In their last Election Manifesto Labour Promised:1 – “In industrial relations, we make it clear that there will be no return to flying pickets, secondary action, strikes with no ballots or the trade union law of the 1970s. There will instead be basic minimum rights for the individual at the workplace, where our aim is partnership not conflict between employers and employees.”
What actually happenedLarge numbers of unskilled workers remain without any form of protection against exploitation, i.e. long hours, no breaks, payment less than the legal minimum wage. The rights may exist, but enforcement?
2 – “In economic management, we accept the global economy as a reality and reject the isolationism and 'go-it-alone' policies of the extremes of right or left.”
What actually happenedInstead we got a slavish adoption of the neo-con economic theories of the American right which has increased inequality in this country to unprecedented levels and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy.
3 – “In education, we reject both the idea of a return to the 11-plus and the monolithic comprehensive schools that take no account of children's differing abilities. Instead we favour all-in schooling which identifies the distinct abilities of individual pupils and organises them in classes to maximise their progress in individual subjects. In this way we modernise the comprehensive principle, learning from the experience of its 30 years of application.”
What actually happened
A decade of top down approach of obsessive micromanagement of the day to day life of schools has resulted in one of the country’s largest private sector employers claiming that “standards were still woefully low in too many schools”. Money that could have gone into reducing class sizes has been spent on the creation of a collection of expensive agencies whose benefit is questionable and cost frightening.
4 – “In health policy, we will safeguard the basic principles of the NHS, which we founded, but will not return to the top-down management of the 1970s. So we will keep the planning and provision of healthcare separate, but put planning on a longer-term, decentralised and more co-operative basis. The key is to root out unnecessary administrative cost, and to spend money on the right things - frontline care.”
What actually happenedManagement costs have spiralled out of all proportion to the value of the money spent on them. A vast bureaucracy has been created in order to produce an infrastructure of chargeable services, which can then be farmed out to the private sector. Future Health Budgets will go not on providing front line services but meeting the charges of PFI providers for running our new hospitals and health centres.
5 – “On crime, we believe in personal responsibility and in punishing crime, but also tackling its underlying causes - so, tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, different from the Labour approach of the past and the Tory policy of today”
What actually happenedSuccess! Success! So tough has the war on crime been that we now have more people in prison than ever before, with rates of overcrowding, early releases and reoffending to match.
6 – “In addition, we will face up to the new issues that confront us. We will be the party of welfare reform. In consultation and partnership with the people, we will design a modern welfare state based on rights and duties going together, fit for the modern world”
What actually happenedVirtually nothing of any substance, the Benefits system remains hugely complex, care for the elderly has been sorted, but only in Scotland while the situation in England remains as uncertain as it was 14 years ago.
7 – “We will stand up for Britain's interests in Europe after the shambles of the last six years, but, more than that, we will lead a campaign for reform in Europe. Europe isn't working in the way this country and Europe need. But to lead means to be involved, to be constructive, to be capable of getting our own way.”
What actually happenedAs part of this policy a commitment was made to have a referendum on the adoption of a European Constitution. This was never held.
8 – “We will safeguard our environment, and develop an integrated transport policy to fight congestion and pollution”
What actually happenedWe still have an economy which remains hugely dependent on motor vehicle manufacture, the one company making wind turbines in the UK closed its doors six months ago. A cheap, practical method of saving huge amounts of wasted electricity, i.e. loft insulation, has been approached in a minimalist and half hearted way.
9 – “We will clean up politics, decentralise political power throughout the United Kingdom and put the funding of political parties on a proper and accountable basis”
What actually happened1 out of 3 here: Wales, Ireland and Scotland now have a measure of independence but funding of political parties remains the mess it always has been. Not only was politics not cleaned up, just the reverse. The Government made every effort to conceal a sordid mess of deceit and tax evasion by M.P.’s which it had served to create by a complete failure to implement a transparent system of accounting.
10 – “There will be no increase in the basic or top rates of income tax”
What actually happenedBrown both increased just about every other tax rate whilst at the same time introducing new ones
