Should a Labour Government manage capitalism or transform it?‏

Since his election to Parliament in 1987 Alan Simpson Labour MP for Nottingham South has been a trenchant critic of deregulation, euro-monetarism and war. Simpson is retiring as an MP and his final newspaper article, published in the Morning Star, is a tour-de-force analysis of the banking crisis, the role of the state and the potential for a ‘new, sustainable, industrial revolution’.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/88754

“It would be far better to push £185bn worth of public spending commitments into the purchase of goods that would take Britain into a different future. A new national rail infrastructure, a national fleet of low-carbon public-service vehicles, the conversion of five million fuel poor homes into low energy ones, the delivery of decentralised energy systems where towns and cities deliver their own secure, sustainable energy systems - all of these could have been paid for out of £185bn of new spending.”

Simpson concludes by contemplating on the historic mission of the labour movement:

“It all comes down to a question of whether the role of a Labour government is to manage capitalism or transform it. I leave Parliament doubting that the next government will have the courage to do this. I also leave Parliament knowing that the biggest historical changes that have taken place in Britain have always occurred when society drove the change and Parliament raced to keep up. As ever, the real power rests within our own hands - if only we have the courage to grasp it.”