Abstract

There’s been a lot of excitable talk about Jeremy Corbyn’s economic policies in the press, but little substance. The Corbyn-led Labour Party has a major task ahead of it: to think through what kind of economic strategy is needed to make anti-austerity policy in the UK function. This talk will look at how these efforts are going, and where they might lead the left. It will revolve around (but not be restricted to) several themes: the insufficiency of Keynesianism; the difficulty of breaking austerity not only as an ideology, but as a set of practices; the need for structural reforms and how to develop popular support for a comprehensive anti-austerity programme that can change the shape of the economy.

James Meadway is consultant economic advisor to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. Before that he was chief economist at the New Economics Foundation (NEF), a leading UK think-tank promoting social, economic and environmental justice.