Labour’s first hundred years of life which the party is celebrating this year should be an occasion for all those who believe in its ideals to reflect about them and about how they matter as of now. How they should be laid out. How they should be implemented. How they should be renewed.
In its lifetime, the LP has experienced diverse changes, went through dramatic events, implemented hugely important reforms, made big and small mistakes, accomplished enormous progress for the country as a whole. At times it got stagnant, at others it got renewed.
A reflection about all this should allow no margins for any sentiment of cultural or intellectual inferiority in the way by which we consider and evaluate the realities we live in. That is what occasionally happened during the last hundred years, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. In this way, the values... indeed the prjeudices... of persons distant from, or of adversaries to the LP got fitfully injected into Labour discourse. Meanwhile those who preached with total holiness against the LP would have been frequently time after time, been serving as covers for the worst instances of arrogance and abuse.
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CHANGES OR REFORM?
All change is getting the reform label.
There was a time when “reform” stood for a radical transformation of affairs, intended to make the situation improve greatly, whether it was already flourishing or in bad shape. Even Luther’s reformation which for centuries was pilloried as a total sin in the Catholic world, now has become recognized as having promoted a worthwhile transition towards a cleaner religious practice.
Nowadays, if some pavements get spattered with a lighter blend of tarmac, you have been gifted with a reform. If school gates are kept shut on the right hand instead of the left hand side, there again, you have witnessed a reform. And if street cleaning takes place every third day instead of every second one,... oh, again there, that’s a reform.
In this country I reckon that the person who carries most responsibility for such a devaluation of “reform” is former PN minister Louis Galea. When in charge of social affairs, he introduced the fashion of claiming every light touch to policy was actually a reform.
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CAPITAL MARKETS
In the establishment of the single European market, a central link is still far from becoming a reality. It would allow for the funds that get invested by banks, major and smaller corporations plus ordinary individuals to travel all over Europe and get traded. All this would tie in with how the European economy could develop at a rate which would extract maximum advantage from its continental dimension.
In the last ten years, the European Commission strived to channel policy measures towards such a direction. Success was minimal. Now a second attempt is being made. The Commission shall shortly announce a new plan by which to promote convergence between the different national capital markets. At the European parliament, we are preparing a resolution that has the same aims.
However, a fundamental problem is that Europe lacks a culture where citizens and families invest their savings in equities. They prefer to deposit them in banks.