Malta’s Labour Party should learn from mistakes of Blair’s third-way politics

The rise of traditionally left politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, along with the scepticism of current crop of world leaders, has started a rethink in the way the public views the third-way politics that rose to prominence in 1990s unde

You joined Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn’s staff at a relatively young age. What was that experience like?

Nothing can you prepare you for the experience. There is no communications or PR job that’s like it in terms of the pressure you’re under. Everyday there is political news, everyday there is a story.

I was the point of contact in the Leader’s office and I was effectively Corbyn’s spokesperson who worked primarily with the press lobby. There are more than a dozen different newspapers and each one will have three or four journalists in Parliament, so that’s anywhere between 50 to 100 people looking for news, gossip... trying to generate content to justify their existence. At the worst moments, particularly during the Leadership challenge after the Brexit referendum, I was dealing with about 80 to 100 calls and texts per day.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have the support of the party who worked against the leadership because he was insurgent leftwing outsider in the party. That’s changed since the election thankfully because they’ve got no choice but to back him.

Political apathy among younger demographics seems to be growing around Europe and western countries. How was Jeremy Corbyn able to build such momentum over the last year especially among younger voters?

I think it’s his authenticity. Similar to Bernie Sanders in America, he’s had consistent positions for the last 30 years. I feel that young people especially have grown cynical and disillusioned with politics, as it hasn’t done a lot for them. In the UK, tuition fees have trebled and there’s a housing crisis.

There are young people who are just starting out their careers who are probably never going to be able to own a home with the way things are going.

And then Corbyn comes along and says, “this is what I think, this is what I’ve always thought, I want to change the system and make it fairer” and give young people a reason to vote for them.

He’s promised to abolish tuition fees, end austerity, invest infrastructure, and deal with the NHS crisis. It made a lot of sense to people and they warmed up to him. They know he’s real, authentic, and at the end of the day he performed very well in the election.

Why do you think that is?

When the manifesto leaked, a lot of media outlets were very intrigued by it. What ended up happening was that the three or four days from the leak to its publication people were talking about the labour party. Even the right wing press, who were actually attacking proposals like higher taxes for the top 5% and the renationalisation of the railways, which ended up being popular policies with their readers too.

Corbyn also got the opportunity to speak with his own voice. Broadcast regulations ensure that both parties get significant coverage during an election, and I think the more the people saw of him, the more they liked him.

I think it is an excellent manifesto, it was clear and dealt with the issues of a stagnating economy and wages. Living standards were squeezed which was caused by the financial sector, people felt injustice by those who caused the crisis.

Since the 1990s third-way Labour in Malta emerged throughout the world, with Joseph Muscat an admirer of Tony Blair and his policies, and to some extent the Nationalist Party over the last couple of years. Given the repercussions caused by third-way Labour governments, particularly in the UK, do you think it can be a success?

When you implement policies that are centred around economic growth, you have to ensure that the economic growth is shared equitably across the country and society, in every corner, in every demographic.

New Labour saw the top line economic GDP growth figure and it assumed that everyone is doing well without understanding what was actually happening was that in some parts of the economy people were actually doing worse because of the deregulation of the market and industry. In some sectors immigration did have an effect, that’s true.

The question then becomes

what do you do to address that? Is the government doing enough to offset the effects of their macroeconomic policies? In my opinion, what the Malta Labour Party has to keep in mind is that, it’s fine to go down the road of European integration which is benefitting the economy as a whole, but needs to weary and learn from the lessons of the new labour project.

There were areas in the economy, particularly when it involved unskilled labour, that were left behind and felt like they were not sharing this economic growth. What ended up happening in the UK, is that traditional Labour voters thought to themselves that the current system was not working in their favour or interests, so they ended up voting for UKIP, they ended up voting for Brexit.

It's companies exploiting cheap migrant labour that drives down wages in some sectors, and people left behind by economic growth give the right an anti immigrant narrative that could be exploited by the Nationalists.

It really is important for the Labour Party, and in their own interest, to improve material wealth for everyone, even if it means greater redistribution by the taxing the wealthy more.

You currently work in the antigambling lobby and have done so over the last few years. What drew you to the field?

I was addicted to gambling when I was younger, especially to fixed odds betting terminals, which are available on high streets. I’ve been working in this field since 2012 really, except the year I took out to work with Corbyn. It looks like we are on the verge of significant progress by reducing the bet to £2 per spin.

What draws me to it now is the predatory capitalism of the betting industry, who target typically deprived areas, as low income individuals are more likely to get addicted to gambling. This has an effect on local economies because of the money being lost to this market instead of going to more productive uses in the community. There are multiple factors, but the government is in the process of a review, with a consultation process taking place in January with the view that a position paper can be presented in March.

Gamban, an app dedicated to help gambling addiction has recently been launched. Could you elaborate more on the project?

At the moment, if you get addicted and self-exclude, you are only banning yourself from one site. Gamban is able to ban individuals from every site in the world. It works on Mac, Windows, and Android, and if you download it, it can only be uninstalled by ourselves.

There is still a problem with native apps, but we’ve opened up a dialogue with Apple to close this loophole.

And is it available internationally or just within the UK?

Absolutely, the software works wherever you are and applies to every jurisdiction. There are 40,000 gambling sites in the world and our software blocks all of them.

It seems that fixed odds betting terminals have gone online with the amount of slot type games there are on their websites, are preventative measures being taken in the UK?

Currently there are no limits online and legislation only applies to land-based gambling machines, but there should be, online gambling needs to be curbed as well.

It appears that over the last few years online gambling industry has grown substantially. Do you think that the tax and regulatory system in Malta has given a competitive edge to gaming and gambling companies?

I think so, the sustainability of the online gambling industry in Malta will depend on ensuring high standards of social responsibility and avoiding a regulatory clampdown in the jurisdictions within which companies based in Malta do most of their business.

What government needs to be weary of is that when a lot of operators who are based in Malta either because of tax reasons or regulation, you end up having a situation where regulators go to these large gaming conferences and sell their jurisdiction, almost becoming facilitators rather than regulators, which can have negative impact on the Maltese population, and the European population as a whole.

Currently, if you want to operate in Britain, you have to have a licence from the Gambling Commission, which has begun to set out sterner regulations.

I think that operators should start to pay more attention to social responsibility, which is what the British regulator is starting to demand, sanctions have been implemented and fines have been handed out.

As somebody who has been heavily involved in politics from a young age, what would advice would you give to people who want to effect real change?

It’s important for young people to feel like they have a stake in the political system.

I believe that in a two party system the most effective way of creating change is joining the party and trying to change it from within.

That’s always been my approach and I think it’s been pretty effective over here with the formation of Momentum and the emergence of the new left in Britain.

In Italy there is an organisation based on Momentum, and it would be fantastic if there was a similar organisation in Malta, which will move the Labour Party to the left and introduce policies that directly benefit young people.