Last chance to get back on course

Today will be the last state opening of this parliament, and Gordon Brown will produce what will, in reality, be a "wish list" of things he would like to do now that there are probably only 70 sitting days until parliament is dissolved for the general election campaign.

The latest opinion polls on the back of the Glasgow by-election show a small increase in Labour support but still a depressingly large Conservative lead.

The political classes and punditry all offer some analysis of Brown's problems, but in reality are talking up the prospect of a Conservative government, not analysing Conservative policy and generally giving Cameron an incredibly easy ride.

The Liberal Democrats, after proposing huge public-spending cuts at their conference, have since realised how unpopular they are and are saying nothing more about them, and accept Nick Clegg's proposal that we spend 70 days reforming the British constitution.

As ever, the PM appears to be indecisive and very cautious. I would hope that in the last few months of this parliament, he could at least concentrate on three crucial issues - wars, environment and inequality.

During his speech in the City, amid all the splendour of the Lord Mayor's banquet, he made a lame attempt at justifying the Afghan war on the rather spurious grounds that it somehow made Britain safer.

At the same time, he indicated that the British military presence there had not succeeded in either occupying, pacifying or controlling the country, and that he would host a conference on handing "authority" over to the Afghan government.

In the 1970s and '80s, the United States realised that the game was up in Vietnam and moved into "Vietnamisation." I hope that Brown's latest statement is a coded version of abandoning the whole misguided strategy in Afghanistan.

With all the losses, carnage and costs, it's a shame that Brown cannot just accept that the whole strategy has been wrong from the very beginning, making the world more dangerous and costing the lives of thousands of people who didn't deserve to die.

US President Barack Obama is clearly going through a huge debate with his military, and one hopes that he will not put another 40,000 troops into Afghanistan and follow the McChrystal line of total occupation.

Moving on to the vital issue of the environment, next month, the Copenhagen summit will possibly agree on a global response to the environmental disasters that we're heading into, but the omens are not good. In Rome, the very same leaders have so far failed to agree on a strategy for dealing with the food crisis. Instead, they've allowed the rich countries to carry on buying land in Africa and other places in order to guarantee their own food security, while the starving local populations look on. It's the same poor people all over the world who suffer the consequences of draught, flooding and desertification of their lands, and are forced to migrate to the fetid shanty towns that surround every big city in the southern half of the globe.

Copenhagen must be about dealing with inequality and social justice, at the same time as protecting the environment.

Inequality in Britain is yet another issue that ought to dominate the next election campaign. New Labour has deliberately encouraged greater personal wealth, while simultaneously putting more money into the services that have benefited many of the poorest in our society, such as tax credits, nursery places and children's centres.

The stark reality is that we have one of the most unequal societies in Europe.

A Tory government would do nothing to change this except perhaps to make it worse, with the promotion of tax havens and the reduction if not total abolition of inheritance tax.

Last Saturday, the Labour Representation Committee met and discussed a number of proposals for protecting jobs, promoting trade union rights and reducing inequality within our society.

Brown would do well to pledge that there will be no cuts in socially valuable public spending. He should announce greater investment in housing, railway infrastructure and a continuing programme of direct investment in the health service.

The only cuts should be in the Trident nuclear missile system and defence spending.

He would also do well to announce the protection of pensions and end the bid to privatise any part of the Royal Mail. The banking crisis of 2008 was bailed out with huge public investment. That investment should be used to create a socially responsible and accountable banking system which does not allow the private sector to once again transform Britain into a casino economy.

The broadcast media and most of the newspapers have reduced political debate either to personalities or to the endorsement of the concept of a Tory victory next year.

We need to show that there is an alternative to increasing defence expenditure, cutting social spending and creating even greater inequality.

It's up to the Labour Party to rediscover itself and offer a radical alternative that conquers inequality and poverty.