Tony Blair memorably chose D:Ream’s ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ as his theme tune ahead of Labour’s resounding success against the Tories in the 1997 General Election.
Fast forward almost 30 years and a more appropriate signature tune for Keir Starmer would be: ‘Things can only get worse.’
This is something the new Prime Minister acknowledged himself, declaring that ‘things will get worse before they get better’.
Enduring more economic pain and hardship isn’t what people voted for. They were told they were voting for ‘change’. Not voting for things to get worse before they get better.
Keir Starmer’s speech was also littered with what have quickly become familiar refrains: ‘black holes’, ‘tough’ choices and an inherited mess from the Tories.
Frankly, people need no further reminders that the Tories broke Britain. What they need to hear is how a Labour government is going to fix it.
Starmer’s party needs to be honest about the fact that they could choose to make things better for everyone if they were bolder and braver.
Ahead of the General Election, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned the next government would need to either cut public spending or increase taxes. The Green Party was the only party willing to be truly honest with voters by setting out how public services can be protected through a fairer, greener tax system.
But we were told by Rachel Reeves during the election campaign that Labour’s spending commitments didn’t require extra funding. Now we are being told there are tough choices – and choices that have been forced upon them, such as ditching winter fuel payments for pensioners.
These ‘tough’ choices are actually political choices. Their refusal to tax wealth fairly is making them choose to hit the poorest and most vulnerable hardest while allowing the wealthiest to continue getting richer.
We need a new approach. We need different choices. Above all, we need real hope and real change.
We can generate the funds needed to nurse our NHS back to health, fix our broken care system and insulate homes to bring down both energy bills and carbon emissions. We can do so by shifting the burden away from the poorest and onto the wealthiest, which will also help tackle our cost of inequality crisis.
The Prime Minister’s speech was nothing if not contradictory. On the one hand, warning that the Government’s forthcoming Budget will be ‘painful’ and in the next breath saying that those with the ‘broadest shoulders’ will be asked to carry the heaviest burden.
The super-rich billionaires and multi-millionaires won’t feel pain from being asked to pay a 1% tax on their wealth and assets – a long held Green Party policy. Neither will they feel pain through reforming Capital Gains Tax so it aligns with the rates of income tax.
The wealthiest might not like these policies, but they won’t suffer from them. Indeed, it should be noted that the Patriotic Millionaires – a network of British millionaires – are actually campaigning for a change to the system so they pay a fair and proper contribution to society.
Yet Labour have not indicated that they are willing to properly tax the wealth of the super-rich. So when Keir Starmer warns of a painful budget in October, what he actually means is we should prepare for more public spending cuts that will affect the poorest and most vulnerable in society.
During his speech, Keir Starmer referred to the violent riots earlier this month saying they revealed a ‘deeply unhealthy society’. But the health of a society can’t be improved if it is forced to swallow the same failed medicine.
One genuinely positive antidote would be to end the scapegoating of migration and asylum seekers and for Labour to show real leadership by explaining that the problems in this country are not created by people fleeing persecution and seeking a better life, they are created by decades of underinvestment.
A fairer, greener tax system could raise tens of billions of pounds to ensure we provide the investment our communities are crying out for.
This would help create hope and unleash the goodness of people to improve their communities.
With this, things can truly start to get better.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing James.Besanvalle@metro.co.uk.
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