Let's Do It...

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I have to say I was pretty impressed by the Labour leader's New Year address this morning. He put forward a strategic plan for the years ahead, confident in taking the helm from this increasingly hapless Tory administration at the soonest possible opportunity. He dealt with press questions - actually answering direct questions - with a measure of élan we've not seen before from him. He seems to be getting the measure of the job at last.

The most salient point about the speech - one apparently lost on Damian Grammaticas, a BBC reporter whom I respect - was the underlying structural change to UK politics that Starmer and Labour are proposing. Far from ditching socialism in favour of New Labour's discredited brown-nosing of big business, he proposed in somewhat elliptical terms pretty much the kind of reforms that I personally have espoused and banged on about for years: de-centralising the political machine and creating a balanced, mixed economy where neither state nor big-business holds the monopoly of power and influence.

Devolving power and fiscal decision-making further, to not only regions, but to metropolitan centres and local councils, whilst nationalizing the infrastructure that needs to be so nationalized: power, railways, NHS, etc., is the right and proper way to go. These are not just the vacuous ideas of empty political thinking and traditional left-centre-right politics, but radical visions for the much-needed reform of our system. That Starmer would not be drawn on the tactical specifics should not be seen as reflecting the gesture politics of the opposing party: rather, simply view it as justifiable prudence in the face of a government and party that has consistently taken all crumbs of policy freely given by the Opposition, and run expediently with them as their own.

No easy solutions promised, no free rides, and no empty promises of a New Jerusalem. Just a chance to reset, remodel and restart. We deserve better than the Tory mess of the last thirteen years. We deserve a new start. We deserve better, full-stop. I'm confident, for the first time in a long time, that change and improvement are not only possible, but do-able. First things first, we need to get an early election called and put the question to the electorate before further rot is allowed to take hold. Bring it on.

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