Louise Nousratpour
Thursday October 15, 2009
The Morning Star
A group of Blairite former ministers published a set of proposals on Thursday which they claimed would keep Labour in power.
The 10-strong group of MPs, including former home secretary Charles Clarke, warned of "another generation of Thatcherite government" unless Labour adopted their "progressive vision" for the future.
But Labour MP John McDonnell lambasted their policies as "bankrupt" and described the group as "the last reactionary twitchings of the corpse that was new Labour."
Among the proposals launched at Westminister on Thursday were calls for stronger anti-terror laws, a well-equipped army ready for future intervention, public spending cuts, continued privatisation in public services and a firm opposition to more council homes.
In his essays, Mr Clarke hinted at resurrecting the defeated idea of a 90-day pre-charge detention for terror suspects and defended identity cards.
He also talked about "hard choices" in public spending and called for "user-charging" in key public services.
On defence, Nick Palmer wrote that Britain should "focus on the types of intervention where we have particular skills."
And Nick Raynsford rejected the need for council housing in favour of "mixed tenure" developments in partnership with the private sector.
Mr McDonnell warned: "This group of estranged Blairites wants to take us back to a set of policies based upon the principles that got us into this mess."
Communist Party of Britain general secretary Rob Griffths stressed that the only way Labour can up its chances of winning the next election is if the party "changes direction and adopts genuinely popular left-wing policies for public ownership, investment in productive industry, progressive taxation and end the war in Afghanistan."
No comments:
Post a Comment