As Ed Miliband set out in his powerful and emotional speech to last year’s Labour party conference, One Nation is a vision for Britain’s national renewal which aims to give people a sense of hope that both the family they love and the country they love can have a fairer and more successful future. Britain doesn’t have to be the divided, unfair and backward-looking country this Tory-led government are rapidly creating. It also challenges the cynics and makes the case that politics, and, more specifically, Labour’s politics can make a big difference. Offering a vision of patriotic hope, albeit a hard-headed hope to trump the despair and fear which is prevalent in today’s Britain.
It is a vision rooted in three core values. Fairness applied equally to all without fear or favour, including taking on powerful vested interests when they are acting against the public interest. Aspiration nurtured in all and fairly rewarded. Labour will be the party which reboots social mobility and supports people to shatter ‘glass ceilings.’ Security offering people reassurance and support in the face of rapid often disconcerting change.
As Ed Miliband has said, to achieve our vision we believe now is the time for big economic, social and political change, not tinkering at the edges. A new economy which works for the many, not just a few at the top. A new society where an active state devolves power and resources to local government and local communities recognising the importance of strong families, community networks and employers in helping to build the good society. This will include public services underpinned by clear national standards which are personalised and give people maximum control over their own lives and the decisions which affect their communities. In government Labour developed place-based budgeting, shattering the departmental silos created in Whitehall and then too often replicated in local communities. Personal budgets to give older people, disabled people and their carers control of their care and support. It is Labour cooperative councils which are developing new ways of organising public services on a mutual basis. Labour will continue to be the public service pioneers and innovators with an explicit aim to minimise the postcode lottery which continues to mean an unacceptable variability in the quality of provision which affects the poorest the most.
It is also essential we do politics differently, far greater ‘grassroots’ neighbourhood engagement proving to people in their everyday lives we are relevant and on their side.
Our One Nation Vision will build on our local election gains and continue to seek the support of the mainstream majority by offering both reassurance and inspiration.
Reassuring people we will be competent and prudent in our management of the economy by ‘locking in’ fiscal responsibility and being honest that we can’t promise to reverse the cuts and that a zero-based spending review will be needed to take tough choices for every pound we spend. Switch spending will be a necessity, not an option, continuing to develop policies which demonstrate that we will be tough and fair on the major challenges of welfare and immigration. Bullish in making the case that Britain’s national interest requires us to remain at the heart of the EU but setting out a vision of a reformed EU which serves the public, not an out of touch elite.
We will seek to inspire people with a hard-headed but optimistic vision for national renewal. A plan for jobs and growth in all parts of the country built on a rebalanced economy not dominated by the south-east and financial services. An active industrial strategy supporting wealth creators incentivised to invest for the long term and expected to offer decent working conditions and fair pay. This will require a radical change in mindset and skill set in Whitehall. Enterprising government replacing bureaucratic government.
A new rights and duties social contract between the government and electorate. Ours will be a fiscally responsible government that reforms Whitehall to tackle ‘silo government’. Delivering a small number of big transformational policies to improve people’s living standards and quality of life is a priority and requires new ways of working in an era of less money. Citizens, families, communities and employers with responsibilities and a shared stake in change. Rebuilding One Nation has to be a shared mission where we truly are all in this together.
We will also be passionate about why we can never have One Nation if we continue to squander the talents of too many of our fellow citizens. Articulate clearly why tolerating unacceptable levels of inequality is not only morally wrong but deeply damaging to our capacity to survive and prosper in a highly competitive global economy.
Finally, we will make the case for One Nation, One World. For too long foreign policy debate has been left to the intellectual elite or anti-European fundamentalists. It is not a choice but a reality that the stability of our economy, our future jobs, household energy bills, the weekly food bill, our changing climate, the impact of migration and our security are all affected by factors beyond our borders. The fact we live in an interconnected, interdependent world is directly relevant to the everyday concerns of the ‘squeezed middle.’
To those who argue that our vision is fine but where are the policies which will appeal to the mainstream majority, I would point them to the issues which my shadow cabinet colleagues are focused on which reflect people’s concerns about their standard of living, jobs and quality of life.
Ed Miliband’s recent announcement on regional banks to support SMEs and help drive regional growth. Chuka Umunna’s work on a new active industrial strategy to support a jobs and growth plan which will get our economy moving again. Caroline Flint’s plans to radically reform the rigged energy market which currently rips off consumers. Stephen Twigg’s review of how we can create a new set of vocational qualifications for young people who don’t want to go to university. Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall’s inquiry into how to make person-centred care a reality for older people, disabled people and their careers. Liam Byrne and Ed Balls’s plan for a compulsory jobs guarantee and Liam’s work to put the contributory principle back at the heart of our welfare system. Ed Miliband and Yvette Cooper have set out our new approach to immigration which acknowledges past mistakes and commits to a cap on non-EU immigration, far greater integration including a requirement to learn English and getting tough on both employers who abuse immigrant labour to undercut fair wages for British workers and private landlords who leave immigrants living in shocking conditions. Jim Murphy is strengthening our relationship with the brave men and women in our armed forces and demanding they and veterans get a fair deal from this Government of broken promises. Douglas Alexander is making a strong case as to why it is in our national interest to be at the heart of a reformed EU. I am developing Labour’s vision for a radical new approach to international development focused on inequality and sustainability when the current Millennium Development Goals end in 2015. This list isn’t exhaustive.
Every shadow cabinet member is focused on the big challenges in their area of responsibility and our policy process being led by Jon Cruddas is focused on the issues which people tell us matter to them.
One only needs to look at our opponents to consider why Labour is now truly the UK’s One Nation party. The electoral map shows that the Tories have little or no representation in Scotland, Wales and north-east of England. The Lib Dems are under pressure everywhere. If we can make the gains which are necessary to secure a majority our political representation will truly reflect One Nation. An ambition which cannot be matched by either of the other two mainstream parties and, notwithstanding UKIP’s surge, is unlikely to be reflected in their general election performance.
Next year’s Scottish independence referendum is some way off, and there can be no room for complacency, but opinion polls suggest that while the vast majority of Scottish people support devolution they want to remain part of one United Kingdom.
Most importantly, the divided and divisive Tories can no longer lay claim to the One Nation mantle. At a time when the country faces big challenges, they have no answers and instead are fixated on an ideological obsession with Europe. On the run from his rightwing, chastened by UKIP, a weakened David Cameron has vacated the centre-ground and ditched his Tory party modernisation plan. The nasty ‘divide and rule’ Tories are back as evidenced by a political strategy to deliberately stoke up division between public and private, those in work and those dependent on benefits, north and south. They are pursuing an ideological agenda aided and abetted by the Lib Dems which is dividing the country and if allowed to continue beyond 2015 will create another lost generation with social and economic costs lasting for decades.
Winning after one term in opposition was never going to be easy. But our commitment to One Nation politics gives us an excellent opportunity to reach out to the mainstream majority with our message of hope for national renewal and promise to govern in the national interest. One Nation Labour is right for its time.
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Ivan Lewis is MP for Bury South and shadow international development secretary. He was the author of One Nation Labour, a chapter in Progress’s Purple Book published in 2011. He tweets @IvanLewis_MP