By BAGEHOT
In what feel’s like John McDonnell’s show so far—the shadow chancellor has taken the reins at the Labour Party’s annual conference. Not only did he deliver today’s keynote address in the main hall, but he’s also been everywhere in the media and on the fringe. Mr McDonnell has brought the Labour Party a radical new idea: requiring companies to give their workers shares worth perhaps 10% of the total.
While Mr McDonnell’s big speech may not have been a soaring rhetorical success, it did offer insight into how a man who could be Britain’s next chancellor of the exchequer sees the world. It was undoubtedly bold. Mr McDonnell didn’t shy away from revealing the extent of his ambition to shift the balance of power from capitalists to workers. Clearly, the Labour Party not only believes it might win the next election, but that it could also get a mandate for a substantial agenda.
At the heart of McDonnellism are “public ownership” and “democratization”. He emphasized the continuing relevance of Labour’s hundred-year-old commitment to public ownership, and called for expanded industrial democracy, arguing that democracy shouldn’t stop at the factory gates. He also wants workers to make up a third of company boards.
Mr McDonnell spelled out his policies for “reprogramming capitalism,” including familiar strategies such as a £10 minimum wage and closing the gender pay gap, as well as more subtle ideas such as rewiring the Treasury and the public corporation to promote regional regeneration and public investment.