Starmer and Biden

eremy Corbyn, as Andy Beckett says, probably "made politics too big by promising transformative change in countless areas of life", but with the ideas of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shaping many of Biden`s "presidential priorities", Starmer could clearly do worse than remember some of the proposals made in the 2019 Labour manifesto (Think bigger: Biden`s lesson for Labour, 12/02/21). After all, he won the leadership contest after promising to uphold 10 of its radical "pledges"! Can anyone seriously claim that promising "economic justice" by increasing income tax on the rich, reversing Tory cuts in corporation tax and clamping down on tax avoidance, is too ambitious? Similarly "social justice", with promises to invest in public services, and "climate justice" which includes the Green New Deal, should surely be foremost in any list of a Labour leader`s priorities? Up against a prime minister capable of promising and saying anything (about having a "plan for social care" springs to mind), Starmer has to make the lines of demarcation between Tory and Labour policies very clear, and that must mean no kowtowing to the City. The US`s national debt of $27tn, is not preventing Biden from demonstrating how a centre-left government can be "daring and proactive" in a crisis, an obvious lesson to be learned by a Labour leader in danger of losing widespread support.