As I noted in June, I was very surprised that my old friend Danny Blanchflower had signed a letter to the Guardian by a range of what I thought to be pro-establishment economists supporting Labour's economic policy in the run-up to the general election.
Danny and I have worked together, loosely styling ourselves 'the Mile End Road economists' to suggest that we are looking at the world from the perspective of the person outside the wall of the City of London. The road in question heads for London's East End. Its destination, a mile beyond the walls, was the venue for the final acts in the Peasants' Revolt.
I was, therefore, delighted to find that over the weekend, Danny had decided that he had got this one wrong and called out Labour in a whole series of Tweets. He began with this:
Amongst the others was this:
It seems we're back in action.
When I asked Dany what the plan was, he confirmed to me that it is what I have been suggetsing all along.
Danny hits one of the themes on which he is an expert when commenting on this apparent change of heart. First, there was this:
The link between mental health, well-being and economics has been a recurring theme in Danny's work. The new paper shows rates of depression in the UK are rising. Nothing Labour is doing is going to address that, as Danny notes here:
This is my great concern: Labour's obsessions are doing nothing at all for most people.
I admit that I admire Danny for admitting the error. It's hard to do that. He's welcome back.
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This is terrific news. Thank g*d. Now, you two can get back to work.
Why did danny leave twitter for so long? Anti Musk?
He was blocked by Musk
In a way this country gets what it deserves. It’s very much a directionless democracy with most people running around with old shibboleths in their heads about economics and the way the monetary system works that takes the country nowhere. You have to ask what is the point of many university economics courses other than to perpetuate this nonsense!
I ask that question
Danny seems to have been ill-used.
Now, lets see some payback!!
Always good when old friends reconcile!!!
I am somewhat puzzled by Mr Blanchflower’s statement that he had hope wrt LINO. I recall a +/- consensus amongst most of us commentators (& Richard generated a list of how LINO would fail) that nothing would change. +/- 2 months after the electoral farce nothing has & there are zero indications that anything will.
I am, I hope, an optimist by nature, but optimism allowed to run unchecked can lead to great dissapointment. LINO has not disspointed me – because – based on ALL the endless statements they made pre-election there were ZERO grounds to think they would change anything. & lo it has come to pass. Nothing, nada, zero, zlich has changed.
We joked about them being the tory-continuity party – they are, it is not a joke & it will sooner or later have dire consequences.
Thus I am puzzled, given all that LINO said……. – on what did Mr Blanchflower base his “hope”?
I do not know
But I suspect recall of Labour before they were LINO and not on analysis
Or perhaps, blind faith and stupidity?
Where have all the contributors to this site gone who were explaining over and over that Labour was merely covering its intentions so as not to alarm the MSM, and come their election they would revert to all their supporters expected of them?
Vanished without trace, I think. Like hope.
What scares me about Labour is their recent assertion that “things will get worse before they get better”. This sounds like George Osborne with his assertion that we needed a dose of austerity and then the economy would bloom. It didn’t. There was no expansive deflation (what was that nonsense?).
Labour appear to be about to repeat austerity.
I fear the vacuum of leadership in the UK – and the lack of a vision for the society that Labour may want to aspire to facilitating. Even if they are blinded by the economic orthodoxy ingrained since the [1970’s] – and the standard economic advisors – where is their moral vision?
I see that Starmer is now cautioning of about no quick fix (really, Sherlock?). JFK said in his inaugural address, “All this will not be finished in the first 100days. Nor will it be finished in he first 1000 days; nor in the life of this administration; nor even perhaps in our lifetime of this planet. But let us begin …”. He then calls for people to “rejoice in hope” — and then “[…. to embark upon] a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself. […] ask not what you can do [….blah blah] “.
In contrast and to paraphrase. Starmer says …. “let me assure you of the punishment” – whilst not mentioning the possibility of any carrots.
Also worth noting the motivation in the Marshall Plan: “to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos”.
In contrast, we’ve got our leaders setting out their position: It’s gonna hurt …. the credit card is maxxed out ….. poverty, physical and mental health are declining, education being only for the well off ……
Completely agree with Blanchflower. This country cannot take any more talk of austerity the mental health of the nation is shot. After the Starmer speech this morning is nation is now paralysed with the fear for 2 months over what the next budget will include. Not a recipe for growth.
New New Labour have shifted from 1997’s DReam and Things Can Only Get Better to 2024’s Dante and Abandon All Hope.
The only difference between Reeves and Osborne is that Gideon swung the austerity axe with ill disguised relish whilst Reeves will do so with faux concern and a sad face. The result will be the same: any nascent growth cut off at the kneecaps and a retrenchment of stagnation and ongoing collapse for all but the elite
Disappointingly, I certainly wouldn’t put it past Reeves to think that ‘Expansionary Austerity’ might be feasible if it was carried out with the best intentions and a bit less maliciously.
This seems especially likely with Cooper (with Balls in the background cheering her on, no doubt) in a senior role. I seem to recall that Balls had himself locked into a nonsensical ‘fiscal rule’ of falling debt to GDP back in 2015, as seems to be the case with politicians of most stripes ever since.
Your memory is correct
Thank you for the good news, Richard.
@ Richard: Further to my comments here and on Naked Capitalism, I’m sure Danny’s aware, but, if not, you may want to point out the scale of Starmer, Reeves and Streeting, to name just three, outsourcing their thinking to Tony Blair’s donors / owners to him.
I was in Normandy for the long week-end, largely for the horse racing, and, perhaps due to being overseas and being able to compare two countries I know well, recalled meetings with Cameron, Osborne and Reeves either side the 2010 election and their reckoning that immiseration is not just needed economically, but to get people, i.e. us (the great unwashed) to buck their ideas up. Cameron, on the other hand, said he planned to work pretty much 9 – 5 as he had a family and, to use his expression, needed to “chillax”. Clegg was similar and explained that his family and he would stay in SW London rather than move to his Sheffield Hallam constituency. The elitist yahoos imply that the harder life becomes for ordinary people, the less likely the public will raise their collective heads and think beyond daily survival.
I don’t think the public understands / appreciates how sociopathic much, if not most, of our ruling class is. Schofield is right about the insouciance that allows this to persist.
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different. ”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
This is what you are essentially talking about Colonel Sir.
That was an astute observation.
There is, I think, some truth in it.
Nothing encourages investment more than a gloomy outlook. Way to go Kier! *slow handclap*
What was Labour’s slogan a month ago? – ‘Change’?
What was Osbornes strategy in 2010? – ‘we have to tighten our belts (cut services – have fewer doctors nurses) , so we can grown the economy.
14 years later Starmer .. ‘we have to tighten…. things will get worse….’
You couldnt make it up.
You couldn’t
I wonder if Mariana Mazzucato is also having buyers remorse, considering her recent posts on X.
“Things are going to get worse before they get better”. No they’re not, they’re going to get worse before they get even worse. And now Reeves has shown her true colours I’m pretty sure the vast majority of people realise it. What do people do when their lives and the lives of their children go from bad to worse, and then even worse with no hope of them getting better? They get angry, very very angry
David Byrne says:
Many great discussion points highlighting the myriad effects of 14 years of intentional economic destruction.
But we, and you, Richard, must hammer home the nature of the disease, that being Neoliberalism.
The word must be repeated often until people in the UK start to demand an explanation and question its societal benefits.
The media including the press, the BBC and SKY are significantly quiet on the subject as if it does not exist. It does and it matters.
Neoliberalism: Stop the Plunder.
I should do a video on it…