Yes, the leadership election has proved slightly less stimulating than we may have hoped for after the hard graft of a general election but it is a long, long way from being the disaster many previous advocates of a long campaign now claim.
As an aside, the candidates and strategists clearly didn’t read Obama for America campaign manager David Plouffe’s The Audacity to Win, in which he spells out their partially failed intention to set their own agenda and not accept distracting debate invitations unless it suited their strategic aims. It has not been the length of our campaign that’s been the problem but the never-ending spine of hustings which sucked most flexibility and excitement away. It doesn’t seem as if any of the leadership campaigns actually questioned this at the start; instantly reducing their capacity to be their own masters.
So why, comrades, can we be pleased?
1: It’s been a peaceful contest. Diane Abbott’s done some gentle ribbing of her male colleagues but most, relatively subtle, digs the five have made at each other have been policy-focussed. The media have roundly failed to stoke a brotherly war.
2: Few signs of the party splitting. We remain a party with a range of opinions and interests but broadly speaking there is an implicit bond that we have a responsibility to stay united and fight coalition policy that is impacting upon the population already. There is more enthusiasm for the pluralism of Jon Cruddas’ backing of David Miliband than the tribalism Jon Trickett’s criticism of his Compass colleague’s decision.
3: Quantity and quality in media coverage. We’ll get this, it’s coming. True they lost interest but it is the summer, they are away recuperating after an eventful year so far for them too. But come September minds will refocus on how a new Labour leader will shake up the status quo, how he or she can rebuild the party and challenge this different type of government. Lib Dem conference will get more coverage than normal but by the Wednesday, the shift onto the importance of our ballot will be sizeable. There will be interest in annual conference.
4: A good leader and a good team are going to emerge. Seriously, they will. It may not be who you want but the contest has shown a determination to do things differently. Which candidate wins will decide what changes but some fresh talents will come to the top table, and I believe a strong team can be built around them, from defeated rivals and exciting new blood in the PLP.
5: The coalition is not bulletproof. Polling is mixed, rows across the Cabinet table are emerging, and there are plenty of broken promises from the pre-election period. Both leaders have gaffed badly already and have serious fracture points within their own parties which will distract them from governing. Whilst reorganisation of the health service may take longer for the public to notice the impact, 60 year-old schools built for half the number of students are crumbling in front of voters’ eyes. They’re not going to crumble – the bond and investment at the top is too high – but they aren’t invincible by any means. With clever politics and local action we may even be able to resist their most damaging intentions.
6: For now we still have the knowhow. Things get grim in opposition when you are so long out of government that you don’t ever have a full picture of what is going on. It makes attacking the government so much more difficult. For a limited period of time, our former ministers know better than anyone the ticking timebombs, the allocations of funding, the tricky issues that never go away, the ‘helpful’ quangocrats, and the pressure points and vulnerabilities in each department’s machinery. And we can use it though the autumn/winter parliamentary session to make some hits on the coalition and to nuance our own policy.
7: Some positive changes to the party will happen whoever wins. The party is consulting on its policy-making process, the most likely new leaders are demonstrably interested in a new model of organising, and decline in membership numbers has reversed significantly. So much potential.
These are the reasons I’m optimistic. Is that the sun coming out?
“There is more enthusiasm for the pluralism of Jon Cruddas’ backing of David Miliband than the tribalism Jon Trickett’s criticism of his Compass colleague’s decision.”
Well, I haven’t made my mind up yet, but Cruddas’ backing – and personal emailing in support of David M. strikes me as the personality politics that we were trying to get away from. If Cruddas claims to be leading a rethink of how the Labour Party engages with its (ex) membership and the broader electorate, then he should know his that the significance of his “endorsement” comes across as the same old same old party barons being trundled in….
Yes, the leadership election has proved slightly less stimulating than we may have hoped for after the hard graft of a general election but it is a long, long way from being the disaster many previous advocates of a long campaign now claim.
Thats because Labour is in opposition and we love opposition.
Thanks for your comment Bill.
I take your point but I read it differently. I see it as a strength in mind over politics that Cruddas has made the choice he has. He has backed the candidate he believes has the right analysis/solutions/agenda/approach rather than the one who most closely matches his own politics or the one the interest groups bending his ear want him to support.
To clarify, I am undecided in this election and did not vote Cruddas #1 in 2007. I think his comments in the last couple of days are unlikely to influence my decision but I do think it reflects well on Cruddas and is the right tone of role model behaviour for the PLP.
What you mean Cruddas has finally come out, it’s about time we already new he was a Blairite, a New Labour drone, who ever wins the next election has one job, to make people like me think why should I vote Labour and Not Tory, nothing else. But I suspect teh answer will be simple how do we get the lost tory voters back into the new labour Tory party.
The vile media have ignored the contest because they are still having a love-in with the Coalition and, therefore, have no comprehension of Labour as an alternative Government. Until today, when Mandelson stuck his oar in. Apparently, the Milibands are nice boys but one is nicer than the other. Something the lazy thickos that make up the current media whorde can get their tiny brains round.