After Crewe
Short post as the weather’s too gorgeous to stay inside too long. Been away for the week, so it’s only this morning that I realised how much breast-beating about the Crewe by-election has been going on.
Dan and Hopi have written good posts on this. It only remains for me to add the following to Labour comrades: get your bloody heads up, we run this country and the next election is ours to lose.
Last night on Newsnight, “insiders” were suggesting that we make the next two years about fairness. This gives me hope that there are still some in the party who are still up for a fight rather than a winding down to opposition.
In three terms in government, we have quietly done well on fairness - for older people, for families, for children, for workers. Talking about the value of fairness, with its link to the British value of fair play, lets us talk about the changes we want to see in people’s lives. Like making sure that ordinary people feeling the pinch from high living costs - not least food, energy and fuel - get more help from a government that is on their side. Like making it easier for working mums and dads, and for families worried about looking after their older relatives. Like making sure everyone has somewhere affordable and secure to live - be that through social renting or home-ownership or more help to the thousands of people stuck in the middle in a rubbish private rented sector. It could even mean - whisper it quietly - a windfall tax on energy companies and a new rate of tax for the super-rich. (And by the way, for all the criticisms of the Labour campaign in Crewe, people still do instinctively know which side they are on: us and them still exist, even if not so narrowly defined as in the past. The team in Crewe might have done better to focus on how “we” are better off under Labour rather than leave it as a class caricature, but there is something in it.)
Fairness as a narrative is harder for us now than it was even a few months ago: the 10p tax debacle undermined our entire reputation for caring about the least well-off, particularly those who are working for low wages - a reputation that is deserved and prouder than any other party’s record, even if we’ve done nowhere near enough to make sure that no-one in this rich prosperous nation lives in poverty. But I think it’s the only answer at a time when people’s thoughts are turning to their bank balances and overdrafts, their mortgage repayments and electricity bills.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that the Blairites have the answers. I was at a Progress event (yes, I know, unlikely, but I was) recently, and heard Charles Clarke speak. His policy prescriptions (contained here) were appalling for connecting with voters rather than broadsheet leader writers. I asked about living costs for ordinary people and how we show that we understand that it’s hard at the moment, and he replied with some guff about integrated sustainable transport. Does this guy ever knock on any doors?! Whatever answers the Blairites may have had (and in their time they had a fair few), they don’t have them any longer if this is the best they can do.
Along with the vast majority of Labour members and supporters on the centre-left, I do want us to talk about why we’re involved in politics - and fairness is it. We have a vision of a more equal society, where people work hard and aspire, and are supported and protected by government. I want us to remind the Labour coalition - of working-class voters, lower middle-class voters, middle-class voters, BME communities and liberal lefties - what they’ve gained, what is still to come, and what they could lose.
Millions of people are better-off after eleven years of Labour. We must not give up on them. I’ll be out on the doorstep tomorrow morning, and spending a large chunk of this week coming working for more playschemes, better play areas and a living wage in Oxford as a Labour councillor. I’m still proud of my government and my party. What are you going to do this week to help ensure a Labour government?
doesn`t the thought of two more years of a labour government led by gordon make you sick?
“I want us to remind the Labour coalition - of working-class voters, lower middle-class voters, middle-class voters, BME communities and liberal lefties - what they’ve gained, what is still to come, and what they could lose.”
What they could lose,eh? Like the priceless opportunities Labour offers them to be forced to carry an ID card like a common criminal; have their DNA stored even when proved innocent; have every phone call, e-mail, and text message they send recorded; get banged up without charge for over a month; and live in the most CCTV-intensive society in the world.
Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning, not a blueprint. Labour needs to be stopped while there are still a few civil liberties left - anything rather than the totalitarian freakshow espoused by your party.
Have you seen the frontpage of Conservativehome today? They are asking whether “fairness” could be their “big idea”!
It’s easy to criticise Clarke and Progress as being Blairite but it’s a slightly glib assessment: there is a division in the Labour Party between reformers and consolidaters certainly, but categorising reformers as Blairite is simplistic. I am in favour of more reform and wouldn’t associate myself with the conservativism of many on the left, but would not consider myself a Blairite when it comes to ID cards, or pre-charge detention, both of which are terrible ideas. I think where Clarke is talking about relating payment to performance in the public sector will resonate with people who feel that a lot of the money that has gone into public services has been wasted. The low levels of productivity in the public sector is something we need to tackle and it should have been dealt with sooner (like before the extra money went in)- you can bet the Tories will make an issue of it.
I would not take BME support for granted with all the increased restrictions placed on overseas relatives who wish to visit them.
“Short post as the weather’s too gorgeous to stay inside too long.”
Oops! Famous last words.
Child poverty?
I’ve got to say that labour are a big part of the cause and certainly not part of the solution. Antonia’s comments on here highlight the problem.
If fathers are shut out of childrens lives and the only part they can play is that of the walking wallet then one of the outcomes will be child poverty.
Please do read Antonia’s posts about ‘all’ men committing domestic violence, how it’s a joke that men are excluded from their childrens lives and how men should simply not have the right to protest about inequalities in law because of the gender pay gap.
It’s excruciatingly clear that Bance and her ilk are part of the problem and will never be the solution to child poverty.
Antonia, please do explain the attached Web Article, I seriously look forward to the positive spin that you can put on this failure.
Will next year’s study show a turnaround? I honestly don’t think so.
Can you change your ways and improve the situation for our children? In reality you haven’t got the time.