The Economist - USA (2019-09-28)

54 Britain The EconomistSeptember 28th 2019

W

hoops filledthe air of a nightclub

on the Brighton seafront as John Mc-

Donnell, the shadow chancellor, walked on

stage on September 22nd. The compères of

the Radical Variety Show, a side event at La-

bour’s annual conference, had a surprise

for the man who will be in charge of the

world’s sixth-largest economy if Labour

wins the next election. “Please may I intro-

duce to you, the wheel of public owner-

ship!” one cried. Out came an assistant car-

rying a Wheel of Fortune-style spinner. On

it was a host of things Labour could nation-

alise: baeSystems (a defence company);

banks; Greggs (a bakery); Heathrow airport.

Chuckling, Mr McDonnell gave it a twirl.

Labour’s conference was a mix of radi-

cal policy, fights about Brexit and interne-

cine civil war. With the party trailing in the

polls and at war with itself once again, mps

and activists moped from stall to stall.

Things got off to a bad start when left-wing-

ers on Labour’s ruling National Executive

Committee launched a botched bureau-

cratic assassination attempt against Tom

Watson, the party’s deputy leader. “It’s the

hitman who missed!” shouted Mr Watson

at Jon Lansman, the Labour activist who

oversaw the attempt, when they bumped

into each other.

Labour sorted out its Brexit position,

but not without a fight. Delegates at the

conference, which sets party policy, nar-

rowly decided that Labour would not cam-

paign to stay in the euat the next election.

Instead it would support a second referen-

dum, with a viable Leave option set against

remaining in the union. Although nearly

all its mps, the vast majority of its members

and the bulk of its voters support staying in

the eu, about a third of its voters at the last

election backed Leave.

Since 2017, when Labour promised a

hard Brexit, taking Britain out of the single

market and customs union and ending the

free movement of Labour, the party has

softened its stance. At last year’s confer-

ence, the mere suggestion of a second vote

with Remain on the ballot by Sir Keir

Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, trig-

gered an enormous row. Now it is party

policy (albeit after another enormous row).

A motion calling for free movement to con-

tinue after Brexit was also passed. The re-

sult is that, in two years, Labour’s Brexit

policy has undergone a slow revolution.

Nonetheless, many Remainers are cross

that the party will go into the next election

without a position on how it would cam-

paign in any referendum.

Bureaucratic battles and Brexit almost

overshadowed the most radical policy plat-

form put forward by any British political

leader since Margaret Thatcher. A target to

make Britain carbon-neutral by 2030 was

agreed on, even though some union bosses

gritted their teeth at the idea. Pharmaceuti-

cal companies that tried to gouge patients

would have their patents snatched, said Mr

Corbyn. Mr McDonnell promised a 32-hour

(four-day) working week within a decade—

much sooner than the end-of-century

deadline proposed by trade unions.

Spending commitments piled up. La-

bour would dish out 2.5m interest-free

loans of up to £33,000 ($40,700) for people

to buy an electric car, at a cost of just under

£4bn in lost interest. A “People’s Zipcar”

was also floated, with Labour promising to

introduce a network of pay-as-you-go elec-

tric cars across the country. Another £6bn

per year would be spent on personal care

for the elderly. A scheme to abolish private

schools would cost about £4bn per year, if

all the pupils were put in state schools. Mr

McDonnell casually dropped in a pledge to

end in-work poverty within the first term

of a Labour government, implying a large

rise in in-work benefits.

Whether Labour will have a chance to

enact these radical policies is another mat-

ter. Mr Corbyn is preposterously unpopu-

lar (see chart). Self-inflicted blows left a

miserable mood at the conference, which

contrasted sharply with previous years.

The event in 2017, coming after Labour’s

surprisingly strong performance at the

general election, was a carnival. In 2018 the

party strode left in its policy line-up. This

time, the optimism had ebbed, even if the

policies kept coming. “Are we going to get

bollocked in the next election?” wondered

one prominent supporter of Mr Corbyn.

It took the judgment of the Supreme

Court on September 24th and the humilia-

tion of Boris Johnson to lift spirits. The

same conference hall that was a sea of dis-

content when the Brexit policy was an-

nounced turned into an adoring mass

when Mr Corbyn marched out and called

for the prime minister to quit. “Boris John-

son has been found to have misled the

country,” he declared. “This unelected

prime minister should now resign.” Dele-

gates erupted in cheers, their fights forgot-

ten. For now. 7

BRIGHTON

Beyond Brexit and bureaucratic warfare, Labour revelled in its radicalism

Labour’s conference

Right on in Brighton

Top of the flops

Source:IpsosMORI

Britain, opposition leaders’ lowest

net approval rating , %

-60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10

Cameron 2007

Thatcher 1977

Smith 1993

Callaghan 1980

Blair 1996

Corbyn 2019

Foot 1982

Miliband 2014

Duncan Smith 2003

Hague 2000

Kinnock 1988

Howard 2005

Cameron 2007

Thatcher 1977

Smith 1993

Callaghan 1980

Blair 1996