News

Rt Hon Caroline Flint writes the foreword to our latest piece of research into the economic impact of Covid-19.

In the face of coronavirus, we are now facing the possibility of a lost decade, with years of low or even negative growth. The government has been quick to provide emergency support to businesses through cash injections, job retention schemes, and deferred tax bills. But this will not be enough.

Social democracy seemed close to being the natural order in 2000. Almost all governments in the western world were in the hands of broadly moderate left-of-centre administrations.

The government has taken steps to shore up most businesses. But it is becoming clear that the current plans may not be ambitious enough.

More than anything else, the result of the 2019 general election highlighted the huge divide between London and the rest of the UK. Government policy is now heavily focused on trying to close the gap.

Labour’s heavy defeat needs to be set in the context of the difficulties which left-of-centre political parties have experienced well beyond the borders of the UK.