Though I’m not convinced that the deficit can be entirely eliminated through progressive taxation, I think its a point of view that deserves to be discussed, at a time in which the austerity agenda is unquestioned.
Originally posted on The Retrofit Lefty:
As I began writing, delegates from CLPs, socialist societies, affiliated Trade Unions and the Labour Party leadership were meeting at the Party’s National Policy Forum (NPF) to lay the foundations for Labour’s 2015 manifesto. Miliband’s speech to the Forum on Saturday morning contained several progressive measures – building 1 million houses over the next parliament, committing to repeal the health and social care bill and to implementing the living wage are all steps in the right direction. However, as Michael Meacher points out, Labour’s approach to the economy still has problems. The perspective repeated by the leadership (for example, Ed Miliband, here, Angela Eagle, the chair of the NPF, here, and Jon Cruddas, here) is that there is less money, so ‘higher spending is not the answer to the long-term economic crisis that we together have identified‘. At the close of the NPF…
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