Slingerblog

Cameron & øsbørne should head lesson from the past on Plan B

2012-01-26T15:15:00.000Z

George øsbørne and David Cameron should heed this advice, from an illustrious former chancellor...but which one?...

"The Treasury has never, it seems to me, faced the profound significance of what Mr Keynes calls 'the paradox of unemployment amidst dearth'. The Governor shows himself perfectly happy in the spectacle of Britain possessing the finest credit in the world simultaneously with a million and a quarter unemployed. Obviously if these million and a quarter were usefully and economically employed, they would produce at least £100 a year a head, instead of costing up to at least £50 a head in doles".

....A certain Mr Winston Churchill, who gave this advice when he was Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1925!

Times may change, economic conditions may change, but his basic thesis was right then and it is right now. The similarity between his analysis then and that of Ed Balls and Labour now, is uncanny.

Conservatives often like to bask in the reflected glory of the former leader of their party (and Liberal Cabinet Minister, let's not forget). Let's not let them be overly selective.

The quote comes from Roy Jenkins' biography of Churchill. Jenkins explains its context as being a letter written in retort to those advising him to return Sterling to the gold standard. Something he was vigorously opposed to, but with the Opposition, the trades unions, his Cabinet and virtually all economists apart from Keynes lined up against him, even this great man couldn't resist the weight of establishment received wisdom.

In 2012, Cameron & Co.s Plan A for Austerity is failing. Unemployment is tragically high, growth has flat-lined and now ceased and the Government seem ideologically opposed to taking the necessary steps required to stimulate growth. A good starting point would be Labour's 5-point plan for jobs and growth. Unlike Churchill in 1925, there is nowhere near unanimous agreement that the Conservative-led Government's economic policy is the correct one. When a ratings agency like Standard and Poor's even caution against over-reliance on fiscal austerity, you know that the Government is digging a hole for itself and cannot stop digging.

2012 must be a year of change for Birmingham and Labour

2012-01-26T11:42:00.000Z

2012 must be a year of change in Birmingham, the regional capital of the Midlands, the region in which I live. To give just two of many grim statistics: Birmingham’s unemployment rate is twice the national average and homelessness in the city has increased by 20 per cent in the past year. But we know the change we need won’t come from this Tory-led government or from an outdated city council structure. Change requires that the city seize the chance of a directly elected Mayor in May’s referendum and that the city votes Labour in the mayoral election, which is expected to be in November if the city votes “yes” in May.

Having addressed the Fabian Society in London in the morning, Ed Balls attended a campaign lunch hosted by Siôn Simon, Tom Watson and Khalid Mahmood on Saturday 14 January. Balls encouraged Birmingham to vote “yes” in May and told the diverse lunch crowd of 130, including myself, that Siôn Simon “has got a great contribution to make for the future”. The event took place in Marco Pierre White’s new restaurant in Birmingham’s city centre; the latest culinary attraction in a city that, as Simon noted in his short speech, was recently named by the New York Times as one of the world’s top 20 holiday destinations due to its dining scene.

This success demonstrates our Birmingham’s potential, which Simon encouraged attendees on Saturday to celebrate and talk about. And it’s not just food that Birmingham does well. Most of the jewellery made in Britain originates from Birmingham. Birmingham has Europe’s second biggest Islamic finance centre. The majority of the world’s Punjabi music is produced and developed in Birmingham. Birmingham has the largest professional services sector outside of London in the country. Birmingham has Europe’s largest shopping centre – the Bullring.

Too few of these successes are known about outside of Birmingham or are championed by Brummies and Midlanders. They are indicative of an immense potential that the presently ineffectual governance structures in the city and the UK’s top-down, Westminister-centric politics has frustratingly proved unable to unlock. Birmingham urgently needs better than this. We need the democratic renewal of city-wide election of the city’s leader and the legitimacy that this renewal provides for powers and budgets to be devolved from Whitehall to Birmingham.

Simon has shown a keener understanding of this than anyone else. When he announced that he would stand down from parliament before the last general election, eliminating any possibility that his mayoral ambitions would have Labour resources diverted to fighting a by-election, he said: “After nine years in Parliament, it has become clear to me that the answers to Birmingham’s problems do not lie in Westminster and Whitehall. We cannot leave our future to London. They have not looked after our past.”

The brighter future that Birmingham must aspire to can only be built by our city itself,the people and communities that form it and the wider Midlands region. The government should be true to their professed instinct for localism and allow Brummies to do this. I’ve been inspired by Simon’s writing on what it means to be a Brummie and impressed by how he has led the debate on what powers and budgets the government should devolve to the city under a mayoral administration.

The opening words of Simon’s contribution to last year’s book What Next for Labour were: “As well as demonstrating what central government can achieve towards Labour’s objectives, the last government demonstrated its limits.” What Simon is campaigning for isn’t just vital to Birmingham’s future. It’s about a future for the Labour Party based upon a genuinely reformed, co-operative and bottom-up state. One that moves Britain beyond one of the most centralised political systems in the western world and gives cities like Birmingham the tools to command their own futures.

2012 must be both the year of change in Birmingham and the year in which Labour’s future is built through a new municipal socialism. Neither the Labour Party nor Birmingham can wait till a change of government in 2015 to create brighter futures. We must start now.

My article on Top Of The Policies - skills (17/01/12)

2012-01-19T13:40:00.000Z

Top of the policies

ProgressOnline has published my article today on the Pragmatic Radicalism 'Top Of The Policies' event held at the Barley Mow pub in Westminster on Tuesday 17 January.

Top of the policies

In a week when Labour’s relationship with the unions is the crisis of the cycle, story of the second and trending twitter topic, the first of our ‘Top Of The Policies’ of 2012, sponsored by unionlearn and Unions21, steered my mind from one Unite (my union) towards the invigorating realisation that we can unite.

PragRad started life as a pamphlet, coloured plain red, with a declared stance of not representing a bloc, wing or the twittersphere troopers of the above. Since then, we’ve developed the innovative TOTP format for events, trialled first at Labour Conference, which encourages people to unite not over ideology, or the leadership’s strategy, but in thinking up new policy ideas with the radicalism and, to coin an increasingly popular descriptor, credibility needed to address the dire problems the country faces.

So the joke cracked by event chair, the Guardian’s Michael White, as he surveyed the list of speakers and quoted our pamphlet’s strap-line – “Ideas from Labour’s New Generation…John Edmonds…Parmjit Dhanda” – was funny, and rather apt. An ex-minister and ex-trade union general secretary are indeed part of the ‘new generation’ which Ed Miliband said is defined not by age but attitude. It was a good thing that, as at our conference fringe, people with such a diverse range of political experience joined together to make their two-minute policy pitches in an environment where the only criterion of success was the quality of the idea, not the status of the speaker.

While TOTP’s slightly irreverent format cannot tackle issues in depth, it points to how the party can flourish, if it truly switches on ‘receptive mode’, is open to new ideas and encourages debate among members irrespective of background. For as TOTP events, Fabian Conferences, in the black Labour, the Purple Book tour and many other initiatives show, members are not scared by a ‘blank piece of paper’, they relish filling it and, unlike the past, the ideas bubbling up in this period of opposition show we are the only party able to formulate credible policies offering the radicalism necessary for a fairer society in straitened times.

With horrendous news of record levels of youth unemployment, it was apt that we kicked off 2012 with a TOTP on skills. If you’re interested, you can read the policy idea presented here, but the Top Three ideas were: in joint third place Allan Graveson’s idea of fiscal incentives for training and Amanda Ramsay’s national Skills Mentoring Scheme; in second Anthony Painter’s call for a new high quality technical education for those of 14+; and the Top Policy was Jake Hayman (from futurefirst) who won by a big margin with a mentoring network for all state schools. These show it is possible to be pragmatic and radical.

PragRad is planning a series of TOTPs this year, culminating in a second pamphlet to be launched at Conference. We’re talking to Labour Friends of the Forces about a TOTP on defence, and already, Jack Dromey has indicated he’ll chair one on housing. Much more is in the pipeline including events outside London. TOTP offers a platform for members from across the range of opinions in the party and trade union movement to set aside their differences, air policy ideas and have a debate with a view to helping shadow ministers as they formulate policy. This is more fun and productive than navel-gazing.

John Slinger is chair of Pragmatic Radicalism and tweets at @JohnSlinger. More details at www.pragmaticradicalism.co.uk @PragRad

LabourList publishes my article - All needn't be lost for Labour in the lost decade(s)

2011-12-20T23:54:00.002Z

Published on LabourList here.

Much derided at the time, the phrase ‘squeezed middle’ became the Oxford English Dictionary’s ‘Word of the Year 2011′. Having enabled Labour’s new leader to sculpt a narrative that the vaguely-defined ‘middle’ were bearing a disproportionate burden amidst the wreckage of the financial crisis, it no longer encapsulates what is turning out to be a deeper, more profound crisis than initially imagined. There now exists a ‘squeezed society’ and ‘squeezed economy’ likely to persist for years if not decades. Labour’s ideals, while important during the time of plenty, are now essential as we enter what may be a period of relative decline, both to ensure fairness and to map out new and better concept of a successful economy and society.

This is not doom-mongering, but hard-headed realism of the kind lacking since the financial crisis began, when the elite was unable to contemplate that the order it had built up was not only under threat, but might be swept away. What was initially described as little local difficulty at the Northern Rock was in reality Act One of a tragedy threatening the entire economy. At each stage of this escalating crisis, politicians played down the risks, drip-fed the truth and attempted to convince us they can lead us back to ‘normality’. Yet as with a train station display board which flashes up a delay of 10 minutes, before gradually revising it sharply upwards, though we fear that some unmentionable horror is being concealed, we crave the truth in order to plot a safe onward journey. We need to accept some of these hitherto unmentionable truths about our economy and society, in order to build a path to better economic future based on more than blind optimism.

Yet even as the pillars of its strategy crumble, the Government clings to the belief that ‘normality’ can be restored. What was to be a mild recession followed by strong growth has morphed into a deep recession followed by either a ‘double dip’ or a long period of stagnation. From the eye of the storm, our leaders are still at risk of mistaking an epoch-changing financial and economic crisis for a recession. ‘Normality’ is taking such a battering that the current generation may be the first since the 1950s unable hold out any hope of their children reaching or exceeding their standard of living and range of life-chances. This is hardly the utopia that politicians of all political hues promised would flow from free markets and globalisation. With IFS data showing that spendable incomes will not return to 2006 levels until 2016 it is not exaggeration to suggest this lost decade may become a lost generation and that a paradigm shift in our economy and society is underway. It is slowly dawning on the West that the boom years from the mid-1990s were sustained not by increasing efficiency or thrift, but by an explosion of debt, fuelled by vast international trade imbalances and the misguided view that growth could be eternal and risk mitigated through complex financial instruments. This masked the emperor’s new clothes – that our economy was incapable of sustaining the kind of growth rates necessary to sustain good public services, high levels of employment and high standards of living?

We must start adapting to a train station noticeboard now reading: ‘All trains to your destination cancelled…please seek alternative methods of transport.’ In short, it is not possible or even desirable to chart a route back to the status quo circa August 2007. Our alternative should be positive, heralding new and better ways of working, living and conducting business. Ed Miliband has started along this track but the rest of the party must embolden him to go further. Rather than accepting declining living standards as a latter-day ‘price worth paying’ of austerity, we must show how it is possible to ‘unsqueeze’ both the ‘middle’ and society itself, even without GDP growth. We must break the mindset of old: a worship of the totem of growth and a small ‘c’ conservative defence of the ossified structures of privilege and power in our economy and society. Labour must set out the radical policies which might ensure that the new economic paradigm is not one of rising inequality and unfairness, as it will surely be under the Conservatives. These straitened times require a more sophisticated and radical policy toolkit, moving beyond the ‘third way’ made possible by the falsely benign environment of ‘boom and growth’. The vested interests which stand in the way of the better society must now be challenged with pragmatic, radical policies rather than the obsequious mollycoddling deemed, perhaps understandably, to be necessary to achieve progressive outcomes in the past.

Housing provides a glimpse into the radical form that this new economy and society might take. The housing crisis is essentially caused by a lack of supply and resolution of the problem is inhibited by the vested interests of those who currently own property, who rent it out and who oppose the building of houses in their neighbourhoods. Yet if the Government built enough new houses to ensure a policy objective of markedly reduced prices, workers would find declining wages more manageable. This could be achieved by establishing new towns and cities built in carefully selected areas of the green belt as done post-war, funded by Citizens’ QE (detractors need only be reminded that £275bn has already been printed and resides in bank vaults being of no economic use at all) and a new tax on land value. The knock on effects would tackle other problems caused of low growth: fewer hours would need to be worked and parents could therefore share child-rearing.

We are potentially entering not merely a new economic paradigm but a period of profound crisis as a restive population realises the full extent of the continuing economic crisis and that things may never be the same again. To suggest that a dose of patrician Toryism can return the country to its former glory or that the received wisdom of the boom years merely needs tweaking is at best wishful thinking and at worst, dissembling. Labour must explain how this new economy and society will be reformed to work in the interests of ordinary people rather than the elites whose wealth and influence has increased during the boom years and whose political allies would curtail steps to ensure a more equitable society in the future. The centre-left must begin the thinking necessary to navigate what was once regarded as a worst case scenario, but is now becoming a reality. All needn’t be lost in the lost decade(s).

Rugby Labour's campaign against local ward closure features in media

2011-12-01T11:51:00.014Z

A Rugby Labour Party campaign I helped organise against the closure of a local hospital ward (Birch Ward, Hospital of St Cross, Rugby) has featured extensively in the local media.

Rugby Observer newspaper, Thursday 1 December 2011:

Vice-Chair of Rugby Labour Party, Paul Castle's letter (headline: 'Trying to save ward') about our campaigning in Rugby town centre can be read here:

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire news (online) covered our campaign here:

Coverage in the Rugby Advertiser newspaper can be read here.

During this week I have also been interviewed three times by BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire and by Rugby FM.

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Additional coverage of our pledge to continue closing despite the closure of Birch Ward:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-16125636

Over 1,000 signatures colllected by Rugby Labour against hospital ward closure

2011-11-27T08:49:00.000Z

Yesterday, a campaign I've helped organise took to the streets of Rugby to fight the closure of Birch Ward at the Hospital of St Cross. Together we collected over 1,000 signatures in less than three hours for our petition demanding that the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust reverse its decision to close Birch Ward on Wednesday 30 November and commit to the long-term viability of the hospital.

Below is an update press release sent yesterday.

BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire interviewed me live yesterday after the 8.00am news (at 2h09m05s) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00lng6y/Trish_Adudu_26_11_2011/ and the story appeared in news bulletins throughout the day - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00lng70/Malcolm_Boyden_on_BBC_CandW_26_11_2011/.

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****UPDATE ON RUGBY LABOUR COLLECTING SIGNATURES AGAINST BIRCH WARD CLOSURE IN RUGBY TOWN CENTRE, SAT 26 NOV****

Rugby Labour Party members were out in force this morning in Rugby town centre collecting signatures for their petition against the closure of Birch Ward at the Hospital of St Cross, which is happening on 30 November.

They collected over 1,000 signatures from concerned members of the Rugby community in just three hours, indicating the strength of feeling in the town about this cut to local services.

The signatures will be delivered to Andy Hardy, Chief Executive of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.

Said local Rugby Labour Party member John Slinger:

"Rugby Labour members today stood shoulder to shoulder with the people of Rugby against the closure of Birch Ward at the Hospital of St Cross. That we collected over 1,000 signatures in just three hours shows that the community is deeply concerned about the closure of Birch Ward and wishes to see a long-term future for St Cross Hospital."

For more information, please contact John Slinger - johnslinger1@gmail.com.
More information at www.rugbylabour.org
Twitter @Rugby_Labour

Sign Rugby Labour's online petition to protect St Cross Hospital

2011-11-24T16:39:00.005Z

Sign the online petition here.

I'll be joining Rugby Labour members on Saturday in Rugby town centre to ask for support for our petition. Here is a press release we issued today to local media. I was interviewed about this by BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.

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Rugby Labour launch campaign in town centre as Birch Ward closure approaches

· Public to be asked to sign petition calling for reversal of decision to close Birch Ward
· Party demands confirmation of long-term commitment to St Cross Hospital
· Activists in Town Centre on Saturday 26 November from 10.00am - 1.00pm

Rugby Labour members will be in Rugby's streets from 10.00am - 1.00pm on Saturday 26 November asking people to sign a petition calling on University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW) to reverse its decision to close Birch Ward at the Hospital of St Cross from 30 November. Rugby's Labour councillors have already taken the political lead by demanding that the Chief Executive of UHCW carries out a full consultation on any changes to services in Rugby.

Paul Castle, Vice-Chair of Rugby Constituency Labour Party said:

“We in Rugby Labour Party share the deep concern of the community about the closure of Birch Ward. We’ll be on the streets asking the public to support our petition calling for the decision to be reversed and for a commitment from the NHS Trust to the long-term viability of the hospital. The entire town is worried that this decision is just the thin end of the wedge, but it’s the vulnerable, those reliant on transport and older people who would suffer most if services at St Cross were threatened once again. The people of Rugby must unite against this reckless policy.”

Notes to editors:

1) The campaigning will start at or around the Clock Tower at 10.00am.
2) For further information please see www.rugbylabour.org
3) The petition reads:
"We the undersigned wish to protect the future of St. Cross Hospital and the services it provides to the local community. We condemn the decision of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust to close Birch Ward at the Hospital of St. Cross and petition that this decision be reversed and the long-term future of the hospital be unconditionally confirmed."
4) For more information please contact John Slinger at johnslinger1@gmail.com.

My letter to Rugby Observer (paper) on youth unemployment and Rugby Labour's forthcoming campaign on Labour's PLAN FOR JOBS AND GROWTH

2011-11-24T11:35:00.001Z

The Rugby Observer have published my letter today on the devastating youth unemployment statistics (youth unemployment has doubled in Rugby in only 9 months) and how Labour in Rugby will be campaigning on the Five Point Plan for Jobs and Growth.

---------

Sir,

Labour leader Ed Miliband told students at South Warwickshire College’s Power Academy this week that youth unemployment in Rugby has doubled in the last nine months. This a shocking indictment of the Plan A for Austerity being pursued by the Government, with Mark Pawsey's support.

Even as unemployment this week rises to 2.62 million, the Government and its Lib Dem lackeys remain dogmatically focused on austerity at the expense of a Plan B - policies to stimulate growth. There is an alternative. During their visit to Rugby, Ed Miliband and Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna discussed Labour's five-point Plan for Jobs and Growth with students. It includes a temporary reversal of the Government's VAT rise, giving a much-needed £450 boost for a couple with children and respite for Rugby's struggling high streets. It also proposes a bank bonus tax which to pay for a youth jobs fund, helping 54,400 18-24-year-olds on the dole in the West Midlands get back into work and build up to 1,900 new homes. There would be help for local businesses too - 170,000 small firms in the West Midlands would get a one year national insurance tax break if they take on extra workers.

Rugby Labour members will be campaigning on this in town centre and elsewhere in the coming weeks, setting out a positive and credible alternative to the policies of this Government that are squandering the huge potential of the people of Rugby and the wider nation.

Yours faithfully,

John Slinger

Labour member and former Rugby Borough Council candidate

Letter to my local MP about illiberal anti-LBGT law in Russia

2011-11-24T10:50:00.003Z

Mark Pawsey MP

House of Commons

London, SW1A 0AA

Dear Mr Pawsey,

I have just added my voice to a campaign run by human rights activists in Russia who are campaigning about a law being introduced by President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin's party that would make any mention of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender issues illegal.

The bill would criminalise any book, article or speech about sexual identity and gender orientation, labeling it "homosexual propaganda". This is outrageous and totally incompatible with genuine notions of liberal democracy.

I would greatly appreciate your views on this matter and to know if you will raise this issue with the Foreign Office. I hope that the British Government is making the strongest possible representations to the Russian Government about this appallingly illiberal policy. I hope you agree with me that every effort must be made to oppose discrimination against gay, lesbian, bi and transgender people, both here and abroad.

You can find out more about this issue at allout.org/russia_silenced.

Thank you for taking the time to look into this issue.

Yours sincerely,

John Slinger

Rugby

PS you do not need to reply in the post. An email would suffice and would save paper and your office their time. However, I would appreciate a copy of any reply you obtain from the Foreign Office (by email).

Financial Times publishes my letter on democracy regarding German foreign minister's article

2011-11-22T09:40:00.001Z

Sir,

The first paragraph of Guido Westerwelle’s article (“Germany is not for turning on how to save the euro”, November 18) concludes that “despite the EU’s most strenuous efforts, it has not yet won back the confidence of financial markets”. This one sentence is very revealing, for nowhere in the German foreign minister’s analysis of the crisis is there any reference to the people.

Placing the interests of the markets above those of the people is how we got into this mess. Repeating this pattern as the solution to the crisis is doomed to failure and is an insult to the notion of democracy as “rule of the people”.

John Slinger

You can read the letter in the Financial Times here (£).

The Guardian publishes my letter on e-petitions and Parliament

2011-11-20T21:23:00.005Z

The Guardian have published my letter:

A solution to Natascha Engel's concern about public disillusionment with the e-petition system would be for all votes in the Commons arising from an e-petition to be un-whipped. To allow MPs a free vote based on their conscience would enhance public respect for MPs and the broader political system and would make it far harder for governments to ignore the will of parliament on matters of concern to voters. The fact that, from time to time, unpalatable issues such as the death penalty would arise is a necessary function of the operation of democracy, and should be welcomed for the much needed greater responsibility and status it would accord our elected representatives.

John Slinger
Editor, Pragmatic Radicalism: Ideas from Labour's New Generation

Rugby Advertiser (newspaper) publishes my letter on Labour's Plan For Jobs

2011-11-14T15:43:00.004Z

On 3 November, The Rugby Advertiser newspaper published one of my letters (co-written by the Vice Chair of Rugby Constituency Labour Party, Paul Castle) on Labour's Plan For Jobs.

There is an alternative

Sir,

Cemex’s threat to leave Rugby because of the Government’s tax policy and soaring energy bills is a timely reminder that disastrous economic policies at the national level can have a devastating effect locally. Hard-working voters are waking up to the gap between rhetoric from this Cabinet of millionaires and the reality of their disastrous economic policies. Mr Osborne lectured us that “we’re all in this together” yet only last week we read that FTSE-100 directors have awarded themselves an average pay rise of 49% despite pay freezes for average workers and sky-high inflation. The Government, propped up by its Lib Dem support act, trumpets its ‘pupil premium’ but university applications are down after the trebling of tuition fees and UCASadmit the system favours the rich at private schools. Osborne’s arrogant claim that cuts would make Britain a “safe haven” rings hollow with growth flat-lining and the country about to dip back into recession.

And as local enforcers of the Government’s Plan A for Austerity, Conservative councillors at the Borough and County level, aided and abetted by the serially loyal Mark Pawsey, are making cuts to the police, youth services and social care, affecting those who are most vulnerable and had nothing to do with the causes of the economic crisis. There is an alternative. Last week, Labour set out a Five Point Plan for Jobs, which includes a VAT cut, tax breaks for small firms and a bank bonus tax to pay for new affordable homes and guaranteed jobs for young people. Rugby Labour will be campaigning on this in coming weeks, setting out a positive alternative on the economy. While the Tories and their lackeys believe in balance sheets at all levels, Labour believes in people, families, jobs and the society in which we live.

Yours faithfully,

John Slinger – Labour Party member and former RBC candidate
Paul Castle - Vice-Chair, Rugby Constituency Labour Party

The Times publishes my letter on making e-petition votes in the Commons FREE VOTES not whipped votes

2011-10-26T07:44:00.002+01:00

Sir, You report Peter Bone, MP, as saying that “if there had been a free vote tonight this motion would have been carried.” Bone had previously praised the Prime Minister for having brought in the system whereby public e-petitions signed by 100,000 people are debated in the House of Commons.

Perhaps now is the time to ensure that all debates which flow from e-petitions must be resolved by a free vote. Such a move would go some way to restoring public faith in politicians.

John Slinger
Rugby, Warks

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/letters/article3205759.ece

The Guardian publishes my letter on the Pragmatic Radicalism fringe - not all fringes are boring and irrelevant

2011-10-10T12:07:00.006+01:00

Sir,

Martin Kettle writes that conference delegates are "increasingly squeezed into passivity on the fringe". Had he attended Pragmatic Radicalism's fringe, he would have witnessed a refreshing alternative. At "Top of the Policies", 20 speakers presented vibrant policy ideas in two minutes, followed by two minutes of quick-fire questioning by the audience and followed by a ballot. Speakers included a former political secretary to Tony Blair, two MPs, one former cabinet minister, PPCs, former MPs, journalists, bloggers and, most importantly, "ordinary activists". The format was a great leveller, respecting not status or achievements past or present but the quality of the idea and the way it was presented.

This fringe showed that Labour is fizzing with the energy and ideas to help map a route to more progressive Britain. Ben Bradshaw even tweeted from the event: "Best fringe attended for years great mix of fun and serious ideas from #lab11 new generation and some old." The challenge for Labour will be to make pitches to voters which are similarly engaging, address their concerns and show vision.

John Slinger
Editor, Pragmatic Radicalism: Ideas from Labour's New Generation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/09/conference-fringes-far-from-passive?INTCMP=SRCH

The Times publishes my suggesting idea of 'state Etons' to diminish the power of private schools

2011-10-10T12:04:00.006+01:00

We cannot abolish private schools, because we are a free country, but we must lessen their grip on the higher echelons of power

Sir, Patrick Tobin (letter, Oct 7) states that the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference will have “spluttered” on hearing Eton-educated David Cameron “denouncing” them for practising “educational apartheid”. Both the HMC members and Mr Cameron are being disingenuous. Mr Tobin may try to get private schools such as his off the hook by laying the blame for this “apartheid” on “political diktat”, yet the very existence of a class of schools which offer their excellent service solely on the basis of the wealth of parents, must necessarily create a divide with schools that provide education for all, based on a child’s universal need for and right to a quality education. Perhaps what is needed, in order to overcome the “Berlin wall” that Anthony Seldon refers to in his letter, is “State Etons” which will offer pupils the very same quality of education currently reserved for the offspring of the rich.

We cannot abolish private schools, because we are a free country, but we must do all we can to lessen their relentless grip on the higher echelons of power in the UK, as evidenced by numerous reports, including those by Alan Milburn and the Sutton Trust.

John Slinger
Rugby

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/letters/article3188714.ece (£)

Feedback

The Sunday Times publishes my letter on QE

2011-10-09T17:59:00.003+01:00

Out of print

The £50 billion of quantitative easing (QE) you referred to (“Bank poised to print £50bn”, News, last week) comes on top of a previous £200 billion showered on banks that have actually hoarded the money to restore their balance sheets, showing that QE is little more than Orwellian doublespeak.

The money has not been “printed” and is therefore not being spent in an economically productive way by ordinary people doing ordinary jobs or running businesses.

John Slinger, Editor of Pragmatic Radicalism: Ideas from Labour’s New Generation, Rugby, Warwickshire

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/comment/regulars/lettersandemails/article793746.ece#next (£)

Citizens' QE is needed to get money into the 'real' economy

2011-10-07T16:13:00.003+01:00

Last month, The Guardian published a letter of mine calling for Citizens' Quantitative Easing. There has never been more of a need for this policy than now. Instead of piling more electronic money into the coffers of banks, which resolutely refuse to lend it on, or cutting taxes (which loses the Government revenue), simply printing money and giving it to the people in the form of vouchers which can only be spent locally and through SMEs or traders will give a much needed boost to the REAL economy. It's been done in Taiwan. It can be done here. It should be done here.

When I hear on the radio this morning that "£75bn is being created, given to the banks in the hope that / to encourage banks to lend a little more or with lower interest rates, into the real economy" I am angry. So we give them £75bn and then only "hope" they'll do what is essential. This is crazy. How many other sectors would get such largesse on the off-chance they'll do what is required in the national interest? My scheme gives £200 each at cost of £9.6bn. The next round of QE is equivalent to £4500 each. This is, to coin a phrase, 'crazy money'. It's just electrons in computers in the final analysis, so why not put these electrons to good use in the real economy rather than shower it on the people who got us into the mess in the first place, ad infinitum?

Based on Question Time last night, when one audience member advocated something like Citizens' QE, I suspect that the people are getting more and more bewildered at how £75bn can be magicked from thin air, but their local NHS centre is cut, or their youth centre which cost £200k per year, is closed. Seems like monetary activism is reserved for the large banks and the City while the rest of us are expected to make do with Cameron's "can-do optimism".

People won't buy this for much longer. Not least when we go into recession again or the banks, yet again, need re-capitalising and Osborne comes to taxpayers for another bailout. It is simply politically unacceptable and there will be political and social consequences which are not pretty.

I suspect we are in the calm before the storm. The defenders of the status quo have a lot more explaining to do to ordinary people to show them how this 'system' works in their interests.

The Guardian publishes my letter comparing Cameron and Churchill's "can-do optimism" - Churhill USED the state to win WW2

2011-10-07T09:28:00.009+01:00

Churchill applied "can-do optimism" to fighting the second world war. He also deployed the state – factories were requisitioned, food rationed, soldiers conscripted, infrastructure built etc. Optimism, while helpful, is not enough. If the ordinary and vulnerable in society have nothing but the patronising "can-do" spirit of a cabinet of millionaires to help them through this economic turmoil, they will soon start listening to Ed Miliband's call for a "new bargain".

John Slinger
Editor, Pragmatic Radicalism: Ideas from Labour's New Generation

Rugby Observer print my letter on cuts to youth services

2011-10-06T12:20:00.000+01:00

The Rugby Observer

Youngsters hit by cuts

I HAVE learned a homework club being run in Rugby by Norris McKenzie has closed following a cut in its funding made by the county council.
Given the rioting we as a nation saw in August, it is a disgrace our young people must bear the brunt of the cuts to services being made by the Conservative-led Government and Conservative-run councils in Warwickshire and Rugby Borough.
Services such as this homework club are just the kind of 'Big Society' initiative the Government likes to trumpet, and yet as the young people of Rugby are discovering, it is often little more than empty rhetoric.
Under this Government we have record youth unemployment, the scrapping of the Educational Maintenance Allowance and no plan for economic growth. Our young people deserve more and only Labour, locally and nationally, can offer them a better future.

John Slinger
Labour Party member and former RBC election candidate
http://www.therugbyobserver.co.uk/2011/10/06/comments-19410.html

Letter to Rugby Observer on need for Citizens' Quantitative Easing

2011-09-16T15:36:00.002+01:00

Copy of my letter to the Rugby Observer (not published)

Sir,

As we contemplate the publication of the Independent Commission on Banking this week, we should reflect on the double-whammy suffered by 'ordinary' people. Despite the financial crisis not having been of their making, they are both being required to fund the bailouts through and also suffer the most as a result of the cuts to services and tax rises. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies (which is respected by the Government) says in its study today, living standards for families will be down 10% and the poorest will suffer most from the austerity measures brought in by George Osborne.

Throughout all this, the Government has shown a willingness to offer largesse to the banking sector. In addition to huge taxpayer-funded bailouts, the Government, via the Bank of England, has printed £200bn through Quantitative Easing. This was done, we are told, to encourage them to lend into the 'real' economy. They are not doing so. What is required now is not more of the same, but what I've termed Citizens' Quantitative Easing, which directly benefits ordinary people, doing ordinary jobs, creating real and socially productive economic activity. Citizens' QE, could comprise the issuing of a £200 voucher to all over the age of 18 which would be time-limited; non-transferable; non-cashable by the recipient; and limited to the purchase of certain goods and importantly, services from SMEs rather than large corporations.

The money used to cash the vouchers would be created, or 'printed' by the Government, and as such would not require further borrowing. On ONS population figures, such system would cost £9.6bn - small change compared with the hundreds of billions of taxpayers' money already spent propping up the banks. Critics will argue that such a move would be inflationary. It is more likely that the powers that be do not want to let the cat out of the bag that the kind of state intervention done in an instant for the City can actually be replicated on behalf of ordinary citizens. Were such news to leak out, who knows what citizens might demand.

Yours faithfully,

John Slinger (Labour Party member and Editor of Pragmatic Radicalism: Ideas from Labour's New

Generation - http://pragmaticradicalism.co.uk/)

The Guardian publishes my letter calling for Citizens' Quantitative Easing

2011-09-08T09:33:00.001+01:00

The Guardian today publishes my letter calling for Citizens' Quantitative Easing. The letter was in response to Simon Jenkins' column.

The idea of Citizens' QE will be the idea I present (in 2 mins) at the Pragmatic Radicalism Labour Party fringe event on Monday 26 September.

--------------
Sir,

Simon Jenkins says correctly that the objective should be "people spending, shops ordering, factories reopening and services employing"; and a voucher scheme for leisure spending, as tried in the Far East, warrants support. In addition to huge bank bailouts, the Bank of Englandhas printed £200bn through quantitative easing. This was done, we are told, to encourage the banks to lend to the real economy. They are not doing so.

What is required now is not more of the same, but citizens' quantitative easing, which would directly benefit ordinary people doing ordinary jobs, creating real and socially productive economic activity. Citizens' QE could comprise the issuing of a £200 voucher to everyone over the age of 18 which would be time-limited, non-transferable, non-cashable by the recipient and limited to the purchase of certain goods and services from small- and medium-sized enterprises, rather than large corporations. The money used to back the vouchers would be printed by the government and would not require further borrowing. Such a system would cost £9.6bn – small change compared with the hundreds of billions of taxpayers' money already spent propping up the banks. State intervention done in an instant for the City can be replicated on behalf of ordinary citizens.

John Slinger
Editor, Pragmatic Radicalism: Ideas from Labour's New Generation

Will the real David Cameron please stand up - the 'Hug-a-Hoodie' speech (2006) re-visited

2011-08-17T11:17:00.001+01:00

It's interesting revisiting Cameron's 'Hug-a-Hoodie' speech from 2006 in the context of the recent riots.

There are some interesting pearls of wisdom contained therein...

That film is set in my own neighbourhood in London - North Kensington, Ladbroke Grove, Harrow Road.
It's a very different Notting Hill from the one you see in Richard Curtis films.

Is he trying to imply that the comfortable street in which he used to live before moving to Downing Street was akin to the deprived areas nearby? Was that street full of £1million-plus houses actually a 'hood, or a ghetto?

Kidulthood is not really about bad kids.
Even the villain is clearly suffering from neglect and the absence of love.
The characters are simply children in circumstances none of us would want to grow up in.
Their reaction to those circumstances is not good.
But it is natural.
Crime, drugs, underage sex - this behaviour is wrong, but simply blaming the kids who get involved in it doesn't really get us much further.
It is what the culture around them encourages.

Cameron seems to be suggesting that criminality is "natural" if you grow up in certain circumstances. He also suggests it is down to "culture".

He goes on to say...

Of course, not everyone who grows up in a deprived neighbourhood turns to crime - just as not everyone who grows up in a rich neighbourhood stays on the straight and narrow.

Individuals are responsible for their actions - and every individual has the choice between doing right and doing wrong.
But there are connections between circumstances and behaviour.

The last sentence is revealing...It could have come straight out of an Ed Miliband speech.

So when you see a child walking down the road, hoodie up, head down, moody, swaggering, dominating the pavement - think what has brought that child to that moment.
If the first thing we have to do is understand what's gone wrong, the second thing is to realise that putting things right is not just about law enforcement.
It's about the quality of the work we do with young people.
It's about relationships.
It's about trust.
Above all, it's about emotion and emotional development.

Again...more out of central casting for the social liberal...

If the police stand for sanctions and penalties, you stand for love.
And not a soppy love! I don't see anyone soppy here.
But it is about relationships.
It is about emotional security.
It is about love.

Oh how the tune changes when 'events, dear boy, events' get in the way...

"It is about love" - did he really say that?...

---------

It all leads me to conclude that Tony Blair really did have it right when he added into Labour's 1997 Manifesto: 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.' It is wrong to over-emphasise either side of this equation. The recent debate about the response of the Prime Minister and Ed Miliband falls too easily into the trap of suggesting that either man is over-emphasising either the 'causes' or the 'crime' element.

Riots - let's keep things in perspective and remember Blair's mantra: tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime

2011-08-15T13:10:00.002+01:00

Out of a UK population of 62,260,000, approximately 2,275 people have so far been arrested for rioting (note arrested, not charged or even convicted).

This is equivalent to 0.0036% of the British population.

Assuming (a big assumption) that the majority of rioters were aged 14-29, the figures change to:

13,324,000 - population in 2011 of 14-29 year-olds in UK.

Therefore, arrested rioters form 0.017% of 14-29 year-olds.

As a nation, we are understandably in the midst of national soul-searching about the causes of the riots. Jonathan Todd's article in LabourUncut should be required reading for our political class at this time. As he ably points out, neither right nor left has a monopoly on wisdom and the events of last week were a national tragedy requiring a national response.

The post-riot process of analysis of what went wrong at the macro and micro level is legitimate, necessary and can help us tackle both the criminality on display and some of the deep-rooted cultural, social and economic problems which have been allowed to fester in the UK. These problems are not confined to deprived areas, indeed it is insulting to the vast majority of people living in deprived areas to insinuate that simply living in such an area somehow leads inexorably to looting.

The UK has many deep-seated problems which successive generations of politicians and yes, ordinary citizens, have failed to tackle. These include (in no particular order), include but are not limited to: inequality of opportunity in education, the breakdown of the family unit, poor parenting, ineffective challenging of violent tendencies of boys from an early age, an unequal society, rampant consumerism, lack of a sense of community, lack of time for people to commit to their own communities, lack of youth resources, poor job prospects, economic short-termism, etc.

All this and more must, and is, being considered by our political leaders, including David Cameron and Ed Miliband. However, we shouldn't forget that the vast majority of Britons did not riot last week. The vast majority of young people did not riot last week. As with general criminal activity, what was displayed last week, was the ability of a minority to impinge upon the rights of the majority.

Again, as with general crime, we must not tolerate this and must do all we can to prevent it. A previous Prime Minister had a phrase which encapsulated what must be done - "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime". Substitute 'riots' for 'crime' and we can move beyond the predictable criticism of the post-rioting analysis of both left-wing and right-wing politicians. To talk of 'causes' doesn't excuse the criminality. However, to imply that what we witnessed last week was mere criminality, is fatuous.

Readers may also recall that the PM mentioned above, Tony Blair, was castigated for having attempted to tackle the very criminal and anti-social behaviour we saw last week. He attempted this with ASBOs (Anti-Social Behaviour Orders) and through his 'Respect' agenda. He was, of course, pilloried from left and right for doing so. To some extent, his agenda failed. He and his government were not able to fully tackle crime and the causes of crime. But they tried. We in the Labour Party must take up the baton now.

Headlines you don't want to read if you're a Tory, Pt.III

2011-07-29T12:29:00.000+01:00

Cameron attacked over ‘broken promise’ after fall in NHS budget

in The Times here (£)

Oops, there goes the key plank of their detoxification strategy...

My letter on policing published in The Times

2011-07-19T11:13:00.000+01:00

My letter on policing published in The Times today:

Sir, The resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson will sadly not be the panacea he and many others hope for. The Met seems to have problems throughout the ranks. Many examples of poor performance at the lower ranks are compounded by flawed managerial and leadership decisions, as shown by the phone-hacking case.

Stronger, more intelligent leadership is now required, and this could be achieved via an “officer corps” of university-educated officers. The Armed Forces have officer corps and in virtually all other parts of working life, a degree is a prerequisite. It is time to drag the Police Service into the modern age.

John Slinger

It can be read here (PAY WALL)