As delegates assemble for Labour’s post-election conference, there is a palpable relief that the Tories have been thrown out, but it’s hard to detect the sparkling optimism that would be expected after the long-awaited election of a Labour government. Of course, part of this downbeat atmosphere is due to the toxic inheritance from the Tories after 14 years of austerity and the last few years of their manic scorched-earth policies.
Despite all the recent talk of “black holes”, nobody was realistically surprised at the mess the Tories made of the public finances. In a report that Andrew Fisher and I published last year on “Labour’s in-tray”, we calculated the amount needed to just return spending on our public services to 2010 levels was £70bn. Even though the political parties conspired to avoid the debate about just how tough it would be after the election for any government, people knew.
What has suppressed much of the optimism at the election of a Labour government is not the scale of the economic challenge, but Labour’s crushingly disappointing response. Potentially hanging over the Labour party conference is a black cloud of the threat of another round of ongoing austerity. People know from experience what Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer’s regurgitation of George Osborne’s language of tough and painful decisions means prior to a budget.
Labour is seen clinging to an out-of-date........