THE LIBERAL Democrats launched their Euro 2004 election bid on an anti-war
ticket. What a rip-off! Polls show around half of voters oppose the war on
Iraq. Support for Labour amongst Britain’s Muslims has halved from 75% at the
last general election to 38% now.
Alistair Tice
Most of these voters have turned to the Lib-Dems who are up from 10% to 36%
amongst Muslims. So the Lib-Dems are appealing to voters to "punish Blair"
over Iraq in the European elections.
The Lib-Dems are perceived as anti-war, an image enhanced by the Stop The
War Coalition giving their leader Charles Kennedy a platform (in a personal
capacity) at last year’s 15 February demonstration of two million protesters.
But Kennedy did NOT oppose the war. He just wanted it covered by a second
United Nations resolution. On their party web-site, he said the Lib-Dems were
"not the all out anti-war party". When the bombing started, he said "now is
the time for silence." Deafening opposition! One year on, they support the
occupation, only calling for a parliamentary vote on whether more British
troops should be deployed.
This opportunist pseudo-radicalism on Iraq belies a marked shift to the
right by the Lib-Dems over the last two or three years.
Giving up
Since giving up, for now, on the Lib-Lab coalition project, the Lib-Dems
have sought to replace the Tories as the main opposition party to New Labour.
80% of their target seats for the next general election are Tory-held. So to
refute "tax and spend" accusations and woo Tory voters the Lib-Dems have moved
right.
Even according to one of their own peers, Lord Greaves, recently promoted
MPs are "pseudo-Blairites". Vince Cable, now Treasury spokesperson, was former
chief economist at Shell, and advisor David Laws is a millionaire former
banker! They are another party of big business.
A recent party statement boasted that "Liberal Democrats start with a bias
in favour of market solutions." This was reflected in their Alternative Budget
proposals which included £5 billion ‘savings’ to be made through cuts and
privatisation.
They backed the Gershon report which will lead to tens of thousands of
public sector jobs being slashed. In one of the most de-regulated economies in
the industrialised world, the Lib-Dems want to "cut red tape and set business
free from unnecessary burdens."
They say above-inflation increases in the minimum wage are unaffordable and
that there should be compulsory arbitration in industrial disputes in
strategic sectors of the economy and essential public services. Bad news for
the low-paid and trade unionists.
Privatisation fans
NOT TO be outdone by New Labour or the Tories, the Lib-Dems have gone
privatisation-mad as well. With not much left to sell-off, they’ve identified
the Royal Mint, the Defence Export Services Organisation, motorway service
station assets and the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre!
They’re even back-tracking on their most popular policies. Scrapping
tuition fees and the abolition of personal care charges for the elderly in
long-term care were to be funded by a 50p top-rate tax on high income earners
over £100,000 a year.
This 50% tax rate has now been ‘refined’ to include national insurance and
local income tax (the Lib-Dems’ replacement for council tax), so making very
little difference to the current top tax rates and blunting its redistributive
effect.
Dropped promises
Even on the council tax which the Lib-Dems want to abolish, they’ve dropped
their earlier promise to cut all bills by £100 a year. And this year, it was
Lib-Dem controlled councils that put council tax up the most – on average
6.4%.
Launching their local election campaign the Lib-Dems did not present a
national manifesto, claiming their support for ‘localism’. This is just a
cover for their electoral opportunism.
For example, Lib-Dems in Manchester supported a new runway at the Airport
(jobs) while Lib-Dems in Stockport (under the flight path) opposed the same
runway! Lib-Dems in Sheffield support a new bigger incinerator (in fact they
privatised it!) whilst in Hull they campaigned against an incinerator.
Even on Europe, where the Lib-Dems have been distinctive in their support
for the EU, integration and the Euro, their shadow chancellor Vince Cable
recently argued that Brussels has got too big for its boots and that social
and environmental policy should be repatriated to the member states. Clearly,
the Lib-Dems will face both ways if they think there are votes in it!
Indeed, after their 29% swing by-election victory in Brent East last
September, Charles Kennedy attacked "the lazy short-hand of the Left-Right
slide-rule. The notion is a hangover from 20th century politics…" This
echoed Blair’s earlier laments about "tribal politics". Both their attempts to
free themselves from the realities of the class struggle and be ‘pragmatic’
will end in failure.
The Lib-Dems are just another neo-liberal capitalist party. They have the
luxury of "radicalism" that comes from being in opposition. They have no
principles other than to get into power, and once there, as we’ve seen in
Sheffield and other councils, they carry out the same Tory policies of cuts
and privatisation as New Labour.
