Speech to Progress rally, 25 September 2011, Liverpool

This week we come together, there will be soaring speeches, thoughtfully drafted passionately delivered but nobody out there is listening.

That is the harsh fact about opposition.

So our challenge this week is to marshal our values, our activism and our pride in what Labour stands for to catch people’s attention again.

Of course we need to accept responsibility for our mistakes.

But it’s easy to rely on the school of hindsight.

Jim Murphy signalled an important step in this direction this week by recognising the mismanagement of some defence projects.

But we need to go further because people are now so sceptical and indeed hostile about the value of the state spending money on their behalf.

All part of withdrawing trust and confidence in institutions beyond their own immediate world.

Second we must cleave to the centre ground of politics.

We must locate ourselves as close to the beating heart of the British people as possible.

But in order to do that, the left must recognise that the world has changed.

We are no longer in 1995.

Labour markets are polarising.

Living standards are stagnating.

Older people are the fastest growing demographic group.

Until Labour starts bringing itself up to speed with the new political sociology we find ourselves in, we won’t be listened to.

Second, while we do not know what the economy will look like in five years’ time, we must earn back the public’s confidence.

Part of the answer may lie in one of the ideas in Progress’ Purple Book (of which I was proud to be one of the authors) which suggests greater use of hypothecation so that people have a better idea of what their hard-earned cash is being spent on.

We should also think about other areas in which to give people more control over public money, for example by looking at the successes of individual budgets in health and social care.

Third, if politics is to change, so do we politicians have to change too.

It wasn’t an accident that nobody won the last election.

It was an expression of the lack of confidence people have in politicians.

If we are to ‘get’ the new politics, then politicians need to learn a different style which goes beyond simply reforming the expenses system.

Because we can’t invoke a new politics while our general behaviour remains the same.

We can’t carry on with a behind the scenes conversation between the
Westminster media and MPs, on which the public are merely eavesdroppers.

That’s why earlier this year I trained as a community organiser with London citizens.

There I learned anew about the power of coalition.

Not Cameron and Clegg’s cosy club of two.

But community organisations, schools, churches, trade unions and charities uniting in a common purpose.

In my case turning high street shops into safe havens for kids in the wrong postcode at risk of gangs.

The politics that people relate to are the politics of their street, their estate, their village.

The old tribalism of red vs blue, Tory vs Labour is no longer relevant when 70% of people think of themselves as being middle class.

When I visited my local church, the congregation were asked to write which single thing they would like to see happen to change their community.

Not a single one referred to the state.

National or local.

Every one referred to an action that could be taken in the community.

We need to accept that if we are to achieve real change as progressives we must achieve it working with people, not doing it for them.

The focus of our policy therefore should be on how we build relationships between people.

How we put decision-making power and budgets into their hands.

And how we find more powerful ways of allowing people to have their voice heard.

There is value in allowing communities to take responsibility for the services that are provided for them.

Because when people feel a sense of ownership over something they work to make it better.

All of us, as politicians and as activists, need to take on board the importance of re-engaging with our local communities.

We need to work out what being a responsible opposition means.

For me that means ignoring the ceaseless chatter about who is up and who is down.

This poll and that poll.

Responsible opposition is not about what we say, but what we do.

We have just under four years until the general election.

But between then we have the London elections next May and council elections each year.

We may not be in power in Government, but there are countless other places where we have and can build our mandate.

And we must do that street by street; ward by ward; city by city.

By our actions, we will show our intent.

And return to Government as a Government of, with and for communities.

Thank you.