Editorial: ILLUSION AND REALITY – WHAT DO LEADER’S SPEECHES REALLY MEAN?

By Ken Ferguson

This Voice is publishing only a matter of days before the contents of the Burnham Labour government’s budget is due to be revealed in the House of Commons .

This after a summer of left rhetoric aiming to frame it as a break not only with the deeply unpopular Keir Starmer but the 40 years of Neo liberalism ushered in by Thatcher.

The apex of this well honed sales pitch came last month in Burnham’s emotional speech to Labour’s Liverpool conference which had as its central theme  not only a condemnation of the failures of the past but a shimmering suggestion that this was a government bent on change.

October the 28th’s budget–close at hand–will be a defining moment which will test the reality behind the “change” sloganising and in the Voice’s view the omens in mounting media report and speeches are not good.

Before examining the outlook it is worth recalling that the messenger of change and condemnation of the past- Premier Burnham – was not only an active participant in that past as a government minister but was silent when it was criticised.

Politician’s past may not condemn their present but they surely offer a basis on which to judge their likely direction in utilising power in the present.

More alarming however for the many progressive voters yearning for the change so tantalisingly dangled by the Liverpool speech is the growing volume of reports of ‘it is understood’ briefings and ever constant bosses lobbying pointing to Labour’s intention to present a pro bosses budget.

Indeed we don’t have to hunt far for confirmation of this turn in obscure reports –it has been confirmed by none other than the Prime Minister himself writing in, among others the bible of big business the Financial Times.

Splashed on the front page Burnham vows to run what he describes as “The most pro business government in the world” , surely a sentiment  to have the speculators and bankers purring with delight.

And an early pre budget confirmation–again from shadowy ‘well informed’ sources–that Chancellor Healey has rejected proposals to levy tax on capital gains at the same level as income tax. This means workers for wages will continue to pay more tax than those earning through dividends.

The dire state of the UK economy with hoopla and cheers for a growth rate of 0.1% casts further doubts on the central core of the Labour government’s that social advance will be paid for by economic growth.

This has been described by one leading banker as like ‘winning a slow bicycle raise when the rest are going backwards’.

And of course these figure can’t take account of the ongoing impact on essentials such as fertiliser thus rising food costs and the impact of imperialism’s wars on world trade.

Nor the gathering concerns that the immense AI investment boom is about to bust with economic consequences making the famous Wall Street Crash look like a mere blip.

We are about to find out what is rhetoric and what reality but one constant remains in all colours of Westminster governments; a blind loyalty to the military and determination to spend on it.

Without a hint of irony this was underlined in the unprecedented military guard of honour laid on in the Downing Street for Ukraine’s Zelensky where, casting austerity to the winds, he was promised more military hardware as Trump pulls back from the war.

That the guard of honour was provided by Irish Guards and the promised missiles are made in Belfast surely speaks volumes about that contested land.

We can be sure that whatever else emerges from Healey’s red box war spending will remain a sacred cow for Labour as it presses ahead with its programme of re-industrialism through arms spending.

Indeed as we go to press reports emerge that that the former chemical plant at Mossmorran in Fife is to convert to manufacturing military high explosive as an early example of Labour’s jobs through war plans.

Elsewhere in this Voice we look at the implications of the SNP conference in Aberdeen but it looks very much as the latest in the stage managed spin events beloved of that party’s leadership with their much hyped “campaign” to boost independence they claim as the biggest since 2014.

The reality is , of course, that this amount to little more than a mass email and day of action on St Andrews day and will have little impact on the fact that SNP support is at 38% and independence 52% and how best to mobilise for a referendum and then a Yes vote.

This task will not be made any easier as the SNP presses ahead with plans to sack 20,000 public sector workers  as their ears ring with warnings of strike action in opposition to sackings.

The long standing SNP mantra of social partnership has already taken a major knock when its Glasgow councillors–in shameful alliance with supposedly left Green colleagues–attempted to impose  infamous fire and rehire sackings on their work force.

Faced with with a hurricane of protest fire and rehire was hastily dropped after a panicky intervention by the Scottish Government but it has proved damaging to both SNP and Greens.

What is clear  is that if the economic, social and democratic demands from poverty pay to independence are to be resolved then a movement involving trade unionists, tenants, campaigners  and Scotland’s working class majority needs to be built to press both governments into action.