We can have a Green New Deal, Rishi Sunak
Green New Deal Convener, Colin Hines had this letter in the Guardian overnight:
Your editorial (23 November) highlights how Rishi Sunak is softening the country up for more, long-term austerity, and Polly Toynbee (By freezing pay and benefits, Sunak will be levelling down, not up, 24 November) eloquently points out its inevitable adverse effects on individuals, society and our economic wellbeing. This should surely remind us of the failure of the left to counter George Osborne’s austerity narrative, as hopes of the financiers getting their just deserts and capitalism made more socially responsible were quickly dashed. Just as we can hope that Covid will be less of a threat by spring, so now we need to prepare to counter Sunak’s bid to mimic Osborne.
Finding the money to reset our damaged economy into something fairer and greener should need no cuts. Few realise that this year the government has already turned to the Bank of England to inject – via quantitative easing £350bn – of electronic money into the economy to cover Covid costs this year. What politicians and activists of all political persuasions need to grasp is that this mechanism requires no extra demands on taxpayers or increased government borrowing, and in the past decade of its use, it has not resulted in rising inflation.
Seeing off austerity will require the realisation that QE must be used to help finance longer-term measures to deal with regional inequality, the need for secure jobs in every constituency, the repair of our threadbare social infrastructure and the climate crisis.
Colin Hines, Convenor, UK Green New Deal Group
More and more economists, and not only adherents of MMT (Modern Money Theory) are questioning the current and past government’s approach and even the European Central Bank (ECB) seem to be thinking differently.
Christine Legarde, head of the ECB, recently confirmed what many are now starting to realise and that is that countries with a sovereign currency and central bank can’t ever become bankrupt regardless of how much they ‘borrow’.
And, the UK is one of them! So, that means that each and every economic decision taken, regardless of the colour of government, is a political one and not based on any economic reality or priority.
We need now, not only a Green New Deal but a complete Political New Deal and Vision for the future!