Burnham’s Thatcherism jibes are just tired socialist talking points
Oasis caution against looking back in anger, yet the narrative Manchester’s other favourite son rehearsed in his first speech as Prime Minister was based on hackneyed old grievances, says Alys Denby
Here we go again. Britain has gone through as many prime ministers in the last 10 years as it did in the previous 37 years and as a result the process feels wearyingly familiar.
But we shouldn’t be comfortable with a Prime Minister pledging changes no one voted for just because it has happened before.
Oasis caution against looking back in anger, yet the narrative Manchester’s other favourite son rehearsed in his first speech as Prime Minister was based on hackneyed old grievances. Mouthing cliches about the 80s and deindustrialisation without a lectern doesn’t stop them being cliches. His previous promise to undo “four decades of neoliberalism” is little more than a tired socialist talking point – and one which conveniently overlooks that Burnham was in the Cabinet for three of those 40 years. Keir Starmer failed because he mismanaged the Labour party, Burnham is just playing them the classics.
No such thing as neoliberalism
Neoliberalism – much like “trickle down” – is a term used only by its critics, never its supposed advocates. It broadly encompasses the reforms of the Thatcher years, but it is hard to argue we are living in an era of unrestrained free markets. The tax burden is the highest since the aftermath of the second world war, debt is around 100 per cent of GDP and regulators are expanding faster than many parts of the productive economy. Britain’s stagnation is not a result of too much capitalism, but far too little.
Burnham’s proposed solutions, too, have already been tested to destruction. On the steps of Downing Street he said he would “bring life’s essentials back under public control to make them more affordable”. This is, quite simply, not how inflation works. It is competition, not state control, that drives down prices. And anyone who claims that bureaucrats are better at running things than businesses should have to name a service they believe is efficient and explain why the public sector’s trailing productivity is costing the economy £80bn a year. Nationalised utilities have to compete for capital with other government priorities, and water will never win over welfare.
Manchester’s growth is down to a stable and consistent environment for private investment and shifting away from industrial towards more services-led employment. Sounds pretty ‘neoliberal’ to me
This is also not the approach which has proved so successful in Manchester. Oxford Economics attributes that city’s growth to a stable and consistent environment for private investment and shifting away from industrial towards more services-led employment. Sounds pretty ‘neoliberal’ to me. A confiscatory renationalisation regime will reverse the progress of which the former Manchester Mayor is rightly proud.
Where we can all agree is that Britain needs hope. We should all wish Burnham can not only steady the ship, but build a better future. The risk is he just repeats the mistakes of the past.
Alys Denby is opinion and features editor at Morning Wire