Of course a Keir Starmer Labour government will be much better than Sunak’s Tories but Mark Perryman has four questions to help us determine by how much.   

For those of a certain age, John Major’s premiership 1990-97 will always conjure up the no-superhero, underpants on the outside image. Feted in liberal Remain quarters because of his opposition to Brexit, he was a hopeless and helpless PM, between 1992 and 1997 leading a deeply divided Tory government, split by… the EU.

The great Labour myth is that it was Tony Blair who put paid to Major. Wrong, it was John Smith who established Labour’s 19 point lead in the polls before his untimely death in ’94. Blair inherited, and never exceeded, that lead.

Labour’s current nightmare, however, is 1992. Neil Kinnock, despite leading in the polls and Major just about as unpopular as he was in ’97, managed to engineer Labour’s defeat.

We can argue the toss over the reasons for Labour’s current poll lead but right now a repeat of ’97 looks far more likely than ’92.

It is rank, and ill-informed, ultra-leftism to then assert that a Labour government wouldn’t be any better than Sunak’s current shower. It would be nigh on impossible to be worse, not exactly hard to be even a tad better. But it is anything but ultra-leftist, and well-informed by historical example, to want and work towards Labour being a whole lot better than ‘just a bit’.

Despite Iraq, Blair’s government was better than Major’s. But that isn’t enough. Unlike Attlee, and to a lesser extent Wilson, who despite huge pressure to do so didn’t send British troops to join the Americans in the Vietnam War, Blair didn’t establish a new consensus. Instead he failed fundamentally to break with the neoliberalism that preceded him from 1979-1997. He was absolutely defined by his 2005 Labour Conference speech:

“I hear people say we have to stop and debate globalisation. You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer.”

If the global economy is treated as a force of nature, forget about regulation. Instead neoliberalism, despite the odd reform, remains fundamentally intact.

At the time Blair had just led Labour to an historic third consecutive General Election victory – though on the lowest share of the vote for a governing party ever. Few felt ready to criticise.

That same year, 2005, Labour deregulated the gambling industry, unleashing a scourge across society of gambling addiction, making huge profits for the betting industry.

Labour, with Gordon Brown spearheading the programme, ‘reformed’ the NHS via Private Finance Initiatives, serving to fund expansion via privatisation of large parts of health and hospital provision.

The expansion of Higher Education was enabled by the wholesale marketisation of universities via tuition fees and loans replacing a maintenance grant repaid via taxation.

So, yes, a Labour Government better than the preceding Tory one – but not good enough.

Where does this leave expectations of a Sir Keir Starmer Labour Government?

Fearful of ‘doing a Kinnock’ the pitch is to the right, and overall light on specifics.

In place of that, and to guard against disappointment, here’s my four starters for ten, no conferring, no prevaricating:

Keir:

Q1 Do you agree with those that say it isn’t the role of the state to be the nation’s nanny?

Q2 If privatisation has been a disaster, for example the railways, raw sewage released into the sea and rivers, huge energy profits for investors, a crumbling NHS, what role do you see for renationalisation?

Q3 Currently a vast swathe of the working population are either striking or planning to strike because of their wages not rising with the rate of inflation. Would your government help ensure all receive wage rises that match inflation and where required catch up after falling behind? If yes, how would you suggest this be funded?

And finally:

Q4 Having broken every one of the ten pledges you made standing for Labour leader on the grounds that’ circumstances change’, what assurances can you give electors that they should believe what you say now you will do in office?

Mark Perryman is a member of Lewes CLP. Mark’s is most recent book Corbynism from Below is available here