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Labour’s economic programme, like many systems around the world, places greater trade policy responsibilities on political leaders.
By Patricia Cohen
Reporting from London
The last time a new Labour government brazenly campaigned for an ambitious domestic trade policy to revive the United Kingdom’s economy was 50 years ago, and the effects were disastrous.
The 1974 program of subsidies, state ownership, and power-sharing between business and unions resulted in measures that paralyzed the nation. And the government’s goal of picking commercial winners has morphed into a policy of supporting losers like carmaker British Leyland and British Steel Corporation.
The current Labour Party has obviously abandoned this legacy of the 1970s. Keir Starmer’s new government, which officially presented its economic programme at the opening of Parliament on Wednesday, nevertheless adheres to the idea that the government will have to play a key role in reviving the British economy. stagnant economy.
Policies that put political leaders more firmly in control of the economy have taken hold around the world. India, Brazil, Malaysia and many European capitals have signed. The United States is in the lead, having led the decades-long crusade for open politics. markets and a non-interventionist government. The move is largely aimed at challenging China, which has used top-down plans to firmly identify itself as the world’s second-largest economy, as well as investment systems to curb the ravages of climate change. .
The increasing diversity of government interventions inevitably means that they will eventually compete with others to some extent. However, with one of the world’s largest complex economies, the most recent British experiment is being watched in particular.
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