Editorial
Brown's spending spree misses key targets
It seems more or less certain that new Labour's conference in Brighton will be the last before the General Election.
After all, this summer's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) has been planned since Day 1 of Blair's government as the carrot to counteract the many sticks with which Labour's heartland voters have been beaten.
Coverage in the media failed to mention the fact that the CSR only returns Labour to the levels of public spending, as a proportion of GDP, that it inherited from the Tories. After so many years of attacks from Blair and his predecessors, that thought probably won't occur to many Labour supporters either.
There is reason to be positive about the real increase in education spending of 5%, the doubling of investment in public transport and the substantial increase in NHS spending ( though as we point out elsewhere, this will be more than a little tainted by the fact that so much of this money will go to the private sector through PFI).
But within the review itself, there were two problem areas.
FIRSTLY there has still been no move on pensions - moving even Blair's own father-in-law Tony Booth to openly support the demands of the National Pensioner's Convention for a return to index linking. While there is still the possibility - and certainly the money - for Gordon Brown to right this wrong in his November budget, there is no certainty this will happen.
Amendments to the pensions section of new Labour's economic policy document were ruled out of order at the July meeting of the Policy Forum. Activists were told there would be a statement to conference on this issue. Clearly it is important that the left stand with pensioners' campaigners to exert maximum pressure on this vital issue.
Secondly on the question of housing the mass sell off of council houses will proceed apace - without even the previous sham of consultative ballots. On this basis local councils will be 'allowed' to build new social housing. This outrageous deepening of the attacks on social housing has not merited much comment so far, either in the press generally or from much of the left. Clearly if we are to defeat these reactionary proposals, there must be an effort to step up the campaigns in defence of council housing.
IT IS NOT CLEAR however whether even the more positive aspects of the CSR will be sufficient to stem the disillusion amongst many of Labour's core voters. While new money has been pledged, it comes after many hard years of squeeze and cuts, and will take time to work through. Concrete improvements may well not materialise before a probable spring election.
Blair can draw little comfort from the fact that much of new Labour's improved showing in the opinion polls is due to the dire performance of their Tory opponents.
It may well be reassuring that William Haig continues to be unable to make an impact: but it seems clear that the Millbank mafia were hoping for a stronger response to the CSR itself.
However this is unlikely to distract them from their overall direction of pursuing the neo-liberal agenda whatever the electoral cost.
At the Brighton conference itself, the key issue other than pensions will be the fight around privatisation. At the July Policy forum an amendment from the Grassroots Alliance opposing the privatisation of the tube fell only three votes short of the support it needed to go to conference as a minority position - because the UNISON and TGWU delegations failed to vote for it.
Last year there were fireworks over reference back on PFI, and there are plans not only to repeat similar tactics but to ensure there is a contemporary resolution on the issue.
LOBBYING of union delegations will be key to ensure that any debate takes place, since it is the unions which pretty much determine what is dealt with under this limited section of the agenda.
Debates on Party democracy may be rather more muted than some might have expected, following the National Executive Committee meeting in July which failed to force through some of the more extreme proposals.
The actual abolition of General Management Committee (GMCs) was not recommended - and it seems clear that this must have been because the consultation around the '21st Century Party' proposals resulted in a majority of responses opposing such a move.
At the same time the previous attacks on party democracy have neutered the structures to such an extent that the leadership is safely able to ignore what dissent there is.
While the political challenge on the Brighton conference floor should be supported by the left inside and outside the party, there is a wider challenge for us all between now and the General Election.
We have to build a fighting opposition to roll back Blair's neo-liberal attacks - whether this be on the picket lines at Dudley or across Scotland, or through campaigns in defence of council houses or asylum seekers.