval for the Treaty without the referendum promised at the last general election. They must be told, by all the means at our disposal, ‘We want a referendum now!’


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