Neil Kinnock covered the walls with trade union banners. Tony Blair refused to make it in any way homely or comfortable, on the grounds that he wouldn’t be in it for long. One way or another, that was always going to be true.
‘Being in opposition’, as Cameron told his party conference ‘is the hardest job in government’. The first task facing the leader of the opposition is recognising that you’re not in government. For an opposition frontbench comprising mostly ex-ministers, the transition can be hard. They have gone from a political life entirely cocooned by officials and advisers, through the trauma of the election drubbing, and out the other side into a world where no one picks them up in the mornings, writes their speeches, or laughs at their jokes. Labour’s front bench has adapted well to the bleak new terrain.
The fact that the government is weak and divided, and that its reform programme is disjointed and lacks an overarching narrative, obviously helps. Unique among oppositions in their first year, Labour has managed to force U-turns, climbdowns, and delays to flagship policies such as health reform. Steadily, Labour in parliament is realising that the task is not to pretend to be a shadow government, but to cause the maximum amount of grief for ministers. The weapons of parliamentary scrutiny – parliamentary questions, freedom of information requests, debates, and so on – need to be sharpened and pointed at ministers’ hearts. Our job is to ensure that no coalition minister goes to bed without worrying about what Labour might do tomorrow.
Yesterday Mary Creagh, the shadow Defra minister, duffed up the hapless Tory James Paice over the ban on circus animals. It was a form of animal cruelty in itself. Paice flailed around like a baited bear, his humiliation complete. Meg Hillier had some fun with Huhne and his current difficulties over the mystery of the missing penalty points. John Healey has punched holes in the government’s NHS policy. Labour’s frontbench looks and sounds like an effective opposition for the first time in months.
The next stage is trickier. I’ve never believed the old adage that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them. I think oppositions don’t get to win, just because the government is rubbish. This is especially true for Labour. With Cameron’s boundary gerrymandering Labour could lose scores of seats and some able MPs before a single vote is cast. The boundary review will set Labour MP against Labour MP in the cities, possibly for years during this parliament. The climb will be even steeper in 2015 than the 2010 election catastrophe suggests. That means that Labour must project itself beyond parliament, and into the country.
This requires some creative media work. Think Blair doing keepy-uppys with Kevin Keegan, Cameron’s sledge ride through the glaciers. Ed must catch people’s attention. This week he’s putting the finishing touches on his wedding a week today, but after a well deserved break, the work continues.
It requires a leader who can change the political weather with a speech or intervention, can capture the public mood, and who people talk about in pubs and clubs on a Friday night. It needs a Labour party with a robust campaigning capability, both at the centre, and in the field. A new general secretary, to be appointed by the NEC in July, can build up the team at Victoria Street, and recruit the next generation of organisers and election winners.
Most of all, it needs a core proposition as to why anyone should vote Labour ever again. The failure of the government isn’t enough. The economy isn’t going to collapse, and even if it did, it wouldn’t mean Labour wins. People punish Labour for a failing economy, but they cling to the Tories even tighter. Osborne, like all Tory chancellors, will engineer tax cuts and giveaways in the pre-election budget. He has billions tied up in the HMG shares in the part-nationalised banks. There’s £66 billion in Lloyds and RBS. If he releases this money, by selling the government’s stake, the Tories may be able to bribe their way back to power. Labour’s anti-cuts message will be tone-deaf if the C2s are getting tax cuts and free shares. We’re going to need something more convincing than placards.
There’s a season of conferences and seminars coming up where this will be debated. The Fabians last Saturday, Progress tomorrow, Compass on 25 June, and endless books and pamphlets will dissect the issues. The policy review will publish its findings. But unless all of this work is underpinned by a simple truth, it will be a waste of effort: Labour must win the votes of people who don’t vote Labour.
Neil Kinnock has a contribution in a new(ish) book called How to be in Opposition. He writes ‘the only test of a good opposition is to stop being in opposition’, which should be the screensaver of every Labour MP. So far, Ed Miliband has not put pictures on the walls of the shadow cabinet room. If he does, we should start to worry.
“hearts” ,hmmpf, generous P. !
Thanks Paul, You have certainly left me with a great deal to think about. That does not happen very often these days. You are correct we have to avoid the old traditional wways the media has been employed in making the case for the people. We have to be braver in the way we present ourselves and avoid the negative campaigning stuff there is a far better way to display Tory failure without playing the clumsy blame game. Not sure the decor of your office has anything to do with though lol, a tad superficial though i imagine no person would want to stay in opposition. Lets hope they find a reason for the people to want to put them back into power.
An excellent piece- absolutely right. And I would be failing in my promotional duties if I didn’t say that “How to be in Opposition” is available at http://astore.amazon.co.uk/opposistudie-21/detail/1907278087 – though I say it myself (as its editor), the chapters by Neil Kinnock and Greg Rosen are particularly apt for Labour.