Has Labour returned to social democracy?

I’m reserving judgement on Andy Burnham’s government for now, until we see what they come up with in the rest of this year. But the most interesting parts of Andy Burnham’s speech to Labour’s Conference weren’t the policy proposals on pensions, or housing, or the EU, or electoral reform. They were his attempt to make Labour a party of social democracy, instead of neo-liberalism – even though he didn’t use those words. They were his rejection of the way British society has gone over the last 40 years – his rejection of Thatcherism, and by implication his rejection also of the 1997 – 2010 New Labour government’s continuation of Thatcherism.

A few quotes from his speech to illustrate this.

“This country isn’t where any of us would want it to be. Politics-as-usual has taken it backwards. More of the same isn’t good enough.”

“Britain has been on the wrong path for a long time. Deindustrialisation. Deregulation. Privatisation. Austerity. Brexit.”

“And what has it given us? A country run for vested interests. Not in the public interest. With power held in too few hands. And too many places left to drift.”

I am ready to do things my predecessors wouldn’t. I will make a break with the direction of the past 40 years and put Britain on a new path.”

“In 1945, we had the vision to win the peace. We had the bravery to make change. We built good homes, secure jobs, health and education for everyone. We gave Britain hope again. We made working-class aspiration feel real for families like mine. We built the common good. Or at least we did until the 1980s.

“Suddenly, the common wealth we had created, this party, the wealth we had created for the many was seen as an opportunity for the few. Homes. Water. Energy. Transport. Care. Broken up and sold off.

“The British Right talk about ‘taking back control’. Never let them forget, they are the ones that gave it away in the first place.”

“The flawed thinking of the last 40 years.”

“Water is a symbol of what has gone wrong with Britain. A service where the shareholders never lose and the public never win. From which some have syphoned out easy money while the public picked up the bill for the sewage in our seas. It stinks. I will not allow it to continue like this.”

What has happened, as a consequence of Andy Burnham becoming PM, is the re-opening within the Labour Party of a discussion about what the Party is for, what kind of society we want to bring about, and how we get there.

Those who have tried to raise these questions over the last 40 years have been ignored, denounced, prevented from being Labour candidates, or even expelled. When we got a Party leadership prepared to put forward at least a social democratic strategy, between 2015 and 2019, it was sabotaged by Labour’s right wing and their friends in the media and business with their constant factional attacks on our then leadership. For now, perhaps, we have a Party prepared to discuss and think about what it is for. Which is surely a good thing.

Jeff Slee is a retired rail worker and former RMT National Executive Committee member.