GE 2019 - Notes From the Late Great Harry Leslie Smith

Sadly Harry Leslie Smith died late last year in his mid-90s.

But his wise words live on.

I want to pay tribute to him in these blogs by quoting from his last book 'Don't Let My Past Be Your Future.'

"The more Britain slips down the rabbit hole of Brexit, the harder it is to imagine that we will ever be able to preserve our NHS or maintain and improve our welfare state. It will take us years to try and establish trade deals that will keep our standard of living even at the current, equal level."

"Britain has the highest level of income inequality for all G20 countries, according to studies conducted by Equality Trust UK. The divide between the haves and have nots in Britain hasn’t been this great since the 1930s."

"The years 2016–17 across much of Europe felt more like 1938 before the storms of war swept across the globe. I was made acutely aware of this when I visited the infamous and now disbanded Calais Jungle where thousands of refugees from wars in the Middle East and Africa congregated, in conditions I have not seen since the Second World War, in an effort to find a safe haven in Britain across the channel. It confirmed to me that our western world is sitting atop a funeral pyre built from the injustices of corporatism and arrogant greed. The match has been lit and a fire smoulders just below our democracies..."

Harry Leslie Smith

'It is a vital and powerful voice speaking across generations about the struggle for a just society' Jeremy Corbyn

THIS A CALL TO ARMS FOR THE MANY, NOT THE FEW: DON'T LET THE PAST BECOME OUR FUTURE

Harry Leslie Smith was a great British stalwart. A survivor of the Great Depression, a Second World War veteran, a lifelong Labour supporter and a proud Yorkshire man, Harry's life straddled two centuries. As a young man, he witnessed a country in crisis with no healthcare, no relief for the poor, and a huge economic gulf between the North and South. 

Britain is at its most dangerous juncture since Harry's youth - the NHS and social housing are in crisis, whilst Brexit and an unpopular government continue to divide the country - but there is hope. Just as Clement Attlee provided hope in 1945, Labour's triumphant comeback of June 2017 was a beacon of light ...Britain has overcome adversity before and will do so again - a new nation will be forged from the ashes of grave injustice.

Moving and passionate, Don't Let My Past be Your Future interweaves memoir and polemic in a call to arms. Above all, this book is a homage to the boundless grace and resilience of the human spirit. (From Amazon)