Lipsey’s law

David Lipsey

I am an avid Radio 4 listener. One of my favourites is The Westminster Hour late on Sunday evenings. This evening David Lipsey and Michael Meacher were discussing the Left’s fortunes. Until now, readers will have noticed, I have scrupulously avoided commenting on the recent European election results: it is too painful, in all sorts of ways. But there was an interesting phenomenon at work. With a few exceptions, the Left did badly where it might have been expected to exploit the current crisis. Meacher, a good old leftie, argued that this was because what was needed was more of the Left, not less. But Lipsey, a political scientist as well as a Labour politician, had another theory. In modern democracies, he argued, people vote right in times of economic crisis because they want firm management and left in the good times because they can afford visions of a better life. Discuss.