BY LAUNCHING their coup following the Brexit vote, the PLP totally deflected the Labour Party from its prime duty of mobilising the population against the new Tory government that has only a wafer-thin majority. The anti-Corbyn campaign has now lasted a full three months, allowing Theresa May an uninterrupted honeymoon, as the media targeted Corbyn, in full support of the plotters.
Tory divisions
Neither the Brexiteers and their think tanks, nor the Tory Remainers have the slightest idea how to dislocate Britain from its 40-year-old partnership with Europe. They remain deeply divided between those who want to negotiate as much of EU membership conditions as they can (i.e. full access to the single market), and those who want to break with the EU altogether and negotiate bi-lateral trade deals with individual countries. May’s mantra, “Brexit Means Brexit” solves nothing.
Now Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s “seven day NHS” – which has alienated 54,000 junior doctors on whom the health service heavily depends – has been shown up for the ridiculous diversion it is.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, says, “It is impossible to deliver it on the current level of staff and on the current money available”. On the contrary, the NHS is on the brink of closing services, cutting staff and rationing treatment. Hospitals face imminent bankruptcy… and winter, the traditional time for a crisis, is three months away.
Theresa May’s bright idea to bring back grammar schools, with the patronising proviso that 25 per cent of the places will be allocated to “poor children”, has immediately roused critics. Former education secretary Nicky Morgan and Ofsted chief Michael Wilshaw have both said it would undo 50 years of progressive school reforms.
In short, the Tories are beatable – if the labour movement gets its act together.
Action plan
Labour’s Annual Conference needs to call a halt to the backbiting and sabotage of Jeremy Corbyn and his Shadow Cabinet. The PLP rebels need to be told to back a campaign to fight the Tories’ wrecking plans.
Conference should adopt an action programme of major reforms.
Who is going to pay for all this? Labour needs to answer: the rich with their vast piles of inherited wealth, the fat cats in the City with their eye-watering bonuses, and the bosses at Sports Direct, Hermes, BHS and elsewhere, shysters who steal from their employees and deny them even the minimum wage.
That is what a government-in-waiting looks like. But Labour’s hundreds of thousands of members, and millions in the affiliated trade unions shouldn’t “wait” for a Labour government – we should fight for it now!
