The centre-left is out of ideas

Britain is caught between populists who want to destroy the system and fatalists who think that nothing can be done. That’s the contention of the founding essay of a new progressive journal, Arguably, launched by George Eaton (formerly of The New Statesman and Roger Scruton hit job infamy) and Cam Vargas. But does the magazine have the bright progressive ideas to rejuvenate a Labour government?

Certainly, this Government’s lack of an overarching philosophy has been one of its main problems. Having won the last general election in a landslide, it has often seemed to be baffled as to what it should be doing with that power. Sometimes it has given into long-held civil service desires, as with winter fuel payments or inheritance tax for farmers. But when it has pursued its own distinct policies, whether on assisted dying (formally a Private Members Bill, but widely known to be endorsed by the PM) or the attempt to spend billions to give away the Chagos islands, the result has been a disaster.

Reading this founding essay, it’s hard to see how strongly it diverges from that. After all, it is full of praise for Labour’s reforms on planning laws, reviving public ownership, and raising infrastructure investment. Yet almost all of these are failing. Labour’s plan to build 1.5 million new homes won’t be reached. Reviving public ownership means renationalising the railways, which ignores that they are currently at their safest ever. Cheaper European rail prices are invariably the result of subsidies, a cost that is hard to justify right now. As for infrastructure investment that will unlock productivity, all too often this means more of the green energy that is currently destroying the foundations of our economy. 

What about Arguably’s fresh philosophical thinking? Does that offer Labour a new direction? It begins with Rawls and his “veil of ignorance”. It may sound lovely to guide society without reference to “class, race, gender or talents” but there is an immediate problem when looking at twenty-first century Britain, which is full of laws reaffirming the centrality of identity, from hate speech laws to positive discrimination. Instead of a veil of ignorance, we have an endless collection of identity statistics on every conceivable area of life.

Perhaps it would be better if we dug into the policy details. Danish-style “flexicurity” welfare reform sounds charming, but it’s obviously incompatible with the government which introduced the Employment Rights Act 2025. Making hiring and firing relatively easy is definitely not on the same page as Angela Rayner’s new worker’s rights agency, which can enter properties without a warrant and arrest people. Limiting the triple lock might well help with our growing debt crisis, but saving £6.2 billion by 2030 isn’t much when welfare spending is expected to reach £400 billion that same year. Increasing taxes will only make things worse, as already six million people would be better off living on benefits than working.

Perhaps what stands out is what is missing

Similarly, going further on EU realignment through rejoining the single market and customs union is only a continuation of what the Government is currently doing. As my colleague Dr Emmanuel Igwe has pointed out in his briefing A Road to Nowhere, realignment will be bad for the economy, sacrificing access to successful global markets. Nor is the EU of 2026 the same as the one we left in 2016. The major economies of Europe are just as economically moribund and politically divided as us. Rejoining the customs union and single market, only a decade after we voted leave, won’t deliver growth and will increase the disillusionment felt by voters. 

Perhaps what stands out is what is missing. There is almost no discussion of energy (although their most recent article does provide a qualified case for more drilling in the North Sea) and when it comes to migration, there is only a single mention — calling for more. An ageing society and low fertility certainly aren’t good for the economy, but since 2021 we have undergone a wave of migration that is unprecedented in our history without any improvement. Although having a lower ratio of people of working age does mean more fiscal pressure, adding workers only reduces that if they earn enough. Workers are a minority of those migrating here, with many of those earning around or less than the median income. Nor will bringing back freedom of movement return us to 2004, not least because countries like Poland have been catching up with us economically. 

In return for more migration and more tax, Arguably offers us a vision of the “good life”: more open-air cafes, theatres, riverside eateries, and “gayer streets”. All of these are nice, but as Felix Hardinge wrote in these pages, they are also evidence of constrained minds. I love a custard blueberry brioche as much as the next Gail’s patriot, but Britain needs loftier goals than this. 

In its own way, this is a fatalistic exercise — a retreat into the comforting goals of the last few decades (electoral reform!) rather than facing up to the dire situation we face. Although the populists may be uncouth and sweeping, in seeking to change the system completely, at least they understand the scale of the challenge.