Why We Need Social Democracy
Labour and the Conservatives have run our country into the ground, only the Social Democratic Party offers a patriotic vision for radical change.
It’s 2024, an election year, and the dramatic landscape of British politics is radically changing before our eyes. The Conservative Party which four years ago rode high in the polls and boasted an 80-seat majority in parliament, has now been mightily humbled. According to YouGov, the Conservatives are now at 21 per cent in the polls, 19 points behind Labour and just 5 points ahead of Reform UK. The Conservative parliamentary majority, meanwhile, has been reduced to 52 MPs.
While the Labour Party has benefited most from this and is predicted to win a landslide victory in this year’s election, another party to have benefited from the Conservative’s decline in support has been Reform UK, whose support has surged from 2 per cent in 2022 to 16 per cent in 2024. As I predicted at the beginning of this year, Reform UK seems destined to radically shake up this year’s election, offering a populist alternative to the high-tax, high-immigration, orthodoxy that dominates both of the main parties. Reform UK might even overtake the Conservatives in the polls, splitting the right-wing vote and pushing them out of government for good.
But to vote for any of the main parties would be a mistake. As I’ve already mentioned, both the Conservatives and Labour are wedded to the same economic orthodoxy, one that prioritises a continuation of the status quo and is allergic to radical change. Reform UK does seem to provide a more radical right-wing alternative, yet on many issues such as housing and industrial policy, they are severely lacking. For example, when interviewing a Reform candidate recently for my podcast, I mentioned the housing crisis as an issue of national concern and asked him to unpack his party’s housing policies. But he was unable to provide an answer. This is unsurprising considering that the main policy document on their website contains zero policies to increase the UK’s housing supply. How then does Reform expect to attract young and working-class voters who are either waiting for social housing or desperately trying to save for a deposit?
While the mainstream parties might like to talk about how they would rebalance the economy. Hope for radical reform does not lie with them. Instead, it lies with the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Currently experiencing a resurgence, with a fast-growing membership, the SDP combines a well-thought-out policy platform with a wider vision for a more just and prosperous society where everyone can thrive. On housing, a massive issue for younger voters, the SDP believes that the state has a bigger role to play. If elected the SDP would establish a British Housing Corporation to oversee and fund the construction of 100,000 social homes per year. This would massively benefit working people who are tired of waiting for a home to live in and start a family.
On industrial policy as well, Reform UK and other parties, are severely lacking in ideas. Historically UK productivity has grown by 2 per cent every year, but since 2008 it has stagnated. Many economists believe this is caused by a combination of factors, including a lack of investment, and slowing rates of innovation and discovery. The Conservatives have been promising to increase Britain’s productivity for a while now. The government’s productivity plan in 2015 aimed to improve transport and infrastructure, build more houses, move people off welfare and into work, encourage exports, and rebalance the economy away from London. These ideas were again parroted in 2019 by Boris Johnson who promised to “level up” the regions. Yet, many people in towns and rural areas of the country do not feel better off than they did in 2010 when the Conservatives were elected to power alongside the Liberal Democrats.
The SDP challenges the neoliberal orthodoxy dominating the main parties and believes that a more balanced economy will require an active industrial policy that provides a long-term planning framework for the skills, technologies, energy resources and transport infrastructure required for economic growth. Investing in cheaper transport and housing alone would go a long way towards growing the economy, reducing the cost of living, and increasing Britain’s low productivity and wages. Many people across the country are severely underemployed, working jobs they are overqualified for because they are unable to move to the jobs where they are best suited. Housing in the big cities is too expensive or far away and commuting there is unreliable as well as being a massive drain on personal finances. By fully nationalising the railway companies, expanding railway capacity, and reducing train fairs, the SDP will give people more freedom to move to where they can be most productive and make the highest salary.
Rebalancing our economy will also require a more equitable distribution of wealth and proper investment in workers. Companies must pay their workers more and be given incentives to invest in both labour and capital. The SDP hopes to achieve this by increasing the National Living Wage and mobilizing the tax system to encourage re-industrialization and investment in skills. Companies that invest more in technology and upskilling their workers will receive significant tax breaks. This will drive productivity, innovation and growth and increase wages across the country.
Many have attributed the decline of the Conservatives and the rise of Reform to voter frustration over our open-border immigration policy. The SDP recognises this as a national crisis and will go much further than the government in addressing people-smuggling. Borders must be protected for the basic purpose of defending national security. Our nation is a home, and you wouldn’t just let anyone walk into your home without checking who they are. Right now, the door and the windows are swung right open with tens of thousands of migrants being trafficked across the channel every year, sometimes in dangerous conditions. As a patriotic party that believes in border sovereignty, the SDP would ensure that all illegal migrants are either repatriated or detained offshore until repatriation can be arranged. Criminal gangs facilitating illegal crossings will be hunted down and swiftly brought to justice.
As the political landscape evolves and new challenges emerge, the UK needs an active state to reduce inequality, upgrade our economy, and protect our national security. It needs a governing party that seeks to challenge orthodoxy and instigate radical reforms. People have been lied to and let down by governments who promise one thing and then do another. Levelling up the regions was a con, as was the promise to control our borders and reduce immigration. Big change is needed to the way things are done; we’ve lost control of our country. Only a strong SDP government can speak up for workers, wrest control back from our political elites, and achieve what this country urgently needs: affordable housing, cheaper transport, and secure borders.
Thought provoking- thanks