We have spent a long time working for an historic second Labour term. Having achieved it, we need real clarity about our key tasks. I see three as essential to our success.
First, we must draw out the radical implications of the new political framework that the general election has helped to create. Second, we must drive forward the policy agenda on which we were elected. And third, we must colonise the high ground in the battle to define the right approach to an emerging agenda based on the politics of empowerment.
Labour’s first term in government was designed to lay the foundations for sustained progressive change, rooted in politics as well as policy. The aim was to shift the terms of debate to the left and open up the possibility of substantial reform. In this context, the general election was more important than many realise.
Labour’s manifesto sought a mandate for clear and radical goals and, in the process, aimed to crystallise a new set of choices, defined by Labour, not Tory, values. In the course of the campaign, such a shift began to take place as a new set of political truths were hammered out.
It is a measure of progress that it is now axiomatic that no party can commit itself to big spending cuts, to an appeal to social intolerance, or to the politics of European isolationism. Debates about tax and spending, social structure and national identity have been recast. Our first job in each area, from public investment to social inclusion to European engagement and reform, is to define the new political mandate on our terms.
Second, we must make good on the policy agenda we have laid out. This will reinforce our mandate and establish new bridgeheads. ‘Delivery’ depends above all on forging local coalitions for reform. This is difficult for central government but essential to success.
South Shields will be a good test for Labour in government. Today, unemployment is down by a third since 1997, but still three times the national average. Primary school standards are up, but 60 percent of children leave secondary school without five good GCSEs. Waiting lists and times have fallen for operations, but health indicators remain poor.
Employment, education and health outcomes at the national average would constitute radical change. The challenge for Labour’s second term is to create a new dynamic of investment and entrepreneurship in an area of great local pride and potential but significant problems.
The South Shields economy has been transformed almost beyond recognition in twenty years. We have great hopes for redeveloping a shipbuilding and ship repair industry second to none. But the new economy cannot arrive fast enough in Tyne and Wear. The RDAs need to lead regeneration built on economic stability, engaging existing employers and the whole local community, from colleges and universities to local government and the voluntary sector, to build the industries and employment of the future and ensure local people provide the workforce for them.
Public services offer the hope of opportunity as well as safety. In South Shields they are vital to local renewal. The needs are manifold but we must remain passionate about education: it does not deliver quick wins for anyone but it still needs to come first for legislation, cash and ministerial attention. That requires a new partnership between the Department for Education and Skills and the local authority on the one hand, and schools, teachers, parents and pupils on the other.
There is a third task that needs more thought. Much of what Britain needs to do involves catching up with our European neighbours. But we also need to see the changing policy and political terrain. For example, environmental and quality of life issues are rising up the political agenda. We must be ahead of the game.
Moreover, we must be responsive to the sense of popular disempowerment that is at the root of a lot of discontent. The signs are various, the causes complex, from low turnout to the fuel protest, to distrust of distant bureaucracies. People want a say as well as the right outcome. We must re-energise the agenda of political modernisation at a local, as well as national, level. Our constitution commits us to put power, as well as opportunity and wealth, in the hands of the many not the few, and an increasingly demanding citizenry want their say.
Labour is now making the political running. Across Europe, people are looking to Labour as a source of ideas and even inspiration. We now need to build the movement, national as well as local, so that we can keep up the pace, continue to learn and therefore stay ahead.