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Paul Laxton
Issue 75 Autumn 2016
THE LABOUR LEADER's SPEECH MANY VOTERS WOULD LOVE TO HEAR...

By Paul Laxton

Some of you will be confirmed Labour voters, some of you will never have voted Labour, and some of you will be floating voters. I would guess that some of you, like me, who were once Labour voters, have grown to despair of the Labour Party. Whichever of these camps you were in, I genuinely believe that you would agree with me that a functioning parliamentary democracy requires a strong opposition that can both hold the government to account and resonate with voters as a credible alternative government. For substantial periods during the 1979-97 Conservative government and the 1997-2010 government, the opposition failed to do its job. We now face yet another period of virtual one-party rule because the opposition is tearing itself apart.

Below is an extract from a speech I would love to hear the next Labour leader make on his or her election, one I believe would resonate with the electorate as well as Labour's lost tribe.

" The Labour Party was founded by working people so that it could represent working people and then govern on behalf of working people. As a party we have lost touch with working people, treated them with contempt and taken their vote for granted. As a party over the last two decades, we have preferred instead to be part of a metropolitan bubble of a like-minded, well-heeled, Guardian-reading Mafiosi, that believes profoundly in its own intellectual superiority and its right to rule whichever party wins the election. We have become part of a conspiracy to undermine the very democracy for which this party heroically fought.

On 23rd June this year, we received our final notice that this has to change. You are either with me or you can contemplate the prospect of UKIP MP's in parliamentary constituencies that we have held continuously since 1945. Scotland has already given us a foretaste of what is to come. As a party, therefore, we face becoming an irrelevant rump surviving in parliament thanks only to London. If you genuinely wish to continue to pursue student union politics that is a matter for you but at least have the decency to join
the Liberal Democrats, a once great party that has become sadly irrelevant, where you will no doubt be
very welcome. Meanwhile, the rest of us will get on with the task of reconnecting with the voters of this country.

There will be no more posturing, no more self-righteous attacks of the vapours because a brewery named a beer "top totty", and no more apologies for potato famines and the like.

However, I do apologise on behalf on behalf of the party to Gillian Duffy, the pensioner who was called a bigot by one of our former leaders for raising the issue of immigration. I also apologise to the former Labour voter from Chatham, mocked by one of our front bench for displaying the flag of St George in his window.

The Labour Party was once a patriotic party that believed in defence. Clement Attlee, our greatest former
Prime Minister, fought heroically in the Great War, and many members of the 60's and 70's Labour.  
governments fought in World War Two. More to the point so had the voters who swept us into power back in 1945. They loved their country, they spoke of "doing their bit," and then they moved on and approved the return of Germany and Japan to the family of nations. They were not xenophobes, I repeat they were not xenophobes.

The party I aspire to lead will accept the result of the referendum in both spirit and letter. We are a democratic party, end of... Therefore we are going to confront the immigration question. We will not be accepting the free movement so beloved by both big business and No Borders fanatics. We will welcome
law-abiding people that we need to fill holes in our economy, whether that is to work in the NHS or picking strawberries in the fields, provided they have a job offer. Other than the right to vote they will have the same rights as UK citizens. We will be delighted ultimately to grant UK citizenship to hard working law abiding people who wish to become British and adopt our values.

We shall look long term to address the skills gaps in our economy that make us so dependent on migrant workers, particularly in the NHS. This a key part of any strategy to reduce immigration. At this point I would ask you to consider the morality of constantly plundering developing countries of their best and brightest people.

Law abiding visitors to this country will also be welcome. They just need to understand that if they do not have the offer of a job they must either support themselves or get relatives to provide for their needs. There will be no provision of housing or any form of benefit, other than a return ticket home. We shall welcome foreign students to the UK, but we will expect the countries of origin to indemnify the UK for unpaid tuition fees and loan repayments. They will be expected to go home at the conclusion of their course at which point they will be treated as visitors unless they have a job offer. The NHS will offer the full range of NHS treatment to students and migrant workers but will only offer free emergency treatment, GP appointments and neo-natal care to visitors except where reciprocal arrangements are in place with the country of origin. We acknowledge that health tourism is difficult to stamp out completely as Doctors understandably do not wish to deny any form of treatment to the sick. Therefore the cost of health tourism will be transferred from the overseas aid budget to the NHS.

We shall stop deluding ourselves that the EU protects workers' rights. To paraphrase Dennis Skinner, "Where is the EU directive on zero-hours contracts?" Let me remind you that the Royal Mail is in private hands because of EU competition rules, the same rules that give the Tories an excuse not to renationalise parts of Tata steel and protect strategic industries, the same rules that will prevent us from renationalising the railways and public utilities should we ever wish to do so. There has always been a strong Socialist case for leaving the big business dominated EU. It's time that case was heard. Leaving the EU does not make us any less an internationally focussed party or country. We will still be a permanent member of the UN security council, a crucial member of NATO, and we will regain our seat on the World Trade Organisation where will press hard for reduced trade barriers. It is worth remembering that EU tariffs, particularly in regard to agricultural products, are a major barrier to exports from developing countries.

One of our former leaders, Hugh Gaitskell, foresaw the end of "1000 years of history" if we joined what was then the Common Market. He foresaw that it would eventually destroy our democracy. It cannot be right that an unaccountable, unelected European Commission makes 60% of the laws in this country. It is a travesty of the democracy that working people gave their lives for in the two great conflicts of the 20th century. We should be delighted that we are going to be a self-governing country again. Some members
of this party have in their time chanted "power to the people." Well the people have just seized power

If we are to be a truly free people, then we cannot accept the jurisdiction of Brussels or Strasbourg. As a believer in Human Rights I am not advocating withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights, which a Labour government helped set up in 1950. What I am advocating is that we return to the status quo which pertained from 1950 to 1966, whereby we accept its moral force, but not the jurisdiction of a court which contains judges from repressive nations like Albania which have no democratic tradition. Ultimately we should consider whether we perhaps need a written constitution, a British Bill of Rights, to replace the 1998 Human Rights Act.

We shall go to war on political correctness. You will not hear me talk about isms and phobias which have no meaning beyond the limited vocabulary of the lentil eating classes. Political correctness has made a mockery of free speech in this country. Article 10 of the Convention which protects the right to free speech is not enforced at all. We shall enshrine and define freedom of expression within the law, and specifically repeal the post-Leveson legislation which threatens press freedom.

We shall make it the legal presumption that the right to a family life as enshrined under Article 8 can just as easily be enjoyed in the country of origin provided it is on the UN list of safe countries, the ownership of a cat, (and I am a cat lover), not-with-standing.

There will be one code of law for all citizens in this country. There is no place for Sharia law, which is an affront to our belief in equality and only institutionalises the second-class status of women in certain minority communities.

Finally, there will be no room for anyone in this party who does accept the recognition of the right of Israel to exist within a two-state solution to the Palestinian question."

Anyone seen flying pigs recently?

PAUL LAXTON