McDonnell’s one-term mission to turn Britain into the new Venezuela

The least convincing thing said by Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell at the Labour party conference in Liverpool was ‘I believe we’ll be elected for a second term.’ In all his other remarks about plans for compulsory employee share schemes, workers on boards, higher corporate taxes, extended employment rights, attacks on the rich and below-market renationalisation of water utilities whose bosses he would fire, he talked about getting the programme done ‘within the life of a Labour government’ — with the clear implication that he thinks Tory turmoil might be about to give him a once-in-a-lifetime, one-term-only chance to make a reality of the recreation he lists in Who’s Who: ‘fermenting the overthrow of capitalism.’

Reaction from business was surprisingly muted, perhaps because no one in Britain’s boardrooms believes it could really happen, perhaps because the fat cats don’t want their names and addresses on McDonnell’s Stasi watch-list. The BBC helpfully found some positive vox pops and a Sheffield engineering firm with an employee share scheme that made it all sound quite plausible.