Remember the Ides of March

Ides of March – the midpoint of the third month, made famous by the killing of the dictator, Julius Caesar. Many in the past have glorified Caesar as a great military campaigner, and glamorised him as a charismatic leader who knew just how to get people on side.

However, the more historians have uncovered about his brutality, not just in slaughtering those who sought to resist Roman conquest, but in destroying fellow Romans who tried to prevent him from amassing absolute power, the more he is seen as the ruthless manipulator he truly was. 

By the time Caesar emerged as a politician in 69 BC, Rome had put an end to the kingly rule for over four centuries. Instead, power was shared with the people through elected public officials. No one person could have the power to dictate to others, except in times of emergency when that was necessary to have one decision-maker to take control, but even then, the arrangement was strictly time-limited and the person entrusted with that power was still ultimately accountable to the senate. 

But Caesar wanted to have the power of a king, to be able to impose his will on everyone else with no check or balance. To achieve that, he knew he had to dismantle the Roman system of power sharing and public accountability. Others such as Cato the Younger, Cassius, and Brutus knew that too, and they came to realise that Caesar must be stopped from taking ever more power to control the country.

Alas, Caesar had been able to sway more and more senators to back him, stir up mobs to ensure public expression of support favour him, and command battle-hardened troops to defeat those who opposed him. When the desperate act of assassination came on 15 March, 44 BC, it was too late. The Roman republic was disintegrating. The power to rule had been so twisted that kingly control by any name had established itself. It did not take long for Caesar’s adopted son, Octavius, to rid himself of his one-time allies, Lepidus and Mark Antony, and reign supreme as Augustus Caesar. Following him, the absolute power to rule would always be vested in (or seized by) one man who would be addressed reverentially by all other Romans as Caesar.

Anyone wondering why having one person with absolute power is so bad may reflect for a moment on the names of Caesars such as Nero, Caligula, Commodus, and their notorious cruelty, incompetence, wastefulness, and depravity. In a republic, a poor leader has to step down if they lack electoral support. Under a Caesar, you protest in vain and still risk being executed.

Many US Republicans, contrary to the name of their party, are yearning for their own Caesar – someone who will wield power without ‘liberal’ constraints, control the judicial system with his own acolytes, hunt down his political enemies, invoke election results only when they are in his favour.  They may yet get their wish.

Except the Caesar they end up with may well be in the mould of a Nero or Caligula.

Love Labour’s Facts

If you know anything about politics, it can’t be easy to keep hearing people say things like “politicians are all the same”, or “I can’t see any difference between these parties”. But instead of shaking your head in disbelief, try sharing a few observations. Calmly, sincerely, point to a few facts which will illustrate what having different political parties in power can really mean to our lives.

Here's one list I’ve put together comparing the Labour Party with the Conservatives in the UK.  You may want to add/adapt for your own use (a similar exercise can be done comparing the Democrats and Republicans in the US, and for political rivals in other countries): 

Crime

After the Conservatives gained power in 2010, central government funding for policing was in eight years cut by 20% in real terms, resulting in the closure of 600 out of 900 police stations in England – with London particularly hit hard with the number of police stations falling from 153 in 2010 to just 45 in 2018 [Note 1]. Not surprisingly, while recorded crime in England and Wales fell by 8.7% under the previous Labour Government (1997-2010), under the Tories it shot up by 59.5% from 4.2 million to 6.7 million (2010-23) [Note 2].

Homes

Labour’s commitment to develop social housing and reduce homelessness was not shared by the Conservatives. The Tory approach is more reflected by their Housing Minister who sought to help one of their donors avoid tax in the development of a luxury housing scheme [Note 3], while support for the building of social rented homes was radically cut. In 2010/11, nearly 36,000 social rented homes were started in England. But funding cuts introduced by the Conservatives meant that a year later the number was reduced by a staggering 91.6% to just over 3,000 [Note 4]. By 2021/22, factoring the selling off/demolishing of social homes, there was a net loss of 14,100 social homes in England, with 1.2 million households in 2023 stuck on waiting lists (a rise of 5% over the previous two years) [Note: 5]. In the meantime, homelessness across the UK has increased by 74% from when the Tories took power in 2010 to 2023 [Note 6]. 

Children

The last Labour Government gave the country the Sure Start programme to help parents and children. Independent research found that access to Sure Start services led to better social development and behaviour for children, and less negative parenting and more supportive home-learning environment for families [Note 7]. When the Conservatives took power in 2010, one of their first decisions was to cut Sure Start support for children in their critical formative years, and it resulted in the closure of 1,416 Sure Start centres in England [Note 8]. 

Health

The National Health Service was established by a Labour government in 1948. According to the independent National Centre for Social Research, it achieved its highest ever level of public satisfaction (70%) when Labour was last in power in 2010. Under the Tories, with their haphazard organisational changes and perennial underfunding of the NHS, satisfaction had by 2022 dropped to 30%.  On the measure of people expressing dissatisfaction, the worst ever record of over 50% came under the Conservative Government (in 2022). Worth noting that the last time dissatisfaction with the NHS reached the 50% mark also came under the Tories – in 1997 before they lost power to Labour [Note 9]. Even so-called ‘moderate’ Tories have advocated a move to a health insurance system which in the case of the US, has led to many left unable to pay the insurance premiums, and countless being routinely denied vital treatment and medication because private insurance companies reject their claims [Note 10].

Reducing the National Debt

Despite endless attempts to suggest otherwise, the facts are unmistakable: Labour in government consistently brings down the national debt better than the Conservatives. When the figures over all the time they are in office respectively are taken into account, and the average is calculated to make for a fair comparison, Labour borrows less than the Conservatives. In other words, it is the Conservatives, not Labour, who add most to the national debt. Furthermore, Labour has always repaid more debt, more often than the Conservatives. This holds true regardless if the figures after the 2008 global financial crisis were included or not [Note 11]. 

Tackling Corruption

Why should anyone think Conservative politicians are more corrupt than those in other parties? 16 MPs were found to have claimed for rent in London on their expenses while earning money by letting out their London homes – 14 of them were Conservatives. During the Covid pandemic, health-related contracts were handed by the Conservative Government to 15 firms that were connected with millions of pounds donated to the Conservative Party. These firms were given over a billion pounds in government contracts, even though some of them had no track record in providing what was being ordered [Note 12]. And between 2010 and 2019, Tory politicians received over £3.5m from wealthy Russian funders [Note 13]. 

Investing in Infrastructure

After years of cuts by the Conservatives under Thatcher, the Labour Government of 1997-2010 made it a priority to renovate public infrastructure – including school buildings. Its final phase included the £55 billion Building Better Schools for the Future programme. However, when the Conservatives regained power in 2010, it swiftly abolished the programme. School buildings were once again being neglected for lack of funding. In 2023, more than 100 schools and colleges were told by the Conservative Government to fully or partially shut buildings due to the non-replacement of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), as it could lead to structural instability and building collapse [Note 14]. 

Handling Global Crises

When the 2008 global financial crisis hit the UK, the Labour Government responded swiftly to protect the economy and steer towards recovery. While the UK’s GDP dropped by 0.15% in 2008, Labour’s actions brought economic growth up to 2.43% by 2010 [Note 15]. Then the Tories came in, ignored the fact that the financial crisis was caused by excessive banking deregulation driven by ‘free market’ Thatcherites and US Republicans which led to irresponsible lending worldwide, and focused instead on austerity policies that stifled economic growth. When it was the Conservatives’ turn to have to deal with a global crisis (Covid-19), it performed poorly – in 2020, UK’s real GDP fell by around 10%, worse than most other developed countries [Note 16]; while excess deaths in the UK (from January 2020 to June 2021) were higher than in most West European and high-income countries [Note 17]. 

Local Government 

Labour in power supported local government with reliable funding, neighbourhood management, and local regeneration. After the Conservatives took charge in 2010, central government funding for local authorities fell in real terms by over 50% between 2010–11 and 2020–21 [Note 18]. This has led to severe cuts to services across the board – environmental protection, social services, library, education, road maintenance, housing – and one in five council leaders have expressed concerns that their councils will go bankrupt by 2025 [Note 19]. 

The Voluntary Sector

The voluntary and community sector was well supported by the Labour Government with dedicated programmes such as Active Community, Together We Can, Take Part, Guide Neighbourhoods, and Empowerment Partnerships. From 2010, the Conservative Government ended all these programmes, cut support for numerous groups that served their communities, and terminated funding which resulted in the closure of over 1,000 national and local infrastructure organisations that provided crucial support to countless other groups in the sector [Note 20]. 

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NOTES

Note 1: Josiah Mortimer, Byline Times, 18 April 2023: 

https://bylinetimes.com/2023/04/18/hundreds-of-police-stations-have-shut-under-the-conservatives-at-a-cost-of-rising-crime/

Note 2: Crime Statistics, Ministry of Justice: Recorded crime under Labour fell from 4.6 million to 4.2 million: https://data.justice.gov.uk/cjs-statistics/cjs-crime

Note 3: Jon Stone, 22 July 2020, The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/robert-jenrick-richard-desmond-housing-tory-donor-westferry-a9631876.html

Note 4: National Housing Association (figures up to 2011/12): https://www.housing.org.uk/about-housing-associations/about-social-housing/#:~:text=Although%20housing%20associations%20used%20their,social%20rented%20homes%20were%20started

Note 5: Shelter, 26 January 2023: https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_release/14000_social_homes_lost_last_year_as_over_a_million_households_sit_on_waiting_lists

Note 6: City Harvest Charity, 20 December 2023: https://cityharvest.org.uk/blog/homelessness-uk-increased-by-74-since-2010/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIheGuxf_hgwMVXIBQBh21PAzaEAAYASAAEgIjf_D_BwE

Note 7: The Lancet, November 8, 2008: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)61687-6/fulltext  

Note 8: Anoosh Chakelian, ‘Replacing lost Sure Start centres is a tacit admission of austerity’s failure’, The New Statesman, 10 February 2023: https://www.newstatesman.com/thestaggers/2023/02/replacing-lost-sure-start-centres-is-a-tacit-admission-of-austeritys-failure

Note 9: Denis Campbell, The Guardian: 29 March 2023: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/29/satisfaction-with-the-nhs-plummets-to-lowest-level-in-40-years (respondents to the survey can choose from ‘very satisfied’, ‘quite satisfied’, ‘very dissatisfied’, ‘quite dissatisfied’, and ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’)

Note 10: Jon Stone, ‘Jeremy Hunt co-authored book calling for NHS to be replaced with private insurance’, The Independent, 10 February 2016: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-hunt-privatise-nhs-tories-privatising-private-insurance-market-replacement-direct-democracy-a6865306.html

Note 11: Richard Murphy, Tax Research, 24 June, 2021: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2021/06/24/the-tories-have-always-borrowed-more-than-labour-and-always-repaid-less-they-are-the-party-of-big-deficit-spending/

Note 12: Tom Coburg, The Canary, 15 November 2021: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2021/11/15/the-evidence-that-shows-tory-party-corruption-is-not-only-rife-but-endemic/

Note 13: Seth Thevoz and Peter Geoghegan, openDemocracy, 5 November 2019: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/revealed-russian-donors-have-stepped-tory-funding/

Note 14: Tom Head, The London Economic, 3 September 2023: https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/which-schools-closed-concrete-scandal-michael-gove-rebuilding-plans-356188/

Note 15: Macrotrends (UK GDP Growth Rate): https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/gdp-growth-rate

Note 16: Office for Budget Responsibility, March 2021: https://obr.uk/box/international-comparisons-of-the-economic-impact-of-the-pandemic/

Note 17: Veena Raleigh, The King’s Fund, 10 November 2021: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2021/11/covid-19-uk-health-care-performance

Note 18: House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts report – ‘Local Government Finance System: Overview and Challenges’, 2 February 2022: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/8682/documents/88208/default/#:~:text=From%202010%E2%80%9311%20to%202019,more%20by%20charging%20for%20services

Note 19: John Harris, ‘One by one, England’s councils are going bankrupt – and nobody in Westminster wants to talk about it’, The Guardian, 14 January 2024:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/14/englands-councils-bankrupt-westminster

Note 20: Russell Hargrave, ‘More than 1,000 infrastructure charities have closed since 2010, research finds’, Third Sector, 3 March 2023: https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/1000-infrastructure-charities-closed-2010-research-finds/management/article/1815110