It appears to me that they have put out a survey of what people might want and tried to go with populist policies with no thought or analysis behind it. A 4 day week, re-nationalisation and stealing private property (seems to be now dropped) are three that just won’t work.
mots like asking the Caf who Utd should be buying in the next transfer window and just doing it (admittedly, not the best example given the state of our squad!!! Although you get my point if I substituted in Liverpool or City[unfortunately]).
Seems weird to call the Labour manifesto populism without any thought or analysis when you compare it to the Tory manifesto.
Labour's manifesto is a radical departure from the status quo and a reshaping of our economy, the culture of business and the role of the state with a positive new vision for the nation. You might disagree with the vision, but I don't think you could call it thoughtless. The fact that their policies on nationalisation, taxation, foreign policy and the NHS are supported by the majority of the population is surely a good thing and goes to show that for most of the past 40 years the voices of the majority of people have been totally ignored.
By comparison, populist policies with no thought or analysis appears to be the perfect description f the Tory manifesto. Crammed with policies designed to win a few votes rather than fundamentally tackle the issues of rising inequality, homelessness, climate change, foreign policy, anaemic growth, non-existent investment and crippled public services. They are a status quo party and as the IFS said, austerity is 'baked in' to their manifesto.
Take their pothole fund for example. That is the definition of a policy that will win a few votes but totally misses the bigger picture and screams of a party out of ideas beyond 'getting Brexit done'. And I mean that almost literally - the first five paragraphs of their manifesto after the intro all start with the phrase 'Get Brexit done'. Similarly, their foreign policy section is all vague platitudes about how proud they are of our armed forces and our history for good in the world totally missing any substance or commentary on the indiscriminate murder we are an accessory to in Yemen.
You might not be a Tory voter, so the comparison may be unneccssary but it seemed remarkable to me that somebody would describe the Labour manifesto as populism with no thought when the Tory manifesto is basically the perfect example of a document that's been focus groupped to death.