Just about every economic indicator you can think of is now going the wrong way. Growth stagnant, unemployment up, consumer confidence drained away. Families are being hit by a perfect storm of job losses or reduced hours, rising prices for household basics, and cuts to safety net benefits. In my constituency, the sense of insecurity and anxiety is palpable, but somehow the government’s escaping the blame. It’s as if people think the economic misery is being visited upon us by some invisible, irresistible force.
This presents a real challenge for Labour, and we need to get two messages across. The first is to make the blame stick to government, to be fair, something that both Ed Miliband and Ed Balls take every opportunity to hammer home. But perhaps if that message is to be heard, we need to give real attention to the second part of the equation, what we would prioritise. After all, cutting more slowly and less ruthlessly than the government is scarcely a message of hope.
While it’s too early to be locked to detailed promises, the time is certainly upon us for discussion of where our priorities lie. Yet many of our supporters feel uncertain what it is we now care about.
The party’s really hungering for a debate about this, and conference next week must offer a real chance for that to take place. Ordinary delegates have little interest in the structures and procedures which threaten to dominate. Rather, it’s policy and ideas that they want to talk about. (The same is just as true in local constituency parties too).
That’s why I’m delighted that the women’s conference (which precedes annual conference next weekend) will have as its centrepiece an ‘open mic’ session when women can speak out about what matters to them. And I don’t expect much discussion about party structures – but I’ll be very surprised if jobs, childcare, education and training, pensions, among other topics, don’t come up – again and again.
These need to be the bread and butter of our political message, and the priority for debate. It’s not rocket science, it’s grounded in reality, it’s what the public are worried about. Our task is to associate Labour with those political priorities, and that means they are overwhelmingly what we should be discussing now. Vibrant and open debate, at every level in our party, will send the most powerful signal to the public that they are the issues that matter to us.
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Kate Green is MP for Stretford and Urmston and writes a weekly column for Progress, Kate Comments
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The labour party next week need to do more than tick the boxes with our new foundation ideas – we need to talk policies and engage the party members, delegates and activist. What we must avoid doing as you say is talking about structural items – If we get stuck there, for me at least conference will be simply a waste of time this year and more importantly a waste opportunity to unite the party.
– @andykinsey