Looking forward from the elections: towards a new left movement

John Smith-Cohen suggests some policies he would like to see the party adopt

Be clear, the relative success of Ukip in the European elections of May 2014 must be seen as an opportunity, not a problem. While that party has undoubtedly hoovered up the failing support of the BNP and while it also houses those obsessed with the state of the European Union, it also saw a raft of far softer voters.

Many of those are voicing concerns over issues which Unity must and can address. Those voters should be addressed with respect.

Unity must be the party of housing – commit to an achievable building programme.
Unity must target underachieving rural and regional schools.
Unity must be the party of the health service – more beds, more doctors, more nurses, less crowding.
Unity must present a consistent message on the complex effects of immigration on pay and employment.
Unity must be a party of aspiration – offer greater hope on pay and services for ordinary people.
Unity must attack neo-liberalism at an EU level – we can’t renationalise the railways but EDF can buy our grid. How so?

Unity must be the first left party to dispense with rhetorical baggage from days gone by – if protests, banners and saying `comrade` worked, we’d live in paradise.

Unity must be the party of housing. We must address concerns on housing in a pragmatic way which takes into account the existing market in rental and sales. There must be house building in the UK, whether it is on brownfield sites or greenfield. It has to happen to bring down prices – for sales and rental – in marginal areas. Some of that housing should be social housing, some private, some with housing associations.

We must commit to an achievable target of house building. We should look to dampen to buy to let rental sector by cutting existing tax benefits to buy to let landlords. We should look to place a maximum level of buy to let mortgage ownerships.

We must increase penalties for rogue landlords. Landlords who submit tenants to inhumane conditions must see penalties – fines or jail time – which will deter them from letting this happen.

Unity must be the party which targets underachieving rural, regional and suburban schools. The political will has existed in London and other major cities for over a decade, to transform state schools into – broadly speaking – decent, well performing educational establishments. Obviously, undoubtedly, this should not be lost.

But Unity should talk directly to parents of children in suburban, rural and regional settings to target those schools which have been forgotten and too often left behind.

We must also be the party which says we will change faith schools into state schools. We must be the party which says private schools can no longer be registered as charities.

Unity must be the party of the health service. It is complex. We cannot pretend otherwise. We cannot make rash promises we cannot cost. The health service is so large and costly, so prone to constant reform, we must tread carefully.

But Unity must scrap the Labour decree which allowed GPs to opt out of home visits which has seen an increased burden on hospital A&E departments, often patients’ first port of call.

Take advice from groups such as the New Economics Foundation to find ways to cut costs in order to provide what people generally want from hospitals, more beds, more nurses, more doctors.

We must be the party which says we will create spare capacity in the NHS in order to make it work efficiently.

Unity must present a different narrative on the combination of immigration, pay and employment. We must not talk to people who are blanket racists or xenophobes. Leave them to rot. But much of the talk on immigration is centred around its effect on pay levels and job availability. We must be able to articulate a different, consistent message.

No country can have unlimited immigration, that is true. We cannot all move to Belgium. But the idea that everyone in the EU wants to move to the UK is false, patently so.

The effects of immigration on pay are generally four fold: it is highly industry specific and highly regional specific. It hits the poorest 10pc of employees in that industry. Its effects are temporary. So we must acknowledge that. But we have to point out the size of the effect, in general wages are hit less than 5pc, and only for a limited time. We must re-iterate the complexity of the subject.

Far bigger effects on pay – way higher than immigration – are the effects of the financial crisis throwing people on the dole or seeing wage cuts to keep businesses alive. Far bigger effects on pay – way higher than immigration – has been the 35 year policy of structural or natural unemployment levels. Far bigger effects on pay – way higher than immigration – are the erosion of rights for employees, zero hours contracts, illegal employers, employers paying below the minimum wage.

We must be the party which boosts the minimum wage and penalties for those employers, fines and jail time.

Unity must be the party of aspiration. For too long parties and groups on the left have failed to tap into popular aspirations. Notably for wage earners and savers.

Therefore Unity must be the party with the highest threshold for a 45p tax rate, say £155,000/yr. If we say we want to keep a 45pc tax rate we should post that level higher than any other party. We should step into their territory with both feet. No one will be able to say we subscribe to the tiresome lie about the `politics of envy`.

Because then we can argue it is Unity who will allow working people to aspire to higher wages. But on top of the 45pc rate and threshold we should introduce other income tax levels. 50pc, 60pc, and 80pc at £1mn/yr.

We must allow the National Savings bank to offer interest rates below other banks, and savings rates above other banks. Why should the state bank have its hands tied by legislation which allows private banks to lend money at a more preferable rate?

We must restore the index linked state pension. We must introduce a maximum interest rate charge.