One hundred days on from the general election, we find ourselves in a Bizarro World where a Labour government is talking about “difficult decisions” needed to balance the books, and the Tory opposition is attacking the human cost of welfare cuts, (at least for Tory-voting pensioners). This is certainly “change”, but is it the change people voted for?
As if to provide comic relief, the Tory press has suddenly discovered that MPs are taking gifts from donors and other generous souls. How long has this been going on? Quite a while, actually. As the Guardian reports, MPs have declared £6m in “freebies” since 2010 – half of it in the last two years.
The right’s hypocrisy on this is incredible, but it’s not the whole story. Starmer’s clothes and football tickets might be crumbs against Boris Johnson’s epic corruption. But there’s no reason why Mr Integrity can’t buy his own glasses.
Reviewing the situation, one is struck by how many of Labour’s woes are to do with its fealty to conventional wisdom and business-as-usual. Whether it’s fiscal prudence, immigration, foreign policy, or the influence of donors and lobbyists, the party of “change” is in effect being attacked for the failures of the status quo.
Since Labour is going to be attacked anyway, why doesn’t it skip the usual infighting (it’s all Sue Gray’s fault! etc.) and break these self-imposed chains?
In 1933, Roosevelt ditched Herbert Hoover’s conservative response to the financial crash. The New Deal regulated banking, expanded workers’ rights, created public infrastructure jobs, and gave state support to the poor.
As David Cameron and George Osborne knew, you can use a crisis to justify almost any policy. Instead of “tough decisions” and a budget of pain, why doesn’t Labour propose a Roosevelt-style rescue package to “save Britain”, funded by borrowing to invest and progressive taxation? The mantra “we have no choice” need not only sanction conservative policies.
The migration and asylum system might be broken, but is being even more draconian the only possible response? If “Britain is back on the world stage”, why can’t it drop a policy on Israel-Palestine which has so obviously failed? And if people are upset about donors buying ministers’ clothes, why not ban all gifts to MPs, regulate (or replace) party donations, and have a proper clean up of money in British politics?
Keir Starmer talked in his conference speech about Labour being “a great reforming government”. But you can’t change the country without changing its mind, or challenging its most treasured myths.
Adam Barnett is a journalist and political commentatory.
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