Showing posts with label john cruddas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label john cruddas. Show all posts

Wednesday, 18 March 2009

A nation for all the people

I am a great admirer of John Cruddas,I wish that he had got the deputy leadership of the Labour party for I am sure that he would have provided the impetus for them to go on and win a fourth term.

Instead his ideas remain in the inside pages of the newspapers.

This morning he writes a good piece in the Guardian in which he argues the case for a new socialism.

Within Westminster he says

a rather timid critique of the government has emerged, often from former ministers. Its essentials are now almost a cliche: a lack of narrative, too much "initiativitis", and a stalling of momentum as the "Brown Bounce" of 2008 falls away.


Labour he says

lost the language of generosity, kindness and community as it lost the tempo of the country. England's abiding culture was never socialist, but as we misunderstood its essential ethic of solidarity we lost our ability to build a politics beyond the market - to mould a radical hope for the country.


Instead he says maybe this should be the motto going forwards

"A nation for all the people, built by the people, where old divisions are cast out. A new spirit in the nation based on working together, unity, solidarity, partnership. That is the patriotism of the future. Where your child in distress is my child, your parent ill and in pain is my parent, your friend unemployed or homeless is my friend, your neighbour my neighbour. That is the true patriotism of a nation."


The author? a certain T.Blair

Wednesday, 17 December 2008

Time for new beginning according to Cruddas

It is the tax payer who has stood between capitalism and its self-inflicted collapse. With credit frozen and the banks unwilling to lend, the government is being pushed toward the role of sole lender. Capitalism has been rescued by people's taxes and it will be dependent on them for its survival. It's time for capitalism to be made accountable to democracy, and it's time for democracy to renew itself and make itself fit for the challenge.

The words of John Cruddas writing in the Guardian this morning but it is more about the future and when we statrt to come out of the downturn it will not be business as usual.Instead he writes

We must tackle the recession by laying the foundations for ecologically sustainable and equitable economic development. It will mean creating a
democratic and responsive state, devolving power to local government and renewing our civic institutions of social trust and security. Society needs to reassert itself over the market economy.

Monday, 13 October 2008

Welcome to the new world-Day One

We are now all proud owners of a bank or two now then.

As Nick Robinson puts it

You must now be wondering what you'll get for your share of the £37bn. The chancellor's promising you, or at least your representative, a place on the board and no cash bonuses for those who are not the people's representatives, and what's more, freer flowing loans to small businesses and homeowners. Expect more demands to follow soon.


What will this mean.Well banks will be forced to respond to the needs of the market if you believe what the Chancellor says.Thus they will lend money responsibility and to areas in the economy that need it.

The £37b means that taxpayers will own about 60% of RBS and 40% of the merged Lloyds TSB and HBOS.Further more the Prime Minister has pledged to tackle the question of remuneration. Sir Fred Goodwin, and Sir Tom McKillop are stepping down from RBS and will be waiving their contractual entitlements to payoffs.

John Cruddas thinks that the government should go further

the government should halt the ongoing break-up of Royal Mail and its subsidiary Post Office Ltd and reconstruct them as key institutions in British economic, financial, banking and community life. With relative ease, the government could create a universal People's Bank, based on the Post Office and the Post Office card account with its 5 million cardholders. It could stop the proposed closure of 2,500 post offices and instead support them as trusted social, economic and sustainable centres of finance, communication and community cohesion. This great network could become the underpinning of local economic resilience.


But perhaps we can go further.Next on the list is surely Network Rail and the franchised train companies but what about the public utilities?Water,Gas and Electricity

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Cruddas for cabinet or even for PM

Andrew Grice in this morning's Independent is quite convinced that by Friday John Cruddas will be in the cabinet.

According to Grice

Cometh the hour, cometh the man? Delegates to the Labour conference have fallen for a new darling. It's not Gordon Brown, or David Miliband, but a backbencher – Jon Cruddas, the left-of-centre MP for Dagenham.
His star is rising so fast that senior ministers expect to see him sitting round the cabinet table with them if, as expected, Mr Brown reshuffles his team soon. And for the first time, Mr Cruddas is giving serious thought to running for the leadership if the Prime Minister is ousted before the general election.


In part a resurgence of the left will help his cause

the global financial crisis makes the Cruddas agenda of state intervention to correct market failures, a crackdown on City excesses, a windfall tax on the energy companies and higher taxes for the rich seem timely and respectable.

Friday, 12 September 2008

Cruddas declares New Labour is over and its time to move on


An interesting piece from John Cruddas in the Indy this morning.The Labour deputy leader contender asks how his party has managed to become the party of the establishment.

It is a calrion call for the party to shift emphisis declaring that the New Labour experiment is over and that

New Labour has created a more individualised and wealthier society but not a freer or more equal one. In its neglect of its core working-class support it has lost its roots and ideological purpose. Despite its extraordinary electoral successes it has failed to build a lasting coalition for transformational change.
and that during its transformation in the mid 90's

New Labour jettisoned the language of ethical socialism and so lost its capacity to match Mr Cameron's pro-social rhetoric and usurp his claim to value politics. In contrast, Mr Cameron's ethical language of social life has resonated amongst many who in the past would never have considered voting for the economic liberalism of Thatcherism.


The left he says

needs to recover its ethical socialism and commitment to equality. There has to be a renewed argument for constitutional and electoral reform and the protection and extension of individual civil liberties. The conditions for trade unionism have to be improved and a new internationalism established. Perhaps most of all, and most difficult, the left needs an ecologically sustainable, pro-social political economy capable of generating both wealth and equitable development. The future is for the left to lose

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

A blueprint from Cruddas


One of the dark horses for the Labour stalking horse is John Cruddas.He probably ran one of the best campaigns in last year's deputy elections.Unfortunately his message was not New Labour enough for the party.How they may regret that now.

Today John writes a good piece in the Independent where he tries to address what the problems are for the party.

He seems to say that short term measures are not the solution but


The Labour Party should take this as a final wake-up call. The next
election is far from being decided two years out; voters haven't necessarily
given up on us. Yet, unless we change over the next six months, the election
defeats of the past few weeks could solidify into a durable anti-Labour voting
block
and reminds the party that


David Cameron has sought to fashion a modern Conservatism that recognises many of the problems of modern British society, even seeking to colonise some of the language of the centre-left – the notion of the "good society" or a "social recession".


So what should the Labour message be

    • The Government needs to identify new forms of social solidarity to remedy
      today's uncertainties and insecurities. Where the Tories would rely on market
      forces to bring down living costs, Labour can enforce fairer prices.
    • Where the Tories want more individualised (read privatised) care for the
      elderly, Labour can use revenue from fairer taxation to share the responsibility
      of caring for our people.
    • Where the Tories will "exhort" corporations to be "socially responsible", Labour can provide a tough framework for balancing companies' desire for profits with the needs of ordinary people
    • the Tories would empower bad employers, Labour can guarantee better rights for those who work hard on low wages.
    • Where the Tories can only hope the private sector can solve Britain's housing crisis, Labour can let councils step in to provide decent homes.


This maybe is the clear blue water that the party must put between itself and Labour,recognising the real issues and concerns of the voters but showing Labour principles on how to address them.

This time Mr Cruddas,you must accept any invitations to come into the cabinet.