‘On your side’ appears on countless Labour websites, newsletters and election leaflets. But what does it mean? And how do we respond when the consistent message from recent elections and opinion polls is that many thousands of voters think that Labour in government is anything but on their side?
Telling people what we have achieved is not going to work if people are not listening to what we have to say. People feel disconnected from conventional political parties and political institutions in general. But, being the government rather than the opposition, it is not surprising we are hit by this disconnection more seriously than the Tories right now.
But we are in political quicksand if, after a decade in office, Labour is simply seen as the political establishment rather than an agent of change.
There are policy areas we must reassess but we should also rethink how we do our politics. All too often, political parties seem to want people to support us in the way they support a football team. In other words our role is to ‘perform’. The electorate’s role is to cheer us on or to blow us a raspberry at election time. That may give voters a powerful sanction – as we found out in Crewe – but it still reduces their role to a reactive one. The idea of local people actually having a proactive say in what goes on all too rarely comes into it.
The white paper on ‘community empowerment’ to be published in the summer offers exciting prospects for challenging this. But it’s got to become more than a government policy.
I am proud to have been in parliament supporting some of the groundbreaking laws passed by Labour. But, whilst voting at Westminster is important, as a Labour MP I know I have often made most impact as an advocate in my area, as a bridge to government and as a networker in my constituency. At this level Labour can often demonstrate in practice what our politics are all about and show that you need a Labour government to enable people to achieve change on the ground.
And yet the dynamics of parliament and party systems relegate the role of MPs as community champions to being secondary to work in Westminster. Packed legislative timetables leave little time for MPs to play the kind of proactive role in our constituencies that could start to reconnect politics with people. Bizarrely, on occasions when MPs do request time to play this kind of role even our own party machine grudgingly treats it as time off from the real work down in Westminster.
The culture of Whitehall can make matters worse, as legislative initiatives become depoliticised when they leave parliament. Implementation becomes a matter for this or that department, agency or authority. If the result is beneficial for the area – like a new hospital, a rebuilt school or the introduction of sure start – people rarely relate this to a Labour government making it happen. But if there is a problem, the government will almost certainly get the blame. Either way, the role of Labour MPs, and Labour councillors, as a bridge between government and the people we represent is weakened. And if MPs themselves can feel left out, who can be surprised if party members feel like spectators in the whole process and potential supporters don’t get involved?
We need to think much more creatively about how communities can connect more closely with the implementation and review of the laws we pass. This would reinforce the role of MPs as community champions, bringing the real choices and priorities involved in politics closer to people.
I am not advocating a mechanism through which Labour representatives can simply claim more credit for government achievements. I am talking about a radical rethink of the role of MPs – and political parties as a whole – in local governance.
Nor is this a headlong rush into local populism. Labour is a political party and we must be clear about our core beliefs. People want to know what we are for just as much as being listened to. Political engagement comes from the interplay between those things; not through trying to pretend that our own views are always the same as mainstream opinion.
Before he was prime minister, Gordon Brown spoke passionately about Labour building a new progressive consensus for social justice. Our actions as a party, in government and in our communities should symbolise just that.