The Guardian has apparently remembered that the British left once represented the working classes, or tried to, and urges the Labour government to veer sharply toward the Communist Chinese model. Which might sound like two entirely disconnected stands. But according to columnist Larry Elliott, China’s socialism has vastly outperformed Margaret Thatcher’s capitalism in that “China was essentially a peasant economy when Deng took control, but it has since become an industrial powerhouse, while Britain has ceased to be a major manufacturing player and instead became a country dominated by services.” As for the role that ruinous climate policy has played in driving up the cost of power and driving down its reliability, while China burns coal as if there were no tomorrow, Elliott isn’t there yet. But give him time.

Now when praising Communism it’s important not to sound like a useful idiot, so Elliott concedes that:

“To be sure, there are many good things about Britain, just as there are many bad things about China.”

OK, so not totally pro-tyranny yet. Alas, Elliott immediately continues:

“Yet if the comparison between China’s manufacturing prowess and the service-sector dominated British economy makes Starmer uncomfortable, then so it should. China is what a country that still cares about making stuff looks like.”

Britain, he complains, is dominated by low-productivity services. But what about the power issue? Ah, finally we get there, via a picturesque Danish windmill:

“The second lesson is that, despite the dismal record of the past 50 years, it is not too late to rebuild Britain’s industrial base. This is a rich country with abundant reserves of untapped talent. Denmark’s successful wind-turbine sector shows that small, rich western countries can still enjoy industrial success. It is over-pessimistic to assume that the manufacturing ship has sailed and that the best Britain can do is rely on the City and the few remaining pockets of industry, such as pharmaceuticals.”

Oh wait. Britain’s not going to use wind power. Just manufacture turbine blades or something. Think small. And think communist:

“Charting a course and sticking to it for longer than a couple of years matters. A dedicated economic ministry with the power to face down the bean counters in the Treasury would help greatly, because investment – public and private – will be vital. Any industrial strategy will struggle unless the right foundations are put in place, so it is hard to see how manufacturing can be rebuilt without a thriving domestic steel sector…. How, for example, could a UK company making electric vehicles prevent itself being undercut by cheaper Chinese models? The answer is that there is no way of preventing such an outcome without active steps being taken by the government. This could involve stipulating a domestic component for goods sold in Britain. It could involve a ‘buy British’ procurement policy. It could mean subsidies and tax credits for UK manufacturing plants of the sort Joe Biden introduced in the US.”

For all the idiocies in this prescription, which advocates more debt, more central planning, and more tariffs and subsidies, as if Britain hadn’t been on the long slow road to impoverished irrelevance because of precisely that approach since 1945, he never mentions, and possibly has never noticed, that China has been building power plants, especially coal plants, at a breakneck pace for decades while Britain has been shutting them down and patting itself on the back.