Rachel Reeves is sinking like a stone
If you're going to pledge to do a task as impossible as swimming across the Atlantic Ocean, strapping lead weights to every limb probably isn't a great idea.
With her claims that focusing on growth will somehow magically deliver prosperity for all, Rachel Reeves is pushing the same old discredited theory of 'trickle down economics'.
It’s an unworkable theory and an impossible fantasy. It’s like she’s pledging to swim across the Atlantic Ocean.
But to make matters even worse, she’s strapped lead weights to her arms and legs, insistent that they’ll help her in her already-impossible task.
Austerity
14 years of economic stagnation since 2010 should be evidence enough that ideologically driven austerity cuts to public services and infrastructure investment deliver neither general prosperity nor growth. Despite this, Reeves is inflicting another round of damaging across-the-board austerity cuts in her woefully misguided efforts to balance the books.
Impoverishment
It’s incredibly dumb to try to boost growth by impoverishing people. Mugging pensioners, maintaining Tory sanctions on families, and impoverishing disabled people simply won’t make the country richer. All it does is take money out of the economy. Money that is the most likely to be spent straight back into the economy, because the poor spend what they have, and don’t squirrel away cash in tax havens.
Housing
Greater general prosperity is a pipe dream without fundamental reform of Britain’s broken housing market. Even if wages rise, it counts for nothing if mortgage costs and exploitative private landlords are allowed to eat up all of people’s income gains and more. Instead of the systemic reforms that are required to drive down housing costs, all Starmer’s mob are prepared to offer are inadequate house building targets; planning reforms aimed at making it much easier for developers to make profits; and the pitifully slow progress of maybe stopping babies in rented accommodation dying from black mould by 2027.
Wealth-hoarding
Improving living standards for the majority is impossible without measures to prevent the obscene wealth-hoarding of the mega-rich. Unfortunately Reeves has painted herself into a corner by ruling out tax rises on the rich, and by refusing to boot Britain’s debilitating infestation of privatisation profiteers out of our essential infrastructure and public services.
Having pledged to do the already-impossible with lead weights strapped to every limb, Reeves has plopped into the ocean, and it’s no surprise whatever that she’s sinking like a stone.
The economy is flatlining; public anger at her attacks on pensioners is palpable; only the terminally dumb still believe that more austerity will do the trick this time; and Starmer has plummeted to poorer poll ratings than Rishi Sunak’s nadir within seven months of coming to power!
Unfortunately though, it’s not just Reeves who is sinking, she’s taking the rest of us down with her.
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An alternative to neoliberalism is needed, but Reeves blithers on about growth the same as Truss did.
I expected much better from Labour. This focus on “growth at any cost” is, at best, foolish and at worst, catastrophic for the mere mortals like us. The emphasis on trickle down economics is laughable - everyone knows wealth will always trickle upwards if it is given the chance. As you say, if the money was distributed more evenly, the economy would grow, because, of course, we would spend it on luxuries like say food, clothes, heating etc. So for Reeves “growth at any cost” would be for her to ignore the RW press, lobbyists and donors and do something radical. But maybe that’s too high a cost for her and Starmer?