Britain’s ‘change election’ changes nothing

“EVERYTHING must change so that everything can stay the same.” This famous aphorism from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) about how to survive revolutions, is a perfect description of what happened in the UK on Jul 4. Labour has secured the biggest swing from one party to another in British history, while the Conservatives, once described as the world’s “most successful political party”, have suffered a near-extinction event.

This electoral revolution was propelled by the one-word title of Labour’s manifesto: “Change”. But, ironically, everything that matters in the UK will stay much the same after Labour’s landslide victory.

That is because the Labour leadership, in sharp contrast to the party’s electoral slogan, holds positions that are indistinguishable from the defeated Conservatives on four key policy issues: government spending and borrowing; restoring relations with the European Union; conflict with China and Russia; and reform of a voting system that can produce an elective dictatorship. These positions will severely restrict the new government’s ability to change the country’s course.