Personal - Politics and Economics

Maltastar 

I Declare

By participating in the contest for the post of Deputy Leader Part Affairs I made a declaration that I wanted to do all I could to get Labour back to the place it deserves to ensure that it can truly modernise the country while protecting the rights of the under-privileged and safeguarding our freedom.

That I was not chosen for the post was not for lack of trying on my part. The delegates were favoured with a wide and rich choice and many delegates confessed directly to me how hard it was for them to make the choice for both deputy posts.

Ultimately the choice made, whilst disappointing for the unsuccessful contestants, is our choice as well. It is certainly my choice as I fully respect the delegates’ decision. To Charles and Michael I have already expressed my personal congratulations and pledge of support. So I need not repeat it here.

What is worth repeating is that my intention to do my hardest to get Labour back to where it belongs is unwavering.

 

“The country still has strategic problems that can no longer be brushed aside awaiting Labour’s turn in government to get addressed.”

Sequencing

Sequencing of the action plan is as important as choosing the objective that the action plan is supposed to achieve.

Labour’s objective is clearly that of winning the next election. Getting there demands careful sequencing. Internal structures need to be strengthened, the role of each executive in the administration needs to be re-evaluated and each role has to be defined with clear parameters that interlock into each other to ensure that the party moves forward in a consistent march.

For this to be achieved sequencing has to be very carefully thought out and planned. Interim mile-posts need to be set to measure whether that sufficient progress is being made towards getting there on time.

The party needs to reach out to regain the middle stream. Defending the interest of the least favoured in society does not mean we have to abandon or lose space in the middle stream.

The country still has strategic problems that can no longer be brushed aside awaiting Labour’s turn in government to get addressed. From the opposition Labour must help the country not only to expose the problems and raise awareness of the consequences of their neglect, but must constructively help for the adoption of a national strategy to get this country moving again. It is better to get these problems addressed before we have to face them whilst in government.

After all it is only through efficient management that we can reach the objective of not only protecting social services but continue to extend them for the benefit of society at large, and the lower and middle class in particular. Following the surge given in the seventies, the development of social services and social rights has largely stagnated.

It is time to press for development on issues like workers rights to be informed of their employers’ financial situation, the creation of statutory redundancy funds, the enforcing of the concept of enhanced employability through training even during employment, re-balancing of rights of public and private sector employees, state funded child minding facilities permitting greater female participation in the labour market, flexible working hours, and so many other initiatives that have waited far too long.

Labour must win the middle ground by proving that it can be a much better government. To do this it must reach out to those it has alienated and to those who whilst clearly not belonging in its camp can respect the democratic right for Labour to govern once it gets a majority mandate. Business organisations must not remain an extension of the PN and it is high time that Labour builds a strategy for strengthening its ties with them at all levels.

In the short stint I spent as vice-president of MHRA between 1995 -1996 I was twice invited for lunch with the PM once at the party HQ and once at Girgenti. I am not impressed by lunches but they do get personal relationships which serve when it matters.

“The Bush administration is more intent in getting itself re-elected than in getting the world economy going again.”

Dwindling Dollar

The Bush administration is more intent in getting itself re-elected than in getting the world economy going again. Having worked itself through the substantial budget surplus left behind by the Clinton administration through the robust economic growth of the late nineties, President Bush is building up budget deficits through tax cuts meant to revive the economy and through increased military spending in its bid to control international terror.

In the meantime the US balance of payment deficit has reached stellar proportions which inevitably brings into question, as it has done several times in its economic post war history, the sustainability of a strong dollar policy to preserve its lucrative international reserve currency status.

What is particular about this decline of the dollar’s international value is the speed with which it has fallen and the extreme degree of benign neglect of the US administration. Economic management has not only been down played in the importance of the White House hierarchy but the two Treasury Secretaries of the Bush administration, first O’Neill and now Snow, are totally unfit for the huge responsibility of someone directly in charge of the health of such a widely held reserve currency.

Snow’s comments last weekend that the steep fall in the value of the dollar was quite modest is irresponsibility in the first degree and exposes a clear willingness of the US administration to devalue the dollar and not simply to neglect it.

Sometimes I am forced to suspect that it is all political. Could this be a way to give the stick to Germany and France and repay them for not participating in the US policy vs. Baghdad? Could it be that they are now being punished by having to face a strong euro in the face of their stagnating economies risking deflation. This is a beggar thy neighbour policy of the first degree proving that US unilateralism has now been also transported to the economic field.

While this could have serious short term implication for the Euro area, in the longer term this is the best opportunity for the Euro to challenge the reserve currency status of the dollar. The long term benefit for Europe if the cards are played right should not be neglected.