A letter in the Guardian has nailed why the Labour Party is in danger of disappearing down a neoliberal rabbit hole and why it must be avoided at all costs.
Public investment
The paper’s editorial had this to say about Labour needing to reject the orthodoxy that caused it to crumble…
Labour is wrong not to call on higher taxes on property and wealth to support public investment and growth, and reduce inequality. It ought to listen to its economic advisers who say the party should drop damaging arbitrary fiscal rules.
Neoliberal rabbit hole
Now in a submission by Professor Mary Mellor to the Guardian Letters page she wrote:
Both your editorial (The Guardian view on the UK falling apart: Labour must reject the orthodoxy that caused it to crumble, 4 September) and Owen Jones are right to be concerned that the Labour party is disappearing down a neoliberal rabbit hole. Unwilling to challenge the inequalities of market economics, Labour is only left with the hope of a level of growth that seems increasingly unlikely. A pluralist economics would recognise the weaknesses of a market that encourages greed and opportunism, while people drown in debt and a cost of living crisis. It would also be aware of the extent that the market relies on state investment and spending – witness the massive state rescues in the 2007-08 financial crisis and the pandemic.
Neoliberals may reject this as believing in magic money trees, but the demonstrated power of the state to create and circulate such huge sums of money must be the key to an economics based on fairness and social justice. The aim would be to create true wealth as wellbeing – what could be called “wellth”.
Seemingly backing up this argument Paul Rogers wrote in Open Democracy: “Keir Starmer is headed for government in next year’s general election, possibly in a hung parliament but more likely with an overall majority.
“At the same time, Labour is a troubled party. Its leadership, determined to move the party towards the centre ground, has scrapped its more leftist policies and ousted members, often on contested grounds. Many tens of thousands of others have simply left in disgust.”
Mary Mellor’s book Money: Myths, Truths and Alternatives is available here
Related: Viral letter explains why ‘Starmer’s Labour remains a mystery to most voters’
