Grace Blakeley

Grace Blakeley (born 26 June 1993)[1] is a British economics and politics commentator, columnist, journalist, author, and Labour Party activist. She is a staff writer for Tribune and was previously the economics commentator of the New Statesman. She also contributes to Novara Media.

Grace Blakeley
Blakeley in 2019
Born (1993-06-26) 26 June 1993
NationalityBritish
Education
Alma mater
Occupation
  • Economist
  • Journalist
  • Author
Employer
Political partyLabour
Writing career
Subjects

Early life

Blakeley was privately educated at Lord Wandsworth College,[2] and later attended the comprehensive school, Sixth Form College, Farnborough (both in Hampshire).[3] She studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Peter's College, Oxford, graduating with a first.[3][4] Blakeley then obtained a master's degree in African Studies at St Antony's College, Oxford.[5] After graduating, she worked as a management consultant for KPMG in their Public Sector and Healthcare Practice division.[4] Blakeley then worked as a research fellow for a year at the left-wing think tank, Institute for Public Policy Research in Manchester, specialising in regional economic policy.[4]

Career
Blakeley in September 2018

Blakeley joined the magazine New Statesman in January 2019 as its economics commentator, writing a fortnightly column and contributing to the website and podcasts.[6] Her articles for the magazine included support for Lexit and a Green New Deal.[7][8] Her first book, Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialisation, was published by Repeater Books on 10 September 2019.[9] Michael Galant writing for the openDemocracy website, praised the book as a "convincing critique of modern capitalism for socialists and skeptics alike".[10] CapX's Diego Zuluaga commented in his review that it was a "sweeping polemic against the market economy", and felt the author had been selective in how she presented evidence for her arguments.[11]

Blakeley has appeared on programmes such as This Week, Question Time, Good Morning Britain, Politics Live and The Andrew Marr Show.

Blakeley became a staff writer for the democratic socialist magazine Tribune in January 2020.[12] She sits on the Labour Party's National Policy Forum, which is responsible for policy development.[13]

Political views

Blakeley identifies as a democratic socialist[14] and supports the use of capital controls,[15] calling them necessary to "avoid economic blackmail by the markets" and protect the economy from financial flows.[16] She opposes financial globalisation, arguing that it concentrates capital into financial centres that are more integrated into the global economy than they are with their own countries and leads to unfair trading practices that prevent countries from being able to protect their infant industries.[17] Blakeley supports keeping interest rates low to prevent increased capital investment flows into financial assets and real estate, instead proposing greater public investment into the non-financial sectors to promote economic growth and raise living standards.[18] Blakely also supports local and regional devolution across the UK, reasoning that decentralising the country's "grossly unequal" economy is the only way to rebalance it.[19][20] She is critical of international law and European Union law in particular as a legal system, describing it as being selectively enforced "in the interests of the most powerful states" who are more able to influence its development than the weak, citing the Stability and Growth Pact as an example.[15] Blakeley supports Jeremy Corbyn's views on the economy and campaigned and voted for him in the 2015 and 2016 Labour leadership elections, though she criticised him in 2016 for failing to "challenge the hegemony of neoliberalism" in the way she had imagined he would.[15][21]

Green New Deal

Blakeley promotes a Green New Deal entailing billions of pounds of investment into green transport and energy infrastructure, social housing and R&D, in addition to targeted support for manufacturers and exporters of environmentally-sustainable goods and technologies, as well as businesses that need to transition away from non-renewables. This is in conjunction with strengthened trade unions, increased wealth taxes, the nationalisation of key infrastructure and utilities, and the growth of cooperatives and mutuals.[15][22] Though she has emphasised it as running "counter to a capitalist system", she has argued that "even those who do not identify as socialists" may soon realise that a green industrial revolution is the "only option". She calls for a "fair transition towards a low-carbon economy", in which the costs of adjustment are placed on "those most able to bear them", and for the government to take shares in businesses that they help to decarbonise, to redistribute the gains from the green growth.[23]

European Union

Blakeley is a prominent Eurosceptic, and has branded the European Union as "neoliberal", "neo-colonial" and "run in the interests of financial and corporate elites".[15][24] She has described the EU institutions as "inherently anti-democratic", citing the limited power of the European Parliament compared to the Council and the Commission, as well as the lack of strong mechanisms to hold MEPs to account for their actions, referring to Labour MEPs helping to narrowly elect Ursula von der Leyen against the party leadership's wishes as an example. She has also lambasted the Common Agricultural Policy as a "regressive measure" that has been "terrible for ecological diversity" and "disastrous" for farmers in the Global South.[7][25] She has criticised the euro for being "incredibly favourable" to Germany and benefiting northern Europe at the expense of having "immiserated and humiliated" Greece and Italy and damaging the competitiveness of southern European exports.[19][25]

Blakeley supports Brexit, arguing that the EU is a barrier to a socialist economy and that building such an economy outside of it could serve as a "beacon of hope" to member states that are "struggling under the weight of the EU's neoliberal technocracy".[7][17] She advocates the UK ending free movement of capital and regaining full control of state aid as the priorities,[17][26] and also supports maintaining free movement of people and promoting greater immigration from the parts of the world most affected by neo-colonialism.[15] Blakeley has called for a post-Brexit UK to be built around a Green New Deal, which she has suggested would absorb the initial demand shock of even a no-deal Brexit and expand the economy's productivity.[22] She has strongly criticised Theresa May's withdrawal agreement and has accused its level playing field provisions of being an attempt by May and the EU to prevent a Labour government from implementing a "sweeping programme of economic reform".[15][26]

References
  1. Grace Blakeley [@graceblakeley] (26 June 2019). "T-W-E-N-T-Y S-I-X 2DAY BITCHEZ And I got to spend it with these beauts" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. "The Sower 2009" (PDF). The Sower. p. 16. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  3. "University Admissions 2011" (PDF). Sixth Form College, Farnborough. p. 3. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  4. "Biography". Institute for Public Policy Research. Archived from the original on 17 May 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  5. "E-Newsletter: Antonian Books – TT19". St Antony's College, Oxford. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  6. "Grace Blakeley appointed New Statesman economics commentator". New Statesman. 12 November 2018. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  7. Blakeley, Grace (16 January 2019). "Why the left should champion Brexit". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  8. Blakeley, Grace (2 October 2019). "Why we need a Green New Deal to solve humanity's greatest challenge". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  9. "Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialisation". Repeater Books.
  10. Galant, Michael (9 October 2019). "Socialism or barbarism: a review of 'Stolen' by Grace Blakeley". openDemocracy. Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  11. Zuluaga, Diego (2 September 2019). "Grace Blakeley's 'Stolen' is a tired invective against market capitalism". CapX. Archived from the original on 6 December 2019. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  12. Strutt, Andrew. "Grace Blakeley joins the team at Tribune". Response Source. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  13. "Grace Blakeley". Labour Party. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  14. Cohen, Roger (8 March 2019). "Socialism and the 2020 American Election". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 August 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  15. Blakeley, Grace (16 January 2019). "Another Britain Is Possible". The Express Tribune. Archived from the original on 1 February 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  16. Blakeley, Grace (14 January 2019). "Why 70 per cent tax rates would require capital controls". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  17. Blakeley, Grace (24 June 2018). "Financial Globalisation Has Been a Disaster. Brexit Gives Us a Chance to Resist It". Novara Media. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  18. Blakeley, Grace (5 August 2018). "The interest rate rise will directly affect victims of austerity – the government should take responsibility". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 May 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  19. Blakeley, Grace (6 July 2017). "The government must invest in the North". Public Finance. Archived from the original on 1 July 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  20. Blakeley, Grace (8 May 2019). "Why we must empower local government". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 16 May 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  21. Blakeley, Grace (4 July 2016). "I campaigned for Corbyn – but he's failed to change the conversation". Left Foot Forward. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  22. Blakeley, Grace (13 February 2019). "Whatever the Brexit outcome, the UK desperately needs a green new deal". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 20 February 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  23. Blakeley, Grace (1 May 2019). "Why Britain needs its own Green New Deal". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 30 July 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  24. "Lexit: The left's strategy for Brexit". BBC One. 23 November 2018. Archived from the original on 15 September 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  25. Wainwright, Hilary; Blakeley, Grace (17 September 2019). "The debate: can the European Union be reformed?". New Internationalist. Archived from the original on 9 March 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  26. @bbcthisweek (23 November 2018). ""You could only implement your agenda if we left on a no-deal basis?" @afneil asks @graceblakeley #bbctw" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 9 March 2020 – via Twitter.
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