The workers must be given tangible proof that Labour administration means something different from capitalist administration, and in a nutshell this … - George Lansbury

'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' was the basis of policy where jobs and contracts were concerned ... the slum owner and agent could be depended upon to create the conditions which produce disease; the doctor would then get the job of attending the sick, the chemist would be needed to supply drugs, the parson to pray, and when, between them all, the victims died the undertaker was on hand to bury them.

I hope that out of this terrible calamity there will arise a real spirit, a spirit that will compel people to give up reliance on force, and that perhaps this time humanity will learn the lesson and refuse in the future to put its trust in poison gas, in the massacre of little children and universal slaughter. Mr. Gladstone once said, from the other side of the House, that the cause he represented was going down, but he was sure the day would come when it would triumph. There cannot be a man or woman in this assembly to-day who takes part in the Prayers in this House, every day, and there cannot be any men or women who go to church and believe in their faith but must in their hearts believe that sooner or later, if mankind is to live in freedom and peace, there is only one way by which it can do that, and that is by a complete and entire change of mind and outlook, which enables us to see ourselves in other people and God in everybody.

Here in Britain the Socialist movement is struggling to establish a Socialist state and is confronted with a form of centralized capitalism; which shows quite remarkable signs of vitality. This apparent vitality of British capitalism; has discouraged many Socialists, who point with derision at the present concentrated and over- dictatorial form of the trade unions, and ask us if we ever hope to create a Socialist state with such an implement as the contemporary Trade Union movement. But this certainly is no time for despair. British capitalism; is as fragile as any other capitalism;, and it is only showing signs of life now, firstly because it has more places in which it can distribute its surplus goods than has any other capitalism;, and secondly, because of the artificial stimulus the rearmament boom has given to the heavy industries. British capitalism; cannot possibly remain as it is, any more than Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy can continue as they are to-day. Nor can the British trade unions for long suppress their Left Wing.