The issue of welfare reform has become a moral-soaked battleground for Labour and looks unlikely to end without significant blood-letting. The combatants may be staggering towards some negotiated deal ahead of next Tuesday’s vote – but the wounds will be a long time healing.
Elsewhere, the morality rhetoric was ramped up further with talk of the “moral imperative” of liberating the nation’s 10 million people of working age from a benefits trap, which deprives them of the dignity that work brings, and its emotional and material rewards.
Yet in the rapidly swelling ranks of rebels (now sitting at more than 120), there is moral outrage from those who believe that Labour – of all parties – should be protecting the disabled and most vulnerable.
Opponents make a compelling moral argument by pointing to the Government’s own analysis that the cuts risks pushing a quarter of a million people into poverty, including 50,000 children. It is thought that 3.2 million families in total would be left less well off.
But, of course, morality is entirely subjective. The Fore people of Papua New Guinea practiced endocannibalism: eating their relatives when they died, believing it was the moral way to honour them and ensure a successful passage to the afterlife. They thought burying the dead was cruel. Whereas here we honour our dead by burying them and erecting headstones.
square HUGO GYE The Labour left has scored its biggest victory yet over Keir Starmer
Read More
Moral authority is earned not by the strength of the belief, but by the ability to convince others of it. And a “moral argument” is actually just like any other argument, where people with opposing outlooks, opinions and desires for different outcomes slug it out, prefixing their case with “moral” to persuade/shame others into alignment.
It certainly didn’t convince the 51 rebels with smaller majorities than there are PIP claimants in their constituency. It didn’t even convince many of those still loyal to Starmer.
Most of the rebels agree welfare reform is needed. But they also know the Treasury pushed this plan too far to ker-ching the cash. The moral argument lost credibility and the ability to “convince others”.
But the Government went to a morality street fight armed with a teaspoon, up against tooled-up folk in wheelchairs, those with visual impairments and carers for disabled children. Those people didn’t just take the moral high ground; they entirely colonised it.
Craft is also a great example of why DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) still matters. Only by having people with diverse experiences and opinions can robust decisions be made that will convince others.
Alison Phillips is a former editor of the ‘Daily Mirror’; she won Columnist of the Year at the 2018 National Press Awards
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Keir Starmer is losing the moral argument on welfare )
Also on site :