Labour 'Detached From The Economic Reality', Senior Party Worker Blogs On HuffPost

The Huffington Post UK  |  By Posted: 19/03/2012 14:03 Updated: 19/03/2012 14:03

Just days before the budget is announced, a senior Labour party worker at Westminster has written a blistering attack on Ed Miliband's failure to win over support from the business and financial sectors in Britain, arguing that since the 2010 general election "Labour has consistently been out of line with and detached from the economic reality."

In a blog for HuffPost UK, the disgruntled party member claims:

"It is the irresponsible reaction of our Labour opposition, of which I am a member, both to the economic crisis we face and to the strong economic legacy of our party they have shredded that will cause the most damage to this country in the long run."

Speaking to us about his blog, the Westminster insider said his post was written out of "sheer frustration", giving further weight to newspaper and blog reports last week which documented an escalating sense of turmoil and disconnect within the very heart of the Labour operation.

It confirms what many Labour insiders have been briefing for several days - that the leadership of Ed Milband and the prevailing views of party workers in Labour HQ are at odds with each other.

The blogger explains:

In recent days we have seen a coup in Labour's headquarters. The leadership sees the party as being too ‘New Labour’ and distanced from its message of public sector enlargement. And it’s the message of opposing almost every single cut that is causing the most damage to Labour’s reputation.

Last week, the newly elected general secretary, Iain McNicol, was said to be furious at the creation of new executive officers, which in effect push him to the sidelines of the leadership.

Miliband's new chief of staff, Tim Livesey, reportedly struggled with hard questions from other party workers at their soon-to-be-vacated offices in Victoria Street in Central London.

The party is moving offices to new premises in Westminster, reportedly to save money. It was confirmed that the party ran at a £1.7m loss last year - adding to existing debts approaching £10m.

Livesey reportedly admitted that Labour "has no strategy" at present, in a sign that the "blank sheet of paper" is still a long way from being filled in.

On Wednesday, Ed Miliband will have to stand at the dispatch box and deliver Labour's response to George Osborne's 2012 Budget. Labour have said they oppose the scrapping of the 50p tax rate - something widely believed to be included in the Budget statement - although from Monday's HuffPost blog, it seems not everyone is singing from the same song sheet.

On the 50p tax, for example, the party will not listen. The party has openly said that they would keep it even if this meant less money in the exchequer. I believe that this is trite populism of the worst kind, disregarding all warnings in favour of a politics of class war and jealousy, redistributing wealth from hard working squeezed families.

In short, they want to introduce a something for nothing culture and want to oppose policies that would bring stability to our ailing economy.

Read the full blog here.

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Just days before the budget is announced, a senior Labour party worker at Westminster has written a blistering attack on Ed Miliband's failure to win over support from the business and financial secto...
Just days before the budget is announced, a senior Labour party worker at Westminster has written a blistering attack on Ed Miliband's failure to win over support from the business and financial secto...
 
 
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08:06 PM on 08/29/2012
why after 20years and differerent governments are HMRC who seem to answer to no one still letting firms off of billions of pounds of tax which if they had payed would have kept us out of a recession and why did railtrak over spend by seven billion pound at reading.ian fleck
05:57 PM on 03/22/2012
Labour was in the wilderness for around 20 years (1979 to 1997) with a succession of left wing leaders. Blair realised he needed the votes of people in the south east who are middle class and not left wing to win. He also made a point of being in favour of business primarily to fund the Labour party and reduce the union influence.

It will be hard for any anti-business party to win the election as most people work for the private sector so their jobs depend on it. They are not going to vote for any anti-business party as its a vote against their own interests.
Blair knew that without business backing Labour was unelectable as all its funding was from unions who decide the policies making Labour unelectable.

The Labour brand is seen as toxic by business under Miliband see http://www.cityam.com/latest-news/voice-the-city/labour-brand-under-miliband-leadership-has-become-toxic-city

The only thing working in favour of Labour is that the two headed coalition is rudderless and not up to solving problems. However Labour also has the disadvantage of being seen as incompetent at finance (no more Tory boom and bust) by the majority of the public so it will still find it hard to win, even if it could lose the union influence.
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Mickey Mouse 1
There are no lies or deceit on a chess board.
08:01 PM on 03/20/2012
Successive governments have flooded the country with immigrants for votes. The whole lot of them: Con, Lib Dem and Lab are divorced from reality but that's little wonder since more than 400 out of 650 MP's have been done for fidlling their expenses.
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Mickey Mouse 1
There are no lies or deceit on a chess board.
07:53 PM on 03/20/2012
Detached from economic reality? Labour ran up the biggest government debt in history and then denied that cuts were needed.
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10:09 PM on 03/19/2012
It;s the leadership of this faux 'new labour' party that is detached...from it's real Labour base.

Unless and until we get a revitalised OLD Labour party back in control, we will be forever saddled with a bunch of sissy 'educated' (if we can even call them that) phonies who think that by calling themselves Labour, they will be able to emulate the politicians thagt brought Labour into the realms of government in the first place.
Kier Hardie, Clem Attlee, Nye Bevan, Bessie Braddock, Barbara Castle, Wedgewood-Benn, right up to that fateful day when Blair got his hands on the steering wheel.and diverted Labour onto a road with only a dead end.

All that's left with any hopes, but his time is short is the Beast of Bolsover, dennis Skinner, he at least keeps giving Cameron, Clegg, and yes I would suggest even Milliband, recurring nightmares.
06:22 PM on 03/19/2012
They got a fool for a leader! with no dreams or conviction to better the public.
They roll over and play puppy for the Tory boys to ride doggy style!

Power to the people!
northern git
fed up with all the political crap in life
04:18 PM on 03/19/2012
Did not need a senior party worker to tell us that about labout.

the same goes for the tories and lib dems

and we did not need to be told that either

and they are not in touch with any of our realities
03:35 PM on 03/19/2012
The current flock of Labour MPs seem to forget that some of us do remember that they were in power not that long ago and not only did they do probably the worst job for many a year, they surrendered there integrity to the banks and let them cut their own detail in oreder to borrow borrow and borrow more. At this time the shadow labour party are certainly NOT a viable alternative Government, with there constant knee jerk reactions to introducing policy and a (seemingly) total reluctance to accept the dire straights this country is now in. The Tories with there Lib Dem hangers on are starting to lose the plot and this is the time the Labour Party needs to become a modern, strong and reliable party who are not afraid to take the bull by the horns and be prepared to lose some popularity in order to make some needed big descisons (economy, cuts and benefits) but methinks until millband goes nothing wil change.
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Dombeyandson
04:10 PM on 03/19/2012
And you think this lot are? At least Labour haven't threatened to sell off the UK piecemeal. Join the IG SOCIET and make a bid to run the country
04:25 PM on 03/19/2012
Methinks you need to re read my post, where does it state that i think the Tories are doing a good job? Christ how hard is it to interperate and read a posted comment......!!!
03:22 PM on 03/19/2012
could you ever trust this party with your vote again. NOT LIKELY
02:45 PM on 03/19/2012
I am going to only comment on one aspect of this, the 50p rate.

Yes I agree that those with higher incomes should contribute more to society, and yes I do agree that taxation is one route, but ....

Evidence is showing that this tax cost more to collect and administer, than it raises in tax, thus a nett loss to US (Yes me and you)!

So why would a party want to keep something that cost us, rather than benefits us! Sorry but I object to my taxes being used to fund this.

Nuff said, I'll now wait for the flak to hit!
northern git
fed up with all the political crap in life
04:28 PM on 03/19/2012
I just wonder about the reliability of the evidence that is supposed to support the claim it costs more to collect.

If you need to collect it badly enough and we do then you increase the efficiency of collection not make it easier to collect by reducing it.

I am not sure it costs us, as you put it. The civil service is big enough to collect it just not effective in the collecting
08:09 PM on 03/19/2012
northern git - the reality is many of the people who would be paying it have re organised their financial affairs to avoid paying it and as a result many are paying even less than they were before as they are shown ways to minimise their overall tax liability .

If you push tax above 40% those affected seek to ameliorate their position - of the 300000 in the UK who earn over £150K a year 90% are in the private sector and can easily reorganise their remuneration to avoid being caught by the 50% rate - so only a very small number in the public sector are caught by it and even some of them can avoid it .

It may be good politics but is very bad economics - when it comes to tax " Stay and pay " beats " Get off tax free " any day !!!!
07:53 PM on 03/19/2012
Well said. It's common sense to scrap it, which is why no party will. They are all, to put it bluntly, thick as planks.