The lure of Corbynomics

With the polls seemingly reluctant to move in their favour, Labour have set out their stall very clearly: they hope to win the election by pledging perhaps the biggest increase in government spending in living memory. Billions have been promised for students and the health service. Under Corbyn, there will be free broadband for all, free personal care for the elderly and the planned increase in the state pension age will be scrapped. Economists dismiss the reasons why Britain couldn’t possibly afford such measures without a dramatic hike in tax. But it would be a mistake to ignore the very real attraction to some of Corbynomics.

Early signs suggest Labour’s manifesto spending pledges have done little to shift opinion polls. This almost certainly explains the sudden post-manifesto offer to compensate women born in the 1950s who have been most affected by the way equalisation of the pension age was implemented. The fact that the £58 billion cost of the move was not mentioned in Labour’s “fully costed” manifesto