Every crisis is an opportunity for change; the trick is to act fast before “the tyranny of the status quo” reasserts itself. That was Milton Friedman’s view, says Larry Elliott – and the Right is good at putting it into practice. When Britain’s economy hit the buffers in the 1970s, for instance, the champions of the free market were ready with an explanation of what had gone wrong and a radical new political programme. If only the centre-left had shown the same urgency after the financial meltdown of 2008. That crisis presented it with a perfect opportunity to put reckless capital “back in its cage”, but the Left flunked it. The culprits were allowed to carry on much as before, while the public got austerity.
Brexit has presented the Left with a second opportunity to “come up with an alternative to an economic model” that clearly isn’t working, but once again they’ve failed to rise to the challenge: rather than embracing radical ideas for a post-Brexit Britain, they’re gloomily sticking as close as possible to the status quo ante. They’ll regret their passive stance. For if the Left “fails to come up with a plan for real change, the Right surely will”.
