So the draft manifesto on which Jeremy Corbyn and Labour will campaign was leaked yesterday. The Telegraph responded as if all hell broke loose:
Jeremy Corbyn will take Britain back to the 1970s by nationalising industries, forcing wage caps on businesses and giving huge power to the unions if he gets into power, a leaked copy of Labour’s draft manifesto reveals.
The 43-page document, obtained by the Daily Telegraph, shows that Mr Corbyn plans to nationalise energy, rail and mail and will introduce a 20:1 pay cap for businesses.
Now, from the modern UK perspective, there is quite a bit that just seems ancient: maximum wages, a dramatic increase in power handed to labor unions by the government, deprivatizing numerous industries, etc. Even taking into account the biases in the Telegraph‘s editors (and the confirmation bias in this post’s author), it’s a dramatic step backwards for Britain and Northern Ireland. It also appears to leave the door open to never leaving the European Union, depending upon how one reads it.
That said, it’s also remarkable for comparison, say, with the present situation in the United States.
After all, most Americans know the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as either (1) the old mother country, (2) a very strong ally, and/or (3) that lovely socialist place with “single payer” health care. Yet while the United Kingdom certainly has heavier government involvement in the health care and health insurance markets, it is also one of the leading defenders of market economics in Europe (admittedly a low bar).
More to the point, there are some areas (including the aforementioned passenger rail and standard mail service), where the UK is less statist than we are (the Royal Mail, for instance, was actually sold off in a 2013 IPO, and is now a private, for-profit company).
Of course, Corbyn – and if the manifesto survives intact, Labour – would reverse that and more. They really would return the UK to the status of “the sick man of Europe.” However, it is also a reminder that America’s reputation as the last great defender of market economics is not as deserved as it once was.