Taking back control: Preston shows the way
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
Preston is a leave-voting part of Labour’s now crumbled “red wall”. But Labour retained the seat there by a healthy margin.
Why? Because Labour’s radical council, led by Matthew Brown, gave people hope – democratising its public institutions and involving the local community in its decision-making at all levels of the city’s economy.
Phil Jones explores how this has been accomplished.
This article was originally published by the Guardian on Mon 13 Jan 2020. Read the original here.
Look to Preston for an answer to Labour’s – and Britain’s – woes
Labour’s radical localism in Preston has transformed the city, and given people the political participation they crave
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We have a lot to learn and emulate from the exciting Preston model.
The state of the Northern towns and cities is not the fault of Labour Governments. The Tories have been in power for most of the last 40 years. They have hammered the people there. Everywhere there are crises, yet the people vote for them. The same applied in the 1930s. The Tores won the 1935 election in a landslide even though more than 10% of the workforce were unemployed. There were 150 deaths every day from the effects of malnutrition during that period. Nye Bevan is quoted in Micheal Foot’s biography of him saying that “even the unemployed voted for their unemployment”. What is it about the English working class that they vote time and time again for those who torment them? Bevan used to refer to the English as “bovine”. Rather apt.
This gives me hope.It would be good if Labour can repeat this example across the country where it holds seats.It shows what difference a labour approach can have and that Labour can bring hope to the lives of many people and places when it is given the chance and it has some control.