Is Labour in labour yet?
If you’ll pardon the title of the blog I mean is Ed Miliband about to give birth? Has he got the big new idea that will defy history and make him electable within five years? Is it about to spring forth and cry with full voice in the way a newborn baby pulls at your heart? I’ve just chaired my first fringe meeting of the conference for the think tank Demos – with Ed Miliband “team insider” Chuka Umunna. When challenged by me and the audience on where Labour’s defining idea was, how it was going to be heard beyond the conference hall we emerged not much wiser. Labour is the party of the NHS, the minimum wage and equality legislation, he explained, and Ed Miliband’s speech on Tuesday will lay out the kind of hope that defines the party. Did that mean there was something comparable to the creation of the NHS? All that got was a laugh.
The opinion polls are simply telling what most of the delegates here know in their hearts – that Labour is still struggling to be heard. Ed Miliband may be playing a long game – fixed term parliaments mean he still almost certainly has nearly four years to go, and doesn’t really need to be ready for a snap election in two years time as he would otherwise. It may not matter especially that the polls show people don’t really know him, or particularly like him. He still has time. But the media commentary around him, and the mutterings in the party, will say the next twelve months are crucial. Long time Labour pollster Deborah Mattinson explains that while David Cameron was doing worse than Ed Miliband after his first year he turned it around sharply after that.
Labour still doesn’t seem sure what it got wrong and right in the last couple of years of office. Everyone is still talking the language of learning the lessons, of understanding what the voters rejected. But on the economy the history of the two Eds still means they are unsure what to admit, what to defend. Chuka Umunna just told me he thought Labour got the economic policy right but the politics wrong – that they should have sounded like they cared about the deficit more than they did. And there is now a renewed sense that they were right all along because of the state of the global economy. The worse things get the more some believe they can argue that George Osborne got it wrong.
It is day one – presumably there will be more flesh on the bones by the time of Ed Balls’ speech on Monday and Ed Miliband on Tuesday.
There are 14 comments on this post
Labour is afraid to be labour – Tony Blair convinced them left of centre was unelectable and even though the centre-right policies of Blair-Brown and now Cameron-Clegg are not working, Miliband is still frightened to say so.
There are no big ideas in politics any more. They are all terrified of saying that the markets are not working and need to be controlled.Why bother to stand up for what is good for ordinary people, when the wealthy people, the bankers and the financial whizz kids, have the power?
Of course they laughed at your meeting when it was suggested they might come up with an idea as good as the NHS. If the NHS didn’t exist, none of today’s politicians would create it. It would upset the markets too much.
There is simply no place for voters to go who believe that capitalism needs to be controlled so that it serves the majority of people and not just a few winners, who then carry on accumulating wealth for the sake of it.
It’s always been the conservative way. the lib dems have shown it’s what they believe at core. But until labour is different from the others, why should anyone bother to switch? And I can’t see anyone in the party who has the vision to make that call.
If there were an election tomorrow I would either vote green or spoil my vote in protest.
The big idea should be the total repudiation of neoliberalism. Miliband needs to explain what has happened over the last 30 years, widening inequality, insecure employment and the rich growing ever richer. This has to be spelt out in such a way that the majority of ordinary people can then see how this has impacted on their lives to their disadvantage.
Not so sure about a professed left now Sam. Those people who alleged to being at the so called left or should I say many of them ,have turned out to be bullies and behave in a way which can be alligned to far right,whereas many of the historically politically right people have a better insight into the ethics of the left.
Accumulating wealth would be better if the facility was available to all. Instead of the huge credit and lending boom, if more had conserved their spare pennies and banked or invested more wisely then we would not have the present debt crisis.
Saltaire,
You’ve hit the nail on the head. The Tories seem to have successfully bullied Labour into be a right wing party. I think Blair’s victory seems now like a false dawn for Labour.
Are you saying the present crisis is the fault of individuals not conserving their spare pennies Margaret? Bit harsh. Uncontrolled capitalism has created the shallow, want it now culture that has fuelled much of the crisis.
Yes, there is a personal debt crisis which individuals need to learn from and in many cases start to live within their means but there are plenty who didn’t have spare pennies in the first place. For those people they were tempted by the easy availability of credit just to have what they have been brainwashed into believing is a reasonable standard of living.
The real crisis though, was created by those whom one would expect to understand a bit more about conserving cash and investing wisely. Bankers and the politicians who gave them free rein are the culprits here.
Labour cannot regain credibility, despite Osbornes open goal straight in front of them, because it is still the usual suspects running the party. They need a completely new broom – fresh faces and fresh ideas and most certainly not Yvette Cooper who is as tainted as her husband on both political track record and expenses.
The Tories only started to regain favour when almost all the old school that voters remembered from the Thatcher-Major years had gone from the top of the party. People were prepared to trust new faces and give them a chance. Ironic when Cameron-Clegg-Osborne have turned out to be worse than Thatcher. Even she stopped short of handing the NHS to private companies. And I suspect she would have had the balls to deal with the banks and not keel over when they whined about leaving the country.
No, not entirely, but lending, and the lifestyle of living on credit- borrowed money- has significantly impacted on us as a globe. It is only logic , less borrowing- less debt
Borrowing has insidiously crept into financial transactions over the years. It may be old fashioned and contrary to the fashion of credit ratings , but there used to be a saying ” neither a lender nor a borrower 1 be” which carried the tacit implication that it was not good to spend money one has not got. The value is put on self control
SALTAIRE SAMiFEEL EXACTLY THE SAME LABOUR USED TO BE A BYWORD FOR STANDING UP FOR THEORDINARY GUY IN THE STREET AND THE DISENFRANCHISED
NOW THEY HAVE A LEADER WHO WENT FROM SCHOOL- UNI-POLITICAL ADVISER-PARLIAMENT NEVER DONE A REA DAY’S WORK IN HIS LIFE JUST LIKE CAMERON
OK HE HAD A PR COMPANY BIG DEAL AGAIN NOT A PROPER JOB HIS WIFE’S INHERITED WEALTH HELPS HIM OUT.AS A PERSON DISABLED AND UNABLE TO WORK FOR15 YEARSTHERE IS NO MAIN PARTY WHO WANTS TO DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN MAKE LIFE MORE DIFFICULT BY CUTTING SERVICES CHARGING MORE FOR CARE WHILE CUTTING MY BENEFITSTHERE IS NOBODY OUTTHERE OTHER THAN CHARITIES PREPARED TO METAPHORICALLY STAND UP FOR US EASIER TO BADGE US AS LAZY SCROUNGERS AND FORGET THE FACT MANY OF US WORKED HARD THOUGH PREVIOUS RECESSIONS PAYING OUR FULL STAMPTHIS IS A PARTICULARLY SPITEFUL GOVERNMENTLIKE A PLAYGROUND BULLY PICKING ON THOSE LEAST ABLE TO FIGHT BACK VERY UNBRITISH AND EXTREMELY MORALLY QUESTIONABLE
I think voters & commentators will have to accept that fixed term Parliaments have changed things considerably,. Opposition has to put the Government to the question and make it justify its policy.It is not the Government in waiting in t5he old sense if you wish to make the next General Election 2015. I think Ed Miliband is more aware of this than the commentators.
Margaret,
“if more had conserved their spare pennies and banked or invested more wisely then we would not have the present debt crisis.”
This isn’t really true.
The only way some can save, is by others going into debt. Keynes called it the “fallacy of thrift”, and it is such fallacies that define the difference between micro and macro economics.
If everyone had tried to save equally hard, it would have forced the economy into recession, in turn, forcing the government to run a much higher budget deficit during that period.
Kind Regards
Of course there is a difference between little borrowers and large borrowers and those willing to lend large amounts and small amounts.This is relative to overall balance and profit/loss. Thrift does not necessarily mean austerity as too much is to be gained by prospecting sensibly.
The problem to a great extent lies with those who cannot afford to repay money they did not have, whether it is micro or macro economics. if you go on spending money you havn’t got and are not likey to be able to repay not having covered yourself with alternative deposits/ strength, then the only way is down.
With all due respect Maynard Keynes died in 1946 and what was applicable to a period when we still had ” the empire” is not applicable today where money whizzes around the globe in nano seconds and confidence in markets is a quick and noticeable domino effect which swings to and fro more quickly that late 19th century early 20th century.
Money was not lent to the man on the street to the same extent as though a projection was a failsafe phrophecy.. no sorry we live in debt and borrow therefore we will continue to be in debt.. University fees start youth off in debt life ..These perceptions of continually owing are continual catch up and connot be sustained.
Krishnan,
You asked three questions.
The answer to all three is No.
The Labour Party long ago lost its conscience and raison d’etre. This began with James Callaghan and was only temporarily halted by much-missed John Smith. Kinnock began the slide into opportunism and corruption and this was completed by Blair/Brown. Now Labour are a lighter shade of Tory, nothing more.
At this rate the Labour Party will go the same historic way of the Liberal Party, destined to become a rump of lower middle class, sandal wearing windbags completely out of touch with the realities of working class life. Blair of course was the biggest war-mongering traitor of the lot, a man completely without a sense of honour or conscience; he and his supporters are beneath contempt.
The reality of English political life is that Labour might well win the next general election. But it will make barely a marginal difference.
The truth is we now live in a de facto one party state with three different factions addicted to public relations speak and sound bites.
This means there will be an increase in levels of unemployment and poverty unknown since the 1920s. Which also means – if you think the London Riots were bad: stick around, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
If the Labour Party do not quickly rediscover a sense of morality and decency they will be even further destabilised and drawn even deeper into capitalist corruption and misery.
And they can’t complain they haven’t had enough warnings from history.
By and large the left have disappeared. There isn’t a left to speak of. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were under the illusion that capitalism was just fine and they could play with it to their personal political advantage.
The problem is that capitalism is a caged tiger and going into the cage is a bad idea.
That doesn’t mean to say that the left argument of large scale public ownership is an answer. Personal greed and corporate greed drive economic advance. When Cameron says dont tax the rich he means “greed is good for growth”.
Labour needs to find an adult relationship with capitalism. Hugging the banks and corporations under Blair/Brown led to vast inequality, PFI financing and the creation of a whole new class of supper-rich billionaires while keeping ordinary incomes very ordinary.
The squeezed middle is not the answer. They exist but they are a little like middle england. They still believe the Conservatives. They want to scurge themselves of debt – both personal and national. They have stopped spending in sympathy with the government and they are not natural Labour people.
Public sector workers are outraged at paying the brunt of a largely private sector financial crisis. They expect Labour to support them.
The poor have long since abandoned hope that political parties will do anything for them.
Only when the scurging stops and the majority realise that the IMF always recommend asterity and have bankrupted many a developing nation will sense return. By that time inflation will have eaten into the debt, most families will be poorer than they were 30 years ago and the electorate will not be looking for a coalition that says scurge thyself but rather for the party that puts people back to work.
Until then it really doesn’t matter if the media play their usual game of personality politics and backstairs briefing. The media is almost as irrelevant as politicians in the economic crisis because they help generate the fear that the system is in collapse.
Well if there was ever a time for Labour to drop the fear of being Labour its now while the real power has nothing but tax payer bailouts to offer. But is it to be? I remain unconvinced. I despair at how easily the Labour leadership is spooked when drawn into justifying policy on straightforward grounds. They bolster bigotry and blatant unfairness every time they fall back on meaningless terms like the hardworking and squeezed middle, who are they talking to?