‘The cost of everything’

With the war in Iran having a significant impact on the cost of living, many consumers are crying out for the government to provide a more radical package of financial relief. While the government will point toward measures on energy bills over the next few months, alongside other initiatives that suggest you will have saved money, they are still being told it is not enough.

At LabourList we are honest when we think the government are getting things wrong. But this situation does not appear to be one of them – no matter how often the populists will try to convince you otherwise.

Of course a government must take responsibility, it is in charge of the decision making, I am not trying to suggest that is not true.

READ MORE: ‘Marginal gains’

However, it is important to place things in the wider context of how we ended up in a system that feels so broken, and why the government appears so snookered as it looks for a way out.

Seven crises led to this mess. The financial crash, austerity, Brexit, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, Liz Truss’ mini-budget and now the war in Iran have all created conditions that impact working people and place great pressure on this government to do more with less. Funding that was once there has gone, the growth needed to replace it has slowed. Public services have edged closer and closer to being on life-support.

Not a single one of those catastrophic moments of the last two decades is Keir Starmer’s fault – though he may be the one who ultimately pays the price for them.

Populists thrive on broken conditions. Once the public becomes so fatigued by them, the ‘roll of the dice’ becomes more tempting with each day. Reform and the Greens are both aware of this but neither are offering a credible plan to clean up the mess these factors created.

Labour has to offer the public a response to the situation it finds itself in and it must be one rooted in visible ideas for change. Incremental tweaks in the right direction, while important, are much more difficult to cultivate public support for when the nation is so desperate.

Due to the nature of the challenges economically, it can feel like incrementalism is the only sensible course of action. However, it should not be the shop front of the operation. Rather an incremental approach to change should be important foundational work happening in the back offices of government to support the message being communicated directly to the public. ‘Change’ must evolve into a narrative with meaning.

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Labour activists are currently pouring their hearts, souls and shoe leather into convincing the public over the coming weeks to vote for Labour in May. Regardless of how successful this endeavour proves to be, it will be followed almost immediately by the King’s speech. This will provide the timely opportunity for the party to come together and work out what change means for the public.

It has to be bigger than incremental tweaks. It must be a feeling of hope and optimism that things will improve and the relief voters are desperate to see is being undeniably provided.

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