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Even by the usual grim standards of party conference speeches, John Healey’s first address as Chancellor to a Labour conference was a pretty dismal affair.
Tedious attacks on the Tories, as if Labour had just taken over from them and not been in power for more than two years.
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Labour → see → years
That curious mixture of nostalgia and folklore for a long-passed industrial age that still dominates so much Labour discourse.
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that → pass → discourse
Keir Starmer was praised to the heavens, even though it was Healey’s resignation as defence secretary which put the final kibosh on his premiership.
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which → praise → premiership
Plaudits too for Rachel Reeves, even though she was unceremoniously sacked to make way for Healey.
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she → sack → Healey
It was, of course, a party conference speech and the Labour faithful in Liverpool expected some tribal red meat.
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faithful → expect → meat
I get that.
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I → get → that
But chancellors must also speak to a wider audience: investors, lenders, holders of sterling and British bonds, business executives, entrepreneurs – the people on whom Britain’s prosperity depends.
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prosperity → speak → whom
They expect a chancellor to rise above petty party politics, to speak in the best interests of the economy.
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chancellor → expect → economy
In a half-hour speech, Healey managed that only twice.
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Healey → manage → that
Even by the usual grim standards of party conference speeches, John Healey’s first address as Chancellor to a Labour conference was a pretty dismal affair, writes Andrew Neil
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Neil → write → conference
‘Fiscal discipline underwrites everything we do’, he averred.
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he → underwrite → everything
This was aimed at those who lend us billions, who keep the Government afloat and who fear Labour is hopelessly addicted to extra public spending.
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Labour → aim → spending
It was right that he reassured them.
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he → reassure → them
It was just a pity that nobody in the hall applauded when he did so.
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he → applaud → hall
‘The money New Labour had in the Nineties’, Healey warned, ‘is simply not there’.
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Healey → have → Nineties
This was aimed at his party’s soft-Left, which has never come across a spending programme it didn’t like.
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it → aim → programme
They heard that in silence too.
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They → hear → silence
Labour’s heart is perhaps not quite in it when it comes to fiscal discipline.
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it → come → discipline
It’s not even clear Healey’s boss gets it.
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boss → ’ → it
The only other time he rose above the usual political argy-bargy and point-scoring was when he told his party that, for too many, welfare benefits had become a ‘trap’ and that it was a ‘moral duty’ to get people off welfare and into work.
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it → rise → work
This they did clap – but only after a pause, until they remembered that pre-speech instructions had gone out that this bit should be loudly applauded.
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bit → clap → pause
Healey is clearly preparing the ground for unpalatable truths to come.
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truths → prepare → ground
He knows that fiscal prudence is being thwarted by an escalating welfare bill.
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prudence → know → bill
He also knows that, though his party might agree in principle, it has no stomach for the kind of ‘tough love’ welfare reforms needed to tackle it.
uncertain
it → know → it
After all, Starmer’s attempt to cut a mere £5billion from the welfare bill was the beginning of the end for him.
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attempt → cut → him
What Healey has in store, if anything, remains a mystery.
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has → remain → store
Indeed we learned next to nothing about what will constitute Burnham-Healey’s economic policy.
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what → learn → policy
It was not the time, of course, for Healey to reveal his Budget.
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Healey → reveal → Budget
But his speech was curiously bereft of substance, perhaps because he and Burnham have yet to agree what to do, even though the Budget is only a month away.
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Budget → have → what
Healey spoke several times of a ‘new age of industrialisation’, without ever telling us what it means, probably because it’s a meaningless nonsense.
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it → speak → what
The idea Britain can reindustrialise lumbered with the highest industrial energy costs in the world is for the birds.
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Britain → reindustrialise → birds
Their rush to Net Zero, to the exclusion of all other issues, means British industry pays on average £238 per MWh for electricity versus £138 in Germany, £122 in France and £65 in America.
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industry → mean → America
British manufacturing companies paid £17billion combined in energy costs in 2024; if they’d been in the US their energy bill would have been £5billion.
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bill → pay → US
As long as that’s the case there can be no British industrial renaissance, whatever the politicians promise.
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politicians → ’ → whatever
It’s not even clear if ‘reindustrialisation’ is the right way to go.
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reindustrialisation → ’ → ?
We export more services – legal, financial, consultancy, audio-visual, digital – than any other country in the world, bar America.
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We → export → America
Since Brexit, service exports have boomed even as the export of goods has struggled somewhat.
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export → boom → goods
You’d think it might be an idea to concentrate on what we’re good at, rather than hanker for a lost industrial past.
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we → think → past
They’d still rather pose in high-vis vests in factories than visit high-tech offices and laboratories where Britain’s future lies.
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future → pose → offices
Starmer-Reeves had been so negative about their economic inheritance from the Tories they managed to talk down the economy.
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they → manage → economy
…and 27 more, not listed.
The Aporia
