At Labour’s National Policy Forum today Ed Miliband will commit an incoming Labour Government to continue austerity cuts until 2020 to eradicate a deficit made worse by Con Dem tax cutting policies for corporations and the rich. The Guardian previews his speech "You and I know we won't have the money. For all of the cuts, for all of the pain under this government, Britain still has a deficit to deal with and a debt to pay down. That's why our programme starts with a binding commitment to balancing the books in the next government.”
So it seems that the forest’s worth of trade union motions, conference speeches, ‘evidence based’ critiques of austerity not to mention demonstrations and marches since May 2010 have counted for nothing. Economic credibility with financial markets rather than political credibility with Labour’s core constituency is what matters most to Balls and Miliband. It is a paradigm of future misery for working people.
It doesn’t need to be this way, writes Michael Meacher MP: ‘Public investment is still needed to get sustainable growth. The alternative of public investment, big reductions in the dole queues, and sustainable growth is string us in the face. Why doesn’t Labour run with that?’