English Statesman 7

The English Statesman Issue 7

October 1979

The End of the Era? Lewis Leaves Office Ministers coming up out on top of the Deputy Prime Minister should they choose to run.

The political village of Westminster is still reeling from what is an extremely surprising announcements by the Prime Minister. Coming before the House, he stated that: “As of January, 1980 the Labour Party and the United Kingdom, with the blessing of Her Majesty, will have a new leader. I shall be resigning from my post. I thank you all for your patience and giving me this time to speak here today.” This was greeted with great sorrow from all sides of the House. Perhaps not always in agreement with Tories or Liberals, he had made a name for himself as a principled and dignified character.

The Principled Man of Politics – A Young Prime Minister Lewis The most worrying problem for the Labour Party must be the issue of the succession. Though they may seem very united at the moment, the whiff of the top job in the country can make many a man change substantially. The favourite of course must be the current Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Affairs, John Steward. He is a classic Labourite. A Strong socialist, with a good working relationship with the unions and a god amongst the grass roots he seems at this moment almost to be unbeatable. Mr. Steward has yet to comment on his future, but the chances of him putting his name in the hat for the role of Leader and Prime Minister are extremely high.

What the DPM and no doubt his supporters will be most worried about, is that a growing “anyone but Steward” faction will be able to install someone such as Mr. Sharpe into the role of Prime Minister. What he needs to do, and quickly, is to make sure that the Labour Party understands that he isn't just an old socialist, but that he is a man with just as much zeal for reform and change as his opponents.

One thing is for sure, the only real gainers in this shall be the Opposition. The change of Government will no doubt hold the possibility of success, but with 3 His electoral record of months of leadership course is without a stain electioneering and on it. In the last election There are other contenders of course. Many of bickering set to take the Labour Party won a the moderate Labour supporters are looking place, all the Tories and massive 99 seat majority, towards the Foreign Secretary, Craig Sharpe, Liberals have to do is sit which has made it for leadership. Mr. Sharpe has been an tight and not make any untouchable in Parliament extremely world respected figure. What he mistakes which is easier and allowed them to put does seem to lack is a that recognition that said then done in most through an aggressive Steward has within the Labour Party. Though cases. With a new Prime socialist agenda. Before in most respect his intelligence and think that he Minister set to take the the ill fated Liberal – is a man of many good ideas, most do not see helm, the Leader of the Conservative Pact, the him as a Leader in waiting, unlike Mr. Steward. House forced to resign, public saw him as a man and the former who had been robbed of There are some outside chances that people Chancellor Hardie gone, power. Now the Labour such as Longship and Harrison could run, could this really be the Party will have to stumble possibly even the new Chancellor Bevan. end of Moderate Labour? forward without him. However it would be hard to see any of these

Stewards Britain = Socialist Britain? Preparing for the step down of the Prime Minister, we at the Statesman take a look at a Britain under the “Stewardship” of the Deputy Prime Minister (editors note: we apologize for the punning of our writers). The DPM has been known as a hardened Socialist, and certainly with moves such as the Industrial Bank no one can deny that his heart is certainly in the “left” place (editors note: last warning on jokes). However what do we really know what Steward's Britain will be like? The Deputy Prime Minister has made some clear policy moves over this term, perhaps one of the most controversial was the “Fair Trade” Act, in which he basically put in place councils that could force businesses to keep prices low something that was used to great effective in Revolutionary France, under the “commune” system. Though we can be reasonably sure, that Mr. Steward isn't going to cause a revolution or over throw the Monarchy, what sort of “revolution” will Steward be championing?

The Deputy PM at a Convention on the future of Britain The Deputy Prime Minister has kept quite a low profile as of late, with no new policies or even press releases being issued by him over the past month or so which can be both a boon and a block to his chances of becoming Prime Minister. Many members of the Labour Party have a vision of him as a true “Labour” Prime Minister, someone who is the friend of the Unions and who believes extremely strongly in the end of privileged such as the House of Lords. Yet he has also been one of the strongest caps on the Unions in Government, as Minister for Economic Affairs he hasn't laid down and let them work all over him which raises doubts over the imagine as a hard core socialist that many like to project upon him. In Foreign Policy terms the Deputy Prime Minister has yet to utter a word over the South African Incident, and he hasn't made clear whether he will continue to move this country over to the USSR. In terms of Economic Policy, we have yet to see him make an clear indication of what he would do to make sure that the country was led out of its economic malaise apart from more Government spending it seems. With so little coming from the Deputy Prime Minister of late, you would be forgiven for thinking that it was he not the Prime Minister that was preparing to call it a day. However with what seems like the immortality of Prime Ministerial glory on the verge of being his, the Deputy Prime Minister will have to give us more to go on if he is to secure the Prime position in British Politics. While this situation continues, he gives more time for his enemies in the Party and outside to sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of his supporters and this could turn into a nasty little election for the Deputy Prime Minister, should he decide to run.

Barclays Bank Incident – A Much Ado About Nothing? Following the seizure of the De Beers Diamonds, and then the subsequent crack down on Barclays Bank in South Africa you would be forgiven for thinking that there was a bit of a crisis in relations with South Africa. However the issue seems to have totally disappeared from the mind of the Government. Despite the calls of the Shadow Home Secretary for the Government to give the public more information, they have said relatively little on the matter for “security” reasons which leads to the question. Did the Government make a mistake? It seems clear that the Government believes that the De Beers Company was involved in shady dealings, indeed it is one of the biggest rumours it the City that the De Beers Company isn't strictly legal in all its dealings, however it was still a massive shock when the Government walked into the Company's HQ and seized a very large amount of diamonds. It was an extremely risky move of course, and rather then having a quiet word in the ear of the Company (though we don't actually know if the Government did this) the Government has now committed itself to proving that the Company was actually up to no good. Perhaps what the Government didn't account for was the reaction of the South African Government. The Government of South Africa is hanging on by the skin of its teeth at the moment economically. Sanctions and actions taken by the International community have really hit hard at the Government there, and they need all the money they can get. Though no one can confirm the truth behind the rumours, many believe that the De Beers Company has been secretly funding them. Therefore an attack on De Beers was likely to trigger a similar reaction from the South African Government on Barclays. Whether the actions taken were honest, the Bank Incident has badly hurt Barclays as a firm and it has taken a massive hit in the Stock Exchange and caused shivers along the spines of Banks across the country. The Government continues to remain tight lipped on the matter, however whatever happens, you can be sure that the Statesman shall quickly report all news on the matter to you all.

The Flight of the Ministers This is becoming a real problem for the Labour Party.

It hasn't been a good month to be a Labour Minister, what with the departure of the Chancellor and then the resignation of the Leader of the House Charles Tanner, the Labour Party has seen a few new faces come in to replace the old. However why some people might believe that change has been good for the Party, it will take time for these new faces to be able to match the well established names that they have had to replace and now with the resignation of the PM,

Former Leader of the House Charles Tanner

The Conservatives are led by Robert Noble Gordon, and their Shadow Cabinet has mostly quite settled characters in the public mind. The Liberals are led by Alexander Shackleton, and Mr. Winters is a well respected figure. The Labour Party are undergoing a change which will take some time to fully take effect, and the next Prime Minister will have to spend a lot of time reassuring the public that his Government is right for the job and certainly that he is right for the job. This is just another chance for the Opposition to gain on the misfortune of the Labour Party

Letter to the Editor Dear Editor, On behalf of the BBA I would like to thank you and your journal for the splendid work that you have done in making sure that the mistakes of this Socialist Government haven't gone unnoticed by the public. As a journalist you have done well in making sure that the Government has been held to account on its poor economic performance, as well as providing solutions as a Shadow Minister for the Conservative Party. Furthermore, it is about time that the Conservative Party started to listen to you more as a Minister. Your goals of economic growth, lowering inflation and cutting taxes are just the sort of principles that we need at the heart of an effective British Economic Policy. This governments popularist policies on trying to spend their way out of trouble has lumbered the people of this country with high taxes and more debt. The businesses of the nation have been strangled by punitive tax measures that leave no room for further investment. This "Industrial Bank" is truly the last straw. The Government wishes to provide more investment for public projects. Well I say to them, free the private sector. The reason why we are unable to fund long term projects is because taxes are so high we cannot find the money to invest and this Industrial Bank will just be the end of the private finanical sector and the end to the last remains of capitalism in the market. I therefore stand by you, Mr. English, and hope that you continue to provide the same intelligent policy making skills that have made you an excellent Shadow Chancellor, and I pray that the Conservative Party listens to you more as you grow in stature within the Party. Good Luck, and Renewed Thanks, Kelvin Ernest

Interesting thoughts Mr. Ernest, it is certainly clear that most of the problems that face this country at the moment are due to too much Government control. Therefore you can certainly count on me to continue to push forward a strong progressive Policy for the British People. I hope that you will stick by the Conservative Party however, as I know that it is only through the continuing good relations of the BBA and the Conservative Party that the economic future of this nation is not put at risk. Thank you for your letter, Randolph English