I criticised Labour in a thread I wrote yesterday. I made it clear that in my opinion its neoliberalism was a danger to the country. It might be better than the Tories on many issues, but candidly by not much right now so wedded is it to the austerity narrative that it, alongside the Tories, promotes to appease the country's financiers.
This upset some Labour supporters on Twitter. For a brief period I saw my follower numbers fall. Then I posted this:
Whether in direct response or not I do not know, but overall the day saw me enjoy more than 1,000 net new Twitter followers, and that is always exceptional.
The point is more important though. I will not do party politics with its implicit requirement that I follow a leader come what may, even if I am quite sure that the party leadership in question is wrong. The whole point of this blog and my other work is to speak truth to power, in the process seeking economic justice for those who are currently denied it.
I do not care if I upset political parties when making the case for what I think is possible for those I most care about. Last week I most definitely upset the SNP. This week it might be Labour. Most weeks it is the Tories. And that does not mean I support the rest.
Instead it means that I think there are better policy options available than most political parties now choose. Why most? Because most are neoliberal and so think themselves beholden to markets.
That, I think is a fundamental error on their parts, because what that really means is that they think of themselves as beholden to those with wealth who dominate those markets through the exercise of their financial power.
I believe it the job of progressive politics to address the inequality implicit in the current relationships of financial power within the UK. No one can do that by appeasing markets. That means appeasing markets has to be contrary to the purpose of progressive politics. It's hardly rocket science to reach that conclusion, and yet it appears to escape most who think themselves politically progressive.
I will continue to criticise Labour and others who do not seek to deliver progressive politics in the interests of most in this country. That's my job when writing this blog. Until someone stops me, that is what I will do.
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Latterly I was feeling very angry at the way the governments in concerns are for the party itself, it’s donors and the city
Having watched Spiders Web on Netflix (about City of London manipulation of offshore tax havens, and recommended watching)
I now feel completely despondent !
I didn’t realise or appreciate how powerful and indeed criminalised they people were
Just keep doing what you do.
I do agree with you and have been appreciating your threads and efforts to educate. However, I wonder if some of you with the knowledge and vision to articulate a better solution for a fairer, workable, people and planet friendly economy for the future should be given a bigger platform to share, discuss and explain these possibilities. Is this something we could push for? Find a like minded and respected TV documentary maker perhaps? The masses won’t get it or see the potential unless the ideas/message is conveyed to them in a easily understandable way. It could usefully come from experts alongside known public figures. What we’ve been missing from the progressive side is that obvious hook to get behind. Not easy and I certainly don’t have all the answers but worth exploring? Hugh Grant seems interested in these ideas…. David Attenborough? Get Caroline Lucas and some other more open MPs involved? Who made that ‘Decade the Rich Won’ programme on BBC? These ideas could be put in a follow up? We need some positively spun (not that the spin would be inauthentic!) solutions to really get behind….
I think zero chance on a major channel
£100k gets a 90 minute documentary with Byline Times
But on YouTube tyst can go a little way
I do not have £100k
I had an email from Mike Galsworthy on Byline Times. They are going to do a 90 minute documentary to tell the truth about Brexit. He has crowdfunded £50,000 in 3 days, and is now looking for an extra £40,000. The 50 would do a one hour one, but the 90 would enable them to hire more experts. Would he consider you as an expert on Brexit, Richard?
I think there are those more expert
The Byline team know me
Ooh Jenw now that is what I’m talking about, first Brexit then one on the new economy??!! Can we pitch it?
This is one about Brexit produced by FT, if it’s of interest
https://youtu.be/wO2lWmgEK1Y
Richard, I am a member of the SNP and was not upset in the least by your comments on their currency policy. I suspect that the same will apply to many Labour members and followers who cannot believe how they feel compelled to support Starmer through gritted teeth because he is the lesser of two evils.
Thank you for keeping to your principles.
Thanks
As a Labour Party member, I agree.
Richard’s criticisms are well founded and best made as an “independent”.
I take a different approach; given that Labour is the “only game in town” to get rid of the Tories, they get my support. However, I do argue in Labour Party policy fora for a different approach than their current one… although I wonder if anyone listens! But in any case, until some form of PR I keep on going as I am.
Equally valid
I noticed your tweet about this book
https://www.routledge.com/Inclusive-and-Sustainable-Finance-Leadership-Ethics-and-Culture/Shah/p/book/9780367759407
in the margin.
Sounds like both Sunak and Starmer should read it.
Yes
I hope to review it soon
£28 a bit steep for me.
My experience of critcising Labour on the Independent (which has a pretty tough moderating line) is that even reasonable comments concerning Labour failings get a range a thin skinned Laborites very unhappy. For example, pointing out the failings of PFI gets them really going (because one is thus criticising the perfection of the B.Liar years & the genius of Brown). They are, in my view, barely better than the Tories is accepting criticism, let alone acting on it. Starmer is likely to be worse (in terms of criticism & recognising constructive criticism), if indeed that were possible.
I think you are right about Starmer. Emma Dent Coad was the only Labour MP for Kensington and Chelsea. She has been banned from standing at the next election as a labour candidate because she smiled at a comment made at a meeting against Starmer. She has been accused of thoughtcrime. Shades of 1984.
Ian Byrne, in Liverpool, was awarded for his work on poverty and food. He has to fight for his seat, having been told by labour HQ that he cares too much about the poor.
Quite sickening for lots of labour members past and present.
Agreed
Labour is so changed in the two and half years that Starmer has been in charge – it doesn’t feel like the same party. The temptation, for the leader of the opposition, to adopt neoliberal policies, can’t simply be explained as a strategy to get an easier ride from the media. He’s gone too far down the road for it to be likely that, when he wins the next election, he will change tactics.
I’m hoping that the Greens will organise and push to get a lot more seats in the next GE and that they’ll continue to work in communities to build an enthusiasm for pushing back, protesting, supporting small businesses and pulling value back down into towns and neighbourhoods. For democracy to work it has to function dynamically, with people with positive ideas as well as critical awareness pushing from the bottom up against top- down government.
PFI was/is such a disaster that it is close to indefensible. A little humility on the subject rather than tantrums would seem appropriate.
You have to keep hammering on with the criticisms or there will be no learning.
Mike, I am willing to bet that you are right about Starmer. I have seen what I think may be indications of the critique you are making in some interviews. I hope we are both wrong. But I am not going to bet on that.
Great to hear. People who vote for x party need to hold x party to account, we commonly all just keep quiet so as not to jeopardise their chance of winning, but this is why Labour end up with no serious policies regarding inequality, that will eventually destroy the economy and the middle class, the SNP generally also follow suit, all to a slower extent than the tories.
The new orthodoxy may not be trickle down, but what has been established in the post trussian era is that all fiscal policy must be tailored to calm the markets, essentially they are the government via their pawns in politics, this doesn’t bode well for ‘a new deal’ type plan for the UK, even micheal gove recognised the treasury and the markets wouldn’t approve of such a plan.
A big part of politics is the creation of narratives for what is going on around us.
Most of these narrative these days I find to be completely false or superficial and are close to reaching their nadir.
Keep it up.
Well said.
One gets the impression that neither Labour nor Tory are particularly open minded – and prepared to actually look at new ideas – for example to challenge to ‘we need to fill the black hole’ by slashing and burning public services even further.
I agree with Richard wholeheartedly on this matter, most of all because I share it. The reason for that is that I recognise that Party is the central problem of our political system. As I say all too often, Party is nothing more than faction (Hume) and it makes our system profoundly ineffective as a mecahnism to improve people’s lives; and especially of those least able to defend themselves.
The issue I have most difficulty with is simply stated. How do we address changing it?
While we have a Party system, I understand that the public requires to use it; but the electorate should never, ever trust it. Any lifelong supporter of a political Party, on the other hand seems to me to have departed politics altogether, for vain dabbling in a cult. I regret to say that over my life my confidence that the British public’s capacity to figure out when it is being conned by Party snake-oil salesmen, has sharply declined. The development of the technology of Big Tech in social media and the corporate internet has refined the capacity of the public to be mugged by corporatised political Parties. This the toxic future that awaits us; imminently.
John, I agree with Richard, too, but not because what he says is in agreement with what I think but because his argument accords with the way the system actually operates. What the Tory and Labour parties say is a neoliberal fantasy that suits the rich. I know you think this way yourself from previous comments you have made. I think we are in substantial agreement here, merely expressing our views differently. At least I trust that is the case.
Larry, a neat ‘put down’, but I think it just begged the question why I share the same view with Richard; which I then laid out fairly clearly in my comment.
For once I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Warren.
It appears that with less than a year to go until New Zealand’s next elections, Jacinda Ardern’s coat is on a shoogly peg – if you’ll forgive the Scottish vernacular.
The reason appears to be that the opposition party (National Party – centre right) has a relatively new leader who is following the example of the Tories here and moving his party so far to the right that it has almost ‘outrighted’ the ACT -the far right and using the same smearing, lying, character assassination and snake oil that is being lapped up and amplified by the bloggers, anti vaxers, and anti-anything that the Labour Party introduce.
I understand the latest dirty tricks are being used against Jacinda’s attempts to fluoridise 100% of NZ water – at present only 60% is currently fluoridated.
Well you can guess the rest.
‘
I think that lots of the content poured in this blog could be used around the world, not just the UK. Its independent approach to economics, politics and its center being people makes it so verifiable.
Sometimes I wish Mr. Murphy would write now and then something about current economics in the European Union too.
But aniways, thank you so much for your daily sincere efforts, that very much deserve even more recognition.
Warmest regards,
Javier
I am just too busy
Agreed, I’ve had enough of tribalism in politics in that silly Westminster bubble. Nothing but politicking, but it’s the policies that matter. It is even worse in America, political parties become institutions, only group think economists and political strategists have a chance at having any real influence and so we carry on with the status quo