This time no mistakes

Almost 30 years ago, Hutton wrote The State we’re In and is credited with much influence on the Blair/Brown Governments. His new book seeks to repeat the exercise and will give Labour leaders and strategists much to think about. In covering the iniquities of recent right-wing mistakes (of which Austerity and Brexit vie for the most damning analysis), he treads familiar ground and paints a depressingly credible picture of a broken Britain. Whether he needs to devote a full third of the book to review centuries of evolving political philosophies, I’m unsure, but it is probably his way of demonstrating that, in the end, the only viable left-leaning approach to modern society is the marriage of ‘collective solidarity’ and ‘progressive liberalism’. He calls them the ‘We’ and the ‘I’ .Only by embracing these to justify a mind-boggling agenda for an incoming Starmer administration can we save Britain from ‘dropping out of the front rank of nations’ in terms of personal and social wellbeing, economic performance, social cohesion and international influence. As part of his prescription is his call for major reform of our democratic institutions. Ditch the First-past-the-post system, make the Lords electable and encourage better ‘rules of engagement’ for improved dialogue. Of course, ConsultationGuRU agrees with that one!!