Online taster | Autumn 2011 © YOUNG FABIANS 2011
Anticipations YOUNG FABIANS
THE RELUCTANT SUPERPOWER David Miliband argues that now is the time for Europe to take the lead on the world stage
INTERVIEW JOHN HEALEY
Networks Officer Daniel Bamford speaks to the Shadow Health Secretary about the coalition’s plans for the NHS.
OPINION YOUNG FABIAN IDEAS
Young Fabian members share their ideas on a wide range of policy issues from Slutwalk to the future of Scotland.
FEATURE DEFENDING DEMOCRACY Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy outlines a new vision for UK defence policy after the Arab Spring.
| political writing by and for young people |
YOUNG FABIANS
The best fiver you’ll ever spend By joining the Young Fabians you become a member of the only think tank in the country run by and for young people. For over fifty years we have been at the forefront of the Left, agitating for change through our pamphlets, magazines and events. You can become part of that rich tradition by joining the Young Fabians today. What’s more it only costs a fiver. That’s it. For that price you’ll receive the full edition of Anticipations delivered to your door. It gets even better. You’ll also receive the Fabian Society’s quarterly magazine, Fabian Review, and the latest editions of their policy books and pamphlets. So what are you waiting for?
Join the Young Fabians today Visit youngfabians.org.uk
| from the editor |
Forward not back
It is vital that Europe learns the right lessons from the Greek crisis — JAMES GREEN —
mattthomasillustration.com
The Greek debt crisis has thrown into stark relief the challenges that lie at the heart of European integration. As the Eurozone countries endorse a second Greek bailout, many are asking whether the European project has fallen into serial decline. Eurosceptics are rubbing their hands in glee, citing the Euro’s current plight as proof of their earlier predictions. Yet there is another way of reading current events. As former Foreign Secretary David Miliband argues in this edition’s essay, the nature of the crash that sparked Greece’s collapse demonstrates that global problems require global solutions. As China and America increasingly focus on domestic concerns, faced with a leadership transition and election respectively, Europe has an opportunity to take a lead on the world stage. Europe is well placed to do this. It is after all the only part of the world that has embraced the idea of shared sovereignty. While integration has not been a cost-free process it has brought with it significant opportunities. In an increasingly interdependent world, dominated by a handful of superpowers, the benefits of economic and political cooperation are more evident now than ever. Taking advantage of this will not be easy. Europe will first need to address the deep
disconnect that currently exists between the process of greater integration and public support for the European project. This is the outcome of integration by stealth, as the public have grown weary of economic measures being used to promote a broader political goal. Few events more powerfully exemplify this phenomenon than the current crisis in Greece. We now have a single currency, which many in Europe saw as a route into federalism, undermined not only by the weakness of the Greek economy but also by widespread public antipathy towards the EU. Rarely has a strong multilateral Europe been more important or more difficult to sustain. This has resulted in the widely held view that Europe is a distraction from more important national economic concerns. However, as Nick Maxwell from Chatham House rightly argues, domestic economic challenges and foreign policy priorities are far from mutually exclusive. Sound economics, just like effective politics, requires strong international cooperation. In fact Maxwell goes a step further, arguing that the UK should be at the centre of efforts to build a more effective international framework for economic cooperation between nations. It is hard to argue with this position. As power increasingly shifts East, there is a closing window of opportunity for a country like the UK to take a
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global lead on such defining issues. However, Britain’s ambitions should not be limited to economic concerns alone. As Jim Murphy powerfully outlines, we also need to drive forward a coordinated approach to issues of defence. The Arab Spring has turned on its head established notions that non-democratic governments can be stable and sustainable. Security in the future will come not from bilateral relationships with autocratic rulers, but from strong multilateral alliances between democratic nations. This will require countries to facilitate peace abroad in order to protect their interests at home. It is a challenging task, especially in tough economic times. However, it is one that we can rise to, especially if we are able to coordinate foreign policy at the European level. As the crisis in Greece has shown, a more integrated Europe brings with it significant risks. However, in an interdependent world dominated by China and America surely these are risks worth taking. Now is the time for Europe to shed its image as a reluctant actor and assert its place on the international stage. There is space in the world for another superpower. Europe must decide if it ready to become it. James Green is Anticipations Editor and a Fabian Society Executive member
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Note from the Chair
Changing the Labour Party’s culture is a challenging but vital task — ADRIAN PRANDLE —
Picture this: It is the 14th of April 2015. You’re knocking on a door; a 22 year-old answers. You’ve met before. She missed out on university in the 2012 cull of places and has been unemployed ever since. But there is an element of hope. Ed Miliband’s Labour Party are pledging to reintroduce the Future Jobs Fund, amongst the first of the regrettable cuts the coalition made in 2010. This goes alongside the promise to roll-out employability skills training, to be available to all in scores of re-opened libraries. You are familiar with her story and now this is the third time you’ve spoken; she’s familiar with yours. She knows why you’re Labour and how you came to the party through an organisation called the Young Fabians. You’ve built up a relationship over the last couple of weeks and she feels comfortable asking you about Ed’s latest announcement. You look it up on your campaignissue iPad. The EdApp has all the party’s policies – from Labour’s reformed national policy forum. You can see your own ideas, helped no end by the added influence your local Labour Party had as reward for its community engagement. You are interrupted by her twin. He brings the breaking news from the living room TV. Prime Minister Cameron has had to reschedule his day to visit the home of a voter he had earlier called a ‘chav’ after being asked for directions to the local DWP office. The twin made it to university and is over halfway through a medicine degree that will leave him £54,000 in debt. You go in for the kill. “Will you volunteer for Ed’s Labour Party?” Getting to this point is the massive job lying
in front of Ed Miliband. The scale of the task is enormous. Yet with an extensive exercise on party reform about to report, the first stage of policy renewal complete and the policy groups getting going, the wheels are very much in motion. There are three things Ed needs to do to succeed. On party reform, above all else he absolutely must bring the party with him. Processes need to be open, democratically agreed, and he must encourage the party to give different things a go. There will be loads of ideas emerging from the consultation, and they won’t all work, so patience across the party will be a virtue. On policy, it goes without saying that he needs to bring the public with him. This is more complicated than successful issues polling. Labour needs as many people as possible to have a stake in Labour policy. We need to harness any cynicism towards the coalition and offer an opportunity for people to define 2015’s alternative. Not just through Liam Byrne’s policy groups but through local parties too. Finally, he needs to find his feet as a leader. He has the intelligence, the politics and the drive. But we need to see an increased confidence through his interventions. This means knowing when to take a lead and knowing when to let others play their part. He got this wrong twice in a week at the end of June – initially by his overeager intervention on party reform, briefed to the press before Peter Hain’s consultation had closed, followed by his lack of desire to stand up to perceived public opinion on public sector union strikes.
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All these issues highlight a critical question for Labour. How do we affect culture change? The answer probably lies in starting small and ending big. If the media aren’t interested in Labour in the first half of this parliament, let’s use it to our advantage and get stuck into refounding Labour now, bit by bit, for maximum impact in 2015. Change is definitely on the way at the Fabian Society in the appointment of a new General Secretary. Andrew Harrop, who will be in post by September, was one of a number of young candidates – though I hope he doesn’t mind me saying, not quite still a Young Fabian. His predecessor afforded the Young Fabians a great deal of autonomy for which I am grateful and members will have seen the benefit of that in our extensive work. We will certainly be keen to maintain that autonomy but at the same time will be looking for new ways to work together. At this critical juncture for the Labour Party, the Fabian Society is as important as ever. The Young Fabians are leading the way in thinking about how the society can get itself in best shape to help – and crucially how to capitalise on being an active membership organisation. So, whether you’re a brand new member or a long-standing supporter, do contribute your thoughts to the ‘Future of the Fabians’ strand on our website and blog. Enjoy the summer – Young Fabian activity will continue, so hopefully see you there. To find out how you can get more involved in running the Young Fabians email Adrian Prandle at aprandle@youngfabians.org.uk
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Economics Eye
London’s status as an international player is not to be tossed away lightly — ALLEN SIMPSON —
For people who follow these things, the recent open letter by the City firm BlackRock about the state of the London stock markets is a pretty serious matter. It argued that some advisors are valuing companies at an unreasonably high level when they pitch for the contract to manage the process of floating on the market, with a result that the companies’ valuations then underperform against expectations. It has prompted a debate about the UK’s continuing status as a major financial centre and our ability to attract companies to London. Or, to ask the question that might occur to Westminster – is London’s status as a financial centre really under threat and, if so, is that even a bad thing? The orbit of economic influence is shifting East and South to the New Economies and in particular to China whose remarkable growth as an exporter has left them with huge capital reserves to invest. The Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets are both closing in on London, serving an economy that has just overtaken Japan as the world’s second largest. Prada have just chosen to join the Hong Kong stock market rather than come to London or Milan, a sign that they feel the East is their best chance of securing a good price for the company and that they feel the region will increasingly be their biggest customer market. But the London markets are still holding their own, with fundraising up 500% last year, and there is no reason to assume that the long-term view is one of managed decline. We have always been a particularly international financial centre and correspondingly there are more international assets managed here than in any other region. This can be our USP. As the New Economies mature, we are moving towards a position where each major region has a single, dominant financial centre serving it. London can not only take that role in Europe, it can seize an additional prize – building on our linguistic, historical and diasporic advantages to offer a parallel venue for companies seeking to access international capital flows, to complement regional ones. The Glencore model, in which the mining giant maintains dual listings in London and Hong Kong, offers an early glimpse of this future role. Of course, the wider issue of whether or not we should care about the future of the UK’s financial services has been a major cause of soul
searching on the Left. There is no doubt that the UK economy needs to be fundamentally rebalanced to close the trade deficit and I suspect that most of us in our quiet moments realise that macroeconomic reality is against a UKbased resurgence in traditional, low margin/high volume manufacturing. High margin, high tech manufacturing is a more likely candidate, properly supported by a financial industry that would do well to remember that it is supposed to exist to fund the real economy. But what of the role of financial services as an exporter in its own right? It is tempting to see the impact of the financial crisis as evidence that the fiscal and moral hazard posed by this most unequal of industries is far greater than the benefit – or at least the portion of the benefit which isn’t off-shored. But as Kitty Usher observed in her City Limits report for Demos, there is no correlation between the scale of the domestic financial services sector and the harm caused by financial crises. This is largely due to the utility nature of the industry and the sheer interconnectedness of the global financial system. Forcing the industry elsewhere doesn’t reduce the impact of black swans like the 2009 recession, but it does lessen our ability to regulate and oversee it. It is also worth pointing out that in some sense the City is our ‘little industry that could’. For the duration of the Labour government, the financial services industry actually stayed relatively stable at around 7-8% while manufacturing suffered its slow decline from 22% to 14%. At its precrisis peak, it contributed more than 35% of total UK corporation tax and around 15% income tax. And along with business services it contributes over £50 billion to our trade balance, going some way to offset the £82 billion deficit in goods exports. The importance of London’s status as a global centre goes beyond the profits and taxes of square mile. When a company like Glencore comes to London it means jobs in legal firms, real estate, PR firms, logistics and office cleaning companies, restaurants and elsewhere. We would be fools to chase that away in a fit of moral outrage or squeamishness about salaries. Allen Simpson is a Young Fabian member and speechwriter to the London Stock Exchange
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| cover story |
THE RELUCTANT SUPERPOWER The time has come for Europe to take the lead on the world stage — DAVID MILIBAND —
The big debate today in Europe is about economics. So it is perhaps counter-intuitive to focus on the international politics of Europe for an essay at a time of such a critical economic juncture. Yet the truth is that as Europe looks to rebound from a global financial crisis, it also has a responsibility to address the real danger of a vacuum in global governance. The financial crisis has demonstrated that global problems need global solutions and as the one part of the world that has embraced the idea of shared sovereignty, it is massively in our interests that we help fill that vacuum in a serious and enlightened way. The Prime Minister is probably relieved that he has not had to make a speech about Europe in his first year in office. But the need and challenge for Britain to embrace a positive vision of its future in Europe, helping to lead Europe, has not gone away. In 2009 I warned against the danger for Europe of a G2 world dominated by China and America. Today the danger is less a G2 world than a G Zero world. The Chinese-American relationship is not on the rocks; but they are wary partners. Both have turned to focus on domestic concerns over the last two years and face issues of political uncertainty in 2012; the US through an election, China through a leadership transition.
One of the results is that the multilateral system is burdened with policy issues that seem stuck not just in the slow lane but sometimes in limbo – from institutional questions like UN Security Council reform to climate and trade talks, to the G20’s economic agenda. Leadership on these issues is not forthcoming. The US seems split or even confused about its role in the world – 47% of Americans believe that the Chinese economy is already larger than theirs. The legacy conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are draining of idealism and energy
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as well as people and resources. As for China, it approaches its leadership transition armed with a hugely ambitious Five Year Plan focussed on restructuring its domestic development model. The Chinese deny they are a superpower, understandably so – GDP per head is one tenth the US level. I got the impression on a visit in March that China has made a decision to engage more proactively in the G20, promoting more coordinated global economic governance. But on the foreign policy questions that dominate the multilateral system, caution is the order of the day. So Europe faces a choice. Breathe a sigh of relief that the world is not being carved up by others and become what Richard Gowan has called a “strategic suburbia: a collection of small, quiet and obsessively inward-looking communities suspicious of the outside world”; or recognise that nature abhors a vacuum and move forward into it. Europe faces this strategic question of its role in the world in the context of an acute and intertwined economic and political crisis that has major consequences for living standards, but also for the perception and potential of Europe’s role in the world. So of course, the economics matter as well.
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Europe, as a 27 nation bloc, has significant economic weight and advantages. It is the world’s largest single market. Average income at $30,000 is four times that of China and almost three times that of Brazil. But the internal economic disequilibrium is striking – it mirrors the global disequilibrium symbolised by Chinese surpluses and American deficits. The IMF says that “the most tangible downside risk (to growth) still arises from the European periphery, which may spread to core European economies.” So while the European economy as a whole is in balance, and the overall European debt to GDP ratio is below that of the UK or US, the imbalances within the European economy are now a global concern. The figures speak for themselves: while German unemployment is at a 20 year low, Spanish unemployment is over 20%, and over 40% among young people. The yield on Greek
Europe faces a choice. Breathe a sigh of relief that the world is not being carved up by others and become a collection of inward-looking communities. Or recognise that nature abhors a vacuum and move forward into it. bonds is now 7% higher than when it agreed a rescue package a year ago. And the combined risks of the financial sector and the public sector now define Europe’s political and economic challenge. So the economic challenge is real and in urgent need of address. My view is that austerity plus bailouts won’t make Greece solvent (Sir Mervyn King thinks the same). But the difficult politics of an up-front hit arriving from a default have until now blocked the enforcement of a sustainable solution. Hence the
Is it time for Britain to take Europe seriously as a global player?
attraction of a reprofiling of debt. But if solvency and growth are not addressed, then the problem won’t actually be resolved. That’s why the issue of default won’t go away. Too often the medicine being prescribed looks like it will actually make the patient worse. Yet the reality is that Britain is not an agenda taker on the major economic questions facing Europe. We can, however, be agenda setters when it comes to foreign policy questions. And the question is whether to take Europe seriously as a global player. I believe we have no choice. This is not just a networked world. It is a multilateral world. And in that world good bilateral relations are not enough. Strong European foreign policy is an opportunity for Britain not a threat. And European foreign policy does not just mean Anglo French defence cooperation. It means the sustained engagement with all of the EU’s members to shape a global strategy that has meaning. So there are big questions facing Europe.
Do we have a relevant philosophy?
The EU represents the only part of the world where shared sovereignty – alongside intergovernmental cooperation – is a reality. We need to develop the case that a world of interdependence cannot rely on the old rules to provide effective governance. I call this alternative ‘responsible sovereignty’ – recognising that the nation state is the building block of political identity and therefore legitimacy, but also that an interdependent world needs to qualify the right of states either to violate the rights of their own citizens or of others. This is a hard argument to make. Most countries of the world still revel in their escape from domination by others. But the result is
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that we all lose when our common interests are neglected – whether on the economy, crime, migration or climate.
Do we have deployable resources?
And are these deployable in the right place at the right time in the right partnerships to be serious players? We need to argue for stronger regional organisations between nation states and the UN; clearer rules to protect global public goods, from nuclear security to food safety and climate change; and a filling out of the 2005 UN commitment to ‘Responsibility to Protect’. However, the EU is not an academic institution. The EU needs to practice and not just argue. We do not occupy an ivory tower. We face practical challenges. So we need the resources to attack them. And these resources are financial, military, cultural and economic. The scale of EU action abroad is underrecognised. A glance at Catherine Ashton’s reports to the European parliament show the sheer scale, ambition and complexity of Europe’s operations abroad. From terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation to media freedoms in Russia and crisis management in Kyrgyzstan – Europe is expected to be a player. Our claim is that we have a unique blend of resources, soft and hard power, at our disposal. But while we spend 200 billion Euros a year on defence, more than any country except the US, and have two million European troops in uniform, only 5% are deployable at any one time. We have a development budget of about 12 billion Euros a year, but it is committed seven years in advance and continues to privilege historic linkages rather than modern needs. Our single market is our greatest attraction, but it takes on average at least
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Influence abroad? The European Council’s President meets China’s Vice President on a visit this year four years to negotiate a trade agreement with a third country. In other words the historic spend and actions of the EU have created a great inertia. And I dread the next debate about the financial perspective only being about the size of the spending cake. Fundamental to Europe’s role in the world is freeing up money, time and people to focus on the things that matter today and tomorrow.
Are we clear on priorities?
Our priorities should first come from geography. America is rebalancing its foreign policy towards the Pacific. China is not really engaged to our south in the Middle East and North Africa or to our east in the Balkans or Ukraine. If we cannot make a difference in these places, then we will not be taken seriously elsewhere. There is much that can and should be said about these regions. The need for a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Tunisia and Egypt; the dangers in Libya; the often tragic and enigmatic neighbour that is Russia; and a series of simmering problems from Belarus to Nagorno Karabach. Our second set of priorities must come from our security needs. Pakistan strikes me as the best example. There are dramatically high stakes in this country for all of us, but a real debate in the US about whether it should cut off links to Pakistan. Europe has increased its development aid to Pakistan. It is holding a strategic dialogue with the country. But this is a long way from the kind of partnership that impacts on everyday lives in a country where chronic problems of weak institutions (outside the army) and widespread
poverty are combined with acute stress from the rise in commodity process and deep-seated insecurity. From economic development and trade to agriculture to institution building, the EU should become a primary and demanding friend of Pakistan, in their interests and ours. Finally, there are our relationships with the great national powers. I am concerned on this front. The US President has cancelled EU-US summits; Russia sees us as divided (which we are); China is concerned that we are unfocused; and Brazil and South Africa don’t quite know what we want. India sees the EU as a trade block and little else. My feeling is that, rather than the comprehensive dialogues that currently dominate debate, we should identify one or two issues for each country on which we are going to become a major strategic partner. With the US it could be the future of Pakistan. With Russia it must be energy. With China it can be climate change. The last six months have clarified for me the great forces reshaping the world. Firstly, the civilian surge in the Middle East which has raised the bar of legitimate government in undemocratic countries across the region, and is watched so carefully in China. With greater internet access and use of social media, people have been armed with hugely powerful tools of organisation and aggregation. Causes and injustices can be shared in an instant and that supplies a transparency that illegitimacy finds toxic. Countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose leaders have reasonable claim to some theological or revolutionary legitimacy, look safer than republics like Syria. However, what is clear is that the bar of legitimacy is now permanently higher across the region.
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Secondly, the shift from resource plenty to resource scarcity is a permanent one. Food and commodity prices around the world are rising. This is the new normal, not a temporary trend – a new and fundamentally destabilising factor in international relations. From oil to water, the conflict lines of the future are being drawn and they are being drawn around resources. Thirdly, the shift in economic power from West to East – and with it a backlash against globalisation in the West. Most notably in Europe, where only four left of centre governments remain, but also in the US where the electoral cycle will only increase demands for a domestic focus to tackle jobs ‘going abroad’. Fourthly, the dramatic debates within Islam about how it should engage in politics in the Islamic world and with countries beyond. In truth political Islam is winning against global jihad but within political Islam there are many shades. Egyptian elections should bring this into greater public view. Finally, the fundamental rift that continues to exist between those who see the governance of our global village in the old ways, with different nations going their own way, and those who believe that we need rules and institutions to hold the ring against the abuse of power. So the challenges are stark but I believe that this is a world that needs a strong Europe more than ever. That is only possibly if we are economically strong, not as individual nations but as a collection of states. But it also requires a vision of Europe in the world based on clear ideals, hard heads and real delivery. David Miliband is Member of Parliament for South Shields and a former Foreign Secretary
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Why I’m Labour
Family experiences and a concern for others drive our passion for Labour — SARA IBRAHIM & ANNA BAGE—
I started to become properly politically aware in 1997. It was a time of great optimism with Labour in the ascendancy after the dying days of Major’s government. For the first time in my memory, politics looked like a force for good. This was the earliest opportunity I had been given to feel part of an exciting progressive movement that would aim to better the lives of others. While the Labour Party hasn’t retained the same heady electoral heights as 1997 it has grown in my affections. Without doubt, for me, it is the only political party in this country which squarely puts the values of solidarity, equality and fairness at its heart. It is Labour’s commitment to building their policy based on these values that distinguishes it from the often knee jerk reaction of its competitors. Labour’s clarity of thought is reflected in a list of achievements that all supporters can be proud of. Before 1997 it was hard to imagine a society which would legislate for civil partnerships, the national minimum wage and the most recent legislation putting fairness first – the Equality Act. Without Labour this seismic shift in cultural values would not have happened. Many of the key institutions that the British public feel great affection for, such as the NHS, are Labour creations. It is historically the Labour Party that works to build networks and organisations that support ordinary hard working people. This encompasses everything from Sure Start centres to the Future Jobs Fund. In contrast, the Conservative-led government’s impulse is destructive with Andrew Lansley’s proposed health reforms being opposed by GPs, the people he supposedly wishes to empower. Now that the Liberal Democrats have entered into government with the Conservatives, the importance of Labour and Labour held values has increased. It was Labour and not the Liberal Democrats who pointed out that women were disproportionately affected by the cuts. It is Labour and not the Liberal Democrats who understand that savage Conservative-led government cuts are stifling economic growth. Out of all the political parties only Labour can lay a genuine claim to help those who most need it. We have the track record to prove it. That is why I am proud to be Labour and why you should be too.
When I joined the Labour Party aged 16, it was through a mixture of family influence, boredom, and a desire to find an ideology that chimed with my thoughts, attitudes and values. Poised tentatively on the edge of my A Levels and with the ever present thought of university looming, the Labour Party, with its shiny red membership card and promise of a better, brighter future, seemed like a viable option. What I would never have thought is that the choice I made aged 16 would come to dominate my life, my university experience and now, as I enter my final year of education, my career choices. In the years after joining the Labour Party I realised my support for its causes and policies were rooted in more than just left wing sympathies. I joined not because I have a naive conception of the goodness and integrity of human nature, but because I believed in the decency of those who work hard, who strive for better and who fight, unwaveringly, for what they believe in. The Labour Party gives the kind of people I have met when working in an MP’s office, or out on the campaign trail, at the end of a phone or on the doorstep, a vehicle of expression. It’s not through elevated ideals or lacklustre visions that goals are achieved, but through solidarity and hard work. The minimum wage didn’t appear from thin air, half hearted attempts at change or a vague interest in reform. It required exertion and initiative. It needed solidarity and support in its cause: to renovate the pay system for our most vulnerable workers. It took a party with guts to stand up and fight for the Equality Bill to be put into law. It took a party whose basic principles are those of tolerance and respect to fight for civil partnerships to be transformed into legislation. I may have joined Labour on uncertain terms. But it’s now that, after five years of following a party which in its most basic form adheres to the fundamental conviction of equality and fairness, I can safely say that my belief in the Labour Party is unambiguous. Although there have been mistakes and wrong decisions, and sometimes I have doubted the verdict of those who represent the party, my belief in its ideological foundations has never wavered. That’s why I’m Labour.
Sara Ibrahim is Young Fabian Vice Chair
Anna Bage is Young Fabian Membership Ambassador
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| endnotes |
SADIQ KHAN The Shadow Justice Secretary on his inspirations, motivations and what Labour must do to win again
a more effective, victims focused system that punishes offenders and breaks the cycle of reoffending. They are also dismantling the social welfare legal aid system that is vital to ensuring access to justice for the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.
Why did you join the Labour Party?
I joined the Labour Party when I was 15. Growing up under Thatcher’s government in Tory-dominated Wandsworth Council, I could see first-hand the impact national and local Conservative policies were having on my community in Tooting. Unemployment was high, prospects for people like me, who lived on a council estate and attended a comprehensive school, were poor. It was easy to see just how much damage was being done by the under-investment in health, education, jobs and other services. The Labour Party was the strongest voice against these policies and the natural home for somebody who wanted to campaign in support of the most vulnerable in my community, making sure nobody fell through the cracks. I believe this is as true today as it was then.
What are you most proud of?
I would have to say Tooting: the constituency in which I was brought up and have the great honour to represent in Parliament. It’s an extremely vibrant community – ethnically and socially diverse, politically engaged and very community minded. Summer here is packed full of festivals, fairs and fetes, and street parties have really taken off again. There have been problems – what inner-city area doesn’t have a few? – but time and time again the community rallies around and people reach out to each other to solve them. It has played a huge role in informing my identity and I couldn’t imagine a finer place to live, raise my children or represent as an MP.
What is your top policy priority?
My priority is to develop over the next months and years a Labour justice policy programme that builds on our progress in government; which protects the public, punishes and reforms offenders, puts victims first and ultimately works to cut crime. I will continue to scrutinise, hold to account and oppose this Conservative-led government’s decisions on criminal justice which are based solely around cutting costs. They are not developing
Who is your political hero?
If I had to nominate one person it would have to be the man who inspired me to join the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock. Neil did a tremendous job in modernising and reforming our party and setting us firmly on the road to the great victory in 1997. Much has been written about his battles with Militant, but Neil was also responsible for restructuring Labour into the modern political party it is today. He is a great orator, with a fantastic wit and he has been incredibly supportive to so many Labour politicians who have come after him. His impassioned and inspirational speech about higher education in 1987 made me believe that I could go on to get a degree and, as a teenager, he inspired me to work hard and keep my aspirations high. This is a message the Labour Party must continue to deliver. Neil was the leader that attracted me to join the party and for that I will always be grateful.
What must Labour do to win the next election?
In government Labour did some fantastic things that will stand the test of time. But it was clear on the doorstep during the last general election that, though people appreciated these achievements, many were starting to forget; we weren’t giving them a strong vision of how Britain under Labour could recover from the global economic crisis and provide a brighter future for them, their families and communities. I think Ed Miliband’s vision of restoring the ‘promise of Britain’ – that each generation will be better off than the last – is an important message for our party to get across. For the first time in generations, because of this government’s policies, people are worried their children will be worse off than themselves. Labour needs to show that there is a credible and optimistic alternative and that we can provide a brighter future.
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YOUNG FABIANS
IN THE FULL EDITION
Join the Young Fabians today for only £5 and get Anticipations in full delivered to your door. For further information visit youngfabians.org.uk.
INTERVIEW
FEATURES
JOHN HEALEY
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY
by daniel bamford and johnny jhund
by jim murphy
The Shadow Health Secretary talks to the Young Fabians about social care and the future of the NHS.
The Shadow Defence Secretary argues that Britain needs a new approach to defence after the Arab Spring.
FEATURES
OPINION
REVERSING THE DECLINE
YOUNG FABIAN IDEAS
by simon latham and robert tinker
by various
Policy Network argues that bold new ideas about social democracy are needed to revive the European centre-left.
Young Fabian members share their ideas on a wide range of policy issues from Slutwalk to the future of Scotland.
STARTERS
STARTERS
POLITICAL PULSE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
by josie cluer
by various
Young Fabian Josie Cluer argues that Labour must remember political parties are about far more than their leaders.
Young Fabian members share their views on the spring edition of Anticipations, Why we must do God.
SOCIETY NEWS
ENDNOTES
YOUNG FABIANS
WHY I’M LABOUR
by various
by various
All the latest from the Young Fabians including recent activities, forthcoming events and plans for the year ahead.
Young Fabian members talk about the values and experiences that inspired them to join the Labour Party.
Join the Young Fabians at youngfabians.org.uk
and much more.... Deadline for completed ballot papers is October 22nd
For further information visit www.youngfabians.org.uk