Sandy 4 St Albans

This was the title of a breakfast seminar organised at the Financial Times last week by Editorial Intelligence and chaired by BBC political journalist Jon Sopel.  I was on the panel together with serial  ex-Secretary of State John Hutton, shadow economic secretary Greg Hands, the wonderful Suzanne Moore commentator, and FT politics editor George Parker.

I’ve delayed writing about it so that I can now provide links to the podcast and also to edited video highlights.

I was slightly disappointed that my fellow panellists chose to interpret the topic as providing forecasts about how well they would do (no politician ever forecasts they will do badly) in the upcoming election.  I thought it was far more interesting to talk about life after the election – which really will mark the end of an era of the politics of plenty and the ushering in of  a new age of austerity.

In particular I asked how we can make sure we hold the country together, keep our social cohesion.  I observed that  Government and the political class must lead on sharing the pain before they dish it out – so fewer MPs, fewer ministers, cuts in allowances, abolition of whole departments of state.

I commented too on the great history of other parties adopting LibDem policies when in office – the classic example is of course Gordon Brown’s giving independence to Bank of England in 1997 after no word of it appearing in the Labour manifesto – it was in the LibDem manifesto for that year and 1992’s as well.

So speaking last of the panellists, I expressed my surprise that there had been no mention of climate change, an era-changer if ever there is one and observed that  Geoffrey Howe famously took tough decisions in his first 1979 budget with the doubling of VAT.  I suggested that far less unpalatable is the LibDem proposition for a green tax switch, raising tax allowances to £10,000 for all and funding it not just through closing loopholes and inequitable allowances at the top but also by taxing carbon.  This would put money in the pockets of the poorest and help reduce activities which are exposing our planet to most risk.

If a hung or balanced parliament allowed multi-party support for this approach, that really would mark the opening of a new era.