Labour need to start winning battles on the airwaves if their anti-austerity policies are going to win on the ground

At some point John McDonnell has to turn his academic focussed New Economics tour into well publicised campaign events, for audiences both live in the flesh and live online, if his counter-narrative is going to take hold. Photograph: John McDonnell MP with Grow Heathrow in London in 2012, by Jonathan Goldberg/Transition Heathrow (License) (Cropped)

Yesterday evening, Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell made the latest stop on his New Economics tour at the London School of Economics (Kirton, 2016). As with previous events, the audience was packed out to hear his arguments, not just against austerity but for an alternative.

The first New Economics tour stop saw Mariana Mazzucato argue, at the Royal Society, for a smarter state (Mazzucato, 2016) - defending the state as an often abused innovator that takes the risks that the private sector won't, but which shares little of the rewards. The second saw several speakers tackle how technology will affect work in the future (Srnicek et al, 2016).

At the LSE event, McDonnell spoke directly against austerity as an ideologically motivated policy - as a choice made by Conservative politicians in pursuit of a their own political goals (Kirton, 2016). The Labour Shadow Chancellor said that his priorities were to put democracy and decentralisation at the heart of his economic approach (Sheffield, 2016) - and positive statements that Labour were giving serious consideration to backing a basic income (Sheffield, 2016{2}).

What has been missing, however, is promotion. Beyond those in the loop or paying close attention, there has been little pomp and ceremony to draw attention to the Shadow Chancellor's efforts. In the face of apparent media hostility to the Corbyn-McDonnell project, the low key approach might well be understandable.

The trouble is that these are precisely the battles that Ed Miliband lost as Labour leader. Labour lost control of their own message, of their own identity, and left it to others to define them.

Economics has been the outstanding issue. The key to getting Labour back in power, according to many commentators both internal and external over the last six years (Umunna, 2015; Eaton, 2015), is to rebuild Labour's reputation as an effective and reliable manager of the economy - to regain their economic credibility. The Shadow Chancellor himself has acknowledged that reality (The Herald Scotland, 2016).

John McDonnell's idea of bringing on the world's most famous, rockstar, anti-austerity economists as advisors was a bold move. Taking them on tour to make their arguments, to build a counter-narrative in opposition to austerity, was bolder still. But the low key, low profile, approach can only reach so far.

Right now, the Corbyn-McDonnell team is fighting battles within small circles of onlookers. Scrapping for party policy positions, introducing an alternative narrative by increments to interested and sympathetic audiences at cosy events. Yet, sooner or later, the boots of campaigners will have to hit the ground and bring them face to face with the voters who live far outside of those circles.

The Corbyn-McDonnell team have shown that, within their own party, they have a pitch that appeals to a broad cross-section of society - from young to old, from poor to wealthy (Sayers, 2016). As with Bernie Sanders in the United States, there is the potential for a winning coalition. But that won't automatically translate into public sympathy.

To reach those people, New Economics will have to start winning battles on the airwaves. Promotional ideas like the New Economics tour will have to be prepared to put a spotlight on its rockstars, promote them and get them playing to bigger crowds - crowds that are maybe more sceptical and who need the grand ideas distilled and condensed.

John McDonnell and his advisors are presenting a compelling vision of a very different, more humane, economy and society - not least in their acknowledgement of the basic income. The next step is to turn up the volume and stop conceding control over the airwaves.

References

Hayley Kirton's 'Shadow chancellor John McDonnell speech at the London School of Economics: Austerity is not a necessity, it is a political choice'; on City AM; 16 February 2016.

Mariana Mazzucato's 'New Economics Lecture'; from the Office of John McDonnell MP; on YouTube; 26 January 2016.

Nick Srnicek, Nick Susskind & Francesca Bria's 'New Economics: Technology and the future world of work'; from the Office of John McDonnell MP; on YouTube; 5 February 2016.

Hazel Sheffield's 'Labour's economic policy will rest on two watchwords: democracy and decentralisation, John McDonnell says - The shadow chancellor set out his vision in what he called a "progress report" on Labour policy'; in The Independent; 17 February 2016.

Hazel Sheffield's 'Labour Party considering universal basic income policy, shadow chancellor John McDonnell says: The UK Labour Party is considering universal basic income as part of its new economic policy'; in The Independent; 17 February 2016{2}.

Chuka Umunna's 'It’s not ‘Tory lite’ to recognise that Labour’s problem is economic credibility: Of course the last Labour government did not cause the global financial crisis. But we did make errors, and until we admit that, the electorate will not listen to us'; in The Guardian; 29 June 2015.

George Eaton's 'To win, the next Labour leader needs to master the fundamentals: Miliband's successor should focus on overturning the Tories' advantage on leadership and the economy'; on the New Statesman; 13 May 2015.

'John McDonnell: Labour will have a fight to win back economic credibility'; in The Herald Scotland; 16 February 2016.

Freddie Sayers' 'Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn and their new coalitions on the left: Both politicians are relying on young and working-class voters but there are key differences between supporters'; in The Guardian; 15 February 2016.