This line first got an airing over the summer. As she was the one who took His Tonyness seriously and tried to make the future her "comfort zone" by talking about futurey things, Yvette - subtly, of course - painted Jez and John as Jurassic Park extras for advocating the most offensive N-word in the New Labour dictionary. However, it's completely disingenuous.
Yvette knows what Jez and John aren't arguing for old-style nationalisation. She (or at least her minions) read the same press releases and reports as everyone else, and nowhere among them do you find calls for utilities and transport to be modelled on the gas, electricity, and water boards of old, or the late and (surprisingly) lamented British Rail. Something much better is on offer.
One of Labour's bright spots is its economic radicalism. Concretely, its embrace of cooperatives, pledge to support them, and the promise of legislation that gives workers first refusal when it comes to the selling off of firms is exactly the kind of innovative radicalism that should be embedded in our politics. Similarly, what is being proposed when it comes to nationalisation is socialisation, the extension of the sovereignty of the polity from the rarefied debating chambers of government over sections of the economy by offering them democratic accountability and control. And why not? If Labour under Blair and Brown thought something as complex as medical services were capable of democratic self-governance, then why not organisations that are much simpler like ... gas suppliers? Yes, there are issues around implementation, scale (local, regional, national?) and what role - if any - should markets play here (for my money, democracy works best when relationships are decommodified), but it's not beyond the wit and ingenuity of our people to run these kinds of institutions. It might help solve that skilling up and precarious work problem too.
I've said it before, if the right want to come back into contention they have to start dealing with the reality of where we're at - advice Blair used to dispense in rather different circumstances. And that means engaging honestly with the actual policy positions of the leadership . So come on, Yvette, how about debating these ideas as everyone finds them, rather than flicking back to the 1945 Manifesto and treating current policy as a retro retread?
What a fatuous thing to say, anyway. Even the oldest of old-style state ownership would help ordinary people - including the ones who design apps for a living: the charges for utilities would probably be lower, would almost certainly be more responsive to low incomes and would definitely go to the exchequer rather than to corporate profits. It's not rocket salad.
ReplyDeleteI can't see why anyone would on the Left so much as challenge this argument, let alone dismiss it out of hand. The post-Blair detox is clearly going to take a while.
Repeat after me, the centre left are the enemy.
ReplyDelete"Things like nationalising power companies don’t do anything to help young people trying to build a new app"
Is this the most ridiculous non sequitur in history or what? She may well have said that performing heart by pass surgery does nothing to help young people trying to build a new app, or bombing Syria does nothing to help young people trying to build a new app, or teaching PE in school does nothing to help young people trying to build a new app on and on into infinity.
The other glaring problem with the logic is that if someone builds a Nationalised company app then nationalising companies does indeed help young people build apps.
The final problem is one of division of labour, we don't want a nation of app builders.
Seriously though, Cooper reveals a lot by bringing to mind the app inventor and the temporary worker, the centre left are there to help the young entrepreneur on their road to the first million and at the same time relieve the pain of the low paid! What an inspiring vision for us all, the aspiring and the needy all sorted in one neat sentence and a true definition of centre leftism so efficiently articulated. No wonder Cooper wowed you!
"she may well have said that performing heart by pass surgery does nothing to help young people trying to build a new app, or bombing Syria does nothing to help young people trying to build a new app"
ReplyDeleteThat is admittedly quite funny.
I see you've been slaughtered, Phil.
ReplyDeleteNow what was it I said about believing in what you truly believe in?
I was never altogether wrong with this view.
"Slaughtered"
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, there is nothing that has happened to dissuade me of my Jeremy scepticism. Unless you're privy to a reality no one else has access to.