A leaked copy of the U.K. Labor Party’s general election manifesto stakes out a robust left-of-center domestic agenda, calling for tuition-free higher education in England and the renationalization of the Royal Mail, railroads and public utilities, the BBC reported Thursday.
“There are no details so far of how the cost [of tuition] would be covered, whether through general taxation or a targeted graduate tax,” the BBC noted. “According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, it would cost a ballpark figure of about [$14 billion] per year.”
Labor’s plans would impact only students enrolled in England’s universities, as Scotland already has done away with tuition fees, and both Wales and Northern Ireland’s national assemblies set education policy there, the BBC noted.
As goes economic policy, Labor is offering voters price caps on the cost of energy and a freeze on passenger-rail fares, plus the pledge of free onboard Wi-Fi for train passengers.
With avowed socialist Jeremy Corbyn at the helm, Labor’s manifesto calls for some reversals of the economic liberalization brought about under Margaret Thatcher and continued by subsequent governments of both major parties. Labour pledges to re-nationalize British railroads and to buy back from private hands the Royal Mail “at the earliest opportunity.”
Mr. Corbyn’s party also wishes to set up at least one publicly owned utility in every region of the U.K., a move the BBC observed would mean that government would be “starting from scratch in an industry that it hasn’t been involved in for decades.”
On national defense matters, however, the Labor manifesto seems to tread more cautiously.
While party leader and prime minister hopeful Jeremy Corbyn personally opposes Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent, the manifesto pledges a Labour government would remain committed to the defense program, the BBC said.
Even so, the BBC added, the manifesto pledges “an immediate review of all defence policy if it wins the election,” which is sure to displease many leaders of the British military, according to the BBC, given that “[t]he armed forces are still trying to fund and implement the 2015 Strategic Defense and Security Review.”
It’s unclear how the public will greet the Labor manifesto as it is finalized and is hashed out on the campaign trail, but it’s likely Mr. Corbyn is gambling on his party’s best bet for weathering the election to be turning out a significant vote among Labor loyalists rather than make a play for centrist swing voters.
Polling has both shown Mr. Corbyn to be wildly unpopular, and his party likely to lose big to the Tories in the June 8 election, the Labour leader has pledged he will not step down from leadership regardless of the outcome of the electoral contest.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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