The Labour Party and Equality.

In an interview with ITV's deputy political editor, Anushka Asthana, published in The Guardian on Saturday 13th January 2024, in answer to her question about redistribution of income and wealth from the rich to the poor, Sir Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Labour Party, had this to say:

'No, that isn't how I want to grow the economy. I don't think redistribution is the sort of one-word answer for millions of people across the country... I'm afraid if it's just redistribution, I think that fundamentally disrespects people.'

Redistribution has, of course, nothing to do with growing the economy, and no-one is arguing for absolute equality, merely - but vitally - for greatly reduced inequality, so the 'dignity and respect due to skilled work' he referred to is an irrelevance, particularly as many of the super-rich derive their wealth and income, not from work, skilled or otherwise, but from interest and rents. Starmer is - once again - displaying his economic illiteracy.

It is ironic, to say the least, that he came out with this puerile nonsense the day before Oxfam presented its 2024 Inequality Report, 'Inequality Inc.', at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

This shows that the world's richest 1% own 43% of global financial assets, and emit as much carbon pollution as the poorest two-thirds of humanity. The world's five richest men have more than doubled their wealth since 2020, while five billion people were made poorer. And Sir Keir Starmer doesn't want to talk (except dismissively) about redistribution?

'What's in a name?' Juliet answers her question by saying 'That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet,' but that can only be the case if what is otherwise named is still a flower of the order Rosales, family Rosaceae, sub-family Rosoideae, tribe Roseae and genus Rosa.

The Labour Party doesn't have to stand for, or believe in, wholesale nationalisation - but it does have to stand for, and believe in, equality, and not just equality of opportunity (the late Baroness Thatcher claimed to believe in that), or in equalities of race/ethnicity, gender, age, and so on, but in greater equality of income and wealth. If it doesn't stand for that, it has lost its raison d'être, and its very right to exist. It is no longer a valid political Party - merely a vehicle for the personal ambitions of its leaders, personal ambitions which should, on no account, be indulged, especially as - in the case of Sir Keir Starmer himself - they reveal an all-too authoritarian and dictatorial personality, ready to be unleashed on our unsuspecting country.

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