Larry Elliott - There is nothing revolutionary about McDonnell's economic plan

Before Thatcher, capital and labour had an even share – Labour merely plans to rebalance a skewed relationship

Another good article in the Guardian today. The British Labour Party is set to reverse Thatcherism.

The first was that the state must be prepared to invest if the private sector is unable or reluctant to do so. Capital is plentiful, interest rates are at historic lows, Britain’s infrastructure is badly in need of modernisation. Yet, businesses would rather sit on piles of cash or use profits to buy back shares rather than seize the plentiful investment opportunities. The fact that this tendency long predates Brexit suggests a need for the state to take the initiative in the hope that public investment will encourage private investment. 

McDonnell’s second theme was the need to raise labour’s share of national income in a variety of ways: by raising the national living wage to a minimum of £10 an hour, a shorter working week with no loss of pay, and by rolling back the trade union legislation introduced by the Conservatives since Margaret Thatcher’s election in 1979.

The Guardian

Larry Elliott - There is nothing revolutionary about McDonnell's economic plan