Back in the 1980's, when the mass unemployment caused by Thatcherism led to rioting, the response of Tory Norman Tebbit (who was nicknamed by the press The Chingford Boot Boy) was to tell the millions of unemployed they should “Get On Their Bikes”, and look for non-existent jobs, non-existent because the Tories policies had destroyed them all, and encouraged their friends the bosses to go in search of cheap labour in other parts of the world. It was not surprising then that as the Liberal-Tories look set to try to take us back to 1980's Thatcherism, and a similarly disastrous economic situation, a proposal from Ian and Duncan Smith to encourage the unemployed to move would be compared to Tebbitt. Yet another example, of the ineptitude of the Liberal-Tories.
Labour leadership hopeful, Ed Balls, called the proposal “unfair” according to a report by the BBC. But, the Left has to be a bit careful here. That Ed Balls should oppose such a move is understandable, because as his position on Immigration Controls has showed he does not really favour the free movement of labour. But, the Left does. It is rather difficult to argue in favour of workers being free to move from one country to another in search of work or better living standards, and yet pooh pooh the idea that they should move WITHIN the same country to achieve the same thing!
There is actually nothing wrong with the idea that workers should be given assistance to move in search of employment or better conditions. In fact, such policies have been in place for decades. There has long since been a policy of offering Council houses to some Public Sector workers if they move to other parts of the country. It has tended to be less used over the last 20 years, because many workers have been owner-occupiers, and have wanted to buy houses, accompanied by a shortage of Council houses to offer. If there is unfairness in the Tories proposal it is this that in providing such housing for workers moving from high unemployment areas, it will by pass other workers in those areas who given the shortage of social housing, will have been waiting a long-time themselves.
But, what the Tories proposal shows is just how much they are out of touch with the real-life of the majority of people. On the proposal itself it was a common feature of Council Housing that tenants all along could arrange their own “Swaps”. That is a tenant in one area if they wanted to move to another, could arrange a swap with a tenant in that area, who wanted to move to their house. From an economic efficiency point of view it is what makes such social rented housing much more effective than owner-occupation, because a tenant does not have to wait until they have sold their house before they can move.
It is not this that makes mobility difficult. The Liberal-Tories proposal assumes that unemployed households are comprised entirely of people who are unemployed. In some areas of chronic unemployment that may be true, but in most cases there may be one person who is unemployed, but all other members of the family in employment. Or their may be one person in quite good employment but a number of other members of the family who are unemployed. What do the Tories propose that an unemployed husband should be encouraged to move, whilst his wife gives up her job to move with him? What then would be done to deal with the now unemployed wife? Or is the Tories proposal to split families up in the way was done with black workers in South Africa, the unemployed person being sent off to where the work was, and the partner left behind? Would that not mean then providing two houses?
But, the other point is that it is all very well and good moving home in search of work if you are reasonably well-off – or alternatively if you are virtually destitute you may have nothing to lose – because most of the jobs better off people tend to move to are relatively stable and secure. But, the jobs, that the majority of unemployed that the Tories are referring to, do are far from stable and secure. That is one of the reasons they are unemployed and living in Council housing in the first place. The jobs they do are, low status, low paid, often temporary, frequently part-time, casualised employment where you could be back on the dole the next week. You are not going to leave behind all of your family and friends, and the support network that provides, in order to take up a job at the other end of the country, that might disappear tomorrow leaving you not just back to square one, but in an even worse position, living in an area where the cost of living is higher, and with no one to turn to.
The Liberal-Tories want to tell us we are all in it together, but the reality is that they do not even understand the basics of working-class life. That was demonstrated by the story in the
Sunday Mirror about the £450 a head party that Cameron's Tories are holding. They say,
“Rich Tory backers can buy one ticket for an eye-watering £450, pay £4,500 for a table for 10, buy a “benefactor” ticket at £1,000 or blow £10,000 for a de luxe table for ten”
Apparently,
“Organisers have lined up 432 bottles of champagne – more than one each for the 400 guests, who will include City financiers and Tory donors. The event is expected to raise more than £1million for Conservative party funds”.
You can't imagine that unemployed workers living in those Council houses will be tucking into a similar Sunday lunch today can you? What was that about all in this together?
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