22.06.1995

Labour, Tory - both rotten to the core!

First the Tory mafia, now the Labour mafia. All the Labour councillors on the Monklands East district council have been suspended from the party, accused of dishing out ‘jobs for the boys’ and granting sectarian favours. Why should we hand power to any of these corrupt hypocrites?

ACCORDING to Tony Marlow, MP for Northampton North, “We are entering the end game. A challenge will happen in November”. This is the earliest date the Tories can unseat John Major as prime minister in the party rules. Under Major’s leadership the Tory Party has become more despised than ever before. It faces not defeat at the next general election, but near annihilation.

It is not fear of a socialist government that is making them so rabid. They are perfectly aware that Labour will put business interests first. The private advice of Dudley Fishburn, MP for Kensington, is: “Business would be wise to build its contacts with Labour now, when its bright sparks are eager to listen and learn, rather than later, when policies have been set in stone.”

Rather it is fear, even of those with large majorities, that they will lose their seats. Panic is gripping their icy hearts. Their personal life style and social standing are at stake.

Personal considerations aside, the Tories hope that their sojourn on the opposition benches will be short, but will give them time to reformulate their policies for the next century. They expect the Labour Party to become very unpopular in power - caught between their anti-working class policies and people’s expectations. So, in the best traditions of voting for the lesser of two evils, the Conservatives can once again become the natural party of government.

Michael Heseltine has not announced his challenge for the leadership, but his ambition to be prime minister is well known. The skilful way he dropped both Aitken and Major in the muck during his intervention in the ‘Arms to Iran’ debate on Wednesday June 14 in parliament has left no one in any doubt of his intentions. A more perfectly judged piece of two-faced effrontery is hard to imagine than his ‘support’ of Jonathan Aitken: “To actually mislead the commons deliberately - that is the unforgivable crime. Jonathan is a friend and colleague of mine. It is inconceivable that he would do that.” But he then contrasted him to Neil Hamilton who had resigned from his department when under suspicion rather than cause the government embarrassment. Heseltine was able to portray himself as Mr Competent Clean Hands against the incessant tide of sleaze and incompetence of the Major administration.

Perhaps the Tories will tear themselves to pieces over Europe. Perhaps Heseltine will be able to unite the party, just as Major did after the ousting of Thatcher. Still, he is unlikely to restore much popularity in the Tories before the next election.

But a Labour government will not be good news for workers. To quote Roy Hattersley, “The working class is like an ugly old dog: you can kick it, but it will always come back wagging its tail.” The Labour Party expects mindless obedience from manual workers; it only needs to woo the ‘middle class’. With the biggest ever poll lead New Labour is certainly providing an answer to the Tories that many angry voters are looking for.

However, Labour’s dream ticket cannot last long if it is elected. All sections of society are being affected by Britain’s economic decline. Most so-called middle class workers no longer have secure jobs or incomes that go up every year. They have lost their privileges.

Labour is already promising to attack us all. The real question for class conscious workers is not to support the party which appears least bad but to forge a party that can represent working class interests.

Until we do so both Labour and Tory will treat workers with contempt while they compete to stick their noses deep in the bosses’ trough.

If the left does not offer the workers a clear, principled alternative to the attacks that are being made by the Tories now - and can only worsen under the next government - then the right will offer a programme of reaction and prejudice which will divide and weaken our class.