As we are in the midst of a UK election, where it seems Labour may not poll as high as I would hope I have been left reflecting deeply on why I remain an active Labour Party member and supporter.
So here are my ten foundations for why, after 40+ years, I have been and will carry on being a Labour activist until my ashes wash out into Cardigan Bay:
1) My parents were both Liberal teachers and I heard them tell stories about the students they taught who were experiencing hardship of various kinds. My early childhood was spent in dusty haystacks In north Devon, small friendly schools and on Welsh beaches in the summer holidays. I was lucky. So it did not seem right to me that there were others who were far less fortunate than me. I wanted to change this from an early age.
2) I now cannot remember why, but at secondary school, I became involved in supporting Oxfam. I went away on youth weekends and met charismatic people who educated me about the vast divisions in wealth and opportunity in the world, both between and within nations. I became angry at this huge injustice and informed myself by reading numerous articles in the New Internationalist magazine. I began to consolidate my political opinions. I remember helping to get out the vote late into the evening for Frank Judd in Paulsgrove in February 1974, just a few days before my 16th birthday.
3) At university, I became an activist: a pragmatic socialist that helped to organise a 'Progressive Alliance' of International Socialist, Labour, Liberal & Ecology party members into a combined force that wrangled control of the Student's Union out of the hands of the Federation of Conservative Students (from whom I first heard the abusive label of 'pleb'). While still at university, after the 1979 general election, I joined the Labour Party. I was prompted to do so out of fear of what was to come from a Tory government. (And I was right to be fearful)
4) I was involved in many political activities then around gay liberation, amnesty international, men's health, Anti Nazi League / Rock Against Racism, National Council for Civil Liberties, supporting the Miners etc. Even though many of these were apolitical, with a big P, there were never any Tories involved then. I remember that in these days when (at last) social liberalism has been adopted by the Tories.
5) My first few jobs (unemployment benefit office, council housing department, learning disability planning, health promotion services) served to consolidate my belief in the importance solid public services. Along with my appreciation of education (remember 1 above), I learnt that public services are not merely a 'safety net' for those who are less fortunate. Public services are the glue that holds our whole country together and creates the essential conditions for enterprise and commercial growth. Publicly funded & commercially developed organisations are two sides of the same coin, the same economy, the same society... People need the wherewithal to imagine and fulfil their ambitions: public services provide much of that through education, infrastructure, community safety, healthcare, national security and so forth.
6) I well remember the bleak years between 1979 and 1997 with rampant militarism, legalised homophobia, political corruption and harsh treatment of anyone or any group that wasn't 'one of us'. Ours was a grey and dismal country when public services and capital investment was stripped to the bone as the government revelled in selling off the 'family silver'. The housing crisis began and continues to this day. This is when I fully began to appreciate that Tories only seem to want to know the price of everything while the value is of far lesser concern. The accountants had taken over the asylum. Self interest ('greed is good') was in the ascendant.
7) 1997 was a turning point and the sun shone again. The Labour government made real progress on many matters such as SureStart, social exclusion, community policing, human rights and decent investment in schools and hospitals. The economy grew steadily and this all seemed like practical democratic socialism in working practice. For ten years, the engines of commercial business and public services hummed along well: a fact that appears to be have been forgotten after the 2007 worldwide financial crash. Suddenly the national debt and deficit became Labour's fault, even though they were not and indeed had been far higher in previous decades.
8) However lurking behind the Oz curtains, were some of the same old same old: inequalities, militarism, privatisation, corruption and pandering to big business interests. At times like this, my pragmatic socialism comes to the fore and I remain with the party with which there is always hope of better times to come (whereas with the Tories, there is never any hope...)
9) The harsh & cruel reality of 9 years of Tory led government has only bolstered my resolve: only the Labour Party can really offer hope to the many people. For me socialism is about creating the conditions in which people can find the resources to shape their dreams and achieve these ambitions for themselves and their families. Tories like to pretend they are party of aspiration for the many but in truth, they are the party of aspiration only for the few who are lucky enough to have the resources.
10) In my head, I have a poem by Roger McGough: There are fascists pretending to be libertarians like cannibals on a health kick, eating only vegetarians. Now I am not saying that any party to the right (or left) of the Labour Party are fascists - by no means! But I think there are many politicians who pretend and fake a concern for social development and the interests of the ordinary working person but who actually have other aims really in mind. Only the Labour Party has the organisation, the principles, the policies, the reach and the experience to deliver a country that is fair, creative, ambitious, peaceful and prosperous for the many (not just the few).
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