Manifesto

The Statist Party is a new organisation based upon an existing angle of socialist thought. Conceived as a political arm for the web-based   Anti Poverty Movement,  the new party hopes to develop into a valid contester for the future of the Left.

I honestly believe that state centralisation and a regulatory control of our social and economic interests are the fair and comprehensible way forward.


From the Anti Poverty Movement come our four essential cornerstones :





NATIONALISATION


State ownership or nationalisation is at the heart of the Statist policy. The allowance and autonomy of 'private property' has endeavoured to be a damaging thorn in the British psyche since the first home or land was ever owned. Over the years it has been the means for unearned gains, bloodsucking inequity and an impossible obstacle for those on low salaries. And if that wasn't criminal, there are the indefinite loopholes in the law as to who owns what, who can afford to buy whom out. There is even the question of "reasonable force" against intruders to your sacred estate i.e, blasting a child out of a tree for scrumping?

Nationalisation is the state acquisition of all private ownership where revenue is returned to the nation rather than the shareholders. Although this move is far easier to lay down in a manifesto than it ever is in practice, it would not mean that the state withdraws all land and property overnight. Instead it signifies a gradual and compromising act using "state-capitalism" where needed and that private owners are compensated for the state's acquisition.

The first move of nationalisation must be for the humane rule of government intervention when businesses first begin to crumble. Perhaps the larger extent of new businesses do eventually fold in and crumble thus sending the hopeful entrepreneur's dreams into oblivion. Many times their conceived empire never even gets heard of. State intervention for business can offer struggling companies far greater resource than if they were ever to go it alone. It would also help establish and sustain new proposals even if the government eventually takes over the business's reigns.

Even agriculture would benefit business-wise, as farmers would not be put under the competitive strain by landowners that normally results in unnatural farming. Mass-produce, force-feeding and GM crops have been a recent scourge of agriculture owing to the greedy expectations of our farmers. Perhaps the intervening state could once again return our land to a golden age of natural free-range farming?

The second move must tackle the obscene financial expectations of home ownership. In the past 20 years or more, taking out a mortgage is an unthinkable task for many homeseekers. Despite so many of the available loans and incentives today, the estimated 30 year mortgage plan is still quite inconceivable for some. There is no telling what percent of homes across the land are repossessed in this time. Just like the dilemma of privately owned businesses, the home can become as an impossible task to maintain without state intervention. This is why so many rented accommodations have been regarded uninhabitable through no fault of the landlord who is stretched beyond their means. In business and in homes, a lack of resource from the unreasonable demands upon the individual inevitably leads to squalor and poverty - the unacceptable face of capitalism.

Widespread nationalisation can for all it's theoretical faults provide proper resource and an acceptable standard of both working and living. The state has the means to maintain that standard and not let if fall below par.

State ownership is inevitably the heart of the Statist Party.



CLASSLESSNESS


The British class system is perhaps the other thorn in our side that has also dogged us from day one proving to be the perennial limit of our achievements. When first coming into power, the former Prime Minister John Major pledged for a classless society, a strange utterance from a Tory PM, something that just goes to show how these ideals are not entirely of the Left. The pledge was never fulfilled and the class system sadly remains. It may not be as prominent as it was in the Victorian era but beneath today's glossed over commercialism and modernisation, the fundamentals of the class divide are as clear as ever.

Education, the root of the British class system has to be our first diagnosis. The quality of education provided in schools such as Eton, Cambridge or Harrow is clashingly different from that of the local comprehensive. Is it any wonder that these children go on to become architects, barristers and merchant bankers whilst the verbally limited youth dismissed by the state school gets condemned to life in the supermarket? The basis of a classless society HAS to begin at school and whatever is taught at Gordenstoun needs to be spared to the comprehensive system also. It is impossible to gain access to any profession without the prior influence as to what that profession actually is. Both children and adults need proper exposure to the wider functioning of the world rather than just the mundaneness they were born to. This is the only way any of us can realistically access the better things in life that we are patronised into believing "are there for the taking " - a falsehood sustaining the class rift.

Apart from education, the class divide is also apparent in varying lifestyles such as region and housing conditions. There are undoubtedly poor and wealthy areas where the inhabitants of either will very rarely come into contact. This is a self-perpetuating syndrome. If you are never exposed to anything beyond your familiar surroundings you can never hope to grow and this in turn breeds a submissive acceptance of hardship.

Nationalisation of industry and housing would create a certain standardised quality in lifestyle that so many are sadly missing out on. If there were such intervening forces to point out that certain standards of living were not acceptable then there would be an incentive to correct the mess and promote the social levelling needed to merge the class rift. This would be a system known as "social appointing." Poor standards of living would be encouraged to develop through both education and lifestyle in the hope that discernable social differences will become a thing of the past. Imagine a system where it eventually became impossible to differentiate between a family raised in a grim suburban council house to a family from the heart of Surrey. Social appointing is all about governmental monitoring and guidance to raise standards and prevent the level of social deterioration that is known about but avoided like the plague i.e. Wayne & Waynetta Slob! It is basically a system of "Big Brother" (original sense of the term) that both guides and watches.

Social appointing need not be exclusive to any school or background but a fine model for all, a deterrent for an underclass and a ceiling breaker for potential. More importantly, an end to this limiting pre-determination known as the class system.



ANTI POVERTY LAW


To find true degeneracy and third world lifestyle, look no further than our streets. The ethos behind conservatism only extols the successes of self-determination whilst turning a blind eye to it's failings. The modern face of poverty is a collection of those who have fallen by the wayside of this perversion of freedom.

No one is ultimately responsible for our ghettos least of all those misfortunate enough to dwell in them. It is only the absence of state intervention and an illusion of personal empowerment that permits anyone to live this way. It's as though the powers-that-be have granted our inner cities the rope needed to repeatedly hang themselves and if this freedom was ever prescribed dismissively to help ignore the rot then an authoritarian measure must be made to put it right.




CULTURAL RESTORATION


It is often thought that a state governed society would result in an "Orwellian" type lifestyle devoid of individuality or culture. Yet the corporate opposite of this theory with it's emphasis of free-enterprise has already developed this.

The degenerate neglect that grows around us particularly in our cities has slowly become acceptable by merging itself into household popular culture, whilst global capitalism continues to swallow up the few things left that we can identify with.

Cultural absence can be far more dangerous that it is boring. It has robbed our vulnerable working classes of an identity and spawned a vacuous youth in it's place who have nothing other to cling to than a cheap culture of text-messaging and Ali G credentials. It has allowed the ugliness of modern corporatism to step in swamping our high streets with commercial outlets totally devoid of character or soul. Starbucks and Coffee Republic have sprung up in place of our once proud cafes only to provide us with everything inferior. Corporate pretensions have long taken over the office with endless irrelevance of life-guru tactics and the alien culture of Americanisation. (Let's not forget the many proud Americans also alienated by this!)

It seems that Mr & Mrs Average have been hijacked from both above and below without an ounce of empowerment to ward of any cultural affront.

The Statist Party aims to stop this rot at all levels:



All food for thought