Benn: 'E Fits!

I have been keeping a watch on a recent, rather predictable, development by the Far Left. This is a so-called Coalition of Resistance that is opposed to the budgetary restraints being introduced by the Government.

It ticks all the expected boxes, such as who "will be affected most" (as they claim), and is easy enough to see through.

Presumably that is why the Government has been receiving overall approval from the public, even in these difficult times.

Inevitably, this other coalition's "sign-up sheet" (a statement with room for signatures in a petition format) attempts to rubbish the real reason for the necessity to make budget reductions, and to redress balances in our society that were so heavily skewed during the Labour years. I doubt that many folk will be taken in. Nothing much seems to have happened during the weeks I have been watching...

The top of the signatures list on that sign-up sheet/statement tells the real story; and I have taken a copy for my records. Here are the first eighteen...

• Tony Benn
• Caroline Lucas MP
• John McDonnell MP
• Jeremy Corbyn MP
• Mark Serwotka, general secretary PCS
• Bob Crow, general secretary RMT
• Jeremy Dear, general secretary NUJ
• Michelle Stanistreet, deputy general secretary, NUJ
• Frank Cooper, president of the National Pensioners Convention
• Dot Gibson, general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention
• Ken Loach
• John Pilger
• John Hendy QC
• Mark Steel
• Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary NUT
• Cllr Salma Yaqoob (Respect)
  
• Lee Jasper, joint coordinator of Black Activists Rise Against Cuts (Barac)
• Zita Holbourne, joint co-ordinator of Barac campaign and PCS national executive;

Well, the first four are hardly a surprise, and fit this movement perfectly; nor are the Trade Union bosses exactly unexpected. It is interesting to see Ken Livingstone's one-time aide at City Hall Lee Jasper (remember him?) listed, although Ken himself isn't. I wonder whether the original name of Jasper's outfit was hoped to be "Black Activists Rise Against Cuts, with Ken" (Barack)?

Of course, the reality is that we all survived perfectly well in the pre-Labour days with vastly lower levels of public expenditure anyway. The country was in an economically sound state, we didn't need all these welfare billions spent (some, yes, but nothing like today's costs) and we were generally fine as a nation.

Now that it is necessary and unavoidable (despite what some claim) to make public spending reductions, and that even the former Labour Chancellor acknowledged that and his own desire to raise VAT, it is time to re-balance governmental priorities so as to lead to a sustainable future, not the cul-de-sac built on a cliff-head that has been Labour's Britain for years now. There was nowhere for us to go, except a very big and fatal drop off the cliff.

Of course, the Lefties behind the Coalition of Resistance (CoR) are well aware of all of this, but (rather like the Labour leadership contenders) carry on as if everyone has forgotten the reality that gradually dawned on most of our population during Labour's thirteen years running Britain (running it down, in fact). Those five are playing to the remaining core of the Labour Party: the CoR would need to have a far broader appeal if they were ever to make any impact.

No doubt their planned activities will receive huge media coverage by the BBC and the other "usual suspects" in the press and broadcasters, and they are undoubtedly counting on that to give them an air of significance. Most of the rest of us will just ignore them unless they really do act in the way they claim, as Jonathon Isaby recently pointed out:

Worryingly, given the riots that we recently saw on the streets of Athens, they add:

"We reject this malicious vandalism and resolve to campaign for a radical alternative, with the level of determination shown by trade unionists and social movements in Greece and other European countries."

Those of us who remember the 'seventies and part of the 'eighties will be well aware of the levels of behaviour down to which Trade Union rabble-rousers are capable of compelling their members, so anything could happen if they really do emulate the riots in Greece.