Labour’s backsliding on its green agenda must be halted
JVL Introduction
James Meadway a former economic adviser to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP expresses his dismay at Labour’s backsliding on its green prosperity plan commitment.
Abandoning its ambitious plans – described by the Financial Times as “Labour’s surprisingly bold economic agenda” – a year before the general election doesn’t bode well for Labour’s ability to stand up to pressure when actually in office, he points out.
Meadway is clear that it was all so unnecessary. The economic situation is bad which is precisely why an ambitious government-led programme is needed.
RK
This article was originally published by LabourList on Fri 9 Jun 2023. Read the original here.
‘Scaling back the green prosperity plan is a political and economic blunder’
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Not just the Green policies, today – Labour rules out universal childcare’ …… er, and healthcare, social care, education, right to housing, a decent income, rights at work, community services, welfare …. actually there’s no end to the stuff that Starmer is ruling out …. except inequality, lies, and mendacity
Sir Keir Starmer is so confident of a General Election victory and that the Tories are in such disarray that it matters little what New New Labour say or promise or do, nothing will change universal public contempt for the Tories. A year is a long time in politics but he does have the protection of Rupert Murdoch, but so too did Tony Blair.
Eminently sensible, the moreso if and when the the issue of the problems of securing access to key minerals and raw materials that will be needed for any serious green strategy is addressed.
Setting out nuts and bolts seems a foreign idea to Reeves and Starmer
It will now be easier to abandon it altogether once the election is over.
‘Fiscal Responsibility’ : The last refuge of a scoundrel.
As always James Meadway’s analysis of the deepening crisis overhanging an already sclerotic and profoundly unequal UK economy is a breath of fresh air. Those in the Labour Shadow Cabinet who want to further dilute an already timid emerging Labour Party election manifesto – this time on policy to deal with a threatened global warning catastrophe – would do well to read and absorb Meadway’s analysis.
I was surprised however at what I fear might be an exaggerated faith in a massive global borrowing programme to finance the substantial reforms he rightly advocates.
More borrowing to fund change should have an important part to play. But so too surely must tax policy: in particular a long overdue wealth tax on the rich and especially the super rich. Professor Ozlem Onaran and colleagues at Greenwich University have published a paper showing the potential the potential for such a tax in a recent paper.
Surely this approach has only a reinforced urgency as we approach the day of reckoning for the disgraced Tory government.
See The Case for a Progressive Annual Wealth Tax