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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/17/macron-brilliant-coup-could-british-do-same
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| Could the British follow Macron’s example? | Could the British follow Macron’s example? |
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| Today, the seal will be set on an extraordinary political event. In the second round of its elections, France is expected to elect more than 400 deputies of the 577-seat French national assembly to represent a political party – En Marche! – that was founded just 14 months ago. The French Socialist party will be reduced from its current 284 deputies to a tiny rump of fewer than 25, while their conservative rivals will fall from 226 to fewer than 130. Emmanuel Macron, newly elected president and founder of the party, will have completed a stunning coup. | Today, the seal will be set on an extraordinary political event. In the second round of its elections, France is expected to elect more than 400 deputies of the 577-seat French national assembly to represent a political party – En Marche! – that was founded just 14 months ago. The French Socialist party will be reduced from its current 284 deputies to a tiny rump of fewer than 25, while their conservative rivals will fall from 226 to fewer than 130. Emmanuel Macron, newly elected president and founder of the party, will have completed a stunning coup. |
| France has a record of staging revolutionary political moments and this is surely one. It has been incubating for more than a generation as it has become obvious that neither the left nor right has the philosophical or intellectual wherewithal to make France work. An ancien regime of tired and corrupt conservative and socialist politicians, indissolubly linked to the immobilisme that has plagued France, has been swept away. | France has a record of staging revolutionary political moments and this is surely one. It has been incubating for more than a generation as it has become obvious that neither the left nor right has the philosophical or intellectual wherewithal to make France work. An ancien regime of tired and corrupt conservative and socialist politicians, indissolubly linked to the immobilisme that has plagued France, has been swept away. |
| An array of new technologies – digitisation, artificial intelligence, nano technologies – is accelerating the rate of economic change, triggering new companies and felling old ones, creating a fluid “freelance” economy. A fresh capitalism is emerging that, borrowing more from the right than the left, needs to be freed to capitalise on the possibilities while accepting the moral obligation to create wealth for the many. Equally, this rate of change is creating phenomenal inequalities, along with new insecurities and accelerating pressures on the environment. Here, the correct policy borrows more from the left – intelligent intervention, guided again by a keen sense of the moral. | An array of new technologies – digitisation, artificial intelligence, nano technologies – is accelerating the rate of economic change, triggering new companies and felling old ones, creating a fluid “freelance” economy. A fresh capitalism is emerging that, borrowing more from the right than the left, needs to be freed to capitalise on the possibilities while accepting the moral obligation to create wealth for the many. Equally, this rate of change is creating phenomenal inequalities, along with new insecurities and accelerating pressures on the environment. Here, the correct policy borrows more from the left – intelligent intervention, guided again by a keen sense of the moral. |
| What’s more, as global interdependencies mount, so it becomes ever more important to make multilateral groupings such as the EU work effectively. It is from his base in the EU that Macron could appeal to make “our planet great again” when the US left the Paris accord. The president, 39, and his newly elected deputies want to fashion a new politics that creates an alchemy of left and right. His book, Révolution, sets out his ambition. | What’s more, as global interdependencies mount, so it becomes ever more important to make multilateral groupings such as the EU work effectively. It is from his base in the EU that Macron could appeal to make “our planet great again” when the US left the Paris accord. The president, 39, and his newly elected deputies want to fashion a new politics that creates an alchemy of left and right. His book, Révolution, sets out his ambition. |
| Sceptics will argue it will be a five-year wonder. Record abstentions in the presidential election and low turn-out last week suggest many French are yet to be convinced. Mistakes will be made. Massive strikes await any modest reforms of the labour market: capping claims for dismissal, streamlining works councils and decentralising pay bargaining – all part of the Macron wishlist – will be depicted as the work of the devil. The sclerotic European economy will hold France back while Britain will show the way. Marine Le Pen will be back… Or so the story goes. | Sceptics will argue it will be a five-year wonder. Record abstentions in the presidential election and low turn-out last week suggest many French are yet to be convinced. Mistakes will be made. Massive strikes await any modest reforms of the labour market: capping claims for dismissal, streamlining works councils and decentralising pay bargaining – all part of the Macron wishlist – will be depicted as the work of the devil. The sclerotic European economy will hold France back while Britain will show the way. Marine Le Pen will be back… Or so the story goes. |
| Of course there will be divisions – the old parties will try to reinvent themselves – but the act of reinvention will require incorporating the lessons of En Marche!. Nor should anyone underestimate the profound dissatisfaction across France with the status quo. Some 90% of Parisians voted En Marche! – the capital, as in Britain, foretells opinion and events. En Marche!’s strength is that it engages with contemporary concerns – if not its ideas, then what? Macron has the base and courage to face down business and, if necessary, unions. | Of course there will be divisions – the old parties will try to reinvent themselves – but the act of reinvention will require incorporating the lessons of En Marche!. Nor should anyone underestimate the profound dissatisfaction across France with the status quo. Some 90% of Parisians voted En Marche! – the capital, as in Britain, foretells opinion and events. En Marche!’s strength is that it engages with contemporary concerns – if not its ideas, then what? Macron has the base and courage to face down business and, if necessary, unions. |
| The aim is to create a Gallic version of the Nordic economic and social model. As Macron notes, Sweden, Finland and Denmark combine economic dynamism with public spending close to half of GDP. Macron is passionate about using public power for social investment, but investment that is heavily directed at the most needy. Thus the aim is not to eviscerate the state to the levels of the 1950s British style, but, rather, to refashion its priorities around public spending at around 50% of GDP, together with labour market regulation and open trading policies that emulate the Nordics. By contrast, Labour’s “socialist manifesto” would lift Britain’s public spending to just over 40% of GDP – and with tax rates still lower than in France. | The aim is to create a Gallic version of the Nordic economic and social model. As Macron notes, Sweden, Finland and Denmark combine economic dynamism with public spending close to half of GDP. Macron is passionate about using public power for social investment, but investment that is heavily directed at the most needy. Thus the aim is not to eviscerate the state to the levels of the 1950s British style, but, rather, to refashion its priorities around public spending at around 50% of GDP, together with labour market regulation and open trading policies that emulate the Nordics. By contrast, Labour’s “socialist manifesto” would lift Britain’s public spending to just over 40% of GDP – and with tax rates still lower than in France. |
| But Macron knows his country – it wouldn’t accept the social inequalities of modern Britain. His is not a copy of the third way, which, for all its hopes and ambition, ended up as a souffle of little but clever triangulation because its practitioners abjured the use of public power to challenge business and shape society. Macronism is the emergence of a fresh grounded economic and political philosophy – a landmark moment. | But Macron knows his country – it wouldn’t accept the social inequalities of modern Britain. His is not a copy of the third way, which, for all its hopes and ambition, ended up as a souffle of little but clever triangulation because its practitioners abjured the use of public power to challenge business and shape society. Macronism is the emergence of a fresh grounded economic and political philosophy – a landmark moment. |
| Failure is not preordained. French GDP is comparable with Britain’s and gathering momentum as the European economy starts to roll. Investment across Europe is picking up both cyclically and structurally as multinationals redirect their focus from Britain to mainland Europe, and as confidence rises that the EU can solve its problems around the Macron/Merkel axis. France’s unemployment rate is still twice Britain’s, but the trajectory promises to be downwards as ours rises. | Failure is not preordained. French GDP is comparable with Britain’s and gathering momentum as the European economy starts to roll. Investment across Europe is picking up both cyclically and structurally as multinationals redirect their focus from Britain to mainland Europe, and as confidence rises that the EU can solve its problems around the Macron/Merkel axis. France’s unemployment rate is still twice Britain’s, but the trajectory promises to be downwards as ours rises. |
| The open question is whether France’s revolution can cross the Channel. The Conservatives, as excluded from representing London constituencies as French Conservatives are in Paris, could face similar marginalisation nationwide. Their agonies over whether to stay in the customs union and single market or commit economic harakiri with a hard Brexit deepen. They now lack any common organising philosophy except the urge for their tribe to stay in power. | The open question is whether France’s revolution can cross the Channel. The Conservatives, as excluded from representing London constituencies as French Conservatives are in Paris, could face similar marginalisation nationwide. Their agonies over whether to stay in the customs union and single market or commit economic harakiri with a hard Brexit deepen. They now lack any common organising philosophy except the urge for their tribe to stay in power. |
| Labour, on the other hand, possesses a well-received manifesto that is the basis for Macron-style popularity. Some of its elements – huge social investment, encouraging hi-tech business, commitment to R&D – are British variants on the same theme. If France’s labour market needs loosening, Britain’s needs tightening – a point of difference – but both would land in similar places. The reckoning once in power could be very soon. The combination of a well-fought campaign and the worst Tory campaign in living memory has brought the party to the brink of government, something that very few, not including me, anticipated. | Labour, on the other hand, possesses a well-received manifesto that is the basis for Macron-style popularity. Some of its elements – huge social investment, encouraging hi-tech business, commitment to R&D – are British variants on the same theme. If France’s labour market needs loosening, Britain’s needs tightening – a point of difference – but both would land in similar places. The reckoning once in power could be very soon. The combination of a well-fought campaign and the worst Tory campaign in living memory has brought the party to the brink of government, something that very few, not including me, anticipated. |
| Even if the Tories collapse into internecine rows, they will not let go easily. To win, Labour will need to enlist the Macron constituency in Britain (as they already have in London) and then aim to build a variant of the Nordic model too – and to avoid the economic harakiri of hard Brexit. | Even if the Tories collapse into internecine rows, they will not let go easily. To win, Labour will need to enlist the Macron constituency in Britain (as they already have in London) and then aim to build a variant of the Nordic model too – and to avoid the economic harakiri of hard Brexit. |
| European economies and societies share much. The British constitution and voting system do not allow a new party to do what En Marche! did. But the same forces exist. Get it wrong in government and Labour could be in the same place as France’s socialists. If Corbyn wants to consolidate his position, it would be a good idea not to make the same mistakes as them. | European economies and societies share much. The British constitution and voting system do not allow a new party to do what En Marche! did. But the same forces exist. Get it wrong in government and Labour could be in the same place as France’s socialists. If Corbyn wants to consolidate his position, it would be a good idea not to make the same mistakes as them. |
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