A vision for the future

I was delighted to discover yesterday that the Conservative Party, for once in my life, shares my vision for the future. The Prime Minister gave a speech to the virtual Conservative Party Conference, during which he espoused the view that we could not return to the old status quo after this crisis ends, that we must build a better future. As is his (extremely tedious) wont, he harked back to the second world war, and to how we worked together through the dark times, and rebuilt the country in the immediate post-war years, having defeated the filthy Boche etc etc. This is his vision - that we emulate the leadership and outcomes of the war-time and post-war years.

I'm sure a man with such a solid grasp of history, with the aid of all those splendid statues around the country teaching us our splendid history, will have recalled the salient features of the governance of this country during, and immediately following, the war. But for those of you who perhaps haven't remembered the details of how the country was run during, and restructured after, the last massive crisis to face us, here's a summary.

During the war, we had a government of national unity, not a Conservative government.

In the 1945 General Election, the Labour Party swept to power in a landslide, gaining 237 seats and utterly trouncing the Conservatives under Churchill. Clement Attlee was seen as more competent to lead the country outside wartime, and better suited to avoiding a return to the mass unemployment seen under the Conservatives in the 1930s. 

Under the Labour government, led by Attlee, the National Health Service was formed. 

Under the Labour government, National Insurance was introduced, leading to universal access to pensions, sickness benefit, unemployment benefit, funeral benefit and child benefit. 

Under the Labour government, a  million new homes were built, of which 80% were council houses. 

Under the Labour government, the rights and protections of women and children were extended under the Married Women (Restraint Upon Anticipation) Act of 1949, the Married Women (Maintenance) Act of 1949, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 1950 and the Criminal Justice Act of 1948, among others. 

Under the Labour government, the Fair Wages Resolution of 1946 protected the wages of those engaged in working on public projects, while the Shops Act of 1950 ensured that shop workers couldn't be forced to work more than 6 hours without a break, and that all were entitled to a lunch break. Then there was the Fire Services Act 1947, the Electricity Act of 1947, the Workers' Compensation (Supplementation) Act of 1948, the Merchant Shipping Act of 1948, the Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act of 1949, a Miner's Charter in 1946, a Colliery Workers Supplementary Scheme in 1948 and the creation of an Agricultural Wages Board in 1948, among a whole host of others, all of which were designed to protect the rights, safety, health and pay of ordinary working men and women.

Are you getting the picture yet? 

It was a socialist government that looked after the best interests of the working people of this country. It was a socialist government that gave us the NHS, state pensions, unemployment benefits and workers rights.

It is a Conservative government that has seen the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. It is a Conservative government that has seen money pour out of the exchequer, not into education, or healthcare, or social care, or employment protection, but into the pockets of management consultants trying to handle the shitshow that is a Tory Brexit. Into the pockets of Tory chums who fail to provide a functioning test, track and trace system during a global pandemic. Into the pockets of Conservative party donors who can't make functioning ventilators. Into the pockets of friends of Special Advisors who don't provide the PPE they're contracted to provide. All without public tender, and all without Parliamentary scrutiny.

So, yes please, Mr Johnson, I'll take your vision of the future. I'll take a government of national unity, followed by a socialist landslide in which we return to being led by men and women who want to lift the people up, not those who want only to feather their own nests. If you see yourself as Churchillian, Mr Johnson, I'll take Keir Starmer as Attlee, and let's get going towards 1945.