YOU’VE probably heard of Godzilla. Big green lizardy thing, stomps around a lot, doesn’t like buildings. I think he likes big packets of Chewits. I’m not entirely sure, I might be getting him mixed up with an advert.
Anyway, I’m going to ask you to employ all your empathic skills for a small exercise. Imagine being a person.
Doing that? Good. Now imagine being a person living in a city. More of a stretch if you live in the countryside, admittedly, but bear with me.
Still with me? Good, OK, now imagine being a person living in the city in which Godzilla is rampaging about the place, knocking down buildings, toppling things on other people, etc. Explosions, bricks, the lot. Would you be frightened? I know it’s not really happening, but this is an empathic exercise.
Now imagine Godzilla just stops and vanishes. There’s rubble all over the place, yes. Buildings on fire, Chewits wrappers everywhere – I don’t know, I’m not an expert in Japanese schlock culture – but no more Godzilla. Is that better?
I mean it’s not ideal. There’s still bits of building crumbling and some people are going to get hurt because of the after shocks. Ideally all the buildings would be back in place before teatime.
But the fact Godzilla has gone is an improvement in your life, isn’t it? A huge improvement, yes?
Good. Now imagine there are some people living in the next city while Godzilla’s rampaging about making a terrible nuisance of himself. Or herself. I don’t know, etc. And they’re looking at the devastation.
And an amazing scientist steps forward and says, “Look, everybody, I have created an amazing teleportation device. It will send Godzilla to THE MOON where he can’t do anybody any harm, apart from, perhaps, The Clangers. Isn’t it amazing?”
And all the people in the next city continue to look at the devastation and feel terrible as all the casualties mount up. And they turn to the amazing scientist and they say, “No.”
“But what?” says the amazing scientist.
“It’s no good just getting rid of Godzilla,” say the people in the next city. “They need all the buildings back as they were. EXACTLY as they were. Haven’t you got an amazing teleportation and immediate restoration of destroyed buildings back to their pristine condition device?”
“No, I mean, I could probably make one, but it’ll take years – FIVE OR POSSIBLY TEN YEARS,” says the amazing scientist.
“Right,” say the people in the next city. “Do that, then.”
“Can’t I just get rid of Godzilla for now, and sort out the rest later?”
“No,” say the people in the next city. “That does not fulfil all of our criteria.”
“But there won’t be any buildings left by then, and all the people will be trampled on. Go on, let me do it.”
“No,” say the people in the next city. “Not good enough. BYE!”
That was a good exercise, wasn’t it, children?
On an entirely different subject, I am increasingly despairing of middle class left-wingers who are refusing to back Labour at the next election, because “They’re just like the Tories.”
If you’re a middle class left-winger who’s tempted to abandon Labour at this point, ask yourself these questions: “Which party is more likely to redistribute wealth from the poorest to the richest, Labour or the Tories? Which party is more likely to privatise the NHS? Which party is more likely to cut the Welfare State right down to the bone?”
Ask yourself which party you’d rather have in charge. Then ask yourself if you can be self-indulgent enough to back a party which will take votes from Labour, and make it more likely for the Tories to get back in. And remember, it’s all right for you if you’re a middle class person, because you’re insulated from their excesses.
No, Labour is not a perfect solution to the vandalism of Tory austerity. And yes, they will come up with stupid Daily Mail reader-grabbing ideas like a Hippocratic oath for teachers.
But they won’t make it any worse for the people who need the most help. And sometimes that’s the best for which you can hope.
And in time we’ll be able to rebuild. But we can’t do that if the Tories are rampaging about, with Farage riding on their backs.
Just imagine what the Tories would do emboldened by a second term of office, on the back of the destruction they’ve already wrought on the post-War settlement.
And then don’t come to me the day after the General Election, with your Green badge, or your National Health Party rosette, and say, “It’s not my fault. I didn’t vote for Godzilla.”
Gary Bainbridge 
The problem is, what’s on the table isn’t ‘Godzilla or No Godzilla’.
It’s ‘Godzilla or Slightly Smaller, but Essentially Identical Godzilla’.
My excellent local hospital was almost lost because Labour PFIs – at absurd rates of interest – have bankrupted surrounding health trusts. Their policies on welfare cap etc may be fine if you’re able bodied, but disabled people have a higher cost of living, they’re not fine for us. Their plan to cut the young out of social security and throw them back at their parents will devastate the most vulnerable young people (who have no such safety net).
Those of us opposed to Labour aren’t necessarily in that position because we’re rolling in it. And we aren’t necessarily clinging to a position of principle at the expense of practicality. Labour has policies that are as bad as Tory policies. I just want a government that isn’t saying ‘fuck you’ to the most vulnerable. Labour should be offering that, but they’re not.
If people had taken that attitude when the 2 party system was Tories & liberals the Labour Party would never have got a foothold in British politics. I suppose in the elections after WW1 you’d have been preaching “don’t vote Labour it’ll split tge liberal vote & let the Tories in”
i detest the Tories – but let’s be honest the Labour Party sold its soul when they chased power & abandoned principal in the 90s, & became Tory Plan B.
I am NOT middle class and was a Labour Party activist for 30 years. I managed to turn a blind eye to tge Stalinist purges of Socialists in the late 80s, but could no longer support a party that would elect a brazen careerist like Blair as leader and abandon Clause 4 in favour of the theme from neighbours.
Labour have abandoned internal democracy & become a centralised party of careerists who will never allow the party to return to their roots,& recommit to public ownership of the means of production.
What you are really saying is don’t organise to get rid of all monsters, but settle for replacing Godzilla with Mothra!!!
The current LP are as commited to the austerity con trick and its transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest as the ConDems.
The current Labour Party are no more interested in representing the interests of the class they were formed to represent than the Liberals were in the 20s.
Syriza in Greece & Podemos in Spainare have shown that new left parties with real alternatives to the NeoLiberal consensus are needed and more than capable of taking over from the former Social Democratic parties who sold their souls for the corporate coin.
Labour ‘redistributed wealth from the poorest to the richest’ when they eradicated the 10p tax band.
Labour privatised big chunks of the NHS and set the precedent for more.
Labour began the ‘restructuring’ (cutting to the bone) of the welfare state.
Chiller is spot on, if the Tories are Godzilla stomping all over welfare provision, Labour are just a ‘Slightly Smaller, but Essentially Identical Godzilla’
*fumbles for the like button*