Ten years is a very short time in politics. But it is a very long time for those who have forgotten how far we have come.
On May 1 2007, I published a pamphlet which looks back at the big issues that were making the headlines prior to Labour’s election in 1997. Using the newspapers’ own words, it reminds us of how far the country has come on the key issues that affect the quality of people’s daily lives, and have been crucial to the transformation of our country: education, employment, health, crime and the economy.
What emerges is both the enormity of the challenge that Labour faced in 1997 in turning around under-investment and lack of reform, but also the scepticism and despair as to whether government could overcome these major and sometimes very long-standing blights on the lives of the British people.
Today’s newspapers tell a different story – with per pupil spending on education having doubled from £2,500 to well over £5,000 in the past 10 years, today’s headlines no longer scream, ‘Crumbling Britain – Schools of Shame’ (the Observer, March 3 1996). ‘4m Jobless’ (the Sun, March 21 1997) no longer adorns the front pages due to 2.6m extra jobs and the lowest level of unemployment since the 1970s. More than 85,000 more nurses and over 32,000 more doctors, and the largest sustained hospital building programme since the NHS was founded, have made headlines like this a thing of the past: ‘Weather and Cash Crisis leave NHS in Chaos’ (the Independent, January 6 1997).
Despite widespread media predictions that under Labour, house prices would fall, interest rates would surge upwards and there would be a ‘humiliating devaluation in the pound’, headlines such as ‘Pound Hit as Jobless Rise and Salaries Slump’ (the Evening Standard, November 15 1995) have not been seen for years – and £1 has recently been strong enough to be worth $2. Michael Howard famously admitted that crime had doubled under the Tories and convictions fell by more than a quarter.
Labour today has dramatically increased police numbers by more than 14,000, and introduced over 11,000 new community support officers. We no longer see ‘Falling Police Numbers Mock Tory Promises’ (the Independent, September 2 1996) in the papers. Such headlines belong in the past, but with a resurgent Conservative party there is no room for amnesia.
Amid the daily political grind, it can be easy to forget that many of the problems facing the country in 1997 have largely been solved. Whatever the political argument of the day, we must remember that these achievements did not happen as a random accident of fate. Led by Tony Blair, Labour’s achievements have not just been numbers but real people teaching our young, healing our sick and making our communities safer, and hard cash in people’s pockets meaning lives are lived to a higher standard.
Britain today is a country transformed from those dark years of Tory rule, where selfishness and greed were the political mantra. We have a better educated, healthier, safer, fairer, more open-minded and more prosperous society than 10 years ago. This is surely a legacy to be proud of. All of this, of course, began with the decision of the people to put their trust in Labour.
From Sure Start and universal nursery education, the introduction of the minimum wage through to pension credit and the new pension proposals voted through the House of Commons in April 2007, it is political decisions and choice, not chance, that make the difference.
And the lasting legacy of Blair’s 10-year premiership will quite simply be the transformation of the British political landscape – that the era of Margaret Thatcher has been put behind us. It is a tribute to those first 10 years of New Labour in government that the political culture, the economic prospects, the social agenda are all entirely different, and it is on this agenda that all main political parties are now competing for votes.
Blair’s leadership success in winning a consensus of the aspirant and moderately affluent, with the have-nots and dispossessed, not only put behind us a century of Labour spasmodically in power; but brought us a party embracing the future, prepared to take on the challenge of change, and responsive to the rising expectations of the British people.
There has and never will be a year zero in which a government resolved all the problems – economic, social and cultural – facing the people they represent. Every step taken, every success achieved opens up new aspirations as well as refocusing on new concerns.
The world of tomorrow will by its very nature demand new approaches to how best to hold to account a more pluralistic and diffuse political society; to reinforce civil renewal; and the capacity and assets of individuals, families and communities to make decisions for themselves and to influence the world around them.
Greater transparency in public life has perversely, but entirely correctly, demanded standards and openness never before experienced in public life. Disagreements over foreign policy, in particular Iraq, have, for the moment, overshadowed tremendous achievements in Kosovo and the Balkans. Not to mention in Sierra Leone, and in the leadership shown through the G8 in tackling worldwide poverty and the neglect of Africa, and the new challenges of climate change. But nothing can take away the simple fact that people here at home and, yes, across the world, are better off because of this Labour government.
One thing is certain. The power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland from May 8 2007 is, if ever one were needed, a demonstration of how, despite the cynicism and the denigration surrounding democratic political activity, politics can succeed in bringing peace and prosperity in the most unlikely circumstances. A legacy indeed for the prime minister.
And perhaps, it also offers an alternative to the growing flirtation with the idea of taking ‘politics’ out of politics; the handing over of decisions to ‘officialdom’; the belief that there are some people somewhere in our country, who, without values, prejudices or personal predilections, can look after our best interests, can balance competing demands, can in essence create a world free of political disagreement. For that would be a sad outcome from a decade in which, with all its faults, it is politics that has changed the world for so many.
On the twin challenges of opportunity and security, and the reshaping of politics to be ‘on your side’, enabling and working with people rather than just making decisions on their behalf – these are bigger hurdles to surmount, but offer a more lasting and sustainable political landscape than ever before. Let us take on that continuing modernising and reforming challenge and let us do it in a way that speaks to, engages with, and uses the talent and commitment of the people we serve.
For those who say, quite rightly, that consistency and continuity help in building on firm foundations, it is self-evident that the past 10 years under Blair have created building blocks on which further progress can be made. In the world of modern communication, and a 21st century of economic and global change and rapid social, cultural and political developments, preparing Britain for the future has rightly been the hallmark of the past 10 years. Now, looking ahead to the future and combating the ‘evils’ that confront us, is the challenge we must address. Labour is ready, willing and able to take on that mantle.
Then And Now – A Country Transformed is published by Unison Labour Link and David Blunkett. Copies are available from [email protected] or www.labouronline.org/wibs/166138/