At last! Change! (pt.48)

Well that’s that then. The Great Northern Labour Hope For Change (GNLHFC) Andy Burnham has declared that he, if elected to the top job, would not change Rachel Reeves’ ‘fiscal rules.’ This commitment it seems has slightly assured the bond markets that Britain is not about to go down a totally barmy socialist path and consequently today’s government borrowing costs dipped very slightly. Already, and not I think surprisingly, Andy (it’s always ‘Andy’ these days) is revealed to be a true ‘realpolitic’ politician, that is someone who believes it is necessary to adopt the conditions of the present, rather than challenge them, to make real progress. As the next few weeks unfold I predict that Andy will sound increasingly ambiguous about what exactly he would change vis-a-vis the current leadership’s approach.

We could perhaps ask if he intends not to change Reeves fiscal rules whether he would leave her in place as Chancellor should he become PM. This is a signal the bond markets will wait for before delivering their big verdict and perhaps in the next week or two a journalist will ask Andy that very question. In other words, he is going to have to get specific about what he means by ’change,’ that elusive vision which bedevils those whom Nye Bevan once alluded to: ‘I know that the right kind of leader for the Labour Party is a desiccated calculating machine who must not in any way permit himself to be swayed by indignation.’

Well, we no longer talk about calculating machines, it’s all artificial intelligence now and all calculations will be parsed to the n-th degree by a set of algorithms situated in the ‘bond markets’ which do not (for example) include the long-term consequences of child poverty as a quantum to be parsed. Perhaps in a new sense we should now be asking Ted Heath’s old question: Who governs Britain? Leave it to Farage to answer and it will even more be City Wide Boys. Andy needs to challenge Farage: who exactly is in control, the bond markets or democracy?