The Guardian view on the Labour manifesto: bold pledges for anxious times | Editorial

Jeremy Corbyn has three weeks to win the argument with his strikingly radical tax and spending pledges

Labour's 2019 general election manifesto, launched on Thursday by Jeremy Corbyn, is its most radical in more than 35 years. It will strike a chord with millions who want categorical change in Britain. The chord will be loudest with those who have seen life chances stall and fracture, and communities weaken, during the fiscally strangulated years that have followed the financial crash. It will ring out, too, for those who want inequality reversed, taxes increased to renew public services and the climate crisis placed at the centre of public policy.

The manifesto raises the bar. Its ambitions match the seriousness of the times. The green agenda is the single most important pledge, an overarching imperative. But it is not the only issue the manifesto confronts in bold terms. The neglect of towns and regions, the need for modernised transport and infrastructure, the importance of reskilling, and of rights against employment injustice, the case for affordable housing, the demands for child and elderly care, a better deal in education and health spending all cry out too.