Well at least in fighting this election the Labour Party will know who their enemies are. No sooner had Gordon Brown finished his speech than Daniel Finkelstein of the Times was in the BBC studio determined to rubbish the prime minister’s speech. Now The Sun has declared that it backs the Tories on its front page today. Well at least Rupert Murdoch is off the fence.
For many Labour supporters the sight of the Labour leadership paying homage at the court of King Rupert was not a price worth paying for the so called support of News International. There seemed to be a belief that those who bought a news paper to ogle at Page 3 also followed the newspaper’s editorial - a not entirely logical line. In a paper devoted to show biz tittle-tattle, gossip about him (and her) off the telly, and copious amounts of football, politics and political subtlety does not play a large role.
The editorial condemning the party is a typical Sun piece, full of self serving propaganda, little in the way of facts and self contradiction. Every Labour party achievement over the past twelve years is denied, on health, on education,on public services. As the editorial says:
“But the real story of the Labour years is one of under-achievement, rank failure and a vast expansion of wasteful government interference in everyone's lives”
For Labour critics on the Left, the party ‘s record on public services can and should be criticised on its privatisation record, and its use of private finance but even we can agree with Gordon that it has tried to improve services for the majority of the population. The facts on the NHS speak for themselves. From being a service that was failing the majority of the population, with out of date services and facilities under the last Tory government, it has been turned around.
For the Sun public investment can be summed up thus:-
“Billions blown employing a useless layer of public service middle-managers like those who condemned Baby P to die.”
Billions spend on child protection work in this country would be welcomed by all of those who work on the front line in child care. Sun rhetoric on the issue is not only a fabrication, but an insult to those to have to deal with these issues. But there is more…
“Billions more spent, insanely, making benefits more lucrative than a pay cheque - creating a huge, idle underclass for whom work is a dirty word”
Let’s forget that that even now there are two million more people at work than when Labour came to power. Lets forget that for those condemned to live on benefits, the sick, the disabled, only poverty beckons, and that benefit levels will never take them out of that . What would the Sun prefer to do? Take away welfare benefits and leave them with nothing?
Do the Sun and politicians who blithely say “Remove their benefits” ever think about the consequences of their slogans? Do we want to increase the numbers of those families living on the streets, starving, with no recourse to anything but crime? Are whole generations to be condemned? That is the logical that they won’t face up to.
In one of the wealthiest counties in the world, only the Rupert Murdochs of the world would advocate such a solution. There are alternatives. Maybe the real reason for the Sun’s change of heart is the Labour Party is starting to edge its way toward a taxation policy that would see the wealthiest in this society be forced to pay their way.
Labour does not need the support of an ex Australian, now US citizen who has never lived here and never paid taxes here.
In the meantime remember that our Scouse cousins found an excellent way of dealing with the Sun’s version of the truth after Hillborough. They boycotted it.
Hopefully, the number of UNISONActive readers who buy the paper is nil. But spread the word.
