The election revealed a simple truth. Britain is a progressive country. Its people want competence, but they prefer good public services to tax cuts and reject the narrow nationalism of the right. Labour politicians in particular should recognise that the people are ahead of them. Charles Kennedy showed us how this can be done: by talking straight, addressing the real issues and treating the electorate with respect. Frankly, it was uncomfortable viewing during the campaign watching Labour being outflanked in this way.
There are three main challenges now facing the centre-left. First, the Tories look like they have hit the bottom of the barrel and now have only one way to go. More importantly, they seem to know it. Michael Portillo, if elected, will take them to the centre. As only Nixon could go to China, only Portillo can lead the forces of conservatism from the now dark shadows of Thatcherism. He is the person progressives fear most. For he will echo a large part of our own identity. By uniting economic liberalism with its welcome social counterpart, he will do more than practice pragmatic electoralism. He will create a formidable intellectual challenge to the centre-left. In 1997 Labour won by four million votes, this time by only two. In this sense there was no landslide and, with a restless and rootless electorate, the prospect of defeat next time still haunts us. Unless we deliver on public services.
This is the second imperative. Such is the focus on delivery that Whitehall now sounds more like a maternity ward than a centre for political governance. But too much change is superficial. The culture of Labourism, the notion that there is one party, one history and one future, has still not been sufficiently challenged. The old ways of top down, command and control simply don’t work in today’s world. It is pluralism, not centralism, ‘that works’. Labour has to learn what all parents know, that eventually you have to let go. Here Labour can learn most from the liberal tradition. Decentralisation, a healthy suspicion of the central state, trusting and empowering people is the hard route to ensuring delivery – but it is the only route.
Finally, progressives have to respond to the crisis of democracy that now confronts us. Turnout is falling across Western democracies – but nowhere so dramatically as Britain. The spectre of racism is securing a toehold in our body politic and it is happening on our watch. We are compelled to find solutions. First, votes have to be made to count. Civic duty is no longer enough to get people to the polls. They have to feel they can make a difference. Under first-past-the-post this is simply impossible. Second, democracy, in the sense of voter choice, has to be meaningful. No real choice means no real democracy. Here the centre-left, but mostly Labour, must have the courage of its convictions. But first-past-the-post forces us to pander to a few swing voters in a few swing seats. Progressives must create the conditions in which we can move beyond the tyranny of ‘middle England’. Electoral reform allows this and creates the climate in which centre-left co-operation can flourish.
Labour was formed out of the dissent from the Liberal Party. That historic rupture of progressives ushered in a Conservative century. By default, they secured most of the political prizes. But even during 1980s every social survey identified a largely progressive electorate. It was centre-left politicians that let the people down.
Following Roy Jenkins, and Tony Blair when he first became the Labour leader, a progressive century is still both desirable and feasible. A century in which our people become more equal; our public services are cherished; our democracy renewed and our place at the heart of Europe settled. But it will only happen if the strands of social democracy and liberalism are re-united. The election and its aftermath have increased the need for, and space to build, a progressive alliance.
Little more than four years ago, on the night of 1st May 1997, the hearts of progressives soared. Now it feels as if there is little fuel left in the rocket. Less than two years into it, the prospects for a progressive century look like a long haul. It need not be so. Now is the time to challenge the belief that this is essentially a ‘conservative country’. Instead, we must appeal to the progressive instincts of the electorate and begin to ‘make the political weather’. Labour has won an election but not a century. We must not be allowed to let the people down again.