All of a piece with the policies of attrition the government has pursued from the day they entered parliament it is no surprise to see the slogan over the front of the conference centre in Manchester – FOR HARDWORKING PEOPLE. What may have escaped peoples notice is the appalling similarity between that and the sign that was put above the gates of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps – ARBEIT MACHT FREI – Work sets you free. The similarity is no accident as conferences are meticulously planned and executed. This is not an unfortunate mistake, it is deliberate and is a theme that Eric Pickles has used in promoting the Equity Loan scheme – ‘Delivering new homes for hard-working people’ (1).
Before anyone raises the spectre of Godwin’s Law, this law is specific to frivolous comparisons to the Nazis such as, ‘I was given a ticket by a traffic warden today – Nazi!’ It closes the argument because it is frivolous. When one makes comparisons in policy which are real and present and of serious concern, then Godwin’s Law does not apply because we should learn from history and if we do not then we are really rather foolish.
Party political conferences are no more than window dressing and contain all the glam and glitz one would expect of a well dressed and well planned shop window and are designed to attract punters. As such they should be approached with caution, buyer beware. The simple fact is that a spade is still a spade no matter how it is dressed up or promoted.
This Tory conference inManchesteris a crucial conference and, as such, it should be treated with the utmost caution. Speeches have been worked and reworked, scrutinised and amended to present the very best advertisement they can possibly contrive for both the speaker and the party. I use the word advertisement advisedly, because as entertaining and attractive as an advertisement is, or ought to be, in the end it is there to gull you into engagement because the company wants your money, just as political parties want your vote. As such, they are not to be trusted.
For many years now I have avoided watching or listening to party political conference speeches because you see and hear what the speakers want you to see or hear. I read the speech transcripts, thus avoiding all the inflections and mannerisms of speech makers and giving myself a chance to absorb and address the content. In these days of celebrity and the promotion of the self, from which politics is not free, it is important to reject this in order to find the substance.
Politics should, above all, be engaged with thoughtfully, which all too often it is not. It is much more than voting for the party which seems to offer the best personal deal as if it is merely some consumer product. Politics has far more to do with the structure of the world in which we live and on which the quality of our personal life depends, if we focus on the broader issues then the personal will gain more overall improvement than if we pursue politics purely for personal advantage.
To get back to that slogan – FOR HARDWORKING PEOPLE – the question that immediately arises is what about everyone else, the sick, the elderly, the disabled, the disadvantaged and those who live in deprived circumstances? As we have already discovered, the Tories have been waging a war against the very poorest and most disadvantaged in society and they are setting the stage for that to escalate and continue.
As I write Osborne has just delivered his conference speech.
“George Osborne has unveiled a major benefits clampdown that could affect hundreds of thousands of claimants currently going through the coalition’s flagship ‘Work Programme’.
The Chancellor says the new ‘Help To Work’ scheme, which comes into effect from next April, would force welfare claimants who have been unemployed for up to three years to either do 30 hours a week of unpaid community work, report to a job centre daily or undergo intensive treatment (My italics) to tackle underlying problems like illiteracy or mental illness.” (2)
The reason this conference is so crucial is because the government’s austerity plan and their war against the poor is going to be escalated beyond imagining. No matter how rousing or polished the performances there are very dark days ahead and unless we pay attention and act now the future is going to be very bleak indeed.
(1) https://www.gov.uk/government/news/eric-pickles-delivering-new-homes-for-hard-working-people
(2) https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/09/30/workfare-george-osborne_n_4015312.html
Keith Lindsay-Cameron
