hankyoreh

Jeremy Corbyn

One of the key ambitions of the former Conservative party leader, Margaret Thatcher (the British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990), was to halt what she, and other like- minded thinkers on the political right, regarded as the steady advance of socialism in post-war Britain. Growing reliance on egalitarian state intervention was seen by neo-liberals as the major cause of the nation’s economic and social decline. Thatcher was keen to ensure that her economic, social and trade union reforms would prove so popular with the public that no future Labour government would contemplate a `counter-revolution’.

Thatcher was no friend of the welfare state, believing that industrious and upwardly mobile citizens should follow her lead in opting to use private sector services. She recognised, however, that it would be unwise to preside over any rapid privatisation of those parts of the welfare state, such as health care and education, which had proved popular with middle class Conservative voters. In addition, policies designed to appeal to working class voters such as the `right to buy’ scheme, under which tenants in the publicly rented sector were given the opportunity to become home owners at a discounted price, only received prime ministerial approval after advisors had convinced her that this would not cause an electoral backlash from her core middle class supporters.

The positive approach towards entrepreneurial activity, the free market, and welfare reform that characterised the subsequent New Labour governments of Tony Blair (1997-2007) and Gordon Brown (2007-2010) seemed to suggest that Thatcher’s hope, that she could finally eradicate democratic socialist forms of economic and social policy, might be fulfilled.

There are, however, signs that the public might be coming around to the view that the state, not the private sector, should be the main provider of the high-quality social services they require. The unexpected selection by party members and supporters of left-wing candidate Jeremy Corbyn as the new Labour leader in 2015 opened up the possibility of an alternative policy agenda based on state delivered services. In the party’s 2017 General Election manifesto, For the Many Not the Few, Labour promised, for example, to renationalise the railways to counter the problems caused by the fragmentation of services brought about by relentless deregulation and privatisation. The party also pledged to restore the right of public authorities to build high quality homes to rent as well as promising to restrict rent increases in the private sector. Predictions that Labour would experience a heavy electoral defeat in June 2017 because of its overtly egalitarian and statist manifesto proved to be unfounded.

The Conservatives appeared to have misjudged the public mood for change as Labour made inroads amongst younger voters and those living in both cities and the suburbs. Although the Conservatives managed to cling on to power, they lost their overall parliamentary majority as Labour gained 32 seats and secured its largest share of the popular vote since 2004 (41%).

The stark evidence coming to light of the failure of some `privatized’ public services is one of the reasons why Labour’s optimistic message about the role the state can play in enhancing the welfare of the nation is beginning to resonate with the public once again. In the area of criminal justice, for example, major concerns have been raised about the operation of the probation service in England. The Conservative government’s attempt to drive down the long-term cost of probation by permitting eight private companies to supervise `low risk’ offenders has been heavily criticised. Both the Chief Inspector of Probation and the National Audit Office have stated that the emergence of an ineffective and fragmented service is undermining public safety.

Concerns have also been expressed about the viability of private sector involvement in the residential care home sector. While private homes caring exclusively for wealthy, fee-paying citizens may continue to thrive, it is questionable whether those homes that provide care for less prosperous, local authority funded, residents on lower tariffs will survive. Given that demand for care home provision is set to rise significantly in the coming years because of demographic change, it is not surprising that there have been calls for the social care sector to become a constituent part of a tax funded National Health Service in order to prevent a crisis in the sector.

Ideologically driven reforms introduced elsewhere in the welfare state, such as the integrated social security benefit Universal Credit, have also had negative impacts. Complex conditionality and administrative rules, coupled with inadequate levels of funding, have resulted in growing numbers of claimants being forced to rely on voluntary food donations to survive. The Labour party has stated that, if it wins the next General Election, it will give serious consideration to the introduction of a radical Basic Income scheme based on unconditional allowances for all citizens.

Leader of the Labour Party

It has been argued that the Labour party has been too reluctant to introduce radical social policies because of a fear of an adverse response from a conservative leaning electorate. As a consequence, radical manifesto commitments have often been watered down when the party is in government. There are signs, however, that the current, left-leaning, Labour opposition will pursue a more radical agenda if it returns to power. After a long period of austere Conservative rule, in which living standards have stagnated and public services have deteriorated, a political party that demonstrates wholehearted support for the welfare state may capture the public imagination.

By Robert M. Page, professor at University of Birmingham

The views presented in this column are the writer’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Hankyoreh.

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