As I mentioned on Sunday, I spoke yesterday at an event organised by Policy Exchange at the Labour Party conference. The theme was an alternative economic policy. These were my speaking notes. They were based on what I wrote yesterday:
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Thanks for sharing with those of us who couldn’t/wouldn’t be at the LP conference. Some good, pithy, soundbites in there which could go down well with the public if used. Given how the conference season unfolds – the pantomime and gamesmanship if you like – it’s going to be interesting to see how May’s conservative party attack everything that gets said this week. I’ve no doubt intervention and strong regulation will form the butt of the Tory attack (their usual, simplistic, retreat to the “red tape” argument), as will the proposed increase in the minimum/living wage (as signaled by the hostility shown to it by the CBI yesterday), so I hope that Corbyn and co are ready with some clear and strong rebuttals. But we can be sure they’ll be no recognition of the argument that neoliberalism is dead. To be honest, Tories would rather the mass of the population are dragged down to destitution and penury by neoliberalism’s rotting corpse than do anything to upset their pay and puppet masters. But then again, they are ideologically and intellectually incapable of recognising the problem, much less doing anything about it.
At the risk of being partisan, I agree
I believe Labour needs to use examples from everyday life to show why the free market fails to deliver what it’s backers claim is its superiority.A good example would be housing where prices are beyond most people’s incomes while the number of houses being built is only half of what the country needs.The government I believe is giving out subsidised mortgages which have helped a lucky few while not really addressing the high prices and lack of affordable housing.Before Thatcher and the sale of council houses these problems didn’t really exist because both Labour and Tory governments knew that only by controlling the supply of housing could you avoid the problems we see today.Other examples could be lack of skilled workers again the free market fails requiring the U.K. to import them when the economy is booming.A future Labour government with plans to build our economy will first need to address this problem otherwise it could become stuck very quickly especially after Brexit.While John McDonald’s plans are bold he really needs to explain why government intervention and spending is necessary otherwise the media and others will just rubbish everything to maintain the present system.
Good point
Your model of tax controlling inflation is a more just model. This must deeply enter the Labour policy narrative. Yes we do need to recognise government invests in economies and people’s WELL BEING. It always will be in deficit. Otherwise it is not doing its job
Well, I’m looking at this morning’s papers and already I see stuff about Labour being in ‘La La Land’ and even Union Officials pouring scorn on what they’ve heard.
I wonder what the reaction would be if Labour has used your material verbatim ? The same perhaps?
I find it amazing that we are in such a mess but current reaction seems to be to deny ourselves the opportunity to at least TRY these ideas. An yet twice a week, people part with their money to win the lottery – an even more remote objective than anything that has been suggested by you up to now and Labour as of yesterday.
Absurdity – thats what we are wallowing in – it’s like standing their next to a lifebuoy and watching someone drowning in the water instead of chucking the damn thing in to help them.
Great speech outline. I would prefer, though, to see cooperation instead of partnership, which implies a more formal way of working together. I discovered cooperation as fundamental to profitability over thirty years ago in my initial work on supply chains with Xerox, Motorola and Chrysler. Hence my book “beyond Negotiation”.
To Derek Toynes: I can give you any number of examples of productive cooperation, but do not wish to clog this blog. Email me at jcashby@btinternet.com if you wish to pursue the offer.
I spoke next at the Cooperative Party….
To John Carlisle
I’m sure you could show me numerous examples of co-operative production but in a society that is based on free market economics you get houses that most people without subsidised mortgages can’t afford.That due to the roller coaster nature of boom and bust you get skilled shortages when you not only want to build more house’s but all the other things society need requiring the import of skilled workers.I am quite aware the government can’t do everything but as Richard as explained numerous times a society that thinks it’s fine to break the rules or avoid paying its fair share of tax to gain an advantage only helps a minority.
Derek, I was not saying that cooperation is a feature of UK business. It is the exception in the UK, but the norm in those overseas companies eating our lunch, and rightly, because their quality is much better, the production costs are lower and innovation higher. They succeed because they are using a much more effective model of organisational economics based on interdependence, and not on bonuses and cost-cutting. (If you have a moment please read Chris Benjamin’s remarkable take down of UK business leaders to this effect – Strutting on Thin Air.)
I know how to bring this about, having done it.
Boom and bust in the housing market is because we do not have enough public stock. Not everyone needs to buy a house. They just need somewhere to live, i.e. housing associations.
We need to bring more organisational economic thinking into our models that we offer the Labour party, a la Herbert Simon. This will complement the political and macro economic stance that pervades this blog. As Lenin said: “In he end all things must still be done”!
I believe we agree on most points such as council house sales being an unmitigated disaster and how different economic models are much better than the model which requires cost-cutting and bonuses to function.Unfortunately cost-cutting and the bonus setup dominates the free market and which is the core reason why you get boom and bust which only helps a minority.