Bridging the gap

By Patricia Bell

If we rely solely on mainstream media reporting, we may be led to believe that only male contestants exist in this important leadership race. Further, the marginalisation, by this same media coverage, of Diane Abbott’s candidacy gives the impression that her inclusion in the contest is mere tokenism – a diversion. Many Labour Party members tend to believe the general hype that only one of the favoured white men can possibly lead the party. But there is a serious alternative analysis.

Many of us joined the Labour Party because we believe that it stands for social justice, human rights and trade union rights and that it is the only party that will really fight to deliver the kind of equalities agenda that will eliminate poverty and ensure that resources are fairly distributed. It was such governments that brought the welfare system into being, set up the NHS and extended free education to 16 and on to university level.

Sadly, in the over 13 years of Labour government we have seen a significant erosion of some of these rights and benefits.

For example, the Labour government introduced tuition fees for university students; the Labour government supported creeping privatization in health care, education and the postal service; the Labour government ignored many reasonable proposals from the trade union movement, the Labour government attacked the justice system by proposing to lock up individuals without charge for up to 90 days, the Labour government spent millions on introducing an identity card system; the Labour government joined the USA in invading Iraq, misleading the populace on weapons of mass destruction and tacitly supporting ‘extraordinary rendition’, which includes techniques tantamount to torture; the Labour government gave in to xenophobic calls for harsher immigration controls and the Labour government abandoned the 10% income tax band that helped the poorest workers. Regarding the above examples of ‘un-Labour‘ activities, only one of the five leadership candidates was bold enough to keep faith with our party’s basic beliefs. Diane Abbott consistently spoke and voted against the war in Iraq, identity cards, the demise of the 10% tax band and tuition fees. Also, she has frequently opposed the erosion of human rights.

Diane is well educated and has been an MP for 23 years. She has frequently spoken up when she felt that the Parliamentary Party was departing from the beliefs and expectations of the wider party. She has been loyal to our party’s good traditions. Not for her the sycophancy that has led other candidates to compromise their positions by being a party to various bad cabinet decisions. Diane fully understands the way that parliament works and has sat on its committees. She has also served our party by being a local Labour councillor and by being a member of the Labour’s National Executive Committee. Consequently, she has the necessary experience to be a new sort of party leader – one that greatly reduces the longstanding, damaging and unnecessary gap between the party’s leadership and its grassroots.

All the leadership candidates claim that our party in parliament needs to change and improve but previous complicity with various erosions of basic Labour beliefs leave the other four candidates open to charges of hypocrisy. Diane is the exception. She alone promises to stop wasting money on Trident. On the economy she will defend the public sector, support higher taxes especially on the wealthy and on the banks. Because of her record we can believe that she will have the courage to stand up to the establishment, extend the social systems of support and defend the rights of the working classes. As an MP in one of the poorest boroughs in the UK she doubled her majority in the recent general election whilst Labour votes were eroded across the country. Her constituents have stayed loyal over the years because she has served them well.

A considerable chunk of the electorate believes that voting is not necessary as in practice all the parties are likely to do virtually the same thing.

But it was the same Labour government of the last 13 years that passed the Human Rights Act, finally leading the UK to participate in the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, it introduced a national minimum wage, albeit still meagre. Both these acts show that the basic beliefs of the party still have some power and influence. In order to maintain and enlarge this good aspect of our party and to increase the differences between us and the other parties, the only credible candidate for leadership is Diane Abbott. To vote otherwise risks a repeat of recent Labour cabinet mistakes and leaves us open to renewed attack by the Tories and Lib Dems.