Red Tories

One of the most interesting things I read over the holidays was Little Platoons by David Skelton. If you don't know him, he's a Conservative policy wonk who has spent several years looking at ways to broaden his party's appeal beyond its traditional electorate.

The book advocates a return to a One Nation style of Conservatism, and has a strong focus on what has happened to the North. Although he is understandably defensive of previous Conservative governments he acknowledges that deindustrialisation was devastating to working class communities.      He's also quite perceptive about the relationship between Labour and the North, and sees the decline in the relationship as an historic opportunity for the Right.

Another interesting aspect of the book is the way he triangulates his position. He repeatedly positions One Nation Conservatism in opposition to both state-oriented, 'old style' socialism and economic liberalism. I think this is one of the fault lines that we'll see under Boris Johnson - those who think they've won and so they can govern in the free market liberal mode, and those who want to cement the gains in traditionally Labour area and therefore tilt towards economic intervention. 'conserving' therefore might trump markets where there is a forced choice.

In policy terms it's notable that Skelton proposes things on my turf that some on the Right of Labour are sniffy about. It's not often you read a Conservative thinker criticising unions for not taking the opportunity offered by the Bullock Commission. He advocates worker representation throughout business, including on boards, and is (briefly and mildly) critical of Theresa May for losing her nerve on this point. He also advocates greater employee ownership and encouraging other forms of ownership (mutuals etc). And he advocates a public interest test for takeovers. Although it's framed in national terms, it doesn't across as at all UKIP-y. (more generally on employment issues he proposes a Workers' Charter to enshrine rights up to and beyond the Social Chapter.)

I've argued before that you could see this being quite fertile ground for Conservatives, if they want to occupy it. You could even imagine them, for example, wanting to take Northern rail back into public ownership, or at least something different to the current model. Just think what kind of message that would send. Taking back control of monopolies could be similarly defined in terms of reinvigorating national, or regional, power.

This is not entirely new. I have a smidgen of sympathy for Nick Timothy (remember him?) who was advocating a lot of similar ideas under Theresa May. The 2019 campaign was very different in lots of ways to 2017, but it achieved the sort of outcome he was aiming at. I thought Mansfield turning blue in 2017 was an important development (no doubt there were other earlier signs), now it looks like a safer Conservative seat. Skelton's book reads to me like a more fleshed out version of what Timothy was aiming at.

Obviously there's much in it I disagree with too. I can't be enthusiastic about Brexit in any way. And I think he struggles with unions (though he's supportive). In my opinion life's much more complicated than "left-controlled unions bad, moderate unions good" and "unions were too powerful in the past". And today if you think unions are a good thing you should be advocating ways to make it easier for people to form and join them. Recent Conservative policy points in the opposite direction.

However, that said, much of it I agreed with. If the Conservatives adopted much of what he advocates this could be quite a big deal.

A few snippets:

"The fall in share and home ownership means that the rhetoric of popular capitalism hasn't come close to being matched by reality, contributing to a sense that rising prosperity was something that was happening to other people. At the same time... wages have hit a prolonged period of stagnation, meaning that capital has been far out performing wages. This was notably the case in those organisations that saw executive pay grow in a way that had little relevance to performance... Changing the nature of the British firm would make our economy more productive, and our employees more engaged. As well as reforming the nature of the firm in a way that engages and capitalises workers, it's also crucial to consider how all can work with dignity and security."

"Employee engagement within the firm should be the norm, rather than the exception. [S]uccessful economies... who place a premium on skills, also tend to place a premium on proper management-worker cooperation within the firm. To achieve this, having worker representation at every level, including on the board and remuneration committee is important. What is more important, however, is entrenching a culture of engagement and cooperation throughout the firm."

"The [Workers] Charter would also encourage firms to offer an ownership structure that goes beyond the proposals [note: I assume this is a reference to Inclusive Ownership Funds] unveiled by John McDonnell, which acknowledges the problem, but amount to double taxing and severely limit the number of shares that firms can prove to workers. Instead, firms would be expected to report annually on the proportion of their workforce empowered with share ownership. They would also be expected to explain why this didn't apply to all levels within the firm. Companies with fewer than 10,000 employees should also be incentivised through the tax system to provide share ownership to workers."