McDonnell sets out his plans for a superstate
August, 2023. You had hoped to be on holiday, but you’re still waiting for your regional Workers’ Leisure Committee to allocate you some days.
Still, at least you have a three-day weekend coming up. Of course, every weekend is three days long now, which took a bit of getting used to but seems to have worked.
One of the benefits of mass unemployment and a shrinking economy is that there’s no real demand for workers, so all those who said a four-day week wouldn’t work have been proved wrong.
What to do with your expanded leisure time? Well, your family is in the local Workers’ Leisure and Culture ballot so you might get some tickets for the People’s Theatre or, if you’re really lucky, a trip on the People’s Railway. Then again, these treats always seem to go to Party officials, and you’re out of favour with the Party, having declined to join the new Financial Services Workers Union…
OK, enough. Let’s bring to a close this dystopian scene before it can be accused of sounding too far-fetched. This column may have indulged in a caricature of Labour party policy, but its narrative elements all appeared in John McDonnell’s speech to the party faithful yesterday.
The four-day week was at the centre of a pitch that also promised to provide workers with “access to culture and leisure” as part of a new commitment to “universal basic services”. Pledges to restore “full trade union power” and rollout sectoral pay bargaining were flung into the crowd like candy.
Self-management by workers, guaranteed jobs and rates of pay, a cap on rents – it was all on offer. Taken together with the abolition of private education and the tsunami of tax rises needed to pay for all this.
Labour’s policy platform now constitutes the biggest expansion of the state (and commensurate erosion of freedom) in living memory. These are the issues and ideas with which the opposition will attempt to define the next General Election and they will have to be addressed by the Tory party.
Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of electoral victory are slim, but support for his policies remains high. People don’t like him, but they do like the idea of a shorter working week, nationalised utilities and free home-care for their parents.
The Tories can probably keep Corbyn out of Downing Street but Labour’s brand of economic populism will pose a challenge for years to come.
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