Owen Jones has written this in the Guardian this morning:
If Labour has a New Year's resolution, it should be to concentrate above all else on an economic alternative that resonates.
He's right.
I'm not saying there is nothing else that Labour can do in the new year that can matter, but this does matter most of all.
I am working on the issue, although not just for Labour, of course. The new book is under way although I do not know the publisher (but at least two are interested).
I will be ensconced in the corner of coffee shops quite a bit over the coming weeks, bashing away. And the aim is to do it quickly, because that is essential. There is no longer any time to waste.
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OK but will someone please make this clear to members of the PLP who would rather spend time taking swipes at Corbyn rather than at the increasingly malignant Tories?
I couldn’t agree more Pilgrim! Why is Labour not rallying around working on a viable alternative that we so desperately need? It’s so heartbreaking…
Is it because the leader is too nice and doesn’t kick enough arse within the party? I don’t know actually. I’m just raising the question.
A question that is not asked enough (and not asked at all in the mainstream media) is whether the most incorrigible and foully negative of the rent-a-quote PLP faction are simply doing what they have been paid to do – honest politicians in the sense that once bought, they stay bought.
“I will be ensconced in the corner of coffee shops quite a bit over the coming weeks, bashing away. And the aim is to do it quickly, because that is essential. There is no longer any time to waste.”
Great news. Thank you!
Indeed-millions of us a reliant on this happening! I offer my own thanks, Richard.
Yes, a sore point that one – but would you just let me finish the Joy of Tax first Richard before you starting writing again otherwise I’ll just fall behind,
Thanks
PSR
Sorry…
Off to write very soon
Once some shopping has been done
I’m still asking the same question – what are Mazzucato/Blanchflower et al. up to? If they are waiting for the Overton Window to change first then that will never happen , it’s got to be forced open!
Don’t blame them
That are advisers
They have to be asked
Not sure I entirely buy that Richard – economists need to communicate more clearly and directly and start speaking out-there’s no firewall separating them from the real world-so I do blame them a bit; after all there are millions suffering from the lack of clear challenge to the status quo and they have the knowledge, position and experience-if they are not being asked, why are they advisors?
Thy are an unpaid panel who meet when called upon to do so
They could quit
That is all the power they have
It is indeed important, although I think it would also be nice to see Labour become more vocal over CETA, which contains the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism that has got so many people (rightly) angry over TTIP. Whilst Labour (under Corbyn’s leadership) has made some critical comments on TTIP, CETA is a more immediate threat and isn’t receiving enough attention from the left in the UK (imo). Early 2016 would be the right time for Labour to change this if they are willing.
I don’t have a petition regarding CETA, but here is one for a referendum on TTIP if anyone is interested:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105856
Have a nice Christmas
I read Owen Jones article and it is very good . I nonetheless have two reservations:
1. Household debt
He fails to distinguish between personal or consumer debt and the speculative, housing bubble component in ‘household debt’. That leaves readers with the impression that this all about personal debt. On the one hand that is fair to the extent that consumer debt is becoming much more of a factor than it was pre-GFC. People aren’t just borrowing to speculate. They are borrowing to get by.
That’s true enough but he has emphasised one point in the absence of another which is confusing for some and a little bit unfortunate.
2. This statement also troubles me a little: “unless Britain’s dire productivity levels increase, current increases in wages will stall”. Journalists, politicians and commentators flippantly refer to the vexed issue of productivity as if it was widely understood. It isn’t.
On the consumer side, productivity gains are of no use in the absence of competition, they are simply captured as an increase in oligopoly profits.
On the wages side, labour productivity gains are useless without regulation or bargaining power, when they do occur they have not translated into higher wages, not lately, not for a long time.
There’s much more to this issue but I will restrict myself to those two salient points, and to be brief, simply note that progressive thinkers should be warned against assuming that a statistical increase in “productivity” will necessarily solve or improve anything.
I share that considerable reservation on the productivity front for a mass of reasons – not least that it requires ever greater material consumption by a growing population
Real wages have been stagnant since the late 70’s despite soaring productivity see: http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Re-examination_of_Productivity_and_Wages.html
So increased productivity is not going to do it as you say.
The gap between the productivity line on the graph (see link) and the stagnant real wage has been filled by bank credit-in short, as the rewards to capital increase the banks ‘rent’ out the currency to the population to ‘compensate’! As Richard Wolff has put it ‘a bankers heaven.’