Alan Simpson MP

20 July 2009

What is it about your political beliefs that put you on the Left rather than the Right?
Being on the Left is as much about structures as it is about values. It means having a clear view about the relationship between capital and labour and, in today’s world, to recognise that environmental capital has to replace finance capital as the driving imperative of our time.

An ‘open Left’ can be many things but it can’t be New Labour. The party has to drag itself out of an era in which it has been mesmerised by the politics of individualism, opportunism and identity. A naïve view of markets and deregulation risked turning Labour from a political party into a Tupperware party, obsessed with selling the illusions of growth based on off-balance sheet accounting and infinite credit. Being on the Left involves having a view of a politics that lies beyond today’s credit crunch and which can survive tomorrow’s climate crunch.

Which person, event, era or movement from the past should we look to for inspiration now?
If there is an era from the past we should look to for inspiration it is probably in the period of 1817 to 1890. Then, towns and cities across the land formed their own gas, water and electricity companies to deal with the disease and insecurity that threatened their very existence. The very strange thing about this era of ‘gas and water socialism’ is that there were very few socialists who drove it. It was an era of dynamic localism and municipalism. As we move into a future that will be constrained by carbon budgets, as much as by financial ones, we will have to re-engage with such models in the challenge of delivering energy, water and food security, each with a much lighter carbon footprint.

What one or two changes would make the biggest difference to bringing that about?
An open Left would want to break Labour’s subservience to speculative capital and the financial services sector. It would want the party to be in government and not just in office. It would recognise the urgency of constructing much more directive rules that govern the nature of sustainable markets. Renewable energy feed-in tariffs provide a good example of where this would take us.

Getting energy companies to pay the public for ‘green energy’ supplied from the home or the community offers a fundamental rethink of an energy market. People become suppliers of energy and not just consumers. It involves a sea change in (democratic) power as much as in energy supply. This is why the big energy companies fought so hard to oppose it. The battleground has now moved to the level of tariffs to be offered. Big energy wants only a modest framework, arguing that a successful transformation into renewables would undermine the case for nuclear (by lowering the market price for carbon). At least this acknowledges that nuclear is still looking for a massive subsidy to make itself viable. They also want household energy bills to pick up the huge costs of carbon capture and storage before any shift into renewable energy. A fresh politics of the Left simply has to engage with a redistribution of power, away from the hands of private transnational oligopolies and into more public and accountable structures

Much of the 19th century transformation was based not just on localised administration. It involved a similar approach to finance. Local bonds were the alternative to PFI or PPP schemes. People looking for a safe place to put their pension (or other) savings bought municipal bonds. In return, they got a secure supply of gas, electricity and clean water, along with the parks, museums and libraries funded out of the profits. Today’s pension funds, staring into the abyss of toxic debt that still inhabits global equity markets, would be no less enthusiastic for such a choice.

Comments
  • AidanWard
    I have been reading through all the position statements and comments looking for any glimmer of a politics I can buy into. The closest I have come is Alan's use of the cliche "in government and not just in office". I look at the democratic deficit and long for anyone who is prepared to take on the challenge.
    It is easiest to see with the banks: is the behaviour of the banks compatible with left of centre political ambitions? It never has been and never will be but no politician is prepared to say so even now.
    To be left means to know first hand, intelligently and in practical detail what the effect of policies are: not their intended effect, not their reported effect, not their effect once it has been spun, their effect on citizens as reported by citizens. Education can be hugely damaging, the health service kills people in droves, housing policies cause homelessness. Anyone can mess up but to mess up and not to listen doesn't belong to anything I want to be part of.
    Left politics used to be participatory. Solutions were built by citizens for citizens aided by whatever policy changes or funding was possible. Now politics is done to people. Where is the sense that any future worth having has to have the energy of people's passion behind it?
  • 1atatime
    I agree with Alan when it comes to green issues and I share his views about 19th and 20th century ‘gas and water socialism’. It was a period when even Tories and Liberals saw the advantages of municipal ownership. Local government has been emasculated by successive governments (both Labour and Conservative) for far too long, yet this is where, historically, all the real innovations in policy and public services have come from (eg. health care, education, housing, transport, parks). So it can again. Power has to be returned to local councils and local communities. It is not about foisting executive mayors or insisting on 'cabinet style' local government. It's about letting local communities govern themselves. Public money is wasted on local 'partnership' quangos, when it would be far better managed and spent if it was placed in the hands of more directly elected local councils based around neighborhoods and small urban townships. We need more localism, but it has to be politically and socially embracing. It also has to be pluralistic when it comes to management and delivery. To exclude public or private provision is to be dogmatic.
  • annandrews
    At last Labour is starting to be relevant but it must stop thinking about growth and money. Harold Wilson said to nationalise the banks and he was right. We must live within the means of the planet and share and share alike. Labour is just getting over its birth pangs, it is just beginning.
  • chrismatthews

    I've read all the ideas on this website and this is by far the most coherent, contemporary and functional. It currently works a treat in Germany and should be implemented here as soon as possible.

    Here's an example of that model which Alan has been encouraging in his constituency:

    http://www.nottenergy.com/
    http://www.nesta.org.uk/energy-man-launches-nottingham-carbon-challenge/
    http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/MP-s-gains-energy-battle/article-484147-detail/article.html

    Alan's idea really could bring about what everyone else on this website is only eluding to; a fairer society, decent housing, green jobs and a better eduction for the poorest. I think the same could also be said of high speed rail, light rail and social housing
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