What ever happened to the “strong state”? When the Labour Party won power last July, commentators announced the arrival of an “activist” and “interventionist” government, which would ditch the dogmas of laissez faire and confront the issues of the day: chronic stagnation, climate collapse, ragged public services. Rather than simply “correcting market failures”, the Financial Times predicted, Keir Starmer’s industrial strategy would reshape the economy in line with his political priorities: a historic shift in a country where the dominance of rentier capital is rarely disputed.
It did not take long for Labour to deflate these expectations. Its most ambitious policy – the Green Prosperity Plan, which had initially earmarked an annual £28bn for switching to clean energy – was downsized to the point of insignificance. In its place, Starmer has outlined a domestic agenda that is overwhelmingly reliant on big business: rip up planning laws to incentivise house-building; deregulate finance to encourage “risky” investments; line the pockets of asset managers under the guise of “public-private partnership”; and allow fossil fuel companies to plunder the North Sea.
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