Children as young as eight want to the right bag and each tribe has their own make. They copy their celebrity heroes of course. 14 year old Eliza Clarke says “It’s funny. I stand much more proudly; I feel older”. Longchamp reflects her ‘personality’ and makes here feel ‘confident’.

So what’s this got to do with progressive politics?

Well consider another bag that is up for sale or rather auction. Mrs. Thatcher’s black Asprey is going under the hammer and is expected to fetch up to £100,000. Her bags were a symbol of her power and she is said to have carried round a copy of Hayek’s seminal Road to Serfdom in them.

So the market fundamentalism she espoused is played out over 20 years later with girls as young as eight being caught up in the grinding machine of turbo-consumption. They are no longer girls, there is no youth just the opportunity to sell whatever they can to whoever they can.

Labour and too much of the left have little if anything to say about such issues.

One narrow definition of freedom, the freedom to shop till you drop, allied to a view of aspiration that is almost entirely material are now so singularly ingrained in the psyche of so many after New Labour’s rule that it would be deemed madness to question why girls of eight behave in such a way and therefore the free market nostrums of Mrs T.

As ever she deserves the last word. She said three things that continue to inspire me. The first is the claim that the ‘economy is the means, the goal is to change the soul’. Funnily enough it was from a Sunday Times magazine interview way back when.

She wanted to use free markets to make people in her image – individual and possessive. The girls in the playground bear witness to her success. But she also said ‘socialism never dies’. She knew that just as we could be possessive and individualistic, we could be compassionate, caring and cooperative.

The battle would rage on at least until her third crucial saying could come into play – that her goal was not just to transform the Conservatives but to transform Labour away from socialism. Then her triumph would be complete. Is it in the bag?

—
Neal Lawson blogs at All Consuming

Following media reports over the Christmas/New Year period of our forthcoming campaign on the Post Office and Royal Mail, we’re today asking for your urgent help to get MPs to support EDM 428.

We must urgently help the government to think again its proposals for privatisation of post services.

Compass strongly rejects the idea that our post service should be privatised. Instead of selling off this national asset we’d like to see the service invested in and modernised to ensure it’s responsive to people’s needs in the 21st century and remains a universal service that is publicly owned. In essence we believe in modernisation not marketisation.

This is the Compass New Year campaign priority. Over 70 Labour MPs have already signed EDM 428 in less than 24 hours – but we need 100s of MPs to support this – you can help by taking action and lobbying your MP today.

Let’s not see our post services privatised and then 5 or 10 years down the line find ourselves campaigning for a tax on the windfall profits of privatised post service companies, in the same way we’ve had to with privatised energy companies. That is exactly what could happen if we just sit back and do nothing. Let’s not allow a Labour Government to make the same mistakes and be deluded by the so-called benefits of privatisation of the Royal Mail.

Now is the time to take action, email or call your MP and urge them to sign up to EDM 428:

- Download the template message to MPs
- Download 10 important facts about the Royal Mail
- Read EDM 428 in full

In the coming weeks we’ll be coming out with our own proposals and positive vision for a modern post service (to include ideas such as a People’s Bank) that remains in public hands – keep an eye out for further updates and email actions on this important campaign.

Lobby your MP now and let’s campaign for a modern post service that remains in public hands!

On Thursday 11 December Fabian Hamilton MP tabled a fresh EDM calling on the government to actively intervene to force companies to reduce consumers energy bills and to then implement a windfall tax if they refuse to do so. Early Day Motion 268 reads:

This house notes with grave concern average annual spending on energy per household has breached £1,200; that energy providers’ profits have risen from £557 million in 2003 to over £5,000 million today; that these companies are receiving unearned profits and that the new price rises could increase those in fuel poverty beyond six million people; that the government’s energy package of long-term measures worth £900 million over 3 years is welcomed, but that given the huge price increases this will not go far enough to end fuel poverty; that the government is legally bound to do all that is reasonably possible to eradicate fuel poverty for vulnerable households by 2010; furthermore, despite the recent sharp falls in the oil price, these decreases are not being passed onto consumers by the energy companies; further notes that in 1997 the government levied a windfall tax on the unearned profits of the privatised utilities and that in 2008 the inflated price of energy continues to make massive unearned windfall profits for the energy companies; urges the government to urgently introduce a new windfall tax the revenues from which being ring-fenced and targeted at homes in fuel poverty and used to start an adequately funded programme of home insulation to protect people from future price rises.

The new EDM coincides with recent remarks from the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change who has called on firms to pass on cost cuts as soon as possible and follows intense calls over the summer in which over 120 Labour MPs including a number of government ministers gave their support for a windfall tax on energy firms.

Given the energy firms refusal to pass on cost cuts, just as the government have been prepared to intervene to ensure people get a fair deal from the banks, with over 6M threatened with fuel poverty so the government should also intervene to ensure people get a fair deal from energy providers, that’s why the government should now be prepared if necessary to impose a windfall tax.

EDM 268 is currently supported by: Fabian Hamiltin MP; John Battle MP; Jon Cruddas MP; Geraldine MP; Harry Cohen MP; Gordon Prentice MP; Doug Naysmith MP; John McDonnell MP; Derek Wyatt MP; David Taylor MP; Dai Havard MP; David Heyes MP; Ian Davidson MP; Colin Burgon MP; Michael Gapes MP; Frank Field MP; Kate Hoey MP; Roger Berry MP; Clive Betts MP.

Leading figures who have offered their support from civil society include: Gavin Hayes, Compass, Neal Lawson, Compass; Ed Matthew, Friends of the Earth; Keith Norman, ASLEF; David Martin MEP; Sunny Hundal, Liberal Conspiracy; John Harris, The Guardian; Howard Reed; Prof George Irvin, SOAS; Clifford Singer, Bubblewrapped; Prof Ruth Lister CBE; Chuka Umunna, PPC Streatham; Sir Steve Bullock, Mayor of the London Borough of Lewisham; Prof Sally Ruane; Andrew Simms, nef; Richard Murphy, Tax Justice Network UK.

Sign up to the campaign from the Compass website

We believe that the moment is right for the government to levy a sensible one off windfall tax to guarantee social and environmental justice both now and in the future. This is why.

The average annual spend on domestic energy per household has now breached £1200. Since 2000 we have faced gas price rises of 100% and electricity price rises of 61% – with further increases including British Gas raising its gas bills by a record 35%. Simultaneously the main energy providers have seen their profits rise from £557 million in 2003 to now over £3 billion. This alongside the recent news of profits made by oil companies – BP is now making £37 million a day with a 23% increase in profits to £6.7 billion for the first 6 months of 2008.

The current spike in the price of oil means these companies are receiving unearned and undeserved windfall profits that are damaging to the rest of society, not least because the unprecedented price rises are fuelling inflation and therefore the cost of borrowing and repaying mortgages.

The government estimates that 2.5 million families are living in fuel poverty, whilst Energywatch puts the figure at over 4 million. Yet despite the billions made in profits, the energy industry spends just £50 million a year combating fuel poverty and has only agreed to raise this to £150 million a year by 2010. But every 10% increase in energy prices mean an extra 400,000 people go into fuel poverty.

At the same time there is a lack of investment in securing renewable energy to help Britain become energy independent and more carbon neutral. By 2020 the UK wants 15% of all energy to be from renewable sources, this is currently only 2%. Increased investment is urgently needed if the government is to meet its target.

Just as government responded to the oil shocks of the 1970s and invested in North Sea oil – to the ongoing benefit of the now privatised energy and oil companies – so government must intervene again to secure sustainable energy supplies for the 21st century and reduce the fear of fuel poverty. It’s absolutely right that the corporations who are benefiting from that original investment and the later privatisation pay their fair share to society.

As precedent a similar windfall tax was levied when Labour came to power in 1997 on the unearned profits of the newly privatised utilities and raised £4.5 billion. Similarly in 1981 the Conservative government levied a windfall tax on the main clearing banks – justified on the grounds that increased interest rates led to substantial unearned profits. In 2008 the spike in the price of oil has today lead to substantial unearned profits for the main oil and energy companies – we therefore call on the government to levy a windfall tax.

Revenues from the tax should be ring-fenced to deliver social and environmental justice for all. Part of the money raised should be used to immediately help those struggling with rising fuel bills and should be particularly targeted at families in or facing fuel poverty. However the best strategy to eliminate fuel poverty forever is to ensure every home is insulated and energy efficient to the highest standards. Therefore much of the money raised should be used to kick-start a national programme of home energy efficiency and installing renewable energy, starting with the homes of the fuel poor.

Used in the right way this could benefit the UK economy as a whole – just as the New Deal in 1997 created new jobs for the long term unemployed, such an investment could see the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs in renewable energy production, insulation, building renovation and other sectors.

The 1997 measure took just three months to enact. The government can move quickly and decisively now – but it needs to know that this is what the people want.

This was reported on the front page of the Guardian today.

You can help by:
1. Sign up to the campaign to add your voice
2. Forward this email to as many people as you can so that they too can join the campaign
3. Lobby every MP to get them to add their name so we create a critical mass of politicians
4. Make a donation to Compass so that we can carry on the campaign for social and environmental justice through a windfall tax

Signed by:

Neal Lawson, Chair, Compass
Gavin Hayes, General Secretary, Compass
Friends of the Earth
Tony Juniper, Environmental Campaigner
Stephen Hale, Green Alliance
Kate Green, Chief Executive, CPAG
Lord Roy Hattersley
Michael Meacher MP
Chuka Umunna, Labour PPC, Streatham
Nicky Gavron AM
Cllr Jon Collins, Leader of Nottingham City Council
Richard Burden MP
Karen Buck MP
Chris McLaughlin, Tribune
Howard Reed, Economist
Heather Wakefield (in a personal capacity)
Mark Donne, Fair Pay Network
Nancy Platts, Labour PPC, Brighton Pavilion
Roger Berry MP
Ruth Lister CBE, Professor of Social Policy, Loughborough University
Doug Naysmith MP
Billy Hayes, General Secretary, CWU
Tony Robinson, Actor and Broadcaster
Dave Prentis, General Secretary, UNISON
Colin Crouch, Professor of Governance and Public Management at the University of Warwick Business School
Keith Norman, General Secretary, ASLEF
John Harris, Journalist
Guy Palmer, Director New Policy Institute
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
Tony Woodley, General Secretary, T&G Unite
Andrew Simms, Policy Director and head of the climate change programme, nef
Melissa Benn, Author and Journalist
Sunny Hundal, Editor, Liberal Conspiracy
Tony Benn
Wes Streeting, NUS President

But a politics that is rooted in the 1990s has simply run out of answers. In response, the government once again claim they are listening, but things still seem unlikely to change; despite political wipe-out now staring Labour in the face.

If Labour politicians refuse to protect people from the economic forces that are harming their lives it’s no wonder people are turning to other political parties.

This awful defeat vindicates what Compass has been saying for three years – that the coalition that brought Labour to power in 1997 has been shattered. Between 1997 and 2005, the party lost 4 million voters – and this time we saw a further pulling-away of the working-class vote that New Labour has always ill-advisedly taken for granted.

Meanwhile, people across all classes and social groups are turning away from the party. Particularly in England the Tories are on the march; partly thanks to the sense that they are engaging with concerns that lie at the centre of people’s lives.

Needless to say, Gordon Brown’s stiff, remote style of leadership doesn’t help. But there is a more fundamental political problem that is destroying the Labour Party.

Even at a time when the credit crunch and rising prices mean that the post-Thatcher settlement is being questioned as never before, a supposedly progressive government refuses to address the way that the unrestrained free-market is damaging people’s lives in no end of areas: from housing and rising fuel bills, to crippling consumer debt and insecurity at work, and on to the dysfunctional inequality that defines so many of the UK’s current problems.

Others may be distracted by New Labour kremlinology, and the question of whether one of Brown’s cabinet colleagues might somehow be persuaded to replace him.

For us, there is no point in talking about such changes if the conversation isn’t fundamentally about a change of direction that will revive people’s confidence that the government is in touch with modern concerns, and in control of the forces that shape them.

There is little money left to spend and less than two years before the likely date of the next election, but that still leaves room for measures that would signal a change of direction and show that Labour understands the challenges of the 21st century.

We would argue in favour of:

- A windfall tax on energy and oil companies to help those struggling with escalating fuel bills.
- A fairer tax system with a new top rate and a cut in taxes for the low paid with all new revenues ear marked to boost benefit levels for the poor. Some have suggested that those earning under £10,000 per year should pay no tax. This is clean, simple and very appealing.
- A new drive to build council houses. By 2010, 5 million people will need social housing, but this year, a start will be made on only 100,000 new homes. With private construction apparently in freefall, the state has to step in.
- A high-profile drive to improve people’s working lives via government setting new standards. As a minimum, we need a new fair employment clause in all public contracts, to make sure that the public sector points the way out of the low pay culture that ensures – contrary to recent headlines about welfare reform – that work is still no guarantee of an exit from poverty. The government should take the lead of London and roll out a living wage nationwide in all public procurement contracts – which even Boris Johnson has raised in London in his first months in office.
- A moratorium on Post Office closures, and new protection for the universal service obligation of the Post Office.
- Abolishing the youth exemptions in the minimum wage.
- Help close the gender pay gap – with statutory pay audits for equality.
- Access to all local authority sports facilities free for children under 16 to confront the issues of obesity and anti-social behaviour head on.
- Across all these policy areas, if money is needed to deal with rising insecurity and anxiety then we should rethink the renewal of Trident and scrap the ID cards scheme. Government insiders claim that the latter is effectively being left to wither away, but where is the political advantage in that? On this, as with so many policies, a clear change has to be demonstrated.

Over the summer and beyond, Labour has to begin a conversation about all of this and take clear action, or face long years in the political wilderness. Compass intends to act as a catalyst for that process and play an active role in it.

The Brown government’s serial mistakes – most notably, the recent watershed abolition of the 10p tax band – and failure to develop a convincing political narrative were always going to make success difficult, but the death blow to the party’s chances was delivered by an inept, negative and poisonous campaign.

Previous by-elections have found the party ill-advisedly demonising its opponents, speaking the crass language of authoritarianism and clumsily trying to close down the issue of immigration, but Crewe represented a new low.

Labour needs to have a long-overdue look at issues of class, inequality and social mobility, but in its absence, decrying Cameron Conservatives as “toffs” simply looks desperate (indeed, what remains of the British gentry is not the central issue – if any layer of society symbolises what is increasingly wrong with the post-Thatcher settlement, it is the tiny array of super-rich financiers who dominate the City Of London).

Though the party has been right to be mindful of the issue of anti-social behaviour, encouraging its candidates to come out with such lines as “I want the Police to harass yobs and get in their faces” not only heightens people’s fears, but sits uncomfortably with a government recently heard paying tribute to the British tradition of liberty, and bemoaning Britain’s “unlocked talent”. The hysterical maligning of young people must stop. And what is a Labour government doing advocating police harassment?

Perhaps most poisonous of all was the Crewe campaign’s attempt to make political capital out of issues involving Crewe’s large Polish population, via a claim that the Conservatives are opposed to “making foreign nationals carry ID cards”. This smacks of the poison spread by the far right. In addition, it misrepresents the debate. The Tories are opposed to making anyone carry or be issued with an ID card. So, in the face of massive public unease about the project, should be the Labour Party.

What is the alternative? Labour needs to call time on scorched-earth politics, realise the failures bred by triangulating to the right, and offer a positive vision not just of its record in government, but the Good Society at which it should aim.

The Tories are now stampeding towards such issues as the rising cost of living, social exclusion and poverty. Labour needs to understand the shift that represents, but also shine light on the futility of the solutions they offer: essentially, a shrinking of the state, the cutting of taxes, and a refusal to look at the pivotal issue of equality.

Most importantly, however, the party needs a clear change of direction and message. It needs to turn its recent claim to be “on your side” into incisive political action that speaks to 21st century concerns. The government’s half-hearted moves on temporary and agency workers are a small step in the right direction, but much more is required. The issue of housing needs to be returned to centre-stage, and pursued even if an economic downturn renders private solutions impossible. Labour has to be bold enough to open up the issue of tax rates at the very top. Low pay and insecurity at work have to be at the very centre of policy. The government needs to start taking action on such issues as rising prices and snowballing household debt, which are eating into the lives of people across society.

All told, it has to seize on the fact that fixating on supposedly “affluent” marginals while ignoring the so-called core vote is yesterday’s strategy. As the recent local elections proved, Labour’s one-time electoral base is deserting the party in its droves. So too are the parts of Labour’s electoral coalition that finally came aboard in 1997 and ensured victory. But Labour need not be paralysed by this potentially toxic political cocktail: if these anxious economic times prove one thing, it is that middle and working-class Britons increasingly have a common set of concerns and aspirations, and that a more social-democratic Labour government could speak to them.

As some voices have been suggesting, the current debate is not a matter of ultra-Blairites battling with left-Labour traditionalists. To move in the direction required will mean the jettisoning of both assumptions rooted in Labour’s far-flung past, and the now-redundant formulae of the 1990s. We need a left-of-centre politics fit for the 21st century. As we have long said, the problem with New Labour is not just that it is not Labour enough, but that it’s not new enough either.

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