Unless we reaffirm our purpose to the British people we’re sleep-walking to a Tory victory

By Sonny Leong

An outright Conservative victory is widely anticipated within the Westminster Village. Poll after poll shows them to be not only ahead but to be perceived as being strong on most public services – an area that has traditionally been a vote-winner for Labour. So what is happening here? Who are these people that believe the Tories can deliver better public services? To be honest I wonder if I am living in the same country as them.

Rewind the clock fifteen years – hospital waiting lists were the butt of jokes by stand-up comics, teachers, nurses and doctors were leaving their professions in droves, class sizes were unmanageable, schools were crumbling down – literally falling apart – police forces were demoralised, and David Cameron was Special Advisor to Norman Lamont.

Cameron may be mouthing Compassionate Conservatism – but what does he know about being unemployed or having no money to pay for your next meal? Or for that matter his shadow cabinet, whose combined net worth is in excess of £100 million?

Meanwhile Cameron’s side-kick Osborne is behaving like a bullying public school boy with more than a glint of arrogance, posturing like he was born to rule over us. Their motto – ‘screw the rest, we’ll look after our kind’ is as blatant as it is offensive. Their 3,000 wealthy friends who would benefit most from plans to cut inheritance tax must be counting down the days to the next election.

Peter Mandelson is absolutely right in saying that Tories were “foaming at the mouth with excitement“. We have to stop their charm offensive and reveal them as the frauds that they are. They will say whatever the public wants to hear to get elected – we have to expose their lies and total lack of compassion.

It doesn’t seem unfair, therefore, to ask if people are insane in wanting the Tories back in government. And yet if the polls are to be believed, for the moment at least, huge numbers of people are seriously considering just that. The hard truth is, though, that we can’t blame the voters for not listening to us.

Perhaps we have been burying our heads in the sand, hoping against all hopes that the economy will turn around and all will be fine?

We have to accept that to a very large extent we are still repeating now tired old messages that have begun to bore the voters. We have to accept that we have failed to articulate our policies with clarity and have failed to energise our supporters and voters with a vision of hope and aspiration. And we have to accept that to a large extent we have failed to deliver fairness for hard working families and to protect the dignity of our pensioners.

If we are to really challenge the lies purported by the Tories in claiming that they are the party of progressive politics, we have to rediscover the fire in our belly. We have to rediscover our hunger for victory.

To do this we need to start talking about social justice, fairness and equality. We have to articulate our strength of feeling about tackling poverty and our belief in the nobility of the human spirit. We have to take our fight to the country for the things that we passionately believe in and carry the message to the people that need us most.

Our election manifesto has to embrace hope, be transformative, aspirational, compassionate and equitable. Here are some of my suggestions:

* A referendum on a fairer electoral system and process.

* Constitutional reforms to parliamentary representation.

* National Civic Service where unemployed 18-24 year olds can participate in voluntary work domestically and internationally.

* Reform the banking industry by breaking up banking giants and refer all mergers and acquisitions to the UK Competition Commission.

* Setting up tax-free industrial parks for new green industries to offset our reliance on the financial services sector.

* Take back into public ownership those rail franchises that have failed, and consider road tolls on all motorways.

* Set up a National Housing Board to oversee the development of social housing throughout the country.

* Appoint a Cabinet Minister for the Elderly and establish its own department to look after the welfare of pensioners.

As we all head to Brighton for our Conference this week, we have to have a purpose for the next few months, and that purpose is to lay open the shallow mindedness of the Conservative policies for all to see. There is all to fight for, and a fourth term is still a possibility, however bleak the outlook is currently.

So let’s all stop sleep-walking, wake up and take the challenge to the British people.

Sonny Leong is a Publisher and Chair of Chinese for Labour.