The Labour Party was founded by the trade unions and later developed into a federal structure of local constituency parties, trades and Labour councils, and socialist societies.

The link with the trade unions has always been under attack, either legislatively by successive Tory governments, or by the right wing of the Labour Party.

As we move into a period of post-election examination of the reasons for Labour’s loss — despite having had five years of austerity under the coalition government — there are those who think the way back for Labour is to move further from the centre ground, and that the election campaign was too “left wing.”

Ed Miliband tried very hard and certainly presented a very convincing argument on zero-hours contracts, rights at work, the Health and Social Care Act as well as abolishing the non-dom status on taxation.

The party’s ill-advised and unpleasant journey into the territory of immigration certainly was very harmful in the many inner-city constituencies and in areas where Ukip were pushing very hard — it actually fed into the ridiculous arguments, being advanced by Farage and others, that immigration was the cause of all problems.

The left votes in the election as a whole were either for Labour or for the Greens (who secured a million votes), with very few for left parties such as the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (Tusc).

The Greens presented an anti-austerity image, which undoubtedly attracted some support by those disillusioned with the prospect of a Labour government that would implement an austerity package to rebalance the debt within one parliament — albeit with significant changes in some areas of policy.

There’s no question that we also lost votes to Ukip regarding the general cynism of politicians, which has been an increasing factor in public life for a long time.

In Scotland the SNP also presented an anti-austerity message even though their financial proposals for fiscal independence would appear to mean there would be even greater cuts in Scotland than there currently are.

In the new parliament the Tories have launched themselves with a flourish, attacking in the Queen’s speech trade union rights, the supply of council housing and reducing the benefit cap even further which will have a devastating effect on high rent costs in inner city areas.

The idea that anyone renting in London can afford to pay more than they already do is unthinkable.

This parliament will also be expected to vote on the replacement of the Trident nuclear missile system in 2016 thus committing £100bn of public money on our very own WMD.

London’s anti-austerity march and demonstration on June 20 is expected to be huge. Many on that march will not necessarily have voted Labour in the election, but certainly would not have wished to see the Tories in action, nor a continuation of the economic strategy of the last five years.

Much is made in the analysis of the election of “aspiration” and this is usually defined by the armchair commentators as being an individual rather than a collective phenomenon.

Maybe it’s time that we dedicated ourselves much more to ending the gross inequality in Britain, the homeless and housing crisis, and the need for a million people to use foodbanks just to survive.

We should never be ashamed or afraid to stand up for the poorest and most marginalised. That, after all is what brought socialists and trade unionists together.

Let us dispense with inappropriate words like “handouts” in this debate. Welfare is a right that is about each and everyone one of us being housed, educated, fed and kept in good health — the hallmarks of a civilised society.