The old Clause IV may have endured for 80 years but, if the Fabian Society gets its way, the new one may only last a decade. To mark the tenth anniversary of Tony Blair’s successful attempt to ditch Sidney Webb’s hallowed words, the Fabians have called for the party to update its constitution once again. Launching the bid, research director Richard Brooks said: ‘The removal of the old clause now looks more important than any positive contribution that has been made by its replacement. The new wording has proved to be consistent with how Labour has acted over the last decade, but it is starting to look inadequate as a guide for the next.’ Brooks argues that the party ‘must be able to debate its values and vision every political generation, not just once a century.’
The Fabians’ research director suggests that the new Clause IV has been a triumph as a declaration of the party’s identity and as a political compass over the past decade, reliably indicating Labour’s ‘direction of travel’. He is less convinced, however, that the wording has been successful in creating a ‘common bond’ among Labour’s members. Brooks cites the absence of a firm commitment in the new Clause IV to tackling inequality, surely one of the animating principles of the Labour movement. Moreover, the experience of government and changes in the wider world – particularly questions surrounding our response to terrorism, failed states and military intervention – also underline the need for the party to reconsider Clause IV.
The need for Labour to make the case against inequality is picked up by Catalyst in an excellent new pamphlet. Why Inequality Matters by Ben Jackson and Paul Segal rehearses arguments familiar to many but buttresses its case with an array of facts and figures. Contrary to the popular ‘trickle down theory’, it suggests, poverty levels are more affected by the distribution of income than by total economic growth. Social mobility, moreover, is greater in countries – such as Sweden – with more equal distributions of income and wealth. This argument is not merely academic. The government is committed to increasing Britain’s social mobility and sees a massive expansion of childcare as the route to this. However, warn Jackson and Segal, Sweden’s success in equalising life chances results not simply from its excellent childcare strategies, but also from its success in reducing economic inequality: ‘Universal childcare coupled with British levels of inequality will not yield Scandanavian levels of social mobility.’
Alongside childcare, pensions are also fast moving up the political agenda. Ahead of the publication of the government’s pensions commission, chaired by Adair Turner, ippr called for a ‘back to basics’ approach. While commending Labour’s commitment to fight pensioner poverty, ippr’s Peter Robinson suggests that an enhanced state pension is the best route to achieve it, while also encouraging people to save more. Robinson recommends the government abolish the pension credit and state second pension while raising the retirement age to 67 by 2030. These reforms will allow the government to raise the basic, non-means tested state pension to above the relative poverty line and ensure that it retains its value in relation to earnings in the future.
Finally, as ever, we are indebted to our friends at Civitas for their own, unique take. On the pensions crisis, director David Green writes on the new Civitas blog: ‘A basic safety net is a necessity, but if we want to remain a free people and to enjoy independence in old age, the best safeguard is to rely on self-help: save as much as you can during your working life and “work until you drop”.’ It’s that kind of sunny optimism that has ensured British’s conservatism’s popularity with the electorate over the past decade.