Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

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    Malcolm Blair-Robinson U.S        

    Malcolm Blair-Robinson U.K.

This blog will leave picking over the details of the measures announced by George Osborne to the vast industry of commentators, economists and analysts dedicated to do just that, and concentrate on the political change which it heralds.

In the post WWII period the centre ground of politics shifted to the left. Labour was the driver and the Tory party reacted, embracing the welfare state and public ownership of utilities as part of the national fabric. Thatcher turned her back on that consensus and moved way to the right, unravelling state control and privatising everything in sight. Thus the centre moved to the right and in order to become electable, and it took eighteen years, Labour had to move right and re-invent itself as New Labour. This was electorally successful, but the political legacy is less certain.

What Osborne has done, and nobody expected this, is move the Tories and therefore the centre, to the left. In an audacious move worthy of comparison with great historic feats of generalship, he has not only taken the Labour party’s high ground, but he has even gone so far as to lift  policies from their manifesto and introduce them under the Tory brand. Labour is left looking scattered and pointless. New Labour is over. There is no electoral future in being slightly less right wing than the Tories, Thatcherism with compassion or whatever it was; the political ground now open is to the left of the Tories with distinctive left wing policies, adapted to the modern world, which can deliver a fairer society and prosperity more widely shared. That has to be done within the framework of a BIG IDEA. Labour has not got one. They are running round in circles chasing aspiration. Only one of their leadership candidates is from the left.

So politically this is a triumph for the Tories, who look much stronger whatever the arguments about who gets what out of the budget. Labour was ambushed, leaderless, on open ground and trounced. Behind them is a sorry line of the poor, the vulnerable, struggling single parents, people with disabilities and mental illness and those in need, who look on in dismay as the only champion they have is driven in tatters from the field.

Labour has now to return to its roots and rebuild itself as the driving force of the left, within a centre which has moved away from the right. It has one strong point on which to cling. To cut tax credits in advance of the new minimum wage taking effect was both mean and cruel. Taxing rich savers and private landlords provides a political balance, but it does not fill the plates of a hungry family. Labour’s future now depends on its ability to demonstrate that it understands that, it will do something about it and that it has that big idea which will lead to a nation in which all will be able to eat and heat at the same time. Tinkering with Tory policies and macro managing fractions of this and that is no longer enough. Anywhere near.