The Paralympics roots reveal a liberal Britain worth fighting for – iNews

Left-wingers are cast as enemies of the state in hideously right-wing Britain. Tories are seeking to control and command the public space, our collective culture. Institutions are being watched and combed; individuals quietlyblacklisted.

As Simon Kelner has described, Jess Brammar, the talented erstwhile editor of HuffPost UK who is reportedly a front-runner for a top news job at the BBC, is denounced as too left wing by the new McCarthyites. This despite that at least eight top BBC journalists have gone on to work for the Conservatives or Conservative media outlets. The Director-General, Tim Davie, once stood as a Tory councillor; the chair of the board, Richard Sharp, is a generous Tory donor. No matter. Thats all just fine. But lefties must be hunted down, named and shamed. And the Labour Party either stands by quivering or joins in.

Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens fired off a verbal rocket last weekend attacking liberals as the fierce stone-faced left-wing doctrinaires who in the past 50 years have created huge zones of misery in what was once a pretty happy society. Our liberal Taliban drove millions of women out of homes where they would happily raise their own children if they could, to drudge all day in call centres and such places for a pittance that pays for the ropey childcare they must then use. They destroyed life-long marriage.

Meanwhile, Ken Loach, one of the worlds greatest social realism film makers, claims he has been expelled from the Labour Party as part of an alleged clear-out of those who supported Jeremy Corbyn, a poor leader but an honourable politician who truly cared about inequality and who opposed Tony Blairs imperial wars. I am reminded of WB Yeatss immortal lines: The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionateintensity.

When was this anti-left edict passed? Who decided to exclude and pursue those holding a legitimate and historically respected political ideology? Pointless questions. Such brassy denunciations happen in lawless, autocratic lands. They do it differently here, murkily, underhandedly. The current ruling clique and its media partners have efficaciously demonised and marginalised the left, leaving Labour Party centrists flapping around, obsessing about polls, trying to emulate Tory postures and turning on awkward lefties. Why dont Sir Keir Starmer and his in-crowd instead stand up for Labours founding principles and showcase its massive contribution to social progress? Here, let me help them get started.

The Paralympics started this week. Millions of enthusiasts will be awed by the seemingly superhuman dexterities, talents, power and focus of the participants. Few of them know that the very first wheelchair games were part of the 1948 London Olympics Games when Clement Attlee was prime minister and his government was creating the welfare state. This was a transformation that is still benefitting us all.

I am often told off for being anti-British and unpatriotic. The truth is that I feel proud and lucky to be living in a country where education and healthcare are still accessible to all and its laws promote equality and protect human rights.

Workers rights, race equality, gender equality, disabled rights, childrens rights and gay rights were secured by Labour. Tories usually stood firmly against all these modern, necessary legal changes. The new legislation would harm businesses, they chanted, and were a threat to freedom. In 2000, the Conservatives opposed a binding and far-reaching EU directive that outlawed racial discrimination, victimisation andharassment.

Francis Maude, the then shadow foreign secretary, dismissed the laws as gesture politics, whilst his colleagues muttered about red tape. David Cameron and Nick Clegg did push through the same-sex marriage Act in 2013, but that was long after Blairs government legalised civil partnerships, same-sex adoptions and brought in the Gender Equality Act. The Tories resisted all of those. They have never backed any equality or equal justice movement.

And so here we are today with increasing poverty, rising homelessness, food banks, a slowly dying NHS and fast-collapsing care sector. According to the Local Government Association, 120,000 children are living in temporary accommodation. I blame Tory policies, backward, punitive and biased towards the well-off.People say as you get older, you become more right wing. I am going the other way, and finding it hard to understand why todays Labour leaders are so muddled, shaky and unable to confidently tell the story of how the progressive left made Britain great and can do so again.

Read more here:

The Paralympics roots reveal a liberal Britain worth fighting for - iNews