Guest Blog | Jul 31, 2026 | No Comments |
An end to political harm?
Mo Stewart – Time to end political harm
(external links below will open in a new browser tab or window)
Currently watching the new occupant of Number 10 with a modicum of hope is Mo Stewart, research lead for the Preventable Harm Project.
She too has been appalled by the apparent indifference of successive administrations to the harm caused to some of the most vulnerable people in society by the hostility of the benefits system towards disabled claimants.
Is it possible that this government will finally see a change to the decades of neoliberal politics that have brought us to our current state?
Mo Stewart: An End to Political Harm
A new leader of the Labour Party, a new Prime Minister (PM) and, at last, a new political leader who the general public can relate to, with a very amenable personality. It makes a pleasant change to see a UK PM who is clearly very comfortable speaking with members of the public from all walks of life.
Whilst his appointment as PM may have been atypical in how he arrived in that position, Andy Burnham has demonstrated his determination to help with the relentless cost of living crisis, with small policy changes in his first week in office which will not make a huge financial difference to anyone, but is going in the right direction.
He does identify the political harm generated by decades of neoliberal politics, and his identified concern due to the Thatcher years and successive neoliberal administrations is well publicised.
It is refreshing to find a senior politician who openly speaks out against Thatcher, listing the political harm she generated as demonstrated in detail by the ‘right-to-buy’ policy, adopted in the 1980s, which caused the housing crisis that’s now costing £billions in housing benefit. Thatcher’s failure to permit new council and social housing to be built as more and more were sold off has generated the housing crisis, with many families forced into temporary accommodation, which is often unfit for habitation, with no-one held to account.
In an interview with the BBC it was encouraging to learn that Burnham identified the hostility towards benefit claimants by recent administrations which caused more harm, as he identified the failure of successive administrations to provide the necessary help and support for those in greatest need. He doesn’t seem to approve of blanket cuts to benefits, and identifies with the political harm imposed by successive administrations failing to solve the social policy crisis by attacking benefit claimants. And let’s not forget the biggest political harm of all is the relentless political attacks against the long-term chronically ill and disabled community who are unable to work.
In the recent past thousands of those in greatest need have died when, covertly, killed by the State. I live in hope that, with Andy Burnham in charge, this political brutality will end.
Be the first to comment.