Labour can end austerity at a stroke – by taxing the rich and taxing them hard | George Monbiot

The focus on growth to ease the UK's economic ills will not be nearly enough, but there is a way to raise the sums needed

Never let your opponents define the terms of a debate. All too often, Labour has allowed the Conservatives and the billionaire press to demonise the notion of tax and spend". It went to great lengths before the election to assure voters it had no such intention. Now it drives home the message: instead, our needs will be met by growth, growth, growth". But tax and spend is the foundation of a civilised society.

Few of the changes this country requires can be achieved while adhering to the tough spending rules" the new government has imposed on itself. We urgently need massive public investment in the NHS, social care, schools, environmental protection, social housing, local authorities, water, railways, the justice system and virtually all functions of government. We need a genuine levelling up, across regions and across classes. The austerity inflicted on us by the Conservatives was unnecessary and self-defeating and Labour has no good reason to sustain it.