“Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.”
Milton Friedman understood that moments of crisis do not automatically create change. They are shaped by politics. When the global financial crisis hit, it was neoliberal ideas that were ‘lying around’, and their exponents who successfully framed the causes and solutions. Progressives lacked a coherent and compelling alternative.
As a result, the policies employed in the UK over the past decade have damaged the living standards and services of ordinary people, and have not addressed long-standing weaknesses in our economic model – indeed they have exacerbated some of its worst features. The challenge for progressives today is to show there really is an alternative, and not just be content ameliorating the failures of the status quo without shifting the parameters. When the crisis comes, we have to be ready with an agenda for transformation.
