RADICAL REALIST

Politics has been heart-breaking and nerve-wracking lately if you care about a more sustainable, peaceful and equitable world. In France and Germany the moderate middle is under siege. Even the pragmatic Dutch have lurched to the right and the United States, having flirted with a dangerous demagogue is now considering a marriage with more permanent consequences.

And so the UK election feels like an antidote to the poison and pessimism that is coursing through our body politic. Our newsletter is called the Radical Realist because we believe that this country and the world need radical reinvention. But change has to occur in the context of real-world constraints. We have to chart a plausible path from where we are to where we want to go. Keir Starmer’s government feels as like a band of Radical Realists whose performance will hopefully serve as a template for popular progressive politics elsewhere.

On prisons, James Timpson seems like an inspired choice and an opportunity to radically reimagine efforts to reduce recidivism. There are plenty of opportunities to improve public safety, restore the dignity of both victims and offenders, provide pathways to work, place restorative justice in the heart of sentencing and allocate scarce resources more sensibly.

On climate it’s a relief to read Ed Miliband’s inaugural letter setting out his twin objectives: getting to net zero and addressing economic inequality. The lifting of the onshore wind ban plus planning reform to accelerate a new smart grid is a sensible start. Combine this with expanded battery storage, a rapid rollout of EVs and charging infrastructure plus a realistic strategy for retrofitting existing housing stock and the net-zero transition gets a shot in the arm. If this is coordinated with the building of 1.5mn (hopefully energy efficient) homes and a re-tooling of the apprenticeship levy to boost productivity and re-skill, we have chance at creating good green jobs. Radical Realist readers know that we (with impeccable timing) will host a Green Jobs Revolution Summit in London on 19 and 20 September.

The scrapping of the fantasy-land Rwanda scheme was an act of sanity and decency. But the single most effective policy change would be to give refugees and asylum-seekers an initial right to work from day one. By providing a pathway to integration and settlement the government would not only start to save £3bn+ in unnecessary housing costs, but it would also help to fill jobs, gather taxes, and address a creeping demographic crisis. If you convert these savings into a fund to boost home ownership and job creation for those anxious of the spectre (but not the reality) of immigration, you can turn the cynical politics for Reform on its head. We are not going to waste money on quixotic schemes, but instead allocate the real immigration reform dividend to you. Now this would be radical and realistic.

Now that the dust has settled it is imperative that Labour honestly revisits the bear-trap of Brexit. Appoint a trusted, apolitical Royal Commission. Ask them to answer a simple question based only on the facts. What economic and political arrangement with Europe will best boost employment and growth? Commit to implementing their recommendation. (Then re-join the Customs Union).

This is also an opportunity to radically review the NHS. Without reform it will soon consume more than 50% of all government spending. This is simply unsustainable. Part of the solution must be to deploy AI (and associated tech) in the most comprehensive way possible. The other must entail an exploration of alternative funding models that don’t break the social contract. Without radical change, the NHS will become a fiscal burden that will dramatically worsen for every generation.

We realise that the new government has inherited a broken Britain and a profoundly unstable and unsustainable world. But we remain incredibly optimistic that solutions exist and can be implemented by responsible leadership. If there remains a risk it is that Keir Starmer, having run a brilliant campaign, will allow realism to trump radicalism. Underestimating the discontent with the status quo and the urgent need for radical change will scupper his chances of a second term. And lead to heartbreak among those of us who think that this brand of governance can restore our faith in the endeavour itself.

Paul van Zyl is co-founder of The Conduit.