IT should be noted that many of the areas discussed here — education, health and some elements of social security — are devolved. An analysis of what the document says on constitutional matters is being covered by Pauline Bryan in Saturday’s paper.

3. Safe and secure communities

This section also has some progressive offerings as well as others that hark back to the authoritarian element of Tony Blair’s New Labour. The section on anti-social behaviour carries a commitment to introduce “Respect Orders.”

This is a new criminal offence designed to target persistent adult repeat “offenders.” It is very much the son of the Anti-Social Behaviour Order (Asbo) introduced by Blair in 1998 and largely seen as ineffective as well largely aimed at working-class youth. The Respect Order is only one of several measures aimed at those guilty of anti-social behaviour. Would that the same animus was aimed at the environmental vandalism of large corporate companies!

On the other hand, the document is highly critical of the Tories’ Public Order Act, because it targets peaceful protest, and introduces measures like suspicionless stop and search and the “offence” of being “equipped to lock on.” There is no commitment, however, to repeal this legislation, instead, the commitment is to “change these provisions.”

There is also a welcome commitment to tackle misogyny which Labour will designate as a hate crime. Labour will also introduce specialist rape courts to fast-track cases and bring in tougher sentences, including a minimum seven-year custodial sentence for rape. And Labour will also support buffer zones around abortion clinics, to allow access to healthcare free from harassment.

In good news for trade unionists campaigning on historic injustices, Labour will support either a full investigation or an inquiry into the events at Orgreave, depending on which approach is most likely to uncover the truth, and it will also release the documents held by the government relating to the Cammell Laird prosecutions. (In 1984, thirty-seven workers from Cammell Laird were sentenced to a month in prison for contempt of court for taking part in industrial action.)

Transport

At the risk of shocking readers, the document commits Labour to bringing the railways into public ownership on the same basis as the 2019 manifesto, that is, when contracts with existing rail operators expire or are broken, they will be taken over.

There is one phrase in relation to this that is slightly worrying and that is that taking the private companies into public ownership must be “consistent with our fiscal rules.” Labour is also promising to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2 in full.

On buses, Labour will give communities the ability to take on powers to franchise local bus services and it will also lift the ban on municipal bus ownership and promises to promote it.

4. Public services that work from the start

Many trade unionists and community activists are nervous about Labour’s plans in this area. The document argues: “Investment alone is not enough. Labour recognises the essential need for reform as well and will work alongside the people who provide and use our public services to change and modernise them to make them fit for the future.”

It is the nature of that reform and particularly the role that the private sector might play in them, that gives rise to concerns. The document is explicit in stating that the NHS will remain a publicly funded service, free at the point of use and available to everyone.

Furthermore, it commits to Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) as a bulwark against privatisation. However, the document acknowledges that “in the short term, to fix the Conservative mess we inherit, we will use spare capacity in the independent sector to treat NHS patients and bring waiting lists down ...”

Furthermore, opening the NHS up as a site for research by the big pharmaceutical companies is surely implicit in this paragraph: “NHS is a unique environment that researchers and drug developers should want to conduct clinical trials in.

“We should be making the most of this massive opportunity, which would be good for patients, good for the NHS and good for the economy.” And, they might have added, the profits of the large pharmas.

In school education, no far-reaching reform of the sector is offered. Labour will prioritise investment in the education service, using money raised from ending tax breaks for private schools.

While there is some debate about the scale of the success Blair and Brown’s New Labour achieved in reducing inequalities in health and education, there is general agreement that they certainly did so.

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, to achieve this Blair and Brown’s Labour had to increase education spending by 78 per cent. There is no such increase proposed here and without a significant change in taxing wealth, considered at the end of this article, it is difficult to see how such sums could be raised.

5. A future where families come first

The section on families also reverberates with ideas from New Labour’s “glory” days. Breakfast clubs will be funded through the ending of the non-domiciled tax status. More homes will be built. And here we also find the contradictions of that perspective emerging.

Labour, we are told, is the party of home ownership. A target of a homeownership rate of 70 per cent is set. At the same time, the document claims that Labour will reduce the number of social homes being sold off through right to buy without like-for-like social housing being built to replace them. The resources to make this possible are not identified.

For those renting in the private rented sector, which the document acknowledges still offers some of the worst standards, there is to be a new Renters’ Charter which will, among other things, abolish Section 21 “no-fault” evictions and introduce a legally binding “decent homes standard.”

Social security

Here the document offers fundamental reform promising to overhaul the current “unfair and punitive system and end punitive sanctions which strip away people’s dignity.”

Nevertheless, it still takes space to remind us that under Labour, unemployed workers’ rights to financial and employment support will be conditional on the responsibility to look for work. And of course, there is no pledge to tackle child poverty by abolishing the two-child limit on universal credit.

However, in what disability activists believe is a significant gain, the document commits Labour to the social model of disability and not the medical model. But while recognising that the triple lock on pensions remains an important tool in ensuring older people are given security, there is no explicit pledge to retain it.

6. Britain in the world

Most of the final section on international issues can sit comfortably in the “ugly” category. The document fully commits Labour to supporting Nato and to nuclear deterrence, as well as unsurprisingly, continued support for Ukraine and the pledge of a “complete audit of UK-China relations to ensure the relationship reflects Britain’s long-term interests and values.”

There is also continued support for a two-state solution to the Palestinian crisis, but no promise here of a “complete audit” of British-Israeli relations, despite the NPF document’s condemnation of violence against civilians constantly visited on Palestinians.

Although it states that Labour will not return to the EU’s single market or customs union, it promises “closer co-operation with our largest trading partner.” This will take the shape of “long-term structures.”

Finally, Labour will end the Rwanda deportation scheme, but although there is heavy criticism of the Tories Illegal Migration Act, there is no commitment to repeal it.

Given the care and attention the Labour leadership has taken in shaping the final NPF document, there is every reason to believe that it is a very good indication of what to expect from a Labour government, especially because of what it doesn’t say.

It doesn’t seek to increase the tax base by taxing wealth, which will be absolutely necessary even if Keir Starmer wants to achieve the expansion of, for example, education and health and the wider economic growth the NPF document promises.

If the labour movement wants better, then the Labour Party conference may be its last opportunity to demand it.