Small Change

Even the best-laid plans of Team Starmer are not so costed that they can't be watered down yet further in the interests of real people. Plans to mitigate the convenience of wealthy tax-dodgers are set to join the plans to spend twenty-eight billion on green modernisation, as well as one or two others, in the long grass of sensible moderation. This latest dilution of the diluted has been roundly condemned both by left-wingers and by the Conservatives, which constitutes the sole and inarguable necessary certification of its irreproachable centralism. Of course it will leave the exchequer short of a billion or so; but that can be recouped more or less painlessly through a programme of welfare cuts, efficiency savings in the NHS, crumblier school buildings, on-the-spot fines for antisemitic tropes, and other major improvements.