How much do the Tories care about poverty?

The Tories' Social Justice Policy Group have made it ever so difficult to find their report 'Breakthrough Britain' on the internet for some reason. A press release on Conservatives.com claims to direct you to the website of the group. Except at the time of writing it leads to a typepad page dated August 14 2007 entitled 'Poverty debate' which has absolutely nothing else on it. No report and certainly no discussion.

It seems extraordinary to me that a flagship policy group report has no easily identifiable webpage where any member of the public can see exactly what the recommendations are. Maybe it's because the Conservatives know that their 'Back to Basics' recommendations of re-subsidising marriage simply takes money from the poor to give to the more wealthy? Perhaps it's because, no matter how much they deny it, one-parent families are ignored in Tory solutions to the problems caused by low incomes and family breakdown?  Or maybe it's because in the end, after all Cameron's hand-wringing visits to disadvantaged estates, the Tories just can't bring themselves to care that much about poverty?

Hilary Benn is right: we need to make poverty history in this country too.

People’s responses to the recent UNICEF report, and to the spate of shootings during the week just gone, indicate that there is a real desire on the part of the people of Britain to tackle poverty and inequality at their roots. Last week, in a speech at the University of London’s Institute of Education, Hilary Benn put forward the case for a campaign on poverty in Britain, what he described as a “campaign against poverty of circumstance, poverty of opportunity, poverty of aspiration.  Wasted lives, potential unfulfilled.”

In his speech Benn argued that the Make Poverty History campaign demonstrated that poverty and exclusion is fundamentally about injustice: about the lack of opportunities, the lack of resources and the lack of medicines. Yet, he argued, in Britain, all too often, too many people feel that they have to accept the lottery of birth without question. At the heart of the Make Poverty History campaign was the belief that politics can and does make a difference to the quality of ordinary peoples’ lives.

Benn suggests that the biggest lesson we have to learn in Britain from the developing world is that if we work together, and campaign, and push, and put our minds to it, and fight, politics can change things.

What Benn is really saying is that we must NOT give into the cynics, we must not give into those who will argue that the problems are so enormous, so vast, they are cannot be tackled.

Hilary Benn is reminding us all of the strength and virtue of collective endeavour, he is reminding each and everyone of us of the values and principles on which our movement was founded.

Talking about inequality in Labour's birthplace

Last Thursday, at the invitation of local Welsh Assembly member Huw Lewis, I travelled to Merthyr Tydfil to deliver the annual Keir Hardie lecture to the local constituency Labour party. Keir Hardie, Labour’s first MP and party leader, represented Merthyr, which was also the setting for the first known raising of the Red Flag – during the Merthyr Uprising of 1831 - and the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. In many ways, Merthyr has a great claim to be the birthplace of the Labour movement.

When I was writing the speech I had a look back at the manifesto upon which Keir Hardie was elected for Merthyr in 1900. It is amazing how much of it still resonates for the Labour party today: opposing low pay; supporting families; providing all children with a decent education and a good start in life; improving housing; and banishing unemployment and striving for full employment.

As I said in my speech (which you can read in the lectures section of the news pages on my website), I am immensely proud of the war on poverty we’ve fought over the last ten years and particularly proud of the determination we have shown to cut child poverty. But I was also keen to talk about the ‘war on inequality’ which I would like to see Labour fighting in the years ahead. It is one that needs to be fought on many fronts. We need, for instance, to look at how we meet our commitments on child poverty; how we ensure that work truly is a route out of poverty; and how we help people on low and middle-incomes reduce some of the high costs of living. I also argued we need a new culture of corporate social responsibility to tackle the explosion of pay at the top which I know concerns many of us.

Some of the ideas I suggested we might look at in order to meet these challenges included an across-Whitehall Poverty Impact Assessment test for all new policies; new post-16 learning accounts which could be spent on both academic and vocational learning and support; and the creation of universal Advancement Agencies to assist those who, having moved from welfare to work, are now ambitious to advance and develop a career.

After the speech I spoke to Radio 4’s World Tonight programme about some of these ideas. Ed Mayo from the National Consumer Council, who was also on the programme, called it a ‘fantastic speech’ with some ‘really interesting ideas’ in it. Why don’t you see what you think?

Dignity!Period

This Saturday will see the Action for Southern Africa, Amicus and the TUC “Zimbabwe Solidarity Conference” take place at TUC Congress House where the focus of trade unionists with be on the plight of those in Zimbabwe – an incredibly dangerous place to be a democrat and trade unionist.

In recent weeks, a very special guest to the UK, the inspirational Thabitha Khumalo, came to raise awareness of the every day issues of being a women under Magarbe’s evil regime. Thabitha, who appeared on This Morning and Radio 4’s Women’s Hour while on a speaker tour, was here promoting the campaign she is spear heading as a leader of the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions that Action for Southern Africa, Amicus, the NUS Women’s Campaign and Labour Students are all supporting – Dignity!Period all about giving the women of Zimbabwe access to sanitary protection that has been prohibited by the policies and economics pursued by the Zimbabwean President.

Speaking at the Launch of the campaign as few weeks ago Thabitha Khumalo said,

Ordinary women cannot afford sanitary wear, we are using old pieces of cloth or newspapers. Consequently, we're suffering the loss of our dignity and serious infections, in some cases leading to infertility. Many women are facing violence from their husbands who believe these infections to be sexually transmitted.

I was fortunate enough to meet Thabitha when picking her up to drive her to one of the speaking events – which went down a storm as normal. While returning her to the station where she was heading directly for Heathrow I asked if you she would be ok on her return – she replied that she had to fly via South Africa to call ahead to the Congress’ lawyer to check whether there was a warrant for her arrest, before calmly reassuring all of us in the car, that even if they did arrest her they wouldn’t kill her because she was too famous!

Saying good-bye, only after being with this woman for less than an hour, brought a tear to the eye and filled me with the most overwhelming feeling of powerlessness as she walked off to contemplate her fate. Thankfully she let us know that she has returned home ok, but the fight for Zimbabwe women continues, getting no easier.

For more information see: http://www.actsa.org/Get_involved/zimbabwe_sanitary_campaign.htm and for attendance to the conference click here: http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-12543-f0.cfm.

Make sure you MP is doing something about it and signing Early day Motion (EDM) 862. 

Labour and the family

Hello all,

I am delighted to be able to join the Progress blog. I think its very important that everyone participates in the debate on the future direction of the Labour Party as we seek to renew ahead of the next general election. This website is already proving to be an excellent forum for party members to discuss ideas.

Yesterday, I made a speech on the importance for Labour to focus on supporting strong, stable families in the years ahead. The speech was part of the government's Social Exclusion week, which has been led by Cabinet Office Minister Hilary Armstrong.

The family has been uncomfortable territory for the centre-left after decades in which the right have used talking about the family to stigmatise lone parents and rail against changing modern families. There are indeed difficult questions for us as we consider new ways to support families in the years ahead, but I think its essential that we do confront those questions head on.

I would really appreciate your thoughts on my speech.

Thanks,

John Hutton, Work and Pensions Secretary

Have your say on Milburn's vision for New Labour

Alan Milburn, honorary president of Progress, yesterday set out a far-reaching ‘empowerment’ agenda for the next 10 years of New Labour.

He argued that the central issue for the Labour party to grapple with is that of the citizen’s relationship with the state. ‘The purpose of politics today,’ he said, ‘should be to help people take greater control of their lives so that they become as empowered as citizens as they have been as consumers … I want to change the distribution of power in society.’ In the speech, Milburn tackled the issues of greater wealth disparity, and called for ‘more to shift the focus beyond the traditional welfare solution of correcting the symptoms of inequality – such as lower wages and family poverty – towards an approach that deals with the roots of disadvantage before they become entrenched.’

Specifically, he argued that:

•    Welfare reform needs to be ‘back on the agenda with a vengeance’ with ‘incentives and sanctions’ to reduce the number of lone parents unable to work, partly by requiring them to actively seek work. He praised President Clinton’s welfare reforms, the subject of a recent Will Hutton Observer piece.

The party must adopt a series of tax breaks to spread asset ownership in shares and housing to tackle inequality.

•    State subsidies should allow parents to move children from a failing school, with the money transferring directly to their new school.

•    Government funded by local communities, who themselves decide the rate of taxes through local referendums.

•    Local health service and police could also be more accountable to the community they serve through elections. Community run mutual organisations could take over the running of children’s centres, estates and parks.

•    Voting reform for the Commons, power for Parliament to be able to vote on wars and a directly elected Lords.

•    The views of public service workers, and not just national inspectorates, should form the core of performance league tables.

Running through his speech and policy suggestions was the fundamental belief in the empowerment of individuals and communities. He sees this as the progressive cause that has been central to the Labour party for over a 100 years: ‘We need to forge a new contract between state and citizen where government provides opportunities and citizens strive to take them. Where the top down paternalistic statism of the last century gives way to a new bottom up agenda of empowerment that is in tune with the needs of this.’

What do you think of Alan’s speech? Do you agree with his view that the citizen/state relationship is key to renewing New Labour and what do you think of the specific policy suggestions he makes? Post your comments at the bottom of Alan's speech and he will respond next week.