The first thing to understand about ‘trust’ is that we would be having problems if there hadn’t been a war. The war damage is real, particularly for the minority of people for whom the war is a passionate, dominating issue.
A hard-headed assessment suggests that, for most people, the problem caused by the war and the Hutton Inquiry is that it confirms a more general worry. It’s left a sense that the government has its own agenda, which is different to that of ordinary people – and that it will be ruthless in pursing that agenda. The war has emphasised and underlined those concerns, but they were emerging anyway.
What is causing some head-scratching is that we have been far more successful than most postwar governments. Most would have given their eye teeth to have just some of our achievements on jobs, inflation, interest rates, educational standards, waiting times or crime rates. How could we do all this and create the most disillusioned, apathetic and disengaged electorate ever?
There is an international trend away from traditional politics, reinforced by a particularly cynical 24/7 media. The rise of far-right groups in Europe, the election of personalities rather than politicians in the US and Italy, and declining turnouts are symptoms of a common problem. The trend to abstention, rather than protest votes, is more marked in the US than in Europe. Perhaps the adoption in the UK of US campaigning styles and methods is reaping US levels of voter turn-off.
Some colleagues believe our difficulties come from the inevitable problems of government.
This gets the problem 180 degrees wrong.
We’re in difficulty because we spend so much time talking at people about the problems of government, instead of talking with people about their problems. What a contrast with New Labour’s past. Before (and for a long time after) 1997, New Labour’s strength was that people believed we were people like them.
We were people with the same problems, who lived in similar streets and communities, and who shared the same aspirations. Tony Blair’s unique gift was the ability to articulate those hopes and fears. New Labour’s great strength was the ability to link individual concern to a coherent set of values and a vision of our society.
Today we don’t connect in the same way. In many ways we are still stuck on the agenda people gave us before 1997: getting the country back to work; cutting waiting times; improving school standards; cutting volume crime. These things still matter, but if you talk to voters, their concerns are inevitably moving on. As fears of unemployment decline, concerns about job security and pensions rise to take their place. As waiting times come down, concerns about other elements of health and care rise in importance. As burglary and car crime fall, other crimes and anti-social behaviour dominate crime fears.
Sometimes, as with pension provision, New Labour has almost nothing to say. On other issues, we seem to be late to recognise the emerging concerns. As a result, we are always justifying what we have done, rather than articulating the things still to be done. The more that we do, the less in touch we appear to be.
We seem to spend our time on the issues we have decided are important – the war, tuition fees and foundation hospitals, for example. Whatever their intrinsic merits, they all feel like a government explaining its agenda to the voters, rather than one responding to voters’ emerging concerns.
Is it possible to be in government and to speak for the hopes and fears of voters; to acknowledge their concerns and our failures? It’s difficult, but far more dangerous not to try.
We also have to make the party part of the new approach. Too much party discussion is purely internal, talking to ourselves. This approach led to ‘old Labour’ getting out of touch with voters; it may well have the same effect on New Labour if we are not careful.
Listening to voters involves a lot more than compiling a list of their aspirations and fears. We have to find solutions that reflect our core values and a coherent vision of our society. The big challenge for local parties is to organise themselves both to listen and respond.
The national consultation on our next manifesto that was announced by Tony Blair at conference gives all of us a unique opportunity to change the government’s style and the party’s way of working. It could easily collapse into a public relations exercise but we have every chance of making it the foundation of a new relationship of trust with voters.