The Guardian's editorial on Labour's manifesto concludes:
At 124 pages, this is a long manifesto. But it is not a suicide note. In terms of its social democratic credentials, the 1983 manifesto it most resembles is that of the Liberal/SDP Alliance rather than Labour's. Its achievement is to expand the limits of the thinkable in British politics. Its weakness is that it does too little to make the thinkable seem realistic and practical.
Three thoughts.
First, this shows how far to the right politics has moved.
Second, even if Labour will not win this manifesto does a service by saying another politics is possible. That is better, by far, than years of acquiescing with decline.
Third, the Guardian shows its Liberal colours throughout. It does not help itself as a result.
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It’s great to see you coming back over and lauding the Labour Party after a month or so of constant working on getting the SNP on your side. Only with a big party such as Labour can we be hope to be able to get you into the Lords and, as you know yourself, that’s the only way we can really get you to get your maverick (neo-liberals such as Worstall I see use the term “wrong”, “not an economist” or “thick” instead!) ideas implemented. Please continue to do what you can, even if not as much as you want, to get back in with John McDonnell and shape the future!
I am very happy to work with the SNP still
I am not party political
I agree, Richard. The fact that we have this manifesto AT ALL is quite a miracle in the face of the neo-liberal juggernaut. I will hold on to this on June 8th as a sort of ‘victory’ in itself. When neo-liberal scorched earth becomes yet more visible over the next few years this manifesto might be a background memory that something else can be done.
If the Tories win (which still seems most likely) it will be because of the ‘I’m-alright-Jack’ brigade, older people fearful of change and white-knuckling what they have and less well off acting out political self-harm thinking that they might get crumbs from the financialised table if they bow and scrape enough.
But something different has happened, that’s for sure.
Agreed, the expansive nature of the manifesto is a breath of fresh air after 35 years of stifling neo-liberal orthodoxy.
A major caveat though.
If (or, let’s face it, when) Labour gets defeated in June that *will* be used by the Conservatives and their media allies as prima facie evidence of these policies being outright rejected by the electorate.
If some sort of intellectual bulwark is not raised in their defence, this could be the last we see of similar policy proposals for another generation: future politicians won’t touch them for fear.
With Corbyn as chief salesman that is the high stakes being played out here, I’m afraid.
I retain all my concerns on delivery
But it’s still better said
I still have a copy of John McDonnell’s ‘Another World is Possible’. Ten years young.
And Labour have reintroduced the LVT debate ( though Caroline Lucas has also been active in this are). It’s amazing to think that the reasonableness of LVT proposed by Churchill and the liberals over a century ago has still to be fought for!
Yet the Daily Mail front page headline is basically Corbyn will Bankrupt the Country.
Lies
Damned lies
And the Daily Mail
I found this article very enlightening:
http://www.historyandpolicy.org/index.php/policy-papers/papers/trade-unions-and-original-labour-an-alternative-to-state-socialism
If you haven’t read it. then please try it out!
Especially in tandem with this – from the same website: http://www.historyandpolicy.org/index.php/opinion-articles/articles/what-does-british-imperial-economic-history-tell-us-about-the-future-of-uk
I read the summaries to both
Thanks
Here here Richard.
I never thought I would ever see again a vibrant alternative to neo liberalism issued by the Labour Party – it’s a new beginning.
My younger friends (I am getting on a bit) are actually gobsmacked – 20/30/40 year olds have never seen anything like it.
As Simon says, the wonder of this is that we now have a new national alternative conversation.
Brilliant.
RegardsPaul ex fcca
It is good
Hear hear. Well said. It won’t be over on June 8th.
According to the polls, it will be the votes of us baby-boomers that will keep May in power. Not only did we give away what our parents fought for, but we have colluded with the airbrushing out of what it actually was – denying our children & grandchildren even a glimpse of what is possible.
Or it was so until 2015. Now it’s out their in a manifesto – thanks to a babyboomer who didn’t acquiesce. And lots of enthousistic young people, who will now understand that to get what is theirs by right, what they will need is financial & economic literacy for a whole generation. And to wait for us miserable shower to die off.
Scottish readers are not so overwhelmed. A lot of it is happening here already. Thanks to SNP policies, we’ve had free tuition fees for years, publicly owned water, we are ending bedroom tax, increasing renewable energy, expanding free childcare etc, so we really don’t need much of what is on offer. Wonder where Jeremy got his inspiration?
I am angry at Corbyn this week, as is half the Scottish nation. Three weeks ago he when asked if he would stand in the way of another referendum in Scotland he answered :
“I was asked if, in Westminster, we would block the holding of a referendum. I said no. If the Scottish Parliament decided they wanted to have a referendum, then it would be wrong for Westminster to block it.”
And yet yesterday (No doubt in a desperate attempt to claw back some of the diehard unionist Labour support that will go to the Tories at the GE) he suddenly announces:
“Labour opposes a second Scottish independence referendum. It is unwanted and unnecessary, and we will campaign tirelessly to ensure Scotland remains part of the UK. Independence would lead to turbo-charged austerity for Scottish families.”
On independence leading to turbo charged austerity I quote Paul Kavanagh yesterday:
“Firstly, that is an untested and unquantifiable opinion. No one has any idea what measures an independent Scottish government would take to grow their economy, marshall their resources and revenue stream or indeed who that government may be. Secondly, Scotland was already promised a great deal of security, pooling and sharing, broad shouldered better togetherness a little over two years ago. What Scotland received was somewhat less than that, as thousands of newly unemployed folk can attest to. We were also promised guaranteed membership of the EU, that we’d be living in a near federal state, that our state pension arrangements were safe and that job security was assured only by voting NO.”
Sorry to say he’s sounding an awful lot like the hapless Kezia Dugdale, in his double speak. Who is to say independence is unwanted except the people of Scotland? The Scottish Parliament already have a mandate for a second referendum. The vote was passed loud and clear about a month ago I the Scottish Parliament and we won’t be told by Corbyn or anyone else that it is unwanted or unnecessary.
“We will establish a Scottish Investment Bank, with £20 billion of funds available to local projects and Scotland’s small businesses, creating work and stimulating the economy.”
Will you Jeremy? Has no one told you that we’ve already got one? https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/about-us/what-we-do/investment/sib
I don’t like to criticise but really we have no need of Labour in Scotland while we have the SNP doing a better job for us. Had Jeremy Corbyn been a real progressive leader he would have been able to acknowledge Labour’s failure here. He would have taken on some of the responsibility for the demise of Labour due to the successive neo-liberal policies of his predecessors. He would have slammed Blair’s over fondness for dining with the rich and famous and his hawkery. He would have slammed Brown for baling out the banks with billions when he should have done what Iceland did and jailed the bankers! The Scots were taking note. He would have held a hand out to Nicola Sturgeon and congratulated her policies and on her desire for a fairer more inclusive Scotland. Policies that he would now adopt in England. He would have welcomed a left wing alliance with every progressive he could get his hands on to defeat the Tories. I am left very disappointed in his leadership capabilities and actually, in his integrity.
My position on Scotland has not changed
I would be voting SNP in Scotland for many of the reasons you note
I will be using my vote as part of a local Progressive Alliance where I am
I understand that the Labour Party have changed their policy of IndyRef2 because it is said that the reason why the tories have been gaining ground in Scotland is that they are seen as the only home for those opposed to another referendum. I think that Kezia Dugdale particularly wanted the change.
I agree that Corbyn has not called out Labour’s appalling history in strengthening neoliberalism but I feel you are being unfair to him given the next to impossible path he has had to steer. Had he fully disavowed Labour’s recent history it would have been even harder to hold together the semblance of a Party that it is already.
To get this manifesto out has been a remarkable achievement in view of the nature of the Labour Party as it was (and still largely is) the Party that took a year to decide it would oppose the bedroom Tax!
No human can square all circles yet you expect this of Corbyn, just imagine experiencing the daily excoriation by the press, the whole of the media trying to make out you are a joke. 170 of your own M.P’s despising you. If you think you can hold that show together good on ya!
Well said. Just getting a Labour manifesto agreed and published in time for a snap election campaign, against the backdrop of the PLP internal opposition to their very popular leader (popular with the party members that is) is incredible for Labour at this time.
However, it is indeed a sign of our times that politics has swung so far to the right in the UK that this manifesto can even be considered radical in the current climate.
I would be interested to know what the Richard Murphy view is on PQE now that UK inflation is starting to rise? And has this element completely disappeared now from the Labour manifesto, albeit still perhaps implied in the vagaries of the National Investment bank? Ok, time I went and read it in full as opposed to reading other peoples’ critiques of it 😉
PQE is a tool, not a policy
Can it be used? Yes
Does it need a manifesto commitment? No
Will it be used? As I always said, only if the time is right
Hi Simon,
I like to read your comments on this site and so I’m trying to find some common ground with you but it’s not so easy.
So Corbyn’s had a hard time with the media. Excoriation by the press?? Remember you are talking to a member of the SNP. Don’t talk to me about impossible paths. Try being in Scotland for the last few years. Regarding the mainstream media , most of us, including our leader, have been in need of a daily oxygen cylinder just to breath some clean air, it has been so toxic. What we have had to withstand from Dugdale, Davidson, Rennie and the majority of the press here would test a saint. And yet the latest poll suggests a 51% lead for Indy on a new referendum. I wonder what that really says about the precious union?
All parties had to get together a manifesto in light of the snap and unwarranted election. Isn’t that par for the course? Why does Corbyn need special congratulations? He has plenty of aids working for him. I know he’s had a hard time from the media and I sympathise but I get really pissed off when he flaps about in the wind, saying one thing one week and quite another the next week. That in my humble opinion is not a sign of a leader. My main problem with Corbyn is that I don’t know if he’s up to it. To lead, you need a vision, a set of strategies and the ability to unite people behind your vision. Well ok he has a manifesto. About time.
Most of us have a really strong intuition about leaders. I don’t ‘feel’ it with Jeremy Corbyn. Do any of you in your heart of hearts?
You know my answer to that Grace
I made it rather public
I still cannot see how, with corporations getting vastly larger and more wealthy, shrinking any state can be seen as a good idea. The state is us.
Is it not true that we are individuals within the state? 🙂
Did anyone spot a couple of spending cuts in the Labour Manifesto? I did, and they should be applauded for them.
First is cutting the size of the House of Lords with changes to its function also
Second is that they will reconfigure farm subsidies. That’s about £7bn a year, and given the assault on the 5% in the rest of the manifesto, it’s clear that a significant portion of that £7bn will not survive the reconfiguration they propose.
If there are any other cuts in there, I’d be curious to know.
If we are indeed in some form of interregenum as put forward by Gramsci, then Labour’s manifesto is a guiding light to what should come next, how to guide ourselves out of this period towards a better future say in 2022 if winning in June is now beyond Labour.
As for leadership, as an MBA student I have spent a lot of time studying this over rated concept and one thing that sticks with me (amongst others) is that leaders are also good followers.
Corbyn has been a follower of a certain path that was very, very unfashionable for a long time. He stood his ground whilst New Labour turned populist (even before UKIP and Trump) and chased Tory swing voters, looked down on their traditional voters and copied Clinton welfare policies as they sought to become legitimate members of the British establishment.
In that time (30-40 years or so) Capitalism has actually gone on to eat itself and started to negatively impact on the lives of millions as what used to be a more redistributive system now tends to serve a narrower group of beneficiaries. Corbyn has been vindicated by the very capitalism he was wary of – as most progressive have been too. And lets be clear – the neo-liberal orthodoxy that so grips Labour , means that there are no new ideas in contemporary politics to cope with the world post 2008. Until that is – this manifesto – produced under a man who has been pilloried since he got the job.
I don’t really want to vote for a leader; I want to vote for a team of people who want to work together in my best interests and the interests of others similar to me. So my view remains that if there are issues with credibility it is not just about Corbyn – it is also about the rest of the Labour party and what they have been up to. Do these people really care about those they say they care about? And if they do why do they withdraw from shadow cabinet posts and elections?
Might the moans of the PLP about Corbyn reflect that the party was actually less controlled as it had been under Blair and Campbell’s sofa style, ‘on message’ iron fist in the velvet glove? Was it now – dare I say it – more internally democratic? Were the poor members of the PLP – used to being told what to think by their leader – just out of their depth a little as they were asked to think for themselves and be er…. genuine?
To see members of the PLP smirking when asked about the manifesto has been very sad. To see Tony Benn’s son of all people grandstanding in parliament and upstaging his own leader is just the sort of thing that does more harm to a party – not just its leader.
The Labour manifesto is indeed sane and sound and is no suicide note. But to me it is also now potentially a tragedy in the making. But how did this come about?
The suicide notes have all been written by other Labour neo-libs already – from Liam ‘There’s no money left’ Byrne to the Iraq war decision, to those berating ‘white van man’ and the pernicious, racist chav-ism in the Labour party middle class towards those they say they care about.
These are the additional factors at work as the real tragedy unfolds on 9th June (that being that that the Labour manifesto may well not be shaping our country).
And to lay blame at the feet of one man is just not good enough. Whether you like it or not, it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.
A final MBA based observation is that good teams do not really form around personalities; they form around objectives and goals and focus on those. Neo-lib Labour was already lost before Corbyn became leader. The party never got to grips with the loss of traditional Labour voters as industries were gutted by the Tories. And getting the party off its neo-lib habit is no easy task.
Remember Gramsci’s words – ‘the new will struggle to born’. Indeed it shall. We are amidst that birth now – are we not? I hope so and I’ll take that for now.
We are in that struggle: I agree