So, the polls got it wrong again. Not the polls over here, who predicted a neck-and-neck election result here in the UK, but didn’t account for the fact that the Tories had more neck than Labour, but the polls in Greece, where they told us the result of the referendum was “too close to call”. Oh no it wasn’t.
Following the Greek Ministry of Interior website where the results are flooding in, it is clear that Syriza has got the ‘no’ vote it wanted, with the Greek people overwhelmingly rejecting the terms of the international bail out. In electing Syriza in the first place, the Greeks rejected the crippling austerity that has ravaged their country, causing mass unemployment, a GDP reduced by 25%, as well as pensions and wages cut drastically. And for what? More austerity, even greater debt, no light at the end of the tunnel
It would be absurd to compare Britain in general with Greece, as George Osborne has frequently done, because we are not in anything like the same situation, but there is one striking similarity, at least with Scotland. Much as I distrust the SNP – and who could not distrust any party so vociferously supported by Rupert Murdoch? – there was one clear platform on which they stood north of the border: an end to austerity. Labour, both north and south of the border, offered watered-down austerity, the Liberal Democrats offered much the same as the Tories. And the result? Labour and the Lib Dems almost obliterated in Scotland and humiliated in much of England. The SNP were triumphant in Scotland and the Tories won enough votes in England to earn a small House of Commons majority. You could argue that there was a majority in England for austerity since the Tories, Labour, the Lib Dems and obviously Ukip were in favour of it, but then, who was arguing against it? Who, if you were anti-austerity, could you vote for in England? Well, I bit the bullet for all the usual reasons.
I am Labour for all sorts of reasons, but mainly because of what it is supposed to stand for. Equality, fairness, the NHS, good schools – all the usual Labour things. No one else was offering me that and no one ever has. I strongly disagree with watered-down austerity but that’s all Miliband and Balls were offering. And anyway, no one believed Labour on the economy, no one really saw Miliband as PM. They might as well have offered free money and they still wouldn’t have won.
We will see this week what we – well, 36.9% of us – voted for, but weren’t actually told at the time. Our free press, and our increasingly government friendly BBC, never bothered to ask Osborne to explain where his £12 billion of welfare cuts would fall. It won’t look pretty, but it’s what Labour would have done, only slower.
Greece, through Alexis Tsipras and Syriza, have reached the end of a much longer road than us and have simply told the Troika to go and do one.
We have a deficit to reduce in this country and a national debt – doubled under the Tories – to reduce. Our debate is how we do it, whether it’s via brutal austerity or by growth or by a combination of different measures.
Economically, we cannot allow Greece to go bust and politically the issue is complicated by the chaos across the Mediterranean in Libya, Tunisia and beyond. Leave Greece to go it alone and then what?
The EU has shown itself to be inept in its handling of the Greek crisis. Powerful, but unelected, bureaucrats have tried hard to bully the Greek people into accepting endless austerity and failed. The unelected IMF has behaved little better. The whole European project lies on the brink of ruin.
Osborne was at it again today, lecturing us all how “we’re all in it together” but some are more in it together than others, not least the working poor and the sick at home and the entire nation of Greece in the EU.
Austerity alone has never been the answer to Greece’s problems and it’s not the answer to ours either. Greek politicians who argued for austerity have now lost twice this year and the same thing happened in Scotland, although the reasons north of the border are, I know, slightly more complex than mere, if you call it that, austerity.
It was not the ordinary Greek people who wrecked their economy any more than it was spending too much on schools and hospitals that almost wrecked ours, but it’s ordinary people who suffer most due to the disastrous decisions of others, usually the rich and privileged, many of whom should be in prison but still earn their massive bonuses.
I salute the people of Greece and hope our politicians too learn a lesson. There has to be a better alternative to austerity than watered-down austerity because ultimately they’re the same thing.
