Labour’s election strategy is slowly beginning to emerge. At the Fabian conference on Saturday, Gordon Brown said social mobility would be not only the defining theme of the campaign but ‘New Labour’s project for the next generation.’
He spelt out his vision of a society where everyone can fulfil their potential, whatever their background, and argued that whilst government has a vital role to play in ensuring our economy and public services support opportunity and fairness, people also have a responsibility to work hard and play by the rules.
It’s fair to say the speech was greeted with a certain amount of scepticism in the policy discussions that followed, and not just by the many journalists who were present. How can Labour put social mobility centre-stage when the evidence suggests the chances of a child born who’s born into poverty moving up the social scale have actually decreased over the last 10 years?
This scepticism is wrong. Whilst far from perfect, we should be proud of our record so far: the huge investment in schools, Sure Start and Children’s Centres, and the progress on reducing child poverty. The government’s response to Alan Milburn’s report on fair access to the professions, being published later today, is another important step. And we need to remember it takes decades to tackle entrenched disadvantage: the first children to benefit from Sure Start won’t be 18 until 2017.
Identifying unleashing aspiration as our core mission resonates with what most people believe Labour stands for, and defines us as the party of change. Above all, it’s a positive message that can be sold on the doorsteps of our working class and middle class wards. Of course we’ve got to have a credible plan for reducing the deficit to reassure both the markets and the public, who simply won’t believe us if we claim we can carry on spending like before. But an election campaign based solely on a message that Labour will make fairer, slower cuts to public spending than the Tories is hardly likely to inspire the electorate or our party activists.
So our vision and strategy for the election are starting to come together. But there’s still some way to go. Three key issues urgently need addressing as we move forward with the campaign.
The first is to make sure our plans for a modern industrial policy mean something to the people who most need the jobs of the future. Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson rightly emphasise the need to create a low carbon economy, and the leading role of Britain’s creative and digital industries, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Yet jobs in these industries will seem alien to many voters in our poorest estates unless they can see concrete local examples.
We need to target action to support new businesses and improve skills and infrastructure in places that could be vulnerable to future job losses. According to the Centre for Cities, 32 per cent of jobs in Leicester (where I am standing) are in public administration, education and health. Many of these are non-expert, non-professional public sector jobs, which could be exposed as public spending is constrained. So a detailed regional approach will be vital in taking our economic growth agenda forward.
The second and possibly more pressing issue for the campaign is developing a stronger message on public services. For example, it’s right to champion the massive improvements in the NHS and show how the Conservatives oppose Labour’s waiting time guarantees, but we also need to acknowledge people want the NHS to meet their individual needs, and to be treated with dignity and respect. We can’t ask people to take on greater responsibility for their health if we don’t also give them more of a say about the services they use. For all the talk about personalisation and empowerment, there’s still a long way to go before we make it a reality on the ground.
Finally, Labour needs to continue to expose the superficiality and contradictions within Conservative policy. This is actually where we’ve been strongest so far, from Alistair Darling’s critique of Tory spending plans to yesterday’s attack by Ed Balls on their support for tax breaks for married couples.
All of these issues can be addressed by the campaign team. But time is short, money is scarce and the public (and some party members) sceptical. We’ve got a hell of a fight on our hands.
The Labour Strategy and election hopes from a grass root view.
I wish to comment on a quote by Gordon Brown
at the Fabian Conference
“My mission is to ensure that all of Britain’s people, from every background, are given the opportunity to develop their talents and learn the skills which will transform their lives. And this social mobility must be rooted in our core value of fairness.
Labour will not even ensure that there is social mobility and opportunity within rank and file of the Labour Party. It relies on nepotism and positive discrimination based on gender and race. They don’t even recognise grass root Labour supporters and members who have more intellect and savvy than their elected representatives. If their is a safe seat they will fill not with genuine social mobility and fairness but jobs for the boys and gals. The Labour Party is the party of hypocracy and unfairness within its structure.. not to mention the constant exclusion from Brown’s inner circle. Where is the social mobility there. Thats why is only 100,000 members left in the party.
GORDON START PRACTISING WHAT YOU PREACH
Take some advice Progress, Gordon Brown and his disciples must be toppled it is the only chance that Labour has to be relected for a fourth term.
Ignore this advice at your peril.
Mark
The positive action to encourage greater diversity within the Parliamentary Party, and to ensure that it is more representative both of Labour voters and the community as a whole, should be unreservedly welcomed and not condemned.
Are you a real Labour supporter, or just another right-wing troll who plagues sites such as these?
I think Liz is absolutely right that we need a radical vision/strategy if we are to stand any chance in winning the election, and as Liz says not just to say we will cut less than the Tories.
In Leicester there are concrete examples of how the local Labour City Council in Partnership with Businesses have invested in the creative industries such as the LCB Depot (incubation for startup creative businesses), the Curve Theatre and the Phoenix Digital Media Centre. These have created jobs & other business opportunities but more importantly it is changing the perception of the City to one where people/companies want to invest. The City has also benefited from 3 Secondary schools being rebuilt, so huge investment has gone in but more needs to be done.
The Ernst & Young Item Club economic forecasting group (as reported in todays BBC News Website) has said that the UK Economy faces a painful readjustment as it refocuses from debt-led consumer spending to increased exports and attracting inward investment. These are the issues we have to tackle if we are to get the growth to pay for the investment we want to see in the infrastructure and social fabric of this country.
Liz Kendall’s comments resonate very much with my view of where Britain needs to go from here, by building on the social capital foundation that Labour has already put in place.
In my part of the country, for example, there will be significant and exciting new opportiunities coming along with the growth of renewable energy capacity, following the recent announcements of new offshore wind farm licences around our coast.
Added to this are the new exciting advances in tidal power systems ready to absorb the huge latent energy around our coastline, yet more need for engineering and science graduates.
There is also the significant opportunity for new apprenticeships and openings for STEM graduates with a new generation of nuclear power stations, including one in our constituency.
As a major part in the energy mix which will underpin the low carbon economy going forward, the nuclear programme promises to transform this part of Wales, offering high skilled work for not just one, but up to three generations of our people.
With the new reactors having an operating life of around 60 years, when you add in the construction and back end sit clearance, we are looking at the best part of a century. Such a programme across the UK, combined with the wide range of renewable projects, provides a rich source of opportunity to which young people can now aspire.
Not only are we building capacity for more than one generation, we are signalling that communities can be empowered to take the initiative and transform their environment for the better.
There is a whole range of intiatives where communities up and down Britain can take ownership of businesses and services, using mutual models which are accountable and democratic.
What is there to prevent each school from being allocated land in the local community to grow vegetables? In this way children can learn at first hand how to produce food, sell it, and how such an approach cuts our carbon footprint. There is also the matter of developing a sense of civic duty and respect for their local community.
There is not enough space to expand on my ideas here, but it is sufficient to say that we need to encourage more creative ways of seeking solutions. Being innovative and imbuing a sense of adventure and entrepreneurship in all our young people is probably the most significant policy input for the next government, a New Labour government.