Tax the billionaires, nationalise the utilities and abolish the Office for Budget Responsibility. Green party leader Zack Polanski has set out his vision for how Britain’s economy should be run. The sticking point? There are plenty, not least the fact that there is little in his speech today at the New Economics Foundation to suggest his party’s focus is, as the name might suggest, the environment. Nor is there anything very original in his plans. In reality, Zack-onomics consists of re-heated Bennite cliches from the 1970s. The Greens’ plans don’t even begin to add up. Let’s hope Polanski never become prime minister – or we will all pay the price.
This isn’t the only problem with the Greens’ blueprint for government
Fresh from his party’s victory in the Gorton by-election, and its position in second place in at least some of the polls, Polanski has started to set out his plan for the economy. This was probably long overdue. So far, Polanski has risen to prominence on vibes, and an amiable personality, without troubling himself with much in the way of policy. As he attempts to turn his party into a real force – and persuade sceptical voters – he is finally fleshing out what he would actually like to do if he gets the keys to No. 10.
Unfortunately, it looks as if we will have to take Zack-onomics seriously – even if this speech today contained little in the way of substance. A Labour-Nationalist-Green coalition is at least one potential outcome of the next election. Polanski could end up as chancellor, or perhaps even prime minister. And yet, the Green leader does not appear to have anything remotely interesting or original to say.
The major new proposal is to replace the OBR with ‘fiscal referees’, but it is hard to see how that would do anything to reassure bond investors alarmed by the rest of his programme. Either the referees will be drawn from the same pool of tough-minded economic experts as the OBR, in which case it won’t make much difference. Or they will be high-tax, big state fanatics from academia and far-left think tanks, in which case they won’t have any credibility.
This isn’t the only problem with the Greens’ blueprint for government. In a line that seems to have been borrowed from Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, Polanski says that we have to break out of ‘the bond market doom loop’. But it is hard to see how you can do that when you are hinting at raising borrowing from its current £100 billion-plus a year. After all, the easiest way to break free of the bond markets is to balance the books. Unfortunately that doesn’t appear to be on the agenda.
Polanski argues for rent controls to end ‘rip-off rents’, despite the fact they have failed everywhere else. Try telling that to the Greens, who will no doubt implement other market restrictions that will backfire.
The water companies will be nationalised, but there is no clear sign of how the state will pay for this. Perhaps the fiscal referees will figure it out. The wealth tax also appears to be a policy that was fleshed out on the back of a fag packet.
‘Implementing a one per cent tax on wealth over £10 million and two per cent over £1 billion would raise around £15 billion per year,’ according to Polanski, who says the plans would send ‘a very clear message that those who have accumulated the most money, will pay a little bit more’. He’s right on that: but that clear message will mean that anyone rich and clever will get their money out of Britain fast if the Greens appear to be on course for a general election victory.
The truth is that Zack-onomics consists of a collection of random, populist slogans that play well on X and TikTok. But they don’t add up to a coherent programme for ruling Britain. There is little evidence that the Greens have given any serious thought to the issues facing the British government. Polanski’s sums don’t even begin to add up.
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