按照Guardian，Theresa May关于经济方面的很多关键经济政策理念是工党和左翼的，甚至有人还说就是从工党上次大选宣言里抄的，如果保守党占领中右的同时向中左进发，不知道工党还可以玩什么，看起来只有John McDonnell的极左可以玩了。
But the real interest in the speech lay in what it revealed about her thinking. Based on this text, it would be reasonable to assume that the May has lifted many of her ideas from four prominent leftwingers.
1 - The ‘Gordon Brown’ Theresa May
When Gordon Brown was chancellor he talked endlessly about the need to improve productivity. George Osborne says much less about this, but this passage sounded as if it could have been delivered by New Labour’s iron chancellor.
“Yet we have long had a problem with productivity in Britain. So I want to make its improvement an important objective for the Treasury. I want to see an energy policy that emphasises the reliability of supply and lower costs for users. A better research and development policy that helps firms to make the right investment decisions. More Treasury-backed project bonds for new infrastructure projects. More house building. A proper industrial strategy to get the whole economy firing. And a plan to help not one or even two of our great regional cities but every single one of them.”
The sentence about Treasury-backed project bonds for infrastructure could have been drafted by Ken Livingstone, who has backed similar ideas for years. (It is also worth noting that this paragraph contains a minor swipe at George Osborne and his Northern Powerhouse plan; the government should be helping all big cities, not just Manchester, she is saying.)
2 - The ‘Will Hutton’ Theresa May
Younger readers may not remember “stakeholder capitalism”, a notion championed by the journalist and writer Will Hutton, but for about five minutes it was Tony Blair’s favourite philosophy, and May revived it in her speech. She said:
“[i]If we are going to have an economy that works for everyone, we are going to need to give people more control of their lives. And that means cutting out all the political platitudes about “stakeholder societies” - and doing something radical.
Because as we saw when Cadbury’s - that great Birmingham company - was bought by Kraft, or when AstraZeneca was almost sold to Pfizer, transient shareholders - who are mostly companies investing other people’s money - are not the only people with an interest when firms are sold or close. Workers have a stake, local communities have a stake, and often the whole country has a stake. It is hard to think of an industry of greater strategic importance to Britain than its pharmaceutical industry, and AstraZeneca is one of the jewels in its crown. Yet two years ago the Government almost allowed AstraZeneca to be sold to Pfizer, the US company with a track record of asset stripping and whose self-confessed attraction to the deal was to avoid tax. A proper industrial strategy wouldn’t automatically stop the sale of British firms to foreign ones, but it should be capable of stepping in to defend a sector that is as important as pharmaceuticals is to Britain.[/i]”
3 - The ‘Ed Miliband’ Theresa May
As Labour leader Ed Miliband promised to take on “vested interests”. May made a very similar promise today - while claiming that in doing so she was acting in accordance with Tory tradition.
From Robert Peel to Lady Thatcher, from Joseph Chamberlain to Winston Churchill, throughout history it has been the Conservative party’s role to rise to the occasion and to take on the vested interests before us, to break up power when it is concentrated among the few, to lead on behalf of the people.
More significantly, May announced several policy proposals that were pure Miliband. As reported overnight, she called for workers to be represented on company boards (going slightly further than Labour did in its 2015 manifesto). She also called for action on excessive executive pay and on cartels.
“A[i]s part of the changes I want to make to corporate governance, I want to make shareholder votes on corporate pay not just advisory but binding. I want to see more transparency, including the full disclosure of bonus targets and the publication of “pay multiple” data: that is, the ratio between the CEO’s pay and the average company worker’s pay. And I want to simplify the way bonuses are paid so that the bosses’ incentives are better aligned with the long-term interests of the company and its shareholders.
I also want us to be prepared to use - and reform - competition law so that markets work better for people. If there is evidence that the big utility firms and the retail banks are abusing their roles in highly-consolidated markets, we shouldn’t just complain about it, we shouldn’t say it’s too difficult, we should do something about it.[/i]”
Miliband also draw up plans to stop banks and energy companies exploiting consumers. Two of his most senior advisers - the Labour peer Stewart Wood, who advised Miliband on policy, and Tom Baldwin, Miliband’s communications chief - have accused May of plagiarism.
4 - The ‘Elizabeth Warren’ Theresa May
May also seems to have taken inspiration from Elizabeth Warren, the US Democratic senator, who delivered this much-quoted speech five years ago.
And here is May’s version.
“And tax. We need to talk about tax. Because we’re Conservatives, and of course we believe in a low-tax economy, in which British businesses are more competitive and families get to keep more of what they earn - but we also understand that tax is the price we pay for living in a civilised society. No individual and no business, however rich, has succeeded all on their own. Their goods are transported by road, their workers are educated in schools, their customers are part of sophisticated networks taking in the private sector, the public sector and charities. It doesn’t matter to me whether you’re Amazon, Google or Starbucks, you have a duty to put something back, you have a debt to your fellow citizens, you have a responsibility to pay your taxes. So as Prime Minister, I will crack down on individual and corporate tax avoidance and evasion.”
