Saturday, October 14, 2023

Michael Lambert: STARMER - Sitting on Fences

Oct 14, 2023 | Last week was the Labour party conference in Liverpool. The mood was optimistic since it is now widely expected that Labour will form the next government with Keir Starmer as prime minister.

In his keynote speech, Starmer failed to mention many of the major issues facing the country such as global warming, AI, fraud and electoral reform. He spoke about various reforms including ending non-dom tax relief, ending tax relief for private schools and reform of the planning system to facilitate the building of many more houses. However, in a speech marked by meaningless management speak he said very little about how all of his proposed reforms were to be paid for.

Towards the end of his speech, he did acknowledge that growing the economy would entail expansion of business. The current Tory cabinet and the 31-strong shadow cabinet have virtually no business experience and it is doubtful if they really understand that backing new small businesses is crucial to the success of the economy and is the only way that all of the reforms Starmer wants to make can be financed.