Often we hear that being ‘ideological’ is a bad thing, but it seems some have taken this idea too far. A rumour is currently doing the rounds of a rogue subeditor working on a new pamphlet for a well-known thinktank who took it upon himself to replace the word ‘ideological’ with ‘idealogical’. This must be correct, because ideologies are all about ideas – aren’t they?
The neologism slipped through and the fruits of many months of thinktanker labour were ever so slightly blemished by the mistake, almost charming in its naivety (or should that be naiveté?). Sometimes, though, out of the mouths of babes, as they say: all the political talk of the moment comes down to asking ‘where are the ideas?’ David Cameron calls for a ‘big bazooka’ to put an end to all our euro-troubles but seems unable to furnish one himself.
For new ideas one might be tempted to look towards the, er, Institute of Ideas (not Ideos), descendant of the Revolutionary Communist party’s magazine Living Marxism. The tank’s latest offering includes an event called It’s Christmas in Euroland which seems designed to explore which of the following ideas could be a goer in the new lexicon of conspiracy theories: ‘Are the fears of a coming depression real or being stoked up to make sure the Eurocrats get their way?’, we are asked. ‘Might it be Europe’s only chance of avoiding a future in which nobody is pro-European?’ The idea that the turmoil is more scurrilous plot than humungous cock-up is certainly a new one on me, and might even be reassuring were it true.
Elsewhere, others have been trying to get to the truth of what actually happened over the last few years. For this, there might be more joy coming from the combined might of the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance and award-winning thinktank the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. The CEP recently launched a report called UK Economic Performance Since 1997: How Bad Was Labour? This does sound a little like a When Did You Stop Beating Your Wife? sort of question, but the tank found that ‘the UK’s overall economic performance after 1997 was better than commonly thought. In fact, the UK had the fastest growth of output per person of the G6 major economies between 1997 and 2010’. The head of the NIESR Jonathan Portes is said to have drawn on the CEP’s findings at the recent series of seminars on Labour’s future hosted in Westminster by Jon Cruddas and David Miliband.
Meanwhile, Progress’ own deputy director Richard Angell has spoken at a number of the Purple Book tour dates, and also took to the stage at the Institute for Government’s recent pamphlet launch Party People: How Should The Political Parties Select Their Parliamentary Candidates? which looks at the as-yet nascent practice of holding primaries in the UK. Also on stage were two coalition women parliamentarians, one of whom had even been selected in a primary, but neither of whom backed all-women shortlists, stating piously that ‘it should be the best person for the job.’ The sound of the ladder being pulled up somewhere was gratingly audible in the women’s answers as the only man on the panel questioned whether they really believed only one-third of MPs were women because the fairer sex were generally not ‘the best for the job’ or whether a tendency for men to beget men might just have something to do with it.
Meanwhile, the Young Fabians launched their own collection of ideas called Ambitions For Britain’s Future which contains a chapter written by Angell featuring an idea on establishing a fair pay kitemark for businesses that pay the Living Wage to display publicly. Progress director Robert Philpot has also contributed to another new pamphlet, Labour Friends of Israel’s The Progressive Case For Israel, on Israel’s treatment of minorities. So while some complain the party has still not got a list of policies we can wave at people on the doorstep, there may yet be ideas enough in the bounds of Labour ideology.
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