We all know how Westminster-centric policymaking is – so many thinktanks are situated in SW1. So it’s nice when the tanks make an effort to get out of the metropolis.
Progress held its first political weekend for 15 years in Stoke Rochford Hall in Grantham, which is, of course, Margaret Thatcher’s home town. It was a superb weekend which gave me the first inkling that Labour has the vigour and vim required to renew in opposition and not suffer the fate of the Tories who took so long to come to terms with their 1997 defeat. There was a good balance between debating mistakes made in Labour’s 13 years of government and focusing on how Labour can appeal to voters in 2015 with a new vision of Britain’s future. The mix of younger activists, new party members, non-Londoners and trade unionists gave the weekend a different flavour from your normal Westminster roundtable.
It was highly amusing, then, to read two very different characterisations of the weekend from the old left, by Tony Benn sidekick Jon Lansman on the Left Futures website, and from the old right in the form of Tom Watson on Labour Uncut. Lansman gave rise to great hilarity as he described Progress as ‘a party within a party’ with ‘covert activities and secret agendas’. Apparently the fact that ‘the sumptuous surroundings of the Jacobean mansion’ are actually owned by the National Union of Teachers was lost on him, as he tried to portray Progress as a shadowy outfit akin to Militant in the 1980s. ‘They even have readers’ meetings!’ the conspiracy theorist revealed. Quick, sound the alarm! Or start your own reading group – see the back of the address sheet with this magazine.
Watson’s piece also had a whiff of paranoia about it, claiming that the event was ‘invitation-only’ – it wasn’t (see previous editions of Progress for the adverts) and that ‘as a privately funded organisation within the Labour party, Progress warrants more scrutiny’. He went on: ‘Progress people always seem to promulgate a political purism that reminds me of the hard left of the 1980s … Somebody should tell them that too many shibboleths spoil the broth.’ I reckon we should use the old test that, if both sides are complaining, you’re probably doing something right. Carry on, Progress.
In Grantham one weekend, in Rotherham the next, for a conference with local MP Denis MacShane supported by Progress, the Fabian Society and the Labour History Group, looking at Labour’s lost decades in the 1930s, 1950s and 1980s. It was an illuminating day reflecting on the lessons of why the Tories managed to stay in power for so much of the 20th century. The first key message was the need for political parties to adapt while in opposition. The Tories were particularly good at this, with Stanley Baldwin in the 1930s appealing to working-class women and using advertising for the first time. Second, Labour failed to keep up with voters’ aspirations, particularly in the 1950s when Labour set itself against washing machines, TVs and continental holidays, while in the 1980s Labour opposed the right to buy despite the fact that it was its policy while in power. The third main lesson was for Labour to stay united. The 1950s were riven by the Gaitskell-Bevan splits and everyone knows what happened in the 1980s.
Gerald Kaufman and David Owen pointed to the anti-democratic nature of the union bloc vote and Labour’s introspection which crowded out the public. Owen suggested that Labour open up the leadership election to individual union members and registered Labour supporters. A closed primary, in effect. As I tweeted the proceedings, predictable retorts came back from the tribalists. ‘Why should we listen to a splitter?’ asked one.
As with the almost pathological instinct to use the AV referendum in May to kick Nick Clegg, perhaps there is further for the party to go before it remembers that not everyone belongs to the tribe and that the public will only vote Labour at the next election if it reaches beyond its narrow boundaries. Lessons from history exist, but they need to be learned if they are to be useful.