The State We Need
by Michael Meacher
(Biteback Publishing, £18.99)

Once fabled festivals of debate and democracy, party conferences are now bemoaned as mere political pep rallies, led by identikit cheerleaders chanting vacuous slogans. If they're not being stage managed by spin doctors, then they're being upstaged by former spin doctors.

Labour conference delegates vote for policies which their leaders have already agreed will never be pursued. Unable to speak or cast even a token vote, the dwindling number of their Tory counterparts nod obediently like novelty dogs while their masters bark their noxious rhetoric.

This depressing situation represents the existing ideological vacuum, despite the crisis of capitalism gripping Britain and affecting the lives of its people, argues Labour MP Michael Meacher in his new book, The State We Need.

In it, Meacher clearly explains how free-market fundamentalists through the ages have overseen Britain's decline but remain incapable of sparking a revival.

He draws similarities between George Osborne's failing austerity agenda and mistakes made by the 1921-22 Tory-Liberal coalition which shrank the state on the instruction of influential businessmen and engorged the national debt to record levels.

But the veteran left-wing MP shows up his slick contemporaries by offering "an uncompromisingly positive vision" of the fundamental changes required to restore Britain to a sustainable and successful course.

Meacher challenges the assumption that manufacturing no longer exists on these islands, pointing out that it still accounts for one in every 10 jobs.

He sets out a course of action that would maximise its competitive potential, drawing much inspiration from Germany's co-operative industrial strategy.

Ending educational elitism and equipping young people with the technical skills needed in industry, motivating and maintaining the workforce and their skills with decent wages and establishing regional banks to secure long-term investment are all pillars of this "modell Deutschland," advanced by the German social democrats in the 1970s.

Breaking the hegemony of the big five banks and changing the "role, culture and style" of the financial sector is essential in achieving a fairer economy, former environment minister Meacher insists. He advocates bold policies, such as shifting the tax base from value added - labour and capital - to "resources extracted from nature."

But he admits there are immense political obstacles standing in the way of their implementation.

And a chapter restoring Britain's public service ethos makes a calculated yet impassioned case for state action to tackle the national crises in housing and social care which have emerged under private provision.

While Meacher does seem to forget that devolution has seen mechanisms for achieving many of his aspirations shift to the governments of Scotland, Wales and the north of Ireland, in every other aspect his vision of an "open, activist, empowering, participatory" state makes this a manifesto well worth reading.

The State We Need is available to Morning Star readers for the special price of £12 plus p&p. Further details from Ivan Beavis on (020) 8510-0815 or [email protected]