Creating a new manifesto

Photo owned by missfitzphotos (cc)

I’ve heard an awful lot of oppositionalist stances from politicians recently.  And I’ve heard the Government frequently promote their own actions.  But what has been missing on both sides, is a clear manifesto; a strategic long-term plan that outlines where they wish society to go.  It is my belief that short and medium-term measures can only be properly debated and discussed when they form part of a clearly-communicated long-term strategy.  It is only when that is the case that we can judge whether we agree with that long-term strategy, or whether we feel the proposed short and medium-term actions can be justified within such a strategy.

Why are Labour not saying that this is the time to reshape a nation that never again allows the poor to be marginalised during times of boom?  Why are the Greens not calling for a radical economic restructuring of the economy to focus on a model of stability, rather than the now-failed growth model?  Why are Sinn Féin not calling for the creation of a truly socialist republic?  Why are Fine Gael not arguing for greater market freedom? (scrap that one, they are!)  I’m not saying I agree with all of those ideas (certainly not the FG ideas!), but at least they represent clear potential road-maps to take us through troubled times, rather than focussing on what we should do this week to get us through to next week.

In disastrous times, remarkable shifts in public thinking often occur.  As Naomi Klein has very capably argued, “disaster capitalism” has gripped numerous countries across the globe in such times.  And sure enough, as our recession deepens, we will begin to hear Friedman-esque calls for public service cuts, removal of market regulations, and other free-maket ideas (not to mention our glorious Lord Mayor’s call for Dubliners to show some ‘civic patriotism’).

But it is equally possible for progressive thinking to flourish in difficult times.  As we saw with the rise of Keynesian thinking in the aftermath of the Great Depression, shifts in public thinking after recessions need not always involve a lurch to the right.  So, this blog post is a challenge – why can’t progressives begin to construct a clear manifesto?  Let’s put together a set of strategic goals that we would like to see delivered by 2025 – 17 years away.  Once we have done so, we will have a framework within which we can deconstruct current Government policy and reconstruct some genuinely alternative policies.  Let’s put an end to managerialism in Irish politics, and restore a politics of ideology, with a coherent narrative that citizens could buy into.

Given the chance, what ten principles would you include in such a manifesto?