The problem with the four candidates is the lack of broad workplace experience compounded by a lack of vision. Clem Attlee in his election broadcast on the 5th June 1945 said, “The men and women of this country….need good homes, sufficient food, clothing and the amenities of life, employment and leisure and social provision for accident, sickness and old age. For their children they desire an educational system that will give them the chance to develop all their faculties”. None of the candidates have advanced an explicit vision that address’s the problems caused by successive governments of every political stripe. A vision that would lead to:
A programme of reindustrialisation ensuring a balanced economic structure with a healthy, burgeoning manufacturing sector.
An education system that is so good why would you want to send your children to a public school?
A National Health Service that gets back to being just that; it may well use the spare capacity of the private sector but gets rid of the twaddle of internal markets and ensures resources are directed to the front line.
An end to the housing scandal where people are being priced out of the housing market.
An action programme that creates social responsibility and destroys the welfare dependency culture in a fair and equitable way, whilst continuing to maintain a safety net so that further privations are not heaped upon the poor.
Enact these priorities then issues such as equality and fairness fall into place. Instead of a compelling vision we have Labour Party politicians,who in Harold Wilson’s comment on Tony Wedgwood Benn, “immature with age”.