The word “unprecedented” has been used an unprecedented number of times recently, according to the latest IMIU* data.
But there does seem to have been a sea change, a step change and indeed an altogether unprecedented swing to the right by both main parties. Prime Minister Liz Truss‘s quasi- (or should that be Kwasi-?) Thatcherite approach to solving the cost-of-living crisis sees her government crawling so far along the branches sticking out to the right of the political family tree that they are in imminent danger of crashing to the ground.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, an unprecedented appetite for more centrism, more nationalism and a quasi-Blairite tonality (or should that be Tone?) approach has enveloped the opposition, as evidenced so clearly in goings-on at its party get-together, most notably in Sir Keir Starmer‘s conference speech.
Timing is often all in politics. Starmer has done the hard miles in repairing (in some eyes) and re-positioning the Labour brand, helped indirectly by crucial lessons taught to Thatcher by Tim Bell back in the day about keeping messaging simple, something the ill-advised Jeremy Corbyn seemed unaware of in 2019, as I have pointed out previously. So, henceforth (or for the time being at least), squeaky-clean Labour will wrestle with the Tories for the mantle of Keeper of the Nation’s National Pride, well on trend in the immediate period after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The national anthem will now play at party conference; references to “for the good of the country” pepper responses from Shadow ministers to an unprecedented extent; there is a sudden hyped-up concern about levels of home ownership, as opposed to ensuring a proportionate stock of affordable and/or council housing; and beefed-up assurances to businesses abound, with (according to reports) an unprecedented number of business representatives and organisations being represented in the rooms around the main conference hall. I gather any deep skid marks created by the dragging of the party’s policies across from the no-man’s-land occupied by Corbyn supporters not so long ago have been filled in so well that its artefacts are virtually undetectable even by carbon (or should that be Corbyn?) dating.
Time has an irritating habit of moving forward. Just as Boris Johnson grabbed any opportunity to try his hand as a neo-Churchillian, until his historic achievements in lying caught up with him, Liz Truss finally finds herself in a position to enact all those New Right, supply-side policies that she was no doubt impressed by during her time reading PPE at Merton College.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, the “trickle down” supply-side strategies employed by Ronald Reagan and subsequently by Maggie Thatcher now seem woefully anachronistic. “A rising tide lifts all boats” was Reagan’s mantra, though most argue it didn’t happen that way. Regrettably, time and tide wait for no man and currently the tide is out so far that there’s no time like the immediate present to bale out working people to the fullest extent possible, whilst trimming the sails of the top 1%. No matter. The Truss/Kwarteng partnership are intent on testing the waters by following the course charted by all that textbook theorising, willy-nilly. The tiller is thrust far to starboard and it’s anchors away.
In the utterly unlikely event that Trussonomics has the required effect, it will take many years for positive results to emerge. Green shoots may grow overnight; but re-casting the entire economy based on decisions made by the top 1% not to take the money and deposit it in an offshore tax haven but rather invest it in productive capacity in the UK will still be a start-up, very long-term project at the time of the next election. Meanwhile, Britain’s debt mountain will reach Himalayan heights, with little or no sign of those magic growth trees springing up around its foothills. And if we wanted to get to where Truss wants us to go, we certainly wouldn’t start from here.
Starmer’s lawyer’s brain puts forward strategies which appear more assured and he does it with greater clarity. He knows his audience, ignoring those that may be too far to the left. His carefully-calculated case for the prosecution is coming across convincingly. He talks specifics, not anachronistic theories – recruiting the best into key positions; ensuring key workers, for instance in the NHS, have the best innovative technologies; building services “around people’s lives”; and intervening early with a “prevention-first” policy to steer young people away from a life of crime. Although these are not themes copied and pasted from textbooks, in many of the details they have a whiff of so many of his predecessors’ policies: for instance, Clement Attlee, with his re-building and NHS approach; Harold Wilson and the “white heat of technology”; and Tony Blair with his re-positioning of “New” Labour.
Without actually inviting Blair onto the stage (doubt if he was there), Starmer spelled out the need to take time to reform Labour, though as yet there is no reference to a “New” New Labour. Instead we have a pledge to be realistic, to promise only what is possible, rather than paint a picture as seen through rose-tinted spectacles:
“But we have to be honest. I would love to stand here and say Labour will fix everything. But the damage they have done to our finances and our public services means this time the rescue will be harder than ever. It will take investment, of course it will. But it will also take reform”.
Nonetheless, this is all very centrist and sets up an unavoidable risk of trouble not far down the track, unless the sizeable and vocal Left is finally re-habilitated. That might just happen at an inconvenient moment, prior to the next election. Whatever the chronology, Time will move on once again. And gravity will one day bring the political tree swinging back towards the centre ground …
- I Made It Up
Richard Fox's blog 