Whatever happened to democratic socialism?
A former professor at the London School of Economics has contacted me to ask about a discussion we had when I was Special Adviser to the Home Secretary in 1977. Now I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember details of meetings which I had 32 years ago – but I have kept a daily diary since I was 13, so I was able to do some checking for him.
While looking at my diary for 1977, I came across this entry: “I took a taxi to Wanstead House for my speech to Wanstead Branch Labour Party. At 9 pm, I gave a 40-minute speech entitled ‘The Future Of Democratic Socialism’ in which I examined the elimination of poverty, the redistribution of income & wealth, economic planning, public ownership, individual rights, internationalism and democracy.”
I can’t be absolutely sure after all this time, but I’m fairly confident that I didn’t mention nationalisation of the banks – that would have been far too radical. I wonder though: do Labour Party Branches still have this kind of discussion? I doubt it.
Incidentally I see that, over in the United States, the Republicans have decided that calling Barack Obama “a liberal” is too mild, so now they are accusing him of being “a socialist” and even the “New York Times” has got into the act [see here]. So it looks as if I’m in good company.