"Burning The Furniture To Stay Warm Doesn't Signal Confidence - It Reeks Of Panic"
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This strategy is fraught with risk. Some may call it bold; others, a sign of desperation. A growing suspicion looms that our government lacks a coherent governing philosophy or ideological compass beyond the vague pursuit of “growth”. But if growth at any cost is the mantra, the costs will soon become painfully clear. Why pledge to be clean and green, only to undermine that commitment with a Heathrow expansion promise six months later? Burning the furniture to stay warm doesn’t signal confidence – it reeks of panic. Regardless of the motivation, Labour has crossed the Rubicon. Approving Heathrow expansion is an irreversible break with our pre-election pledges. In 2021, Reeves stood in front of the Labour party conference and declared that she would be the “first-ever green chancellor”. Now, Labour is accused of obstructing the climate and nature bill and abandoning its ambitious decarbonisation plans. The rapid turnaround is striking.
There is also an international dimension. Has Donald Trump’s resurgence made it easier for Labour to jettison some of its social and environmental commitments? Some may argue that when mass deportations and the dismantling of the state are politically feasible in one of our closest allies, progressives here should be grateful for a Labour government – even one shifting ever rightwards. But the Heathrow expansion and the realignment it signals do not insulate the UK from the political forces that enabled Trump, it accelerates them. Remember our pledge to rebuild trust in politics? Climate U-turns like this do the exact opposite. Indeed, they fuel the very climate scepticism the right peddles. After all, if we genuinely think the climate crisis is an existential threat, why undermine combatting it?
As much as it pains me to say, Heathrow is just the most visible indicator of Labour’s shift. The changes are stacking up. BlackRock’s influence is growing. Austerity and deregulation are back in fashion. Zero tolerance for benefit fraud is in; stricter taxation on non-doms is out. Post-2008 banking regulations are set to be dismantled, while the long-touted climate and nature bill is quietly sidelined.
This raises the fundamental question: whose growth are we talking about? We know that the economic benefits of Heathrow expansion, AI development and financial and planning deregulation will not be evenly distributed. The winners will be the same old symbols of financial capitalism’s excesses – property developers pushing high-rise luxury flats while social housing crumbles; financial institutions such as BlackRock dictating investment priorities that benefit the wealthiest; and corporations such as Amazon, notorious for union-busting and exploitative labour practices, reaping profits from deregulation.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/31/labour-mp-government-growth-heathrow-party