10 years of Labour
by Robert Ferguson
The past 10 years has seen real progress in key policy areas and we as party members and supporters should be much more prepared to make this point.
Our Government has achieved an unprecedented period of sustained economic stability, with low interest rates, low inflation and consistent economic growth. Moreover this has been achieved during a period of the highest employment rates in history and the lowest unemployment rates for a generation. More has been done to help the unemployed find work through the New Deal and New Deal for Young People. More has been done for the low paid with the National Minimum Wage putting an end to sweated labour, and these policies have helped to lift hundreds of thousands of women and children out of poverty.
For the first time in over two decades the government has pledged to reinstate the link between the basic state pension and average earnings. Not only this, but the state pension is higher now than it would have been had the link been reintroduced in 1997.
Almost two decades of chronic underfunding in the NHS has been corrected helping to raise UK health spending up to the level of other developed countries. This massive investment has paid for an extra 32,000 doctors and 85,000 more nurses and has seen waiting lists for operations slashed and cancer deaths fall by 12%.
The Government's record on education is formidable. In 1997 in over 600 schools 25% of pupils failed to achieve 5 grade Cs or better at GCSE. That figure is not just 47. Sustained investment in our schools has seen real improvement in results. After years in which the infrastructure was left to crumble, the Government has created the largest programme of school building renewal in history. The generation of children leaving school under a Labour Government are more likely to be able to read and write well, to have earned real qualifications which employers value, to enter into higher education, and to achieve their full potential than any generation which has gone before.
Crime has fallen too by 35% since 1997, having steadily risen for much of the previous 18 years. More police officers and a fairer more inclusive society has been the driving force behind this fall.
A great deal has been achieved to make Britain the sort of aspirational society where it is possible for anyone to achieve their full potential, but the Government cannot rest on its laurels and the new Prime Minister must make his case to take Britain forward; to learn from the mistakes and to build on the successes.
Making the case for Labour for the next decade
The problems we face in this country today are not the same as those the new Labour Government faced 10 years ago. We have in a sense become victims of our own success; a generation that has forgotten what it was like to live in a discontented society of two million unemployed, double digit inflation and interest rates, housing price crashes, 18 month waiting lists, class sizes over 30 and sometimes over 35.
The problems we face now are born of aspiration. We expect more from our politicians than ever before and yet believe them to be less honest. We want more from our jobs than good pay, and yet few of us feel we can afford to consider our 'work-life balance'. We all want to live in vibrant local communities and yet fewer of us know our neighbours.
These are extremely complex issues to resolve and we should not pretend that the solutions can be arrived at overnight. However this Government is best placed to address them and the solution must be the empowerment of local communities and re-engagement with the democratic process of those who feel that it has nothing to offer them.
Furthermore this shift in power and accountability must be accompanied by greater resolution and a firm belief that we can win a fourth term by selling Labour as Labour, presenting our values and policies as they are and not as we believe they need to be heard. Rather than ceding ground to the right wing press and adopting conservative rhetoric, we must be prepared to make the case for policies which reflect our view of human nature and give people the credit they deserve, if we want them to give Government the credit it deserves.
As a party locally and nationally we can and must work towards forging stronger ties with the people we represent. This is, I believe key to restoring trust in politicians and reasserting the relevance of politics in people's lives. Further it is key to a Labour Government winning an unprecedented fourth term.
50 top achievements
We have achieved a lot since 1997 and it's easy to forget some of the things this Government has done that are taken for granted. This is why I decided we should list some of our greatest achievements in government. Think about how some of these things affect your life today.
- Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s
- Low mortgage rates
- Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.35
- Record police numbers in England, Scotland and Wales
- Best-ever primary school results
- Funding for every pupil in England to double by 2008
- Employment is at its highest level ever
- Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries
- 85,000 more nurses
- 32,000 more doctors
- Brought back matrons to hospital wards
- Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament
- Devolved power to Welsh Assembly
- Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time
- NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice
- Gift aid was worth £625 million to charities last year
- Restored city-wide government to London
- Record number of students in higher education
- Child benefit up 25 per cent since 1997
- Created Sure Start to help children from low income households
- Introduced the Disability Rights Commission
- £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & extra £100 for over-80s
- On course to exceed Kyoto target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2010
- Negotiated the historic Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland
- Over 30,000 more teachers in England schools
- All workers now have a right to 4 weeks’ paid holiday
- A million pensioners lifted out of relative poverty
- 800,000 children lifted out of relative poverty
- Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents
- Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships
- Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard
- Free school milk for five, six and seven-year-olds in Wales
- Banned fox hunting
- Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since the industrial revolution
- Free TV licences for over-75s
- Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals
- Waiting times for operations halved
- Free local bus travel for over-60s
- New Deal - helped over a million people into work
- Over 1.5 million child trust funds have been started
- Free eye test for over 60s
- Five, six and seven year olds in class sizes of 30 or less
- Free entry to national museums and galleries
- Overseas aid budget more than doubled
- Cancer death rates down by 12 per cent, saving 43,000 lives
- Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent
- Free nursery places for three and four-year-olds in England, Scotland and Wales
- Free fruit for all four to six-year-olds at school
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