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Chuka Ummuna
© Chuka Ummuna 2008
At a reception last month, I was collared by one of the architects of New Labour who took it upon himself to walk over and lecture me on the electoral folly of Compass, on whose management committee I sit.
His assessment of why Labour has been trailing in the polls was simple: Cameron and co have been following the New Labour formula and Labour, of late, has not. Nevermind that the New Labour strategy was cooked up for a completely different era before the advent of mass email and internet usage, 9/11 and, latterly, the near collapse of the world financial system; Labour has struggled since Brown took over because it has failed to follow a recipe that worked a decade ago. For my adversary, 'After New Labour', 'more New Labour'.
Warming to his theme, he fell into the usual, cheap, lazy intellectualism of many of his ilk - a knee jerk response which says that anyone who dares to suggest we need more regulation of the market to ensure it serves more of the people (and not the other way round) wants to take Labour back to the 'suicide note' policy agenda of the early 1980s that led to electoral ruin. Again, never mind that no one in and around Compass is suggesting the imposition of marginal rates of tax of 83%, unilateral nuclear disarmament or the common ownership of all means of production, distribution and exchange (ironically, nationalisation appears to be all the rage now).
My accuser was wrong on both counts. The New Labour formula, at its crudest circa 2003-04 (Labour's 1997 manifesto was quite 'left' in comparison), was predicated on a cynicism and a pessimism about the British public. In part, there was the desire to triangulate policy to the right in order to attract Tory voters, in the belief that your own supporters would stay put with nowhere else to go. As it happened, over 4.5 million simply stopped voting altogether or drifted into the hands of the Liberal Democrats or, worse, the BNP. There was also the view that the British people are conservative (with a small 'c') and not susceptible to a political message that seeks to appeal not only to the desire to improve one's personal circumstances but those of society at large too. What better evidence of the fallacy of this is there than the outrage expressed across the political spectrum and all socio-ecomomic groups at last year's 10p tax abolition.
No, after New Labour must come an honest exposition of what Labour is all about - building a fairer, more equal, democratic and sustainable world - and an attempt to popularise these notions in the way that Thatcher did for the beliefs of Hayek, Friedman et al. Labour has got to stop running scared for fear of offending and make the case for its politics.
But how? The 'living wage' - highly desirable in my view - provides a good example. Lets give the debate around that issue some emotional texture. We do not just strive for a society in which every person has the opportunity to reach their full potential (all parties lays claim to that); we want to build a society in which whatever talents a person has, they are rewarded with a comfortable standard of living when they apply them. Why? Because it is not fair to leave it to the market - as we do at present - to attribute a salary to a job of work which barely pays to put food on a plate or keep a house warm. Green issues - which touch on matters of life and death - provide even more fertile ground to make these emotional arguments and there are numerous others.
My point is that it is not difficult to articulate and popularise our politics in this fashion. More importantly, if ever there were a time to do so, it is now, when the forces of individualism and laissez faire are in retreat and interventionist thinking is on the up. Some say Labour missed an opportunity, following the 1997 landslide, to do this - to embed its values into the fabric of this nation in a way which would endure every bit as long and strong as Thatcherism. Well now we have our second chance.
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