This article is based on the 51 achievements of the last Labour government as written by my friend and prominent Marxist John Buchanan.
But are all the achievements as good as they seem.
Unfortunately, I think most politicians are in it for the power and not for the greater good and our party politics system is just a game played by politicians at our expense.
We need to take a lot more power back from them. Reducing them to about 400 at Westminster, halving the number of Lords, Scrapping the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments and reducing County Councilors would be a good start.,
However, not everything is good or bad and neither are politicians and this is my contentious reply (all the red bits)
Finally I've quite enjoyed my philosophical debate with myself on a wet Sunday Morning so (to be Continued)
The Good
1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.
True and good but most independent commentators said they inherited a good and improving economy and just continued what was already started. However, credit has to be given for continuing inherited policies, Don’t forget though that low inflation was also achieved by importing dirt cheap consumables from China which has many disadvantages as well.
2. Low mortgage rates.
Same as above
3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.
I had deep reservations over implementing this policy but have been pleasantly surprised how well this policy has been implemented. However still many abuses, for instance in the hospitality industry
4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.
Good but would like us to be moving to a society where we didn’t need so many, and major reform and efficiency in the Police needs to be tackled. Bureaucracy has increased over the last 20 years and this needs to be reversed and public opinion of Police needs to be improved by Police behaviour.
5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.
In my opinion all crime is bad so any reduction is good.
6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.
Great if you believe Government figures but I keep seeing we have illiteracy rates off about 20% that haven't changed for 20 to 30 years. And the UK has dropped considerably in International standards over the last 20 years.
7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.
Same as above. What standards are we using and are they being downgraded to achieve higher results.
8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.
Good if it improves educational standards particularly at the lower end.
9. Employment is at its highest level ever.
Good but it’s the unemployment level and productive employment that’s more important. For instance a few years ago I looked at the employment figures over a certain period and 650,0000 jobs had been created which was the same figure as had been created in the public sector. A large proportion of which were to run overly bureaucratic and complicated tax and benefit changes. Also haven’t around 700,000 jobs gone to immigrants from the Eastern Bloc. But that’s another story.
11. 85,000 more nurses.
Good but we recruited a lot of them from developing countries, leaving poor and developed countries without health professionals
12. 32,000 more doctors.
Good although since the new GP contracts (this was by the way a complete balls up which gave them a huge increase in money for a large decrease in service) came in I can never see a Doctor anymore. I haven’t seen a doctor since 1999.
19. Restored city-wide government to London.
I don’t live in London but as an outsider looks to be a good move. London is such a special case and needs to be coordinated.
23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Good from a rationalisation point of view to merge a range of commissions into one.
25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
This is good but disappointing that most of it is due to us exporting our industrial processes to developing countries. The Western world is still in large part responsible for the increase in Greenhouse gases in China for example. However, the recession is effectively reducing our green house gases by curtailing rampant consumerism and labour has given us the biggest recession of all time.
26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.
Good but a lot of credit has to go to the Major government who were the real instigators of this policy.
27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.
Good if it improves educational standards but I'm afraid the jury is still out in my opinion.
28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.
Good
29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.
Good
30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.
Good. I think this is even better. Relative poverty for example - I don’t think Sky and x boxes mean your are in poverty but relatively they may be.
33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.
Good
34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.
Good if true. For instance I knew someone who was on the waiting to go on the waiting list 6 years ago. She couldn’t go on the actual waiting list as this would affect the hospital targets. However I do think this has been a big achievement.
35. Banned fox hunting.
On Moral grounds I think anything that stops killing for pleasure is a good thing. However Blair said if he had his time again who wouldn’t ban fox hunting
36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.
Good although these have been improving since the 70’s and is probably due more to European Legislation and technology. Interestingly a lot of this was due to the privatisation of the water companies which is a novel argument.
38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.
Morally I think this is great. I don’t like the idea of inflicting unnecessary pain for vanity reasons.
39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.
Despite recent controversy over its value, I think this is a good thing and is based on science, not opinion contrary to smear tests implemented in Scotland for instance.
40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s
I think this was a fantastic way of using under utilised resources. Don’t think this should be regarded as a pensioners benefit though. And efforts to introduce outside off peak periods should be resisted. I would also look at offering free travel outside the local area though.
41. New Deal – helped over 1.8 million people into work.
Are they real jobs?
43. Free eye test for over 60s.
Good hope this can be extended.
44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.
Good if they are real apprenticeships providing real jobs and skills like they use to be but not if they are fake which I suspect.
45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.
Good though may have reviewsed this for non nationals.
47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.
Good though suspect this is due to medical advances.
48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.
Good
49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.
50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.
Freedom of Information Act
This is one of the best things they did.
Independence of Bank of England
Anything that takes tinkering power away from governments is good in my books.
Simplifying Pension Legislation
Fantastic from a rationalisation point of view.
Ksovo
Nice to think they were instrumental in stopping this slaughter.
The Bad
14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.
I believe we do need a lot more local decision making but not at National level. This a further layer of politics, expense and bureaucracy at the wrong level. People in Glasgow and Edinburgh have very different needs and both have nothing in common with the Highlands or lowlands. This is as alien as putting Essex in a Region with Kent and Sussex instead of Norfolk and Suffolk for example. Very few policies need to be made at this level. Also it looks like it is setting the people of Britain against each other rather than bringing us together. I can’t think of a single benefit of breaking up the UK. UK politics is much of a muchness and I doubt if the people of Scotland have noticed much difference in their lives since devolution.
15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.
Same above but even less of a reason for a devolved parliament. As above Wales is not a logical region as the people of North Wales have very different needs to the people of South Wales.
Thank god the English refused to fund Politicians Hobbies by rejecting Regional Assemblies
Redirected Lotto Funds
Brought Politics into something that was set up to help good causes. Government should set the Framework (as done by J Major) then but out.
Scrapping Bank Regulations
Allowing the Banks to dominate and bankcrupt the economy.
Immigration
In an overpopulated country we should be introducing policies to reduce the population not increase them. The huge increase in population due to the enlargement of the EU has put too much pressure on our Resources in too short a time. Although many migrants have added to British Society, I don’t think the benefits are greater than the disadvantages.
The Iraq War
An expensive war achieving few objectives apart from getting rid of Sadam Hussain that has made the world a far more dangerous place and made Britons throughout the world unsafe. All based on an Essay by a South American student.
National debt
Leaving us with the biggest unnecessary peacetime National Debt of all time.
Gold Reserves
Selling them of cheap but this can be put down as a bad error of judgment.
Asbo’s
Bringing in 600 ASBO offences that were already covered by one law- Breach of the Peace.
Gambling
Introducing widespread gambling to the masses and introducing 24 hour binge drinking.
The Indifferent
10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.
Good from a PR point of view but doubt it makes any difference as they were never going to be repaid.
13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.
Pretty indifferent as to what bringing Hattie Jacques back will do. Jury is out. .
16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.
From an equality point of view this is good so long as the rest of us are not paying for it through taxes or company costs.
18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year.
Initially I thought this was good till I discovered under the Coalition Government that this is being used as a Tax evasion method for millionaires to fund their own pet projects with dubious charitable objectives. Also not convinced of the Governance of many Charities. The Charity Commission needs to do a better job.
20. Record number of students in higher education
But is this good from a National Perspective. Do we need 50% of the population to be graduates. Is it possible to have this many graduate jobs, Will there be anyone left to fix plumbing, stack shelves, clear the rubbish? Are people being educated in appropriate subjects? How many media studies graduates do we need?. I would rather the money was spent on decreasing the illiterate.
22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children's Centres.
Not quite sure if they are value for money.
32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.
Pretty indifferent to this but I suppose for reasons of equality it’s a good thing. I'm not a fan of relationships between people being determined by a piece of paper rather than their feelings for each other though, including marriage. Why do women give up their name?
51. Gender recognition Act 2004/5"
Didn’t even know this but not sure what it does or if its needed. This is a scientific rather than political fact. Personally I'm not that sure that you need to know much more than if a person has a penis he tends to be male and if they haven’t they tend to be female.
Poorly Implemented
17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.
Thought this was a good idea, but have you ever used it. No matter what you say the answer is always go and see your Doctor. Is this another Cone hotline waste of time.
21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.
In an overpopulated country in an overpopulated world we should be introducing policies that reduce population growth. I am also sceptical that the money goes to the children and I don’t think millionaires should receive a Government hand out. Our Child policies need to be shifted to the responsibilities of parenthood rather than the right or a lifestyle decision. IDS idea of restricting first 2 children would be a good start on reforming this,
24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.
Don’t mind them given cash to pensioners but this is another poorly targeted bureaucratic waste of time. Scrap it and just increase the basic state pension by this amount and strip out another wasteful layer of bureaucracy. And it also has the benefit of getting some of it back from wealthy pensioners through the tax system.
31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.
Very complicated and bureaucratic and would like to phase out for the same reasons as Child Benefit.
37. Free TV licences for over-75s.
As in 24, another waste of time scrap it and add the money saved to the basic state pension. Creates more anomalies, what about a family who don’t have to pay for a TV licence because they have a granny living with them..
42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.
Didn’t agree with the philosophy behind this at all. Not sure why the government should be giving £500 of taxpayers money for every child which would probably be spent on a big piss up 18th birthday party. Also the take up was very low and I suspect it is the poor that didn’t claim. Probably because they were to illiterate to read the claim form. Also very expensive to run by Financial Service providers ripping of the state with poor financial products. However, also not happy with the Junior ISAs brought in by the coalition. Just make the ISA available to everyone and stop adding layers of complication.
46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.
Having been to some countries receiving aid I have witnessed this is money poorly spent. Also when too much money comes in to quickly it tends to be wasted. Alas this was a feature of the last Labour Government.
My overall verdict:
The First Labour Term – Very Good
Second Term – Could do a lot better
Third Term (the Viv Nicholson, Spend, Spend Spend years) – Appalling
