Really Useful Knowledge was the term used by radicals in the 1830s and 1840s to cover ideas which explained what was really going on in the world as opposed to what the Government and employers said was going on. It might for example look at the labour theory of value and argue that it was not bosses but workers that created wealth, even if bosses kept most of it for themselves.
The concept still has relevance in 2024.
The December CPI inflation figure announced on 17th January was 4%. This was a small rise where commentators had been expecting a small further decline. It may be recalled that the same commentators and the Bank of England spent much of 2023 arguing that inflation was caused by wage rises. With a tightening labour market- fewer jobs available- they have left that point for now and suggest that the reason for the increase was due to higher alcohol and tobacco prices.
Where will inflation head. Hunt and Sunak who not only have little control over it but also dont want to have as a matter political principle think it will still head to the 2% target.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the resulting disruption to shipping through the Red Sea may suggest otherwise.
Beyond that however while market capitalism is anarchic, at least a nod to a planned economy where Government pursues an economic framework focused on the many not the few would be a very modest step forward.
After all another right-wing Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell styled himself as a ‘man with a plan’
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