First published: prospect magazine.co.uk, 28/09/2015
If he re-establishes political control over the bank of England, it will be hard to win the public over
As a politician, John McDonnell has said many controversial things. Now as Shadow Chancellor, he is having to elaborate, or apologise. People have to make up their own minds as to whether they trust him and think him credible. This applies with added force to his judgement about how a Labour government would manage the UK economy. At the Labour Party conference today, he will begin to make the case, pitching for radical change to what opinion surveys tell us is still a skeptical electorate.
The centre-piece of McDonnell’s strategy is, as we know, opposition to the austerity programmes being applied by the government to public services and welfare. To combat accusations of “deficit-denial,” he now argues that Labour will subscribe to George Osborne’s plan to achieve a surplus by the end of this parliament in 2019-20….Read more:
