Labouring under delusions

 The growing possibility of the Labour Party returning to power at the next election raises the question: what might a Labour government do? Labour seemingly left behind a long time ago the democratic socialism that was the mainstream of the old Labour Party. The latest indications from Labour’s leadership and economic teams seem to confirm that, whatever the current Labour Party brings forward on issues of political economy for example at the next election, it is unlikely to be far-reaching in its ambitions.

Philip Snowden, Labour MP: 'The British Labour Party is certainly not Socialist in the sense in which Socialism is understood upon the Continent. It is not based upon the recognition of the class struggle; it does not accept the teaching of Marx...' (Manchester Guardian Reconstruction Supplement. 26 October 1922).  Arthur Greenwood, Labour’s Lord Privy Seal: 'I look around my colleagues and I see landlords, capitalists and lawyers. We are a cross section of the national life, and this is something that has never happened before' (Hansard, 17 August 1945). Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Mr. Houghton, M.P. was impressed by his Party's achievements : “Never has any previous government done so much in so short a time to make modern capitalism work' (The Times, 25 April 1967). Tony Benn, former Labour cabinet minister and member of the Party's National Executive Committee, in a candid confession to The Independent (17 May 1989) wrote: 'Past Labour governments have always worked within the limits set by market forces (as when the cabinet capitulated to the International Monetary Fund in 1976); have always supported nuclear weapons (as when Callaghan authorised the Chevaline without telling parliament); and have regularly confronted trade unionism (as with rigid wage policies)....We must add... a clear recognition that the Labour Party is not — and probably never was — a socialist party, and its individual members do not decide its policy, nor are its election pledges apparently meant to be taken seriously.'