The response to our first Green Book podcast was hugely encouraging.  We’re now working on the second in the series, looking at the climate emergency, focused on the challenge of net zero, and asking how the Lib Dems can recover our leading position on the environment.  That will go live later this month.

First, though, what did we learn for the debate on the economy?  We began here because concerns about the economy, be they low paid jobs, insecurity or our apparent inability to fund decent public services and infrastructure, are at the top of most people’s concerns. 

The lack of investment, both public and private, that has led to this situation is well known. However, the standard answer has been ‘but there is no money’ – the excuse for the austerity of the last 13 years – which has only made things worse while debts, both personal and public, have actually got bigger.  

In the podcast, we set out to start a fresh debate and to come up with innovative and distinctive ideas and new ways of thinking about political economy. The podcast looked at what has been done differently elsewhere, in particular in the USA where Biden is turning the economic approach of the last 20-30 years upside down, and then asked where the money might come from.

We had three great guests:

Vicky Pryce is a very well-known economics commentator, regularly on TV, radio and in the media. 

Max von Thun was economic advisor to the party when Vince Cable was leader and is now the European director for the US based Open Markets Institute.  

Richard Murphy is one of the creators of the original Green New Deal and also the tax justice movement, whilst being a very active blogger on political economy.

Overall, the panel felt that just ‘leaving it to the market’ with the cuts to state expenditure and investment have left us with failing infrastructure and public services, and with an unproductive economy.  Brexit and Covid have made problems that were already there much worse.  This needs the state to take more of a lead with a very different economic narrative along the lines that we are seeing in the USA and the EU.  This especially applies to infrastructure and the investment needed to tackle climate change where the state can take a lead to stimulate private sector investment.  

At the same time, concentrations of power and wealth, most obviously in the digital space, need to be tackled, again as in the USA and EU.  They are taking much more pro-active and positive moves against anti-competitive practices and businesses, while the UK is being left on the side lines, despite recent efforts by Sunak on AI.  The money to fund these investments can be found, not least by changes to the existing tax and savings systems, to release productive capital.  Generic wealth taxes, whilst superficially attractive, are complex to implement and vulnerable to evasion.

The fascinating discussion produced plenty of potential Lib Dem policies and messages on the economy – starting with recognising that just ‘leaving it to the market’ has failed, and that Brexit and Covid have reinforced pre-existing problems. The Lib Dem role in the coalition in driving forward renewables shows what can be achieved when the state takes a lead in enabling investment.  As Richard Murphy identified, the money required can be found from a wide range of potential changes to the existing tax system, in particular to taxes on capital.  Tackling the excessive concentrations of power and wealth that exacerbate the problems fits with core Lib Dem principles.  With both the USA and the EU heading in this direction, it is now the UK that is the outlier.  That supports the case for closer alignment with the EU.

It’s not too late to listen to the full discussion, hosted by LibDem Podcast on all major platforms, and also available here 

Green Book Pod is brought to you by many of the original team behind the Green Book (2013) and Green Manifesto (2014).  Details are here.

* Robin Stafford is a party member who has worked across private and public sectors, as well as with the third sector and charities. In recent years he has provided support to the party on economic and business policy.