What should Labour do about improving economic policies and public services?

Thanks so much for sharing this question, Declan. You’re the first! I think the starting point for both questions is to appraise two things: 1. The state of the economy and public services in Britain and 2. How the wider world is changing. It’s in bridging the gap between the two where Labour is at its best. Connecting the future to the here and now - harnessing it, if you like, to make progress. So take that first point - appraising what we have. On a surface level, everything appears to be broken - the nhs is ailing, high streets largely declining, and everything seems a bit out of date. But look what we have. A single healthcare system where we have data going back years, a schools system that is geared to build knowledge and critical thinking in an age that demands it, and an economy that is largely service driven. How is the world changing? Well, AI is the thing. Love it, hate it, it’s the thing. Study any uplift in growth today v forecast and the reason is AI - and this is without us properly harnessing it. Drug companies are discovering many more drugs per year because of it. We have access to a high level of intelligence in our pocket. This should be the bedrock of public service reform - a data-driven, personalised NHS, a radical rethink of schools, including a personal tutor for every kid, and health should be treated as an economic and national security issue. On the economy, we need two things: 1. Build strategic dependence with other countries who are building the models that will power AI. We have real assets here - universities for example - that should give us a stake in the advancement of the technology and make sure we have access to the best of it. 2. Diffuse AI throughout our economy. Every business - from a beautician on a high street to a multi national corp should be using it. Again, I think our universities are key to this. That’s just a snippet but I hope you take from it that we need to go to a completely different level on policy, built around a changing world. This means moving from retail politics, or a simple read of the polls to then serve up what we think is politically permissible, to a proper political project. Labour would win a majority and be in power for a long time with that. But it’s the harder thing to do.