Читать книгу The Dignity of Labour - Jon Cruddas - Страница 17

Whilst the march of the machines has renewed interest in work, so too have more pragmatic political concerns about insecure jobs and our enduring economic weaknesses. Famously, outside 10 Downing Street on 13 July 2016, on becoming prime minister Theresa May talked of ‘fighting against the burning injustices … If you’re from an ordinary working-class family, life is much harder than many people in Westminster realize. You have a job, but you don’t always have job security … The government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few, but by yours.’

This was widely recognized as a significant shift, at least rhetorically, towards ‘blue-collar’ conservatism with a focus on ‘ordinary working people’ reflecting the influence of ‘Red Tory’ or ‘post-liberal’ elements at the top of the party. It suggested a reorientation away from labour market deregulation of the Thatcher era and a renewed interest in work quality. In October 2016, May commissioned Matthew Taylor to report on how employment practices could change to keep pace with modern business models.²³

The 2017 Conservative Election Manifesto announced: ‘we do not believe in untrammelled free markets’ and ‘we reject the cult of selfish individualism. We abhor social division, injustice, unfairness and inequality’ and suggested an overhaul of labour market policy and embrace of industrial democracy by putting workers on the boards. On 11 July 2017, Taylor’s review was unveiled and drew a scathing response from across the trade union movement. Since publication, there has been little evidence of actual policy follow-through.

This shift wasn’t really about policy. In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, the Conservative Party were seeking to focus on workplace issues given the shifting class alignments amongst the electorate. Driven by the European question, the party was on walkabout in search of a policy agenda to consolidate working-class support, a move that foreshadowed their 2019 election victory in ‘Red Wall’ seats and appeals to ‘Workington Man’.

Renewed political interest for workplace issues also aligned with expert policy concerns with the UK productivity ‘puzzle’ – the appalling domestic productivity performance since the 2008 financial crash. What is striking is the contrast between the noise of rupture – the language of epochal technological change and end of work – alongside record jobs levels and ‘puzzling’ productivity numbers. Sometime soon we might expect the structural unemployment to show up or the productive lift derived by automation to arrive.

Without doubt UK productivity continues to underperform in terms of long-term domestic trends and compared to other major economies. It also underperforms compared to what followed the two previous major recessions of 1979–80 and 1990–1. There are no agreed answers as to why. Is it the product of an enduring economic shock, or changing patterns of labour, or simply a lack of demand?²⁴

The Bank of England cannot account for this ‘puzzle’. The then governor comically stated in 2015, ‘It has been worse than we had expected and worse than we had expected for the last several years. We have been successively disappointed’.