Ken calls for radical economic alternatives at the Progressive London conference

From @LabourList

Ken Livingstone called for radical economic alternatives to address the recession at yesterday’s Progressive London Global Economic Crisis conference.

The former Mayor of London believes the consequences of the economic crisis will be prolonged over many years and that essential policies to control banks through state intervention will be required.

At the conference yesterday, Livingstone said:

“Bailing out bank shareholders with billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money while taking no direct control won’t work. There is no evidence that the private sector, if left to itself, can turn this situation around and the proposals of the Tories to actually cut public spending would therefore be disastrous.”

Continuing that “we need far more radical economic policies to protect the great majority of the population who have no responsibility for the crisis they now face”, Linvingstone called for:

* Nationalisation and direct control by government of the core of the banking sector to restore lending.

* A major programme of public investment to reverse the decline in overall investment.

* Large-scale public intervention where the private sector has failed – as in house-building and transport.

* Eliminating waste by reducing military spending at least to that of Germany, abandoning the proposed new generation of nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers and scrapping ID card.

* The introduction of a more progressive system of taxation to help meet the pressure on public finance.

* Equipping people with advanced skills through continuing to expand student numbers and funding to remove the class barriers that continue to exclude large numbers of young people from higher education.

* Public intervention to help put Britain at the cutting edge of the emerging new economy around the creative industries, the internet and environmental initiatives.